He fixed me with his gaze, and I felt lightheaded. His eyes were like the sea. Blue and intense. They drew me in like the pull of a current. Steady. In... and out...

"I..."

So peaceful. Trustworthy.

"I know you..."

Could I tell him? He was a good man... 

He was a good man? What the hell, Ash!

I gasped in shock and simultaneously took a big step back. Then I started cursing.

"Damn vampires!"

I swung my arm back, letting my anger unleash in a tirade that Sookie would surely condemn, while I pushed Eric hard at the chest to push him away - which of course did nothing, as the man seemed to consist mainly of muscles. Still, it felt good to let out some of my anger and tension on him. As I looked into his face and saw Eric's surprised expression, I paused. Quickly, his face became expressionless again.

"Interesting..."

"That you're pushed away by someone? I would have thought that's on your daily agenda."

He gave me a warning look.

"You're not responding to my glamour." He stepped, if possible, even closer to me, taking away my breathing space. His hands were now on my shoulders, holding me in place.

His hands are warm, shouldn't they be cold?

Intensely, he looked into my eyes again, his own raised eyebrow and head tilted, making me dizzy. Such beautiful eyes.

"What are you?"

 I took a step back. When he was so close to me, I couldn't think as clearly as I needed to maintain control of the conversation. Again and again, he found cracks in my armor, in my constructed defensive wall, and overcame them. I had already revealed more to him than I had wanted.

"We just established that apparently I'm not easily hypnotized! Stop that, it's making me dizzy."

He grinned crookedly.

"This time, I didn't try to glamour you." He sighed theatrically. "You just find me irresistible."Then he smirked smugly and let his eyes roam over me from head to toe, leaving me feeling almost naked in front of him. Under his leer, I crossed my arms in front of my chest, which elicited a dry laugh from him. His radiant eyes fixed on my face again. I wasn't sure if that was any better.

"By the way, the offer from earlier still stands!"

It took me a second to follow his train of thought. Then I looked at his face, where his expression clearly reflected his sexual fantasies, making me feel overwhelmed. When he licked his lower lip, he somehow  became strangely even more animalistic and, for some reason, more attractive to me. My imagination ran wild and gave me ideas that would definitely get me into trouble.

This had to be glamour. He was messing with me... right?

I snorted indignantly and looked away, determined not to blush now and confirm him in assumption of my attraction towards him, feeding his ego and arrogance. The right corner of his mouth twitched amusedly. Then, much to my relief and simultaneously to my displeasure, he finally stepped back. I could breathe again. Each of his actions threw me off balance and confused me further. Why exactly was I standing here on the parking lot, having a conversation with the murderer of my friend?

Eric, opposite me, who had noticed my furrowed brow, also tilted his head and gestured for me to speak with a hand movement.

"So?"

"So...?"

He rolled his eyes. His look said: Humans, so damn slow and clueless.

I had generally noticed that Eric spoke little and knew how to express himself a lot with his body language.

Congratulations on the observation, Ash! That doesn't get you any further in your endeavor, since all you apparently do is eye-fuck him.

I shook my head, trying to silence my more than just a bit sarcastic inner voice, and took a deep breath, aware only of the fact that Eric's gaze was still attentively on me. When he spoke again, his voice was so arrogant that I felt the urge to grab him by the collar and shake him. I clenched my teeth.

"So why are you able to resist my extremely charming nature and my glamour?"

I snorted.

"Maybe you're just not as irresistible as you think?" I continued to tease him persistently, determined not to blur the boundaries of our strangely developing relationship any further.

For the first time since I knew him, I could see a genuine smile glide over his features. Without sarcasm and mockery. It was disarming. And it was frightening how much it touched me. My heart contracted powerfully for a beat. Then, thankfully for all present, he was himself again.

"If I wanted to know something from you, I have other abilities with which I could get you to talk even without glamour!" Confident, suggestive grin. "Or to scream!"

Had it gotten warmer? We were in the South, surely there were hot gusts of wind here too, causing one to suddenly feel hot. Right?

I took another step back, not sure how to get out of this whole situation. Could I answer his questions, lie, and if I were exposed, perhaps sign my death warrant? Or could I respond to his flirtatious attempts and, judging by the situation here, with not insignificant probability end up in his bed.

And that would be bad, right?

I looked behind me. The parking lot was empty, my car only a few meters away from me. Could I temporarily incapacitate him with a targeted kick and reach my car?

Don't be stupid, Ash, he's a vampire.

I sighed. Eric, who interpreted my half-hearted escape attempt as what it was, still had that smug grin on his lips. He knew there was no way out for me. And then, when no one said anything, he waited to see how I would decide - just like me.

When he unexpectedly moved so quickly that he blurred, I flinched in surprise. Only after I had overcome the little shock did I see what he was doing. He was at my car.

"Hey!"

The hood was open, and there was a loud crunching of metal. Quickly, I ran after him to... I didn't really know why I was chasing after him instead of seizing the opportunity and fleeing.

"What are you doing?"

As quickly as he had disappeared before, he reappeared next to me and grinned satisfactorily.

"Oh dear, looks like the battery has been damaged..."

Had I mentioned before that I couldn't stand vampires? I looked at him incredulously. My field of vision began to turn red, the edges of my sight pulsating.

Oh no! No, Ash! Not here, not like this, not HIM!

I was less then two minutes away from a melt down, which none one of my anger management classes knew hoe to cure, still not getting my fits of rage under control. If I didn't get myself under control now, I would either say or do things that would end with me as a corpse in this situation.

"You damaged my car?" I growled, my voice low and hoarse.

He just continued to grin broadly, clearly pleased to have gotten me worked up, but didn't answer.

"You damaged my car..."

Inhale. Exhale. Count backwards from 10.

"You DAMAGED MY FUCKING CAR."

10, 9, 8, 7, ...

Audibly, I breathed out and I closed my eyes.

3, 2, 1...

I could still feel his presence, but not seeing him smile smugly helped my self-control immensely. He said nothing. And I wasn't sure yet if I wouldn't want to tear him into little pieces once I opened my mouth again.

"As a vampire, I have all the time in the world!" he eventually interrupted the silence, causing me to tense up and glare at him angrily. While I tried to regain my composure to the last nerve ending, he seemed completely relaxed, which only annoyed me more.

"I think we'll just wait a few more hours. Then the sun will come up!" I retorted sharply from slitted eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. Why exactly did I want to keep provoking a murderous vampire?

He grunted and flicked a piece of lint from his, deeply sitting on his hips pants.

"That's only in a few hours. We have time!"

I grinned broadly. "Oh, I'm fine with waiting that long!"

With a leap, he was back in my face, his fangs this time extended. I flinched, but didn't step back.

"Patience is a virtue I've never really possessed, even when having unlimited time to my disposal!"His gaze wandered to my neck, where he could undoubtedly see my racing heartbeat. "When I want something, I take it!"

I swallowed hard. "That sounds more like a spoiled child than an impatient man!"

Oh. My. God. Ash, stop provoking the bloodthirsty vampire!

Eric blinked perplexed. "You, Miss Simmons, are a pure paradox of contradictions, wrapped in a pretty blonde package!"

Oh, oh. We were back to the formal Miss Simmons... and he called me pretty!

Oh, shut up, Ash!

He pointed to his teeth. "You see the teeth, yes?"

I nodded.

"Then you understand that I am a vampire?"

I nodded again.

"And that I am neither particularly patient nor particularly..." he paused "...agreeable?"

"I had noticed the character traits, yes."

He leaned forward and whispered threateningly in my ear.

"And do you think it's advisable to provoke an impatient, unapproachable vampire with extended fangs just inches from your carotid artery and insult him?"

His cool breath tickled the sensitive skin on my neck and earlobe, sending shivers down my spine. I swallowed hard, my heart now working overtime and galloping for its life. What should I answer to that? If he wanted to, I was dead.

"Yes?"

An unidentifiable noise sounded beside me. Confused, I turned my head. Eric leaned back a little again so that I could see his face. He... chuckled.

He chuckled?!

"Well, then you're either exceptionally brave or exceptionally stupid. Which is it, Miss Simmons," he whispered in my ear again.

Having him so close to my neck made me nervous. "Probably a bit of both!"

"With a touch of suicidal tendencies?"

"You might be right there, Dr. Freud!" I replied snippily.

In my mind's eye, I saw Sookie slapping her hand against her forehead. 

If you survive today, Ash, then damn it, go see a psychiatrist.

He leaned even further forward and sniffed intensely at my neck. His nose and lips brushed down my neck to my collarbone, and I gasped for air, frozen on the spot. That should NOT feel the way it did, all... tingly. 

"Suicidal enough to allow me a little bite?" A satisfied sound escaped his throat.

Oh my God, yes!

"Definitely..."

There was a brief silence. An incredulous look from Eric and a deep red face on my part. I might had been suicidal every now and then – true. But one: He didn't need to know that. Two: I was not allowing him to bite me and three: That was not suppose to have slipped out! 

"Wait. No. Definitely not!"

Eric grumbled. "It only hurts at first!" he negotiated further like a dog with a bone, a smile on his lips. His cool breath brushed against my flaming skin. "Afterwards, I can make sure it becomes very pleasant!" Even without the fact that he pressed his lower body against me and something stirred, I knew what he meant by "making it pleasant".

I swallowed hard. Could I talk to him without it becoming ambiguous and suggestive? And did I even want that?

My voice was thinner than I would have liked. "No thanks, I'm not interested!"

When he replied now, his voice was so deep and rumbling that the vibrations transferred directly to my body, and I was tempted to reconsider my answer.

"Your body clearly says something else!"

Yours too, my friend!

He was so incredibly close to me, and yet he didn't touch me anywhere. He didn't force himself on me but theoretically left me room to move. So it was a hundred percent my fault that he still stood so close to me - and that I enjoyed feeling him so close to me. His magnetism surpassed an emotional pull and transferred to his body, the air around him charged with power and pheromones or some shit. There was no other explanation that made any sense to me. 

I shook my head and pushed myself away from him with my hands on his upper body.

"I'm going home!" I quickly turned around and walked away. In the wrong direction instead of towards my car. Which was broken anyway.

Damn it. As I turned around confused to change direction, I looked directly at the self-satisfied vampire who hadn't moved.

"That's all I wanted. To bring you home!"

"Shut up!"