Chapter 3

He felt panic once he had caught Eira. The girl was unconscious, and her body was burning up. The only thing he could hear was her steady heartbeat. She was alive that’s all he could tell, and he didn’t need her heartbeat to tell him that. Eira was his own flesh and blood, there was something in him almost instinctual like that told him she was alive.

But he didn’t know what was wrong with her. He tried shaking her a bit to see if she would wake up but Eira would not budge. Eric pulled her body close to him, and he hurried out towards his bedroom. There he gently placed Eira down on his bed, and sat down at the edge of the bed, watching her closely to see if there was anything that would indicate to him that she was going to be okay.

There was one person who could help him and that was Doctor Ludwig. In his moment of panic he had forgotten that Doctor Ludwig was always available when it came to his child’s health. The small Doctor had been there during Sookie’s pregnancy and during her birth and he was pretty sure the Doctor had followed up during her growth. He wouldn’t put it past Niall to keep his child healthy.

 

“Ludwig, I need you here.  Eira has fainted, and her body is burning up. I don’t know what to do” He hated to admit it, but he did.

Before he could continue any further a loud popping sound was heard, and the tiny Doctor was there before him.

“Step aside.” She ordered, going past him. Eric’s fangs clicked out, he growled at the Doctor when she began to touch Eira,  which startled himself, but he knew it was all instinct. His instincts were telling him to lock Eira in the house and not let her out of his sight, his instincts—no his own blood called out to him. Sookie’s daughter, she was a part of Sookie just like she was a part of him.

He knew that, and he acknowledged it. But the fear was still there, he tried everything in his power to protect her for sixteen years, yet he could not protect her from this.

Where had he failed?

There were different thoughts that ran through his mind and they all lead down to one, that if Eira perished then he would finally do it, he would meet the sun.

She was the last piece of Sookie that lived on this earth and he would never be able to live if something had happened to his daughter, his own flesh and blood.

“I suspected as much.” Doctor Ludwig said, snapping Eric out of his own thoughts.

“Suspected what, what is wrong with her?”

“How long ago did she start using her Fae powers?”

Eric was stumped, he thought she had been born with all of her gifts, when did Eira grow into her powers?

“I’m not sure.” He said. “I know that she teleported out of her school today.”

“I see.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“You’re her father, you should know.” Ludwig said quite bluntly. Eric growled but could not say anything. He knew the tiny doctor was right, and there were just things he didn’t know.

“Well I don’t know everything, I’m not exactly knowledgeable when it comes to young children and teenagers.” Ludwig rolled her eyes at him.

“She’s going through what the humans call, Puberty. It happens to all Fae children. Her mother probably went through the same thing, but didn’t end up using her powers until in her twenties. Usually, it’s not noticeable by much, unless the Faeling spends far too much time away from her closest kin.  When Faelings reach puberty, they need their parents, it doesn’t have to be both but both makes the process much better.

The Fae usually rely on touch to bring each other peace and calm and good feelings, the Fae children need their parents during their puberty. They need the touch or the close comfort a parent brings because the hormonal levels in a Faeling could cause them to become unstable and extremely stressed.  Like your daughter here. It’s a delicate time, and it causes the parent, or the next closest of kin to become close with the child and vice versa.  If not, the child falls ill and eventually dies. It is why the Fae are so protective of the child, or any parent taking care of a child. It seems that her well-being falls upon your shoulders. Viking.”

Then what had he been doing all this time? He was pushing her away because he wanted to protect her, but at the same time he was killing her? He was killing his own child and there was nothing he could do but to try and amend now.

“Well, can you do something about it?”

“I can’t do much. Make sure she drinks plenty of fluids when she wakes up. She needs your touch, the coolness of your skin should not only help but you are her parent, and the transition into her powers could make it all easy. Fail to comply with this and she dies. Simple as that.—I can’t give you a time in which she will wake, she can wake a week from now or tomorrow, it all depends on you and her–I’ll expect my pay in the mail.” She popped away.

God he hated when she left like that. He looked down at his daughter, and only now could he truly check her features. He had never really noticed until now, how delicate she looked. Despite her heritage, she looked so frail. He had no doubt she carried great strength and power but she looked delicate.  Eric brushed away loose strands of hair that fell onto her sweaty face. Her breathing was normal and her heartbeat seemed normal as well, but her body temperature was the same.

Eric carried her up, like a princess and rushed her to her bedroom, and he lay her down gently on her bed.

Her clothes, he decided he needed to change her out of those clothes and get her into something more comfortable. He looked around, trying to spot a closet and he noticed that her room wasn’t exactly as how Pam had decorated it. While the room was rather neat, it still looked like a tornado had come in and knocked things over, her desk was broken in half he noticed. When he finally opened her closet, the clothes that Pam had set up were gone and in place were just minor things that he assumed she had brought over from her previous home.

When he picked up a pair of mickey mouse pajamas, he noticed the writing on the wall that said ‘If you ever read this, DAD—I can’t be bought, so please tell Pam her wardrobe has been properly taken care of.’ Oh how he wished he could be angry, but instead he laughed a little. His daughter was indeed a spitfire like her mother had been and yet he was sure that if Sookie was still alive, she wouldn’t tolerate this kind of behavior from the girl either. He was sure that if Pam found out what had happened to everything she had bought, she would have gone hysterical. He would have to talk to Eira, to calm the explosion that would ensue if Pam ever did find out.

Everything had been so easy, until the time came when he had to change Eira’s clothes. He looked down at his still sleeping daughter and he felt awkward at the idea of trying to undress her and cloth her again. He had experience in undressing various women and he had definitely mastered with Sookie, but he felt useless when it came to his daughter. Sixteen or not, she was still a child in his eyes and he had no experience with this.

The only time he had ever seen Eira without clothes on was when she was still a baby or a toddler, but she had grown so much and developed so much that he was sure that if Eira found out she would be easily embarrassed, supernatural or not she was still a young growing teenager.

He started undressing her, removing her school uniform—first came her blouse, when Eric removed her blouse he noticed the locket that was hidden underneath. Curiosity got the best of him since he had never given her such a gift, so he assumed it was Niall’s doing. When he touched the Locket he could feel a certain kind of familiar warmth that he had craved for sixteen years. Eric swore he could feel a warm hand on his arm, and when he turned his head there was nothing there. He opened the locket up and inside was a picture of him and Sookie.

There was that aching feeling again, he had thought he could still live with that ache but every time it came back to him, it felt as if it hurt more and more. Eric set the locket back down and finished undressing Eira.

He tossed her clothing to the side, and gently picked her up so that he could slip her pajamas on, which was a whole other tedious task in itself. When he was done, he looked her over again to see that everything was okay. He picked Eira up, and he went back down to his bedroom, where he lay Eira to rest on his bed.

He needed to stay with her for as long as he could, until she had woken up that is. He sent a quick text on over to his day man, letting him know that he should bring over plenty of fluids that would be able to nourish and hydrate a kid.

Other than that, Eric had no idea on how to care for her except that he needed to be close to her as possible. Eric laid down next to her, and closed his eyes concentrating on her steady breathing, her steady heartbeat and her sweet honey like scent.  This was as close as he could get to her and he hoped that this would work.

Eira seemed to have other plans though, she turned herself around and curled up, reaching out and laying her arm out against her father’s chest, she moved up, resting her head underneath Eric’s neck, her leg went over his hip, and she was completely wrapped around him. Eira didn’t know what was going on around her, but she was having a nice dream and she felt really comfortable and whoever she was latching onto; they felt nice, safe, warm—it felt like home.

Lucky for him he was a vampire, and he could go to his day rest in this exact position, Eira wouldn’t tire him out at all. He chuckled when he saw the position Eira had gotten herself into.

“You have terrible sleeping habits. Like your mother.”

“Mom…” She mumbled in her sleep, as she snuggled in closer to Eric.

“If you’re dreaming of your mother, tell her that I love her.” Eric whispered to her. He didn’t get a response from her, instead Eira snuggled into him even more, she sighed and smiled after taking in Eric’s scent.

Eric had gone back to think of everything that had happened in the last few hours. He distanced himself in order to keep her safe, yet that was the one thing that was beginning to kill her. He loved Eira so much that he didn’t want to hurt her, he realized long ago that if he had brought her into his violent world then she would always be in danger, it had always been that way with Sookie.

He wasn’t sheltering Eira from the Supernatural world, he had trusted Niall to give her protection, and the King of Faeries had kept to his world and kept her safe. Eira didn’t grow up to be naïve from the Supernatural world like Sookie had. He knew Niall would make sure that his daughter grew up with vast knowledge of how their world worked. Everything would go well as long as he kept her out of the Vampire world when she was a child.

And it had.

Now that she was here again, his duty was to continue to protect her.

Though, he was afraid. Eric was afraid of getting close to her, of allowing her in and consuming his heart. But if he had to be honest, she already had. He loved her, he loved his daughter and would move heaven and earth, he would make a pact with the devil himself if that meant keeping her safe, if that meant that she would never get hurt.

It was his own fear that kept him away from her. He was afraid of losing her. It’s not that he couldn’t allow himself to love her, he already did. He had loved her since the day Sookie had told him she was carrying her, he had loved her more when she was born.

And he still loved her, she was his most precious treasure.

Even if she grew to hate him, he was okay with it as long as she was always safe and sound, that’s what mattered the most to him.