Dis: I own nothing, nor do I claim to; all rights to their respective owners!
Tombstone.
There had been silence before.
Utter and complete silence that had driven him to creating children; he had only kept one of them as close as he would like, and that was Pam. He had kept Pam for the love of their friendship. He knew what people said about vampires. Cold, heartless, calculating and manipulative – and mostly they were right. Eric had been the same way, until he'd lost his memory that was, and realized there was more to life. And then, as if sent to him by some force outside the world, came Jo. She was strong and a fighter and she looked down her nose at just about every supernatural creature that walked the planet; knowing she was in the right in despising them. Then she had gotten to know the staff of Fangtasia, and slowly she had changed her mind.
He weighed over on his other foot, feeling the gravel underneath him shift. He sighed in the dark, all alone.
She had come into his life and even Sookie had been forgotten when the young blonde swept through his life like a hurricane, unearthing every dark secret she could find. Her brilliant mind being put to use to not only reveal secrets about him, but about the Fellowship, about shifters, about everyone. She had been a real danger to everyone, while she was alive. She had been passionate and so alive, vibrating with colour and her smiles had affected everyone.
Even the vampire who had sunk his teeth into her neck and ripped it out. Eric had only let him live long enough to give him a slow and painful death. Pam had assisted him. All he could really remember as he'd watched the girl, so full of life, die, was how he had never wanted blood less.
Eric shifted his weight again, his eyes glistened over with a red tint as she watched the white headstone. Being a vampire, Eric had seen people come and go, kill and be killed. Yet the short stay or Joanna Beth Harvelle – he read the headstone carefully – had managed to get to him in ways he didn't much like or appreciate.
He sat down on the damp grass, still hours left of the night, and listened as the bats circles in the trees, as the cars roared down the road. As gravel was pushed under anxious feet. He looked up, and saw another man standing there. He was tall, not very, very tall compared to Eric, but tall in his own right. He had full lips, and even if Eric preferred women these days, he couldn't help but notice them. The man's hazel eyes fixed on him for a second and then returned to the tombstone.
"You're the vampire," he said gruffly. Eric merely nodded as the other man's fingers touched her headstone. "Why didn't you- turn her?" The word seemed to come out slightly strangled, as if he hadn't have liked it any better, but at least she would still be there.
"She would have killed me, if I did," Eric said, an amused smile on his lips at the thought of Joanna trying to kill him with her newfound vampire powers. Secretly he wished for it to be a memory, not a fantasy.
The other man made a scoffing sound, snorting as he did, shaking his head. "Always so damn stubborn," he muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"You're the hunter," Eric finally said, and the man's head snapped to look at him. By the slump of his shoulder, Eric knew he was right.
"So what if I was?" he challenged.
"She spoke of you."
Eric got up from the grass, and his knuckles graced the headstone's cool edge before starting to walk away. Behind him he heard the other man draw a deep, shaking breath.
"I yelled at her, last time we talked. She told me," the other man said. "Told me she loved a vampire. I can see why, now."
Eric, if his heart had been beating, was sure it would have stopped. He didn't say anything, he merely kept on walking. He couldn't stand being in the cemetery another second.
A/N: Well, after all the Eric/Jo, finally Eric/Dean. Please let me know what you think! :)