miracles - eric northman

chapter eighteen

| EIGHTEEN |
A SMILE LIKE THE SUN

They were now at a house in Dallas that belonged to Godric. His nest congregated here to welcome him home. She was currently upstairs in an ensuite bathroom rinsing the blood out of her hair. She had discarded her shirt that had been covered in blood (she actually turned it to ash in the trashcan because she thought it was wise not to leave something lying around with her blood on it).

She got most of the blood out and she figured that was good enough as she squeezed the water out of her hair. Then she put her damp hair in a low side ponytail.

She put on the sweatshirt Godric loaned her and it was a bit big but she felt like wearing something that swallowed her whole. It smothered the feelings of unwanted fingers on her skin, of being helpless, as she drowned in its softness; it was like a blanket of safety.

When she came out of the bathroom, she found Eric pacing but he stopped once he saw her. She started to smile at him before he spoke quietly, "Did someone touch you?"

Eric had been going over her words in his head. Why listen to him when he hires rapists to do his dirty work? He felt restless thinking about it and it pained him to think about it.

         Eira knew what he was really asking and she frowned, "He tried to."

           He looked down as he clenched his jaw, "I should've been there sooner."

        Eira moved forward and hugged him. Eric wrapped his arms around her gently like a cocoon and hunched over to press a kiss on the top of her head. She felt butterflies as she snuggled her head against his chest as she spoke, "If it makes you feel better, he's dead."

         "But what makes you feel better?" he mumbled against the top of her head.

She smiled, "You."

He grinned before he teased, "You know this is the one moment you could've asked for anything and I would've granted it to you."

"I don't need anything, though," she pouted in confusion before she smiled hopefully. "Although, if you wanted to buy me more flowers when we got back home, I wouldn't mind."

He chuckled before he agreed, "More flowers then."

"Okay," she said with a happy smile before she thought of the events going on. "We should probably go downstairs now."

"In a moment," Eric tightened his hold on her as he didn't want to let her out of his arms. Not yet. And she didn't want to pull away so they stayed there for a small moment in peace.

____

They were now downstairs as the nest welcomed Godric back. She was in the kitchen chatting with other vampires. Eric wasn't by her side but he kept a close eye on her; mostly he could hardly look away because her smile was like sunlight that lit up even the darkest corners of the room.

Eira was in the middle of talking with someone when Jason suddenly hugged her. The vampire moved away to give them space as he spoke in relief, "Eira. When I heard you were at the church..."