A/N: This is my first TB fanfic and was inspired by what I like to think was going on with Eric in the 12 ½ months that Sookie was in the fairy realm. Begins just after True Blood 3.12 (Evil is Going On) and will end partway through 4.2 (You Smell Like Dinner.) If I owned 'em, there would have been no threesome scenes, but this is still set within show canon, so if you didn't see it on screen, it's my speculation about what how things got from point A to point B. Expect a whole lot of fanwanking and only a whiff of lemon in the air, since half of our pair is somewhere else for most of the fic. I fully expect this to get Jossed by the time the season 4 blu-ray comes out since they are promising more detail on events during this period, so enjoy it while you can. Thanks for reading.

Chapter 1: She's Not There

I was in a cooling tub of vinegar-infused water, methodically scaling away the cement still caked into my skin and hair, when my bond with Sookie vanished: not sharply, but with a gentle, quick fading, like the sun's last rays finally slipping below the horizon at sunset. The betrayal and sorrow that had throbbed painfully through our connection for the past hour shivered and fell still.

I stopped, my grip tightening on the sponge in my hand.

I waited.

When thirty seconds had passed without any renewed sense of Sookie, I shot out of the water.

I would have been halfway to Bon Temps naked and wet if Pam, who had been doing "emergency repair" on her nails after her own encounter with the cement, hadn't blurted out, "What the fuck, Eric?" as I vamp sped out of the private bathroom beside my office.

"Sookie's gone. " I paused, dripping beads of bath water on the floor and with some cement grit still clinging to my skin.

"Oh, for fuck's sake!" Pam grumbled in exasperation. "Barely an hour later and her precious little fairy ass is already in trouble again? 'Gone' how?"

"Our blood bond has broken. " Reluctant to waste time describing the qualitative strangeness of how the bond had vanished, I said pointedly, "You know how valuable Sookie is. I need to know what's happened to her." And I needed to know it now. Dead. She could be dead. The fear was thrumming in me.

Pam shot me an arch look. "And doing so naked plays into this how? Not that I disagree that you should check into it—" Pam emphasized the point by twirling her nail polish brush into the air towards me. "— but unless you're planning on fucking the answer out of someone, I don't know why you can't put some clothes on first. At least make it a little harder to stake you."

Her tone may have been facetious but I could feel the genuine worry through our bond. She was disturbed by my uncharacteristically flustered condition.

Hell, so was I.

From the moment I had told Sookie the truth about her former lover on the porch of her house, I had sensed her betrayal and grief pulsing through our connection like an almost physical ache. I regretted having caused her pain, although I could not – would not – regret having told her the truth about Bill Compton.

Still, the actual experience of her pain had been more difficult than I had expected. Her hurt had been relentless as I had sailed through the night sky towards Shreveport and her rawness had continued to chafe at me as I drew my bath and settled in for the tedious process of cement removal. For 1,000 years I had dreamed of having my vengeance for my family's murder. I should have been exhilarated now that I had it. Instead, the mix of Sookie's emotional pain and my physical discomfort had put me in a grim mood.

I should have been relieved when the flow of Sookie's heartrending emotion finally stopped.

Instead, when the bond had fallen quiet, I felt like some vital part of me was suddenly missing. An infuriating, intriguing, telepath-fairy-waitress-shaped part.

And now I was feeling fear and that response was all my own.

God, I hated feelings. Hated feeling. Whichever.

"If the bond is broken, Eric, you have to know what that may mean." Pam was clearly reluctant to state the obvious, but forged on, her voice softening as she tried to reason with me. "If Sookie is dead, rushing into potential battle unprepared isn't going to help her. Or you."

Even if she was dead (nonono), I had to find her. To know.

Sensitive to my determination, Pam finally pursed her lips unhappily before continuing with resignation. "If you really must do this, at least do it sensibly. I've already nearly lost you once tonight." I could feel her apprehension rippling through our bond and felt a pang of remorse that I hadn't even thought about that in my rush to find Sookie.

It was tremendously annoying to acknowledge it, but my ever-practical progeny was right. Of course, her intelligence was one reason I had chosen her.

"Fine," I acquiesced and bolted to grab clothes.

Mere moments later and now "decently" dressed in jeans, boots, tank and leather jacket, I blasted into the sky to look for Sookie, consciously tuning out Pam's lingering worry.

Now if I could only block out my own emotions.

~*E&S*~

It was strange not to feel where Sookie was.

Ever since Dallas, my blood inside her had quietly but persistently let me know exactly where she was at all times. It had been a surprisingly pleasant little humming buzz in the background of my consciousness and over the short period that we had been linked, that tingle of awareness had become unexpectedly soothing. I had experienced Sookie's emotions ebbing and flowing like tides and although I had not known many joyful moods from her during that time – the girl had had a rough few weeks between the maenad and Russell Edgington – being connected to her so intimately had been strangely gratifying.

In comparison, the emotional void left by the silenced bond was frustrating as fuck.

My plan was to start my search at Sookie's house, where I had last seen her. But as I approached the Bon Temp farmhouse by air, I was distracted by a tantalizing aroma carried on the wind. Diverting towards its source, which turned out to be the cemetery between Sookie's home and Bill's, I flew in closer.

I slipped into the shadows of the tree line, taking care to stay out of sight until I had confirmed that no one else was in the graveyard. Hovering in the dark, I breathed the intoxicating scent in deeply, concentrating on the nuances.

It was a fascinatingly sweet bouquet, a mixture of slightly varying individual fragrances that shared similar notes of honey and fresh grain.

And Sookie.

I could smell her unique signature, like a subtle under note, nearly overwhelmed by about half a dozen – no, seven – more powerful scents.

Cautiously, I touched down on the grass and sniffed my way among the graves. All the individual scents – What the fuck were they? They were mind-blowingly intoxicating – had coalesced into a single locus on the gravel path that led through the grounds. I closed my eyes and sucked the fragrant air in hungrily.

Whatever the smell was, it was making me hard. And involuntarily giddy with excitement, almost dizzying in its intensity.

Fuck.

I shook my head to clear it and focused resolutely on pinpointing Sookie's trace among the bevy of olfactory enticements. Her distinctive track meandered away from the seductive vapor hanging in the air, took a detour to what appeared to be her grandmother's grave, and then led back towards her house. All along the way, I looked for and sniffed for blood or other signs of violence, but there was nothing like that in Sookie's trail.

I followed it all the way to her front porch. The lights in the house were ablaze, but I didn't sense anyone inside or smell anything unusual.

As I stood in front of Sookie's front door, I hesitated.

"Go back to hell where you came from, you fucking undead piece of shit!"

In my mind's eye, I saw her tear-stained face as she had taken out her disappointment and misery over Bill's perfidy on me.

When Sookie had ordered me out of her life earlier in the evening, she had not actually rescinded my invitation to her home. I had left of my own accord, although I could not be certain she had realized that in her anguish.

I wasn't about to point it out to her. I had few enough strategic advantages in dealing with her as it was.

She wouldn't have been happy for me to come back into her home, but I had to search the house. She could yell at me later, when she was safely returned.

I know it was irrational, but as I opened the door to her home, I called out her name. "Sookie?"

I had had a momentary flicker of hope that somehow, someway, the bond was just "disconnected." That she would pop out of one of the rooms in the shabby farmhouse and screech at me (again) to get the fuck out of her house. But the house remained silent.

I searched every room without discovering anything except that Sookie's house had not recovered from that maenad bitch. While Sookie had made some progress in cleaning the most public rooms, others were still thoroughly trashed and mud-covered.

I guess if you don't have a cadre of glamoured humans to clean up after you, you have to do it yourself. When you can. When you're not working. Or trying to track down your kidnapped boyfriend in Mississippi. Or being held prisoner by some fucking vengeance-driven vampire like me.

Slamming the door shut behind me, I searched the exterior perimeter of the house before dropping down onto Sookie's front steps to think.

There were no signs of violence; no blood; no odor of death. And as I thought back to the feelings that had been pulsing through the bond just before it stopped, fear had not been among them. Whatever had happened to Sookie, she did not seem to have been hurt in the process. My own fear calmed somewhat.

She appeared to have vanished from the cemetery where her scent trail had gone cold. Gone with a bunch of someones that smelled damned fabulous, although whether gone by coercion or by her own choice, I couldn't tell. I suppose they could have killed her, but if they had, their methods of body disposal were superior to anything I was aware of.

For the first time since I had felt the bond vanish I started to hope that she was still alive.

I had told Russell Edgington that Sookie's fairy blood had gone undetected because she was a hybrid descendent of the fae, but I never once thought that there might still be full-blooded fairies in the human world. Russell had lived three times as long as I had and never encountered a single fairy, which made them as mythological as unicorns.

But what other reasonable explanation was there for the array of alluring smells that lingered in the cemetery? Especially since only Sookie's scent was detectable outside the burial ground – the sources of those other alluring fragrances had apparently appeared and disappeared on a relatively small patch of ground.

Sookie had been taken by fucking fairies: as insane as it would have sounded to me a few days before, it was the theory with the strongest evidence. Russell was safely encased in concrete, I hadn't caught a whiff of Sophie-Anne (or what Russell had accurately characterized as her overstated perfume) in the cemetery, Bill was probably holed up somewhere dealing with the consequences of his deceit, and if wolves had taken Sookie, the air would have reeked instead of smelled so sweet.

Speaking of which, the intoxicating scent of what I now believed to be fairy had begun to fade, dissipated by the autumn breeze.

I also noticed vaguely that some parts of my skin – those still rimed with dried cement – were beginning to sting as if burned. Studying a cement-smudged crease between my fingers, I could see blisters forming. Great. I fleetingly wished killing Bill for what he had done to me in dumping me into that construction site had been option, but even as Pam had helped pull me out of the mucky cement, I had known that Sookie would never have forgiven me if I had. I normally wouldn't have a lot of patience with Bill Compton, but the stakes were high in this game. I could tolerate a lot of bullshit from the younger vampire if it meant earning Sookie's trust in the long run.

Tuning out the mildly increased pain of my skin, I pondered what to do next. With no idea where the goddamn fairies would have taken Sookie, I was stuck. She could be anywhere, including some plane of existence that could only be accessed by magic.

Magic I didn't have. Sookie magic.

With a sigh, I leaned forward on the steps, about to rise and launch myself into the air to go home, when Bill appeared suddenly in front of me. Because of Sookie's revoked invitation, he couldn't enter the house, but the porch was still fair territory. Any remote suspicion that he might have had anything to do with Sookie's disappearance vanished the moment he grabbed the front of my jacket and bellowed into my face, fully fanged, "Where. Is. Sookie?"

Bill and I have had our differences over the years, but even he wouldn't normally have been stupid enough to get in my face like that. He had to be acting out of desperation – not that I had much sympathy for his feelings.

Bill's hair was damp, as if he had just gotten out of a shower, but underneath the odor of soap, he smelled strongly of Sophie-Anne, Nan Flanagan and several humans. What he didn't smell of was fairy. Any hint of contact with Sookie was older, buried under all those newer scents.

If I had actually believed he had anything to do with Sookie's disappearance, I suddenly realized, I would have killed him, consequences be damned. His remains could easily have found their home with some recently added occupant of the conveniently nearby cemetery, just like Russell's werewolf before him.

Fortunately for Bill, I was not as impulsive and illogical as he tended to be where Sookie was concerned. Well, not normally. For the moment, I was giving him the benefit of the doubt and sticking with the fae abduction theory. Not that I felt any compulsion to share that theory with him. Let him figure out what had happened to Sookie for himself.

Ignoring the impulse to rip his arms off for laying hands on me, I instead went on the verbal offensive.

"Maybe I should be asking you that, Bill. Does Sophie-Anne have anything to do with the silencing of my blood bond with Sookie?" Petty of me, I know, but I enjoyed reminding him that he wasn't the only one to feel Sookie's every sentiment. "Did you finally betray her and give her to that vapid bitch?" Rubbing a little salt in Bill's wounds made the increasing chemical burns on my own skin seem a bit more tolerable.

The faint whiff of fairy on the breeze was nearly imperceptible now, and Bill seemed too focused on me to have noticed it. I wasn't about to enlighten him, either.

Something flicked across Bill's face and he abruptly let my jacket go before straightening up. His fangs withdrew with a distinct pop and he narrowed his eye at me.

"Sophie-Anne is no more. "

Okay, that was a shocker. "How?" I nodded at Bill's jacket. "AVL?" That would explain the telltale aromas of Nan and a number of humans that clung to its surface.

Bill raised his chin at me defiantly. "I ended her."

As one of my eyebrows raised skeptically, he added begrudgingly, "Although yes, the AVL did sign off on her assassination."

I took it that "signed off" in this case really meant "helped." I could see no other way that Bill Compton could have sent the older and more powerful Sophie-Anne to her true death, except to have assistance. Significant assistance. Not that I would shed a single blood-red tear for my late sovereign.

"Regina mortua est, vivat – should it be rex or regina? Who has Nan named as the new puppet regent?" I inquired dispassionately.

Bill straightened even further, his eyes burning with satisfaction.

"Why, that would be me," he said. "Less than an hour ago, Nan Flanagan pronounced me William Compton, King of Louisiana. " Bill tilted his head slightly to the side and his smile was smug. "You may call me 'your Majesty.'"

Well, this was an unexpected development. For once, I was truly at a loss for words. At least words I should share with my new "sovereign." Fucking Nan Flanagan and her political machinations. If Bill had the full backing of the AVL as king, I was going to have to play nicely or risk butting heads with the highest levels of the vampire power structure.

I'm not that stupid.

"And it is as your king that I ask you again, Eric: where is Sookie?"

I put my game face on, automatically hiding my perturbation.

"I do not know, your Majesty." I spoke briskly, all business. "I felt the bond vanish nearly two hours ago and immediately came to see what had happened. I found the house empty, lights on, but no sign of Sookie. I have searched…thoroughly...inside." Bill looked unhappy that I had been able to do that, but wisely held his tongue. "There is no sign of recent violence. Sookie does not appear to have been taken from her home by force." I paused before adding a small half-truth. "I found her scent outside the house but the trail leads nowhere. There were no other clues."

Bill's face fell in disappointment as he retracted his fangs. "I was— " I could see him search for the right word. "—preoccupied with Sophie-Anne and did not realize at first that Sookie was gone." He faltered. "The way the bond ended was not so sharp or jarring as I might have expected if someone had – had harmed her," he said hopefully.

I couldn't blame Bill for refusing to acknowledge his implicit fear that someone had killed Sookie. If I didn't have the possibility of supernatural fairy abduction to give me a sliver of hope, Sookie's death would have remained the most logical conclusion for the severing of the bond.

He looked at me directly and said grimly, "We must find her, Eric. No matter what her feelings for me or the issues you and I have between us, we must find her."

I was silent for a moment. "Looking for her will be easier if I am still Sheriff. I would have access to greater resources." My new king was within rights to remove me from my position. It wouldn't have been a smart move – I was the oldest and most powerful vampire in Louisiana and I do have my own important allies in positions of authority – but Bill was not the most strategic of thinkers. He acted from emotion more often than not, and he certainly hated me, now more than ever.

Bill snorted. "Of course, your position would be your first thought."

Pot, kettle.

I could see the wheels turning as he considered his options.

"On the other hand, if I am relieved as my duties as Sheriff, I could devote that much more time to pursuing Sookie," I said smoothly.

He wanted to find Sookie, but I think my deliberate use of the word 'pursue' tipped the balance in his decision. "I would likeyou to remain Sheriff of Area 5," he stated. "Your point about resources is well-taken."

Honestly, it was bullshit, because I had enough resources at my disposal even without my political position to look for our little blonde telepath, but if Bill wasn't astute enough to realize that, that was his problem.

"So, your majesty. If not Sophie-Anne, then who else might have taken Sookie?" I was curious to see if Bill had detected the same olfactory hints I had and if his mind was moving in the same direction.

Bill's eyes narrowed in thought. "Could Russell have escaped his prison? We should start there. You know, having tasted her, he will not rest until he has her again if he has the opportunity."

While the motive was plausible, the possibility that Russell had taken Sookie seemed unfeasible. Even if Russell Edgington had been freed from his prison by progeny just as Pam had freed me, even a vampire of his age could not have healed adequately in just a couple of hours to be physically able to kidnap Sookie. In the best of circumstances, such severe burns could be expected to take at least several hours to heal. But who was I to disagree with my sovereign's speculation?

I rose to my full height. "With your permission, I will go back to Shreveport now and verify that Russell is still where we left him."

"And then report back to me, Sheriff." Bill commanded.

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Easier done if you give me back my cell phone. Sire."

Bill had the grace to look discomfited as he pulled my cell out of his pocket.

I didn't thank him.

"Eric, you realize that we must be cautious about who knows Sookie is missing. I do not want her to attract the unnecessary attention of the Authority. Or the AVL." Bill's eyes met mine with awkward entreaty.

Ah, so Nan's cat's paw wasn't sharing everything with his mentor. Interesting. That suited me, as I had no plans to share everything I knew with my new "leader," either. I would do my best to find Sookie, but I had no interest in reuniting her with Bill in the process.

"I will say nothing – for Sookie's sake. Goodnight…your Majesty. Congratulations." I dipped my head in the shallowest of what could pass for a respectful nod and took off into the air, leaving my new king staring forlornly at Sookie's prohibited porch.

~*E&S*~

"You have got to be shitting me." Pam's outrage was palpable. "Why in the fuck would anyone in their right mind put that self-important little prick on a throne?"

"One thing you can say about Bill: he can be relied on to toe the mainstreaming party line. And after what Russell did, I can see the AVL finding it very important to present a "kinder, gentler" face of vampires to humans. No, he makes perfect sense." I wearily finished scrubbing at my skin, finally getting the last of the cement lime out of my pores. Everywhere the construction material had remained while I searched for Sookie was burnt red, as if I had been exposed to the sun. Again.

"Well, I don't intend to kowtow to the pompous little shit," Pam groused. "'King Bill' can kiss my ivory ass."

I stood up from the bath and reached for a towel, drying my body from the top down. "Pam, he is in the AVL's pocket, which gives him a great deal of power. You will follow propriety in showing your respect for your king." I wrapped the towel around my waist and then moved closer to Pam, touching my hand to her cheek and looking her full in the face. "At least in public. I don't give a shit what you say in private." I smirked at her, gave her a kiss on the forehead and whispered, "Although we might want to be more systematic in sweeping for bugs in the future in case our new king follows in Sophie-Anne's footsteps. Have our security reviewed, discreetly, tomorrow. Get rid of Sophie-Anne's electronic toys ASAP." Even if Bill knew that Sophie-Anne had had Fangtasia bugged, he could make his own damned arrangements to spy on me.

Pam nodded silently and then asked in her normal voice," What about Sookie?"

"I filled Bill in on what I found, which was nothing useful to the search." Russell's new resting place was undisturbed and hardening nicely. Given my own experience with drying cement, I assumed Russell was screaming as new layers of chemical burns formed on top of his already sun-charred skin in his concrete tomb. It was an enjoyable thought.

"So what are you going to do next?" Pam studied me gravely.

I gave her a tired half-smile. "I'm going to make a couple of phone calls and grab a bite to eat so that these damned burns heal faster. Then to rest. I've got some ideas about where I want to start tomorrow. "

"Eric – " Pam's large blue eyes met mine solemnly. "I know you cared for her. I'm sorry for your sake that she is gone."

I knew that it cost Pam dearly to say something so conventionally sympathetic, but my reaction was still sharp. "Don't give her up for dead too quickly, Pam," I said curtly. "I'm not convinced yet."

Pam's expression as I headed out of the bathroom was carefully neutral, but not before I had seen – and felt – the quickly hidden flicker of concern. Pam obviously thought I was being unrealistic and it bothered her.

I paused in the doorway and said firmly, my back to her. "I have my reasons to believe what I do, Pam, but I don't want to go into them tonight. Later, though. "

I refused to turn and face her troubled eyes before exiting.

~*E&S*~

Alcide Herveux wasn't happy that I was calling him in the wee hours of the morning, and so soon after he thought he was finally rid of me, although he was a little more forbearing when I told him why.

"So, what can I do to help if you don't know where Sookie is or who might have taken her?" he asked when I had finished telling him the basics of Sookie's disappearance, but still keeping my suspicion of fairy involvement to myself.

"You can start by not saying anything to anyone in the supe community, for Sookie's sake. It would be better for her if this is kept low-key for as long as possible. She's had enough unwanted interest from those who already know of her talents; we don't want her attracting the wrong attention if we can help it. "

Alcide snorted. "Sounds like she's already attracted the 'wrong attention,' if she's missin'."

"Most likely," I said evenly. "What I would like you to do is watch the house during daylight hours for me. Her friends and family don't know yet that she's missing –"

"And I suppose you ain't gonna tell them," Alcide growled. "Fucking vampers," he muttered under his breath.

"No, I'm not telling them," I said sharply. "For one thing, she may be back before we know it and this could all be concern over nothing." If only. "And I have reason to think that her disappearance has something to do with the supernatural community, not the human. What good can her human friends and her brother do in that situation? It's best if they are kept out of that aspect of it. For everyone's sakes."

The were begrudgingly agreed. "Okay, I'll keep an eye on the house for you. I'll let you know if she comes back tomorrow or if they realize she is missing."

"Good. I'll make it worth your while."

"I'm willing to do it for Sookie," Alcide said. "But whatever."

I had one more call to make before I would feed and rest.

" Did you hear about Compton?" I asked without introduction when she answered.

" Yes. Nan notified us immediately. She was pleased to be rid of Sophie-Anne."

"Our new king made an attempt on my life earlier tonight but failed." I switched to Swedish given the sensitive nature of the revelation. Even among vampires, the closest modern equivalent to my native language was not commonly spoken, which made it useful when one wanted to be discreet. And this was clearly a discussion to be had prudently.

"Ah, that was not mentioned. Perhaps he didn't tell Nan," she responded in the same tongue. I could hear amusement in her voice.

"There are apparently many things he does not tell Nan." I replied dryly.

" Och du är bra?" And you are fine? She probed delicately.

" Slightly toasted, but yes, I am fine. Or will be after I eat."

"Bra." I could hear her relief through the cellphone. "Jag är glad, broder." Good. I'm glad, brother.

"Any chance I can kill him?" I asked lightly. One can always hope.

She chuckled. "Not yet, no. He is Nan's pet and that would not be wise of you. Not at this time."

"Damn. That is as I thought but it was worth asking," I said regretfully in English.

She laughed again. "Rest well, älskling. Stay safe."

~*E&S*~

That morning as I lay down for the day, my last thoughts were of Sookie.

Every time I closed my eyes, I pictured her, still in the pale blue sundress she was wearing when last I saw her, surrounded by a hoard of physically beautiful beings, although my imagination alternately portrayed her interactions with them as violent (as they snatched her by force, Sookie fighting ferociously but overwhelmed) or seductive. (I stifled the mental image of a stunningly handsome male fairy pulling her into his arms, grabbing her hair as he kissed her passionately and then vanishing with her in his arms.) My eyes popped open and I shifted on my pallet uncomfortably, uncertain which prospect was worse. If she felt no fear, the seduction seemed more likely, which didn't make me feel much better.

Trying to focus on something other than Sookie being seduced by someone other than me, I pondered what I knew of fairy lore from my human life. My people had believed in a variety of supernatural beings, from the gods and goddesses whose veneration I had long-since abandoned, to trolls and giants, but what best fit my new experiential knowledge of fairies would have been the tales of álfar: elves. They were rumored to come in two varieties - ljósálfar ("light elves") and dökkálfar ("dark elves." )

I felt a tingle of excitement as I recalled a Medieval description of the ljósálfar as "fairer to look upon than the sun."

Light. Sun. Beauty.

Sookie.

If Sookie was a descendant of the ljósálfar, then perhaps I had a name for where the fae had taken her.

Álfheimr. Elf-home. Fairyland.

A/N: Cement really will burn your skin if it is not cleaned off properly, so I made our clever Viking follow a smart tip and neutralize the alkaline of the cement with acidic vinegar. (You can also use lemon juice, but I'm saving the lemons for another story… ;-) ) Too bad he didn't get it all off because he was in such a rush to find Sookie.

"Regina mortuaest, vivat (rex/regina)," is Latin for "The Queen is dead, long live the king/queen."