Chapter 8

As much as I tried to get Gran to stay home with Hunter, she wouldn’t change her mind. It broke my heart to take Hunter out of his crib, he looked so peaceful. Luckily he didn’t even stir as I put a black leather jacket on his simple black rompers. He looked so damn cute.

“Let’s go” I said as I buckled the baby in Gran’s car.

The trip to the club was quiet. Eric only said he had received a call from Dallas and that it wasn’t good. Not knowing was killing me. Was it Godric? Jason? Both of them? I finally relaxed once we reached Fangtasia. That’s when Hunter opened his eyes and started to cry.

“Hush, sweet pea… Mommy’s here…”

I unbuckled him and soothed him against my heart. His wailing stopped and he grabbed a strand of my hair, putting it to his cheek.

“That’s a good boy. Daddy’s going to be so proud of you…”

I was brought back to reality by Gran wiping her eyes.

“Gran… Please!”

“What?” she asked opening her car door and making her way to the bar entrance.

I sighed and left the car, thanking Jessica as she helped me with the baby by grabbing the diapers bag. I might not be able to read vampire’s minds, but I sure was an expert at reading body language. Jessica seemed tense suddenly and I took her hand in mine, squeezing it.

“Hey, the bar is closed, sweetheart. There’s nothing to worry about…”

She smiled, shyly. “I know, but…”

“What are you waiting for, girls? Eric and Pamela are waiting for us!”

And waiting they were. Eric was sitting on his throne, scrolling through his phone while Pam was standing by the bar, drinking a glass of blood.

“Lover…” said Eric, vamping toward me.

I smiled as his lips pressed against Hunter’s forehead.

“Aren’t you handsome, min son? You look just like your far…”

“Stop, Eric, or the old woman will leak, and you know how much Pam hates leaking human!”

“No need, Sookie, she’s already leaking” said Pam, handing Gran a tissue.

“Pish posh, Pamela! First there was the unveiling of that beautiful nursery you had set up for Hunter… Which reminds me, Sookie don’t you have something to tell Pamela?”

I smiled. “Thank you, Pam. You did a great job on that nursery. I really love it.”

“Of course I did good, Sookie! Eric might have forbid me to do the whole decoration of his house, but I’ve had years and years of practice.”

“Now, which one of my boy will I have to spank?” asked Gran, sitting at one of the booth. “‘Cause I imagine that the call you received, Eric dear, is about one of them…”

Eric tensed before joining Gran, still holding Hunter.

“It’s actually about both of them… I’ve received a call from Isabel, one of Godric’s second. Godric has gone missing. Nobody knows where he is and he closed our Maker-Childe’s bond.”

“What about Jason?” asked Jessica. “Ain’t he supposed to be in Dallas?”

Eric nodded. “Yes… But according to Isabel… She never saw him, didn’t even know he was in the state.”

I frowned. “But Godric sent email… Wait a second…”

I took out my phone and dialed Jason’s number. It didn’t even ring and went directly to voicemail.

“Hey, you’ve reached Jason Stackhouse, but I can’t take your call at the moment. Please leave your number and…”

“Voicemail…” I groaned. “What do we do now?”

“Well the next step would be to go to Dallas… I have to settle some things here first, but I’ll be leaving tomorrow night…”

“Good, I’ll take the jet and be there before you…”

“I’m going to Dallas alone, lover… What about our Liten Jagäre? You have to stay…”

“This isn’t the Dark Ages, Eric. I know that women when you were human tended to stay home with the kids, but I’m a twenty first century woman. Gran and I will go to Dallas tomorrow morning with Hunter and you will join us later. Gran can take care of Hunter while I…”

“Lover…”

“If you’re planning on going to Dallas, then I’m staying here!” said Pam. “Apart from being Godric’s home, Texas has no appeal to me. And you should take the baby vamp with you. Sorry Jessica, but I can’t take care of you and do my job here…”

She was suddenly interrupted by loud banging on the door.

“We’re closed!” she yelled. “Come back later!”

The banging didn’t stop and, with one look from Eric, Pam reluctantly went to opened it.

“Well, well, well… Look what the cat dragged in! What the fuck do you want, Compton?”

“Pamela, language!”

Eric, still holding the baby, vamped to the entrance, looking quite lethal.

“Do you have a sixth sense, Compton? One that makes you appears whenever you’re not wanted?”

Compton’s eyes went from Eric and the baby, to Gran, to Jessica, to me.

“I… I was coming about the report I need to send to… you know, to New Orleans.”

“You don’t need to be secretive, Mr. Compton. Sookie and I know about your monarch” explained Gran.

“Well… In that case… Who’s the child?”

Pam smirked. “Allow me to present to you my little brother, Compton. Hunter, this sad excuse of a vampire is Bill Compton. You’ll soon learn that he is nothing like your far…”

“Brother?! What is the meaning of all that?”

Eric sighed loudly. “All you need to know, Compton, is that min Liten Jagäre is mine and Sookie’s child.”

“You… But… Vampire can’t procreate in that way!”

I rolled my eyes.

“Ever heard of sperm donor and surrogate, Compton? My lover wanted a child and so did I. Hunter is the result of that.”

In a way Eric was telling the truth. Hadley had been nothing but a surrogate and whoever was the father, a sperm donor.

“It’s quite… unorthodox for a vampire to want to adopt a human child… But then again, nothing about you and your pet is typical.”

“Sookie is NOT a pet, Compton! You best remember it. Now that your curiosity is quenched, you will excuse yourself and…”

“In a hurry to get rid of me, Northman?”

I could feel Eric’s impatience rising by the second.

“After your many years spent at the Queen’s court I would have thought you would have learned about your place, Compton. I am the Sheriff of this Area and you are the Area Investigator, I still don’t understand why the Queen bestowed such a position to a vampire like you. And as your Sheriff, you owe me respect and obedience.”

“I would never… I…”

“How about you leave? I’ll be out of State for some time, we should reschedule our meeting. Unless you want to see about it with Pamela…”

The smirk on Pam’s face was enough to send a chill down Compton’s spine.

“Of course I can wait until you come back…”

“Well then Eric will call you back as soon as we come back from Dallas” said Gran.

“Dallas? You’re all going to Dallas?”

“We are going to go looking for the Sheriff and Jason who have gone missing” eagerly said Jessica. “Oops…I’m sorry…”

Gran was quick to reassure the young girl that she didn’t commit a serious offense.

“You have nothing to be sorry about, sweetheart. We have nothing to hide to Mr. Compton.”

“The Dallas’ Sheriff has gone missing? But what does this have to do with your grandson?”

“It’s no secret that the Stackhouse law firm caters to Supes” explained Eric, as he went to sit on his throne. “Godric, the Area 9 Sheriff, also happen to be one of their clients. Jason was doing some work for him…”

“Have you contacted the King of Texas? The AVL? Really they must have more resources than…”

“We all know that the King of Texas is nothing but a slouch. His Sheriffs do all the work while he collects the money and spend it in casino. As for the AVL… Nan Flanagan is more interested in raising funds than to search for a missing vampire and his lawyer.”

“If you see it this way… Well, I wish you well on your inquiry.”

“Thank you, Mr. Compton” I said, a little uncomfortable.

The former antebellum gentleman-farmer prepared to leave, but stopped midway.

“I hope you recovered from last night, Soo… Miss Stackhouse. You had Northman quite worry…”

Shit… Couldn’t that bastard keep his trap shut?

“What do you mean, recover?” asked Gran. “Sookie? Eric? Care to explain?”

I bit my lower lip and looked at Eric. He was growling at Compton and I was sure he was picturing ways to torture him.

“Sookie had a little… accident, last night, Adele” explained Eric. “But Doctor Ludwig took care of it.”

“You had to call Patricia? Then it must have been serious… Mr. Compton, will you tell me what exactly happened since my grandchildren don’t seem to want to tell me.”

Compton seemed surprised of Gran calling Eric her grandchild.

“Your granddaughter was attacked last night…”

I rolled my eyes.

“You don’t need to worry, Gran. Eric found me in time and Doctor Ludwig was able to heal me. My back was scratched, probably by an animal…”

“If you say so…”

I did something horrible, then. I listened to Gran’s thoughts.

“They are lying to me… Eric always has this twitch whenever he’s hiding something… I better call Patricia, she’ll tell me…”

“Now, we have some planning to do, Compton, so if you’ll excuse us…”

“Sure… Sheriff, I’ll be in touch. Pam, Miss Stackhouse, Mrs. Stackhouse… Jessica…”

And with that he was gone.

“Pam, you will escort Adele and Jessica back to Bon Temps. I’ll arrange for a travelling coffin to be sent before dawn and for a limo to pick you up tomorrow morning before picking up Sookie and Hunter. You will take the company jet to Dallas and a car will take you to the Carmilla Hotel, it’s one of the best vampire hotels in Texas. I’ll join you later…”

“Alright, then… Jessica, Pamela, I’m suddenly feeling quite tired and we have to prepare for the trip.”

“If you think I’ll dogsit that little monster of yours, Gran…”

“Freyja ain’t a monster, Pam!” said Jessica.

“She is! She tried to eat my new Vuitton handbag!”

“In Freyja’s defense, Pamela, that handbag was God-awful! With all those fringes it was bound to happen. Anyway I’ll ask either Lafayette or Tara to look after her.”

Gran quickly kissed us goodbye before following Jess and Pam to the exit. I let out a deep sigh before burying myself in Eric’s side.

“She won’t let this die quietly, you know? She’ll call Doctor Ludwig, invite her for tea and get her to tell her everything…”

“At least, while you’re in Dallas she won’t… Let’s get home, lover.”

We left my car at Fangtasia, Eric would pick it up the next evening before leaving for Dallas. Since the Vette wouldn’t seat three, let alone allow us to put a baby car seat, we flew Air Eric back to the house. I was a little worried about Hunter flying for the first time, but the little one seemed to like it. He even squealed with delight as he was nestled between Eric and I!

We landed in front of the house and went directly to the nursery. As soon as his head hit the mattress, Hunter was asleep. Eric and I reluctantly retreated to our room. As I got myself ready for bed, Eric took his laptop and settled on the bed.

“You should try to sleep, lover. You have a long day ahead of you.”

I sighed. “But I want to spend as much time as I can with you…”

He kissed away my pout as I circled his waist. I closed my eyes and was a goner. I don’t know how long I slept, but I hated the way I woke up. I was alone in the big California bed. It took me a second to get my bearing. Eric’s laptop was sitting on the bedside table, but my Viking was nowhere in sight. I went to check on Hunter and smiled at the view offered to me. Eric was sitting in the rocking chair, softly talking to the small baby as he fed him a bottle.

“You’ll get to meet your Uncle Godric and your Uncle Jason… They will both love you, min Liten Jägare. But you have to be good to your mor and your mormor (maternal grandmother). Far is going to miss you, min son.”

With tears in my eyes, I went back to the bedroom, letting the two men of my life enjoy their father-son bonding time.

TBC

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