*Epilogue to **Dead Ever After** (the final book of the Southern Vampire Mystery series of novels) by Charlaine Harris to whom these characters and universe belong. I am simply playing what if. This story takes place approximately 2214.*
The shadows were deep inside Fangtasia. Pam had closed the club decades ago but Eric still owned the building and she saw to it that it was properly maintained if not utilized. She'd even bought up the rest of the strip mall, razing some parts and quietly refurbishing other parts. She had no idea what Eric would choose to do with the club when he was free, but she wanted to be ready for anything.
She drifted through the silent club like a ghost. It was only appropriate, given that her mind was filled with the past when Fangtasia had been the hottest (and only) vampire club in Northern Louisiana. She'd called it a goth roadhouse when she arrived and she hadn't been far wrong though Eric had turned it into much more by the time vampires came out of the coffin. He had called her to him, just before vampires made their existence known. She had been glad to come. They had weathered that and many other things together. Those had been very good times.
Foolishly, perhaps, she had thought those good times would last.
They hadn't.
Politics had interfered. Eric had been forced into marriage. He had bartered himself for a far higher price than most realized. The human he had become attached to lived out her life in peace and the sun without him. Pam, who had become Sheriff of Area 5 as another part of the marriage bargain had kept an eye on her, her children and now her children's children and their children. For two hundred years Pam had watched and waited and kept things running in Area 5. In all that time, which wasn't quite half her existence, she hadn't seen Eric except at assemblies where he was always at the side of his Queen. Now Eric's marriage was over, his contractual obligations fulfilled, and Pam herself was Queen of Louisiana. She wondered if he would return here or just go...away.
Something stopped her as she turned to leave. A silhouette filled the doorway to the offices. Pam didn't need to see his face. She flew into his arms in less time than it took to say his name.
"Eric."