Eric caught his Progeny like a breath he hadn't known he needed. The feel of having Pam in his arms, enfolding her again even as she clung to him intoxicated him more than any faery blood ever could. He savored this moment as much as the moment He had first Turned her. Two centuries was a very long time, even to a vampire as ancient as Eric. Closing his eyes, he buried his face in her honey-colored hair, willing the years and separation away.

"How is it your hair always smells of bluebells and lavender?" he wondered aloud without intending to/

Pam laughed against his chest.

"I've made my own hair rinse for 500 years," she said, her lips caressing the fabric of his shirt, wishing it gone. "I thought you might have noticed before this."

"I have noticed," Eric chuckled. "Your scent is unmistakable to me."

Pam raised her face to smile up at him. Blue eyes met blue eyes but rather than drowning, both vampires were buoyed by the experience.

"It is precious to me," he told he honestly. "As you are."

Pam graced him with another smile. One slender hand rose to trace the curve of his cheek as though she were committing his face to memory. Given her steel trap mind, Pam hardly needed the refresher. Eric wondered what she saw in his face after such an extended separation. Vampires did not change but that didn't stop his gaze from devouring her face seeking the slightest sign that she had not fared as well as he had intended or heard while they had been apart. He found none, to his considerable relief.

"I have missed you," Pam confessed without looking away.

Her directness and honesty surprised him as much as the admission of emotion. Pam had always been…self-contained. She had raised the British tradition of a stiff upper lip to something beyond an art form. Not that he had encouraged displays of emotion. Such things could lead to final death and he had bigger plans and hopes for her. To hear her voice them now…humbled him.

"And I you," he conceded. As her Maker he could do no less. She deserved that much and more.

"I am glad to know that," she said. "I wondered if you would come back here."

It wasn't a question though Eric chose to treat it as such.

"Of course, I came back," he replied, combing his fingers through her hair as much to soothe himself as to reassure her. "You are here."

Pam relaxed against Eric, reminding him how tiny she was. Anyone who mistook her delicacy for frailty made a huge and often fatal mistake. Pam was one of the best fighters he had ever seen or heard of. Her ease with violence served her well. She had risen from a Sheriff's Second to Queen shockingly fast as Louisiana acquired a reputation for being very unhealthy for Felipe's Regents. Eventually, Nevada had run out of vampires willing to take the job. Eric wondered if the King had offered Pam the Regency and she had taken the throne or if Felipe had just stepped aside. Since Nevada still existed, safe in his neon bubble in the desert, Eric assumed the situation had not disintegrated to the point of combat. Pam would have wiped the floor with him, becoming Queen of three states in the process.

Eric tucked her beneath his chin, as close as he could get her clothed. Her joy washed through their bond to be met by a wave of his own. Pam had always been his favorite progeny. They were very alike and being here with her again healed part of the wound Appius' had delivered as his last act. It didn't erase it, for others had taken advantage of the situation to deliver their own blows. For the first time since he had left Shreveport, however, Eric felt like himself.

"I am seeking a Sheriff, if you are interested in staying," she said. Her tone spoke volumes about how worried she was about him and how he would take her offer.

"I do not think I could resume a Sheriff's role in this Area," he began only to be cut off by her familiar smirk.

"I would not ask it of you," Pam told him. "I took a page from Sophie-Anne's book and am Sheriff of Area 5 as well as Queen. It is Area 1 in New Orleans that lacks a true leader."

Eric set her away from him at arm's length and frowned. New Orleans had been the place to see and be scene with vampires since they had come out of the coffin in the late 20th Century. It was a plum territory, rich in tourists and dollars. It was also virtually the only territory in the country that would be acceptable to a vampire who had been a King even if only in name and in a state like Oklahoma. The ruler of New Orleans was the de facto face and voice of vampires in the US and possibly the entire Americas. Why would she offer it to him?