"I Will Love You"

DISCLAIMER: All characters are the sole property of Charlaine Harris. All song lyrics are the sole property of Fisher. Any quotes are property of Charlaine Harris or Fisher.

Author's Note: Thanks to my marvelous beta, Evenflo78, for helping me along with my first fic! She helps me wrangle my wild commas, or lack thereof. *winks*

This is a short reflective piece I wrote for the I Write the Songs contest after hearing Fisher's song, I Will Love You, off of their True North album. Check it out, all of their songs are pretty amazing, but this one in particular always reminds me of Sookie and Eric. This is post-DITF and contains a few quotes from that book and DAG.

In the dim light of a quiet bedroom, an ancient vampire read quietly from a computer screen as his companion lay sleeping beside him.

They were spending a rare evening alone in Eric's home and Sookie had finally fallen asleep after a long day and night. In the few hours left before his daytime rest, Eric finished reading the quarterly report from his king and started to compose a memo to be sent out to his area residents regarding some of the points in the report. The quiet was broken only by Sookie's deep breaths, quiet murmurs and the music that she had put on before going to sleep. He smiled briefly at the human habit that lulled her to sleep, thinking of the pull that dragged him mercilessly toward his own sleep every dawn.

The song was simple, only a piano and a woman's voice, and Eric was enjoying the spare melody of the music in comparison to the pounding of the music that usually colored his evenings at the club. He was finishing his memo when the words of the singer caught his attention.

"Til my body is dust/'til my soul is no more/I will love you..."

The woman's voice was at once both delicate and strong. This reminded Eric of his wife, quietly sleeping beside him, and he reached out his large hand to rest it gently on her back. He looked down at her sleeping form, naked under the thin summer sheet. She had rolled to her side in her sleep, and her silhouette was outlined in the glow from the lamp. Her skin still smelled lightly of her sweat from their love-making a few hours ago and her hair was tangled on her pillow. His spread fingers easily spanned her small shoulder blade, and he smiled as he felt the steady thrumming of her heart pulsing beneath his thumb.

He quietly closed down his computer so as not to wake her and set it on the side table as he moved down their bed and sunk into the steady rhythm of their blood bond. Eric turned his attention to the singular young woman who had managed to capture his attention, affection and even commitment after so many years of solitude. His every waking moment hummed with his constant awareness of her, and he was continually surprised by the new depths of feeling that he experienced in her presence. She was a fascination to him.

He enjoyed studying the stark contrast that their bodies presented in the low light of their room. His large frame stretched beside her small body, and his hand remained on her as he examined his cool, pale skin resting against the warm tan of her soft back. His sensitive nose twitched as he registered the sun that she had lain in that afternoon, the scent of her soap and the sweet smell of her blood. He slowly ran his fingers from her delicate shoulder blade down her backbone to rest against the small of her back that his tongue has tasted only hours before as they made love. His keen eyes missed nothing as he saw the healed bites that he had left on her shoulder as he reached his climax, and he remembered where she had bitten his wrist in her own passion. His thumb traced where her lips had closed around his skin, and his chest rumbled quietly with pleasure at the memory.

As he began to hum along with the quiet song, he reveled in the feeling of his ancient blood coursing through her small body even as he lay beside her and licked his lips remembering her sweet taste in his mouth. He held himself back from gripping her possessively as she slept next to him.

His fingers continued to trace her round hip, briefly reaching to touch the edge of the bone there before continuing down toward her thigh. There, he stretched his large hand again and rested it against her as he listened to the breath that occupied so many of his thoughts in the past years.

"And I need to know/Will you stay for all time?/Forever and a day..."

The words of the singer again pierced his consciousness as Sookie's breath hitched slightly in her sleep.

So fragile, he thought for the thousandth time, closing his eyes at the thought. She is so fragile. Eric's ancient mind turned inevitably toward the stark reality of his lover's life, and his eyes opened as his fingers touched one of the deepest scars on her thigh. No matter how much blood he gave her, some of those scars would never heal completely and her body felt the results. His eyes saw the traces of torture littering her back. They would be unseen to any eyes but his, but he memorized them, knowing their cost to the woman beside him.

"...don't turn me. I would hate that more than anything..."

Her words from so many months ago ghosted across his mind again as they had almost every night that he lay awake beside her. They were spoken before the kidnapping, but she had never brought them up again. He felt the full weight of his years as he contemplated her stated wishes and her youthful determination. His wife was nothing if not determined and while he loved this, it pained him as well.

So young, he thought and his unbeating heart clenched with a rush of feeling. She is too young to ask this of me. His eyebrows drew together as he remembered his response.

"I agree...no matter how much I may want to keep you..."

His own words caused him to close his eyes in contemplation and no little amount of pain. He was determined to honor her wishes, no matter how much the inevitability of her life span distressed him. He had lived so long without her. Was she to be only a brief glowing moment in his long existence? Would she leave him to bury her as he was forced to bury his first wife a thousand years before? Would he ever be enough reason for her to contemplate immortality?

"Then I'll give my heart/'Til the end of all time/Forever and a day..."

The words of the haunting singer warmed him briefly. There is still time, he thought. She is still so young, no matter what her experience. I still have time to show her. Eric's grip on Sookie's thigh tightened briefly as his thoughts turned possessive, but she only turned to him trustingly as she rolled to her back. The thin sheet fell away and her round breasts and soft stomach tempted him to taste the warmth of her sleep. He did not want to wake her so he worked to contain his own arousal and growing need.

He quietly watched her eyes as they darted back and forth underneath the thin membrane of her eyelids. Her mouth parted in her dream and she breathed out his name.

"Eric..." she murmured.

"I love you...you are my wife, in the only way that matters to me."

The depth of his love for this small woman briefly overwhelmed him, and he gathered her up in his arms and clutched her to his hard chest and closed his eyes. Her arms instinctively reached around him and she woke with a start, laying side by side with her lover. Her small hands splayed out across his back and reached downward as she stretched awake.

"Eric?" she said in a sleepy, rough voice. She blinked into his chest before pressing her lips to it with a soft kiss. Her pelvis reached toward his hips instinctively, and Eric only seemed to hold her more tightly against him when he felt her slowly waking.

"My wife, my blood, my wife..." He murmured into her hair as his hands began to roam over her back, touching and stroking the warm skin. His firm hands woke her body and set her nerves humming as the bond pulsed between them.

Sleep quickly cleared from Sookie's mind as her hands reached up to tangle in Eric's long hair and her breathing picked up. She felt the evidence of his arousal against her thigh, and her body automatically reacted to his. Though she was sated only hours before, she felt his need almost desperately through their bond. and she reached out to meet it with her own. Her hands tried to reach between them to feel his length, but Eric was holding her so tightly wrapped in his long arms that she could barely move her own.

Eric took an unnecessary breath as he tasted her scent in the air and his hands slowed. His strokes lengthened, and his hands loosened around his wife as he bent his mouth to hers in a long kiss.

His hands reached up to either side of her face as he angled her warm lips against his own and brushed the hair away from her face. He kissed her again and again before her slow sleep-drugged kisses found purchase along his jaw and neck and he shivered in pleasure. Her own breath caught as his fingers slid down her neck, traced her collarbones and glided toward her breasts. She nuzzled her cheek into the palm of his large hand as he cradled her head against the pillow of their bed, and she felt his thumb stroke her cheek tenderly.

His tracing fingers curved along the underside of her breast touching and stroking the sensitive skin there. His firm mouth followed his fingers down to her chest where he tasted and licked with wanton leisure before briefly resting his cheek against her left breast. His tongue traced the valley between her breasts and his rough cheek scraped against her nipple, making it almost painfully sensitive. His cool breath and then his tongue traced the sensitive peaks, soothing them and exciting them before Eric paused and gently laid his ear against her heart to listen to its gentle rhythm. She felt his smile against her body and the scrape of his long fangs as he breathed in again in rhythm with her.

Sookie looked down at the strong forehead and pale hair of her lover as he rested at her chest. Her own hands stroked his face and her fingers traced first his strong jaw and then the lips that brought her such immense pleasure. Her fingers slipped into his mouth to touch the length of his fangs and Eric shuddered in quiet pleasure as she pricked her finger so he could taste her.

"And I need to know/Will you stay for all time?/Forever and a day..."

In the background she heard the soft sound of a melody on the piano and the breathy voice of one of her favorite singers. Before her thoughts could wander to the meaning behind the familiar words, she was distracted by Eric's blue eyes as they looked up to meet her own. The fierce feeling in them flooded into the bond and she gasped as he swiftly rose above her. One long arm reached around to clutch the small of her back as Eric braced himself and entered her swiftly, filling her, all the while never taking his eyes from her own. His hips rested against hers briefly before he began to rock them in rhythm with the heartbeat that only he heard as it sped faster with her growing pleasure.

The quiet intensity of their love-making was interrupted only by Sookie's quickening breaths, their shared groans of pleasure, and the sound of the piano and voice in the background. As Eric felt her reach the precipice, he thrust harder and reached both his arms around her, curling his arms behind her shoulders and wrapping them securely in their shared passion. Their arousal and pleasure seemed to build continually through their bond until finally they fell together, shaking in mutual climax, still kissing each other urgently as Sookie's breath and pulse evened out.

Eric rolled them to their sides, still tightly holding Sookie and curling his long leg around his wife. As he pressed her cheek to his quiet chest, the last verse of the song reached Sookie's ears. Though she had heard the song before, Eric's sudden need gave the lyrics new depth in her mind.

"Til the storms fill my eyes/And we touch the last time/I will love you..."

Sookie sighed and closed her eyes briefly before looking up into Eric's unwavering eyes as he held her. She felt her eyes begin to water as she contemplated all the unasked questions in his gaze, until she closed them and leaned again into his cool chest. She felt his yearning through the bond smooth into a quiet loving hum as he held her closely and hushed her with a whisper.

Her lover continued to stroke down her hair, onto her back and buttocks before moving up and repeating the soothing motion. Sookie continued to shiver in quiet pleasure as Eric's contentment and love poured through their bond. She remained silent while he murmured quietly in his native language and hummed softly with the drifting piano. Her eyes slowly started to close as she fell asleep in his arms.

"I love you." she whispered, knowing that he would hear her.

Will it ever be enough? she thought silently before drifting away to sleep.

Eric's hands continued in their soothing movement as he heard Sookie's breath deepen and her heartbeat slow to the steady rhythm he recognized as her sleep. His sensitive ears continued to hear the haunting melody that caught his attention and the words of the singer echoed as he reached one arm to turn out the lights so as not to disturb his wife.

"I will love you, love you

I will love you..."

The End