Thank you all for your interest and response. So sorry it took me a long time to update :) Hope you enjoy this one!

Chapter Three

He sat there all night, waiting for dawn to break out a first sign of life.

He made a wood-fire, and huddled around it, trying to keep himself warm, in the red lit glow. He watched the moon intently, and his eyes began to feel grainy and sleepy. He blinked, and shook himself forcefully to keep himself awake. As morning slowly approached, so did rain. Within an instance, his cloak was drenched and his teeth chattered together miserably. The fire he had made for himself ran out. He found himself pleased it was morning once a bird crowed somewhere in the trees.

Even Lucifer could sense the impending separation in advance. The stallion became noticeably unsettled; He lifted his front leg, made a gentle whinny, then buried his hooves deep into the ground, shuffling dirt.

"Calm," Eric commanded of the horse sternly. "Calm."

The morning rain pattered and cascaded down his unconcealed face. His hair was drenched and soaked, making him appear even more threatening. With his hand, he absent-mindedly stroked his hair back to keep the hair from being plastered in front of his eyes. He clenched his fists at his sides as the peephole on the gate was wrenched open. A pair of beady, brown eyes stared back at him in alarm.

"Who's there?" a man's voice bellowed behind the gates. "Who be visiting at this time of the morning?"

Eric turned to look back at his horse, and pressed a finger to his lips in warning for the stallion not to make a single sound, or movement. It was lucky Lucifer was out of sights way, or he might have recognised the tales that had spread from town to town of the man who rode on his white horse, wrecking havoc on villages. "Good morning," Eric greeted the man nervously, "I am visiting. I was hoping you would be so kind as to let me in."

The beady eyes roamed down his face carefully through the peephole. "And what brings you here to the village of Bon Temps?"

"I am looking for someone," Eric answered, without hesitation. "A girl."

"There are many girls here. You're going to have to be a bit more specific. What is her name?"

"I do not know her name," Eric said, his teeth clenching with irritation. "But I will recognize her, first instance I see her. I mean your village no harm. I only wish to see the girl again."

"I cannot let you in, I'm afraid."

Eric fought back on his anger, and breathed in deeply through his nostrils to calm himself. This was the second time he had been denied entrance into the village of Bon Temps. First, from a woman. And now, from the silly guard. Eric did not like being denied, of anything. "Very well, then. I will return another day." Another day, would turn into nightfall, once everyone was asleep and unsuspecting.

Biting down on his tongue, he turned and strode back over to his horse. "Night it is, then," he spoke to himself quietly, venom coating his tongue. "You've given me no choice."

In the early hours of the night, Sookie woke suddenly from a light sleep, as though someone had shook her awake vigorously to alarm her. She saw that the stray dog she had taken into her Grandmother's home was sitting upright on its legs, its ears perked as though it heard something troubling. The dog whined softly at her, and Sookie smiled tiredly to herself, and fell back onto her pillows.

She soon fell back to sleep; but her dreams were mingled with startled shouts and the hoofs of a horse galloping throughout the village. When the dog started barking, she sat up and realized then that something was terribly wrong. She immediately pulled herself out of bed and went to her Grandmother, who she found was staring outside the window, looking sleepy and frightened.

"Gran, what is it?" she asked, racing to her Grandmother's side at once.

"Someone has broken through the gates," she whispered back to her young Granddaughter, in horror. "Someone has invaded the village."

"Don't worry." She held her Grandmother's hand comfortingly. "The guards will stop them." Sookie looked out the window herself. Several guards were circling the entrance, but they were no match for a man riding on a stark-white horse.

The guards heard it only when the wooden gates were being knocked open. The locks burst open and the timber fell back, alerting them to an intruder. One guard ran out, and a black figure swiftly advanced on him, and sounds of hooves pounding the dirt warned him the intruder had a horse.

"No, no," he cried out, "Wait, no!" But it was too late.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a sword struck him in the neck, and he collapsed onto his knees, a retching agonized wreck. The guard searched for the edges of the cut with his fingertips, hoping to staunch the scarlet liquid gurgling out of him like a ruthless waterfall. There came a smear of movement in between his moist eyes. He could not tell what it was through the tears.

"You should have let me in," a man's voice said menacingly from above him. "You would have made things far more simpler. You could have saved yourself."

The guard fell headfirst into the dirt, and felt his life slipping between his fingers.

More and more screams broke out around the village. Sookie gripped her Grandmother's hands with numb fingers. Things had turned bad. The guards weren't succeeding in keeping the intruder out. And they could not stand around, huddled inside, and pray all could be well any longer.

"Gran," Sookie's voice fell into an urgent whisper. "We can't stay. We have to leave."

"But he is still out there!" Her Grandmother cried fearfully. "What if he catches us trying to escape?"

"We have to try," Sookie insisted, sounding far braver than she truly felt. "We can't just stay here!" With cold dread gnawing at her heart, Sookie forced her Grandmother to fetch her older brother. And then they began to run, like everyone else in the village had.

Lucifer was growing tired, but Eric pushed him on.

He shut his eyes briefly, and listened to the scream and cries as everyone ran from their houses. When he reopened them, he caught a glimpse of an old woman scurrying off in another direction, with two younger children at her side. He caught one glimpse of the female child's fair-hair, and he knew. Oh, he knew. It was her. It had to be her.

His heart pulsed and electrified. There she was.

Desperate to catch her, he kicked his shin into his stallion and urged him forward to where the three were running to flee.

Sookie looked back behind her shoulder as they ran. Her heart was thumping a million beats inside her chest. She gasped in terror as the cloaked figure on the horse became terribly, terribly closer to them. The figure's sword was drawn, as he rushed towards them on horseback. The long sword the figure held shone in the dark. And then the figure was springing down on his horse.

Without thinking, Sookie threw her Grandmother and brother into the ground hastily, and heard herself crying, "Duck, duck!" She was anticipating the pain. She thought death was coming, and that, at any moment... the sword would plunge through her. Rather instead, she felt a hand grasp onto her forearm tightly, and as she staggered and fell over her brother's body, her left cheek hit the ground with such force she cried out shrilly in pain. She caught, through the darkness, the figure swoop down to her. The figure sank to his knees in front of her, and though she was drifting in and out of coherency, she heard the figure utter soft-spoken words at her. She heard her Grandmother's wailing piercing through her ears, and then she whimpered anxiously as she felt herself being thrown over the cloaked figure's back. Her head bounced slightly as the creature trudged towards the white horse.

"Please," she cried. "Please, good sir. What do you want from me? Who are you?"

The man trudged on unconcernedly, ignoring her prayers. She was being forced onto the horse's saddle, and she sagged, weary, fretful, and bone-tired. The white horse leaped forward, and sped through the village like the wind breezing through the trees. Sookie could distantly hear her Grandmother sobbing out her name, but further and further they rode, the more distant and quieter her Grandmother's voice grew. Fear filled Sookie. Who was this cloaked figure? What did he want with her? She gripped onto the horse's mane with all her might, her fingernails digging, for fear she would fall off. The wind whistled in her ears, and bit her eyes as she tried to pry them open. All she could see was darkness. A never-ending path of darkness ahead.

She opened her mouth to beg for mercy again. No cry came out. No cry or moan whatsoever.

"It is alright," A man's voice spoke at her through the whistling wind solemnly, as they rode on. "I've got you now. You don't need to be afraid."