A/N: Like it? - Vote. Comment. Follow

My inner muse is in a bit of a funk right now (she can be quite demanding at times) – Lets coax her out of her shell by interacting a bit with this story and my profile!

Also: There may or may not be a rather cheesy, spicy, fluffy prequel to this story I once wrote. It was another Eric Northman Fanfiction (with a lot more spice, since this once was turning out to be a real slow-burn and I got too anxious to wait), which was set in 1951 in the north of Italy. 

Good thing, Eric is a hot thousand year old vampire with a lot of life-experience under his belt ... pun intended ;) 

I had published it, after the German version of this fan fiction had reached 100 votes as a big thank you. This story is not quite there yet, but I feel like you guys are heading there regardless and I'm not a fan of pressuring people to "like" your story if they are not feeling it. 

So I'm asking instead: Would you be interested in another, faster-paced prequel to this Eric Northman story with a lot more spice and longer chapters (8 chapters in total with about 5000-8000 words each)?

Please let me know! 

And now, without much further ado: Eric and Ashley in their weird love/hate relationship

Hearing myself, I slapped my hand over my mouth and looked at Eric with wide eyes.I was furious and wanted to scream at him. What in the world had he done to me? 

Then again... 

As if on autopilot, I stood up and walked toward him. I don't know who was more confused—me, him, or Megs. When I stood in front of Eric, I absentmindedly reached out and ran my hand through his now short hair. It slipped through my fingers like soft silk, and I shivered with pleasure from the sensation.

Oh. My. God.

His expression changed almost imperceptibly. He blinked. To any outsider, he probably looked bored, almost annoyed. But as I stood this close opposite him, I saw a spark reflecting in his eyes. A true emotion trying to fight their way to the surface, where the stoic vampire suppressed it with all his might. Somewhere between his suggestive remarks, his arrogant, overbearing demeanor, and the bloodthirsty Viking vampire, I just stood there facing Eric, the man he must have once been. A man who knew pain and loss. Who had loved and dreamed.

I had found him, deeply buried and hidden behind walls of boredom, bloodlust, sex, and rejection. Just for a second. Just in his eyes. But I saw him. I made a connection with him – and my heart squeezed painfully as it all crashed down on me for a split second, before I realized I had felt his emotions.

Then, suddenly and brutally, the curtain fell like a heavy iron gate and before my sight had readjusted, I found myself standing in front of the closed office door, alone. With a swing, I regained back possession of all my five senses. It took a full five seconds to realize that Eric, in a movement invisible to my eyes, had practically thrown me out of the room.

"What the hell..."

I kicked the door, swore, and yelled, but on the other side of the office, it remained silent as if the whole drama and the last half hour had never happened. So, regaining some control over my emotions, I decided to leave the building as quickly as possible. 

My enraged, pajama-clad exit turned a few heads among the bar patrons, but I didn't care. Let them stare; I had bigger problems.

I only realized I was missing my keys when I reached my car. Only over my dead body, was I going back inside after all that. I had no idea what the hell had just happened, but it was clear that I had lost all control. Maybe he'd hypnotized me the weird vampire way everybody kept warning me about? 

In any case, I needed to get away, put some distance between us—fast and far. Wasn't there a busline Sookie had ranted on about? Granted, I was still in my pajamas, had no money, and probably looked like I'd just escaped from a mental hospital, but maybe–

"I have your keys!"

For the umpteenth time, Megs showed up exactly when I needed her. Or, well, in this case, the keys she dangled in front of my nose. But I had grown more skeptical of my rescuer.

"How do you do that?"

She tilted her head, which immediately reminded me of Eric, before answering.

"How do I do what?" she asked innocently.

"Always show up when I need help?"

That made her smile. "I wasn't exactly subtle, was I?"

Her response surprised me. "What?"

Megs pulled a pack of cigarettes from her back pocket and lit one before continuing and tucking her dark hair behind her ear. Her blue-gray eyes sparkled with amusement.

"How well do you know Viking mythology?" she asked out of nowhere. My thoughts (and my heart) jumped back to Eric at the mention of a Viking. How well did I know my Viking?

Oh, come on girl, he's not "your Viking"...

I cleared my throat, hoping Megs didn't notice my reddening cheeks.

"Uhm, what?"

Megs rolled her eyes.

"Norse gods, Valhalla, Odin..."

Oh. That's what she meant.

"I recently saw the movie "Thor" in theaters, does that count?"

Megs grinned crookedly.

"Chris Hemsworth? Yeah, alright I'll allow it. So you know there are different gods in Valhalla, right?"

What did the movie have to do with Megs' mysterious behavior? I put my hands on my hips."Yeah, the movie touches on the myth of the gods. What are you getting at?"

And what was the point of this Q&A? I didn't want to be rude, but my day could really use an ending. I was getting impatient. Despite the warm temperatures, I was freezing, my bones shaking. I suddenly felt hungry and very tired, too.

Megs, noticing my changing mood, became more serious and scrutinized me more closely."Hey, are you okay? Eric really roughed you up..." she asked, a bit worried.

That reminded me of something."I could ask you the same thing. Do you have a death wish?"

She looked at me with wide eyes."What? Why? What makes you think that?!"

"Uh, you insulted and commanded around a thousand-year-old Viking vampire?"

"You mean Eric?"

She laughed. Why on earth was she laughing. I scrunched my nose "Why do you call him Eric?"

"Because that's his name?!"

I made a dismissive gesture. "Sure, what I mean is, why are you so...familiar?" And why did that bother me?

She tilted her head again while flicking the ash from her cigarette.

"If you're asking if we sleep together, yes, occasionally. Ugh—" she tilted her head back and shuddered. "Great lover!"

She winked at me, and her offhand comment made my heart clench in a strange, but sadly very well known, way. It felt like someone had sucked all the air out of my lungs (figuratively, not like before when Eric had literally choked the air out of me.) My throat still hurt...

I tried to shake off the feeling of jealousy while Megs kept babbling.

"Sorry for pretending I didn't know him. But I felt you wouldn't trust me if I introduced myself as one of Eric's...acquaintances."

She took one last deep drag on the cigarette before crushing the butt under her black boots.

Slowly but surely, I understood... nothing. 

My emotional turmoil wasn't helping. I tried to organize my thoughts, while surpressing the sting of betrayal and jealousy, threatening to make me irrational. I needed answers, not a tantrum, that would get me nowhere. What did I know?

For one, Megs, if that was even her name, had saved me from an angry Eric today.

Whom she knew.

And with whom she slept – Then again, did anyone in this state not?

 Was she dangerous? I cautiously stepped back.

"Did Eric set you to follow me..."

Megs sighed. "It's a bit more complicated than that..."

The betrayal burned hotter, misting my eyes. "So that's a yes."

"No. Not really. Actually, I think he'd be pretty pissed if he knew I was keeping an eye on you."

I let out the breath I had been holding. Before I could truly feel relieved, she continued.

"My coven wanted me to keep an eye on you, which I thought was a bit over-the-top—"

"Your WHAT? Coven?"

Oh great, next she'll tell me my best friends are werewolves...

"Well, technically, Sam is a werewolf, but that might be too much information right now..."

What?!

"Oh shit, I shouldn't have said that..." Megs went pale as she realized her slip. "Damn, today is really not my day!"

She brushed her disheveled hair out of her face and stepped towards me while I stared at her in shock. Now I knew where the voice in my head came from. IT WAS MEGS!

Only partly, I promise!

"Waaah."

I stumbled over my own feet trying to get away from her.

"What the hell are you!"

With raised arms, she followed me."I'm trying to tell you, you idiot."

I wanted to back away further, but Megs snapped her fingers, and I was frozen in place. A cold shiver ran down my spine.

"Sorry. Ugh, I didn't mean to do that. At least not like this." Megs shook herself and rolled her neck as if preparing for a boxing match. "Okay. Phew. Let's start over."

She extended her hand in greeting.

"Hi. My name is Megs, and I'm a witch. I'm not working for Eric fucking Northman the vampire, but I have been observing you for the past few weeks at the request of my coven."

She looked almost contrite as I stared at her, half scared to death, half furious. There weren't many other things I could manage at that point.

"One of my abilities, besides being able to immobilize people," she released me from her spell, causing me to stumble another step back against my car "sorry again"Megs raised her hands apologetically. "Is that I can have telepathic conversations with supernatural beings."

"What?"

"Telepathy. You know, like Sookie."

Of course she knew about Sookie too. It didn't even surprise me anymore.

"That's not the part that confused me. You said supernatural beings..."

"Oops. Right. For you, this is all new. I mean other witches. Shapeshifters. Werewolves. Anything non-human on this planet between heaven and earth. You!"

"Me?!" My voice went up two octaves. I wasn't supernatural. I wasn't even above average. And shapeshifters and all that stuff didn't exist either.

Uh, actually, they do, sweetheart. Sorry.

"Oh God, I'm definitely going to end up in the loony bin soon!"

Exhausted, I slid down the driver's door of my car to the ground. Well, I had lasted longer than I initially thought. 

Megs crossed the last few steps and sat down next to me. Instead of scaring me, it felt strangely comforting. When she started talking again, I decided to just listen.

"It's a lot to take in at first, I know. Let's start small. You know how, a few years ago, no one believed in the existence of vampires. Can you imagine that there might be other, let's say, non-human beings?"

I felt nauseous. I would have loved to say no and run away with my hands over my ears. But she was right. It was naive to think that other mythical creatures couldn't exist. Or, let's say, it was just as realistic as the fact that vampires existed. I would never have thought that possible either.

Short of breath, I asked the question I really didn't want an answer to: "Why is it so important to you that I believe you?"

"Because I want you to be aware of your true existence!"

"Mine?"

Now it was Megs' turn to tilt her head. "Oh come on, don't play dumb. You almost set a thousand-year-old vampire on fire just now. Think about what's been happening the past few days. Don't tell me that's all normal!" Megs scrutinized me more closely. When I just stared back cluelessly, she sighed. "Okay, let's try another approach. The coven I belong to, we're sort of like...bodyguards. Or guardian angels. Guardian angels for the supernatural..."

Coven. Supernatural guardian angels. Sure.  I looked down at myself and started laughing. It was all just too absurd. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.

"Aaaah, okay. I get it now. I'm dreaming. I fell asleep on the decadently expensive sofa while Thor was on TV, and now I'm dreaming. Okay Ash, time to wake up..."

I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to sense my bed around me. Or my sofa. But the only thing I felt was Megs, slapping me.

"Ow! What did I do to deserve that?" I whined, holding my cheek.

"You're not dreaming, you idiot."

The tingling in my cheek brought tears to my eyes.

"Obviously not, asshole. What was that for? A normal pinch would have sufficed."

Megs shrugged. "You were getting on my last nerve with your melodramatic act. Besides, I don't like waiting. So spill it. I can only protect you properly if I know exactly which lineage of gods you come from."

I snorted. Somehow I seemed to attract the crazy. Whenever I thought of people being nice, they turned out to be psychopaths over time. I started to wonder what that said about me.

"Someone's watched too much Percy Jackson!" I raised my hands in mock surrender."I don't have superpowers, I'm not a Greek god—"

"Norse!"

"—Yeah, that too. And before you ask further, the owl from Hogwarts also seems to have gotten lost looking for me. Hopefully, they'll send my letter via FedEx next time. I'd really love to go to Hogwarts..."

Megs looked like she wanted to shake me, so I decided to get back on my feet, before her being annoyed with me resulted in a kick to the rips or something. 

"Can I have my keys?"

She sighed. "But only if you take me with you. This conversation isn't over!"

Did I really want to be locked in a car with an almost stranger who was clearly not all there, mentally? On the other hand—she had my keys. And she had saved me more than once from sticky situations, soo...

"Fine, get in..."

She grinned and tossed me the keys.

"I knew we'd become friends."

I grumbled. "I still think you're nuts," I informed her before getting into the car as well. She just grinned at me even more broadly and contentedly. 

"That's good, because I actually am!"

At least she was honest...

Noticing my hesitation, she took my hand reassuringly and looked at me. Her eyes glowed a faint purple. "Doesn't mean I didn't tell you the truth!" I resisted the urge to jump out of the car again and shook my head. When I looked at her again, her eyes were back to the same blue as before, and I started the engine with a queasy feeling.