Disclaimer: The Sookie Stackhouse Series is the creation of Charlaine Harris. Don't sue me Charlaine! I love your books.

A/N- This story takes place in mid February, after "From the Beginning" and "Sookie's Revelation" but before "The Gamble."

Friendship

III.

I pushed my way into her mind and found a swirl of emotions not unlike those of a frightened animal. Some of the images were confusing, disjointed. There were missing pieces in the narrative. It was as if something had tampered with her thoughts… as if… Wait a minute! I had seen something like this once before, about two years ago. The pattern of her thoughts was similar to that waitress, Ginger, who had been glammed by Long Shadow. It was the only thing I'd ever seen that had this type of signature.

"It's a vampire. A vampire has glammed her," I said in an incredulous whisper. Pam, who had been leaning on the dressing table on the other side of the dressing room, stood up and leaned a little closer to our group.

A sob escaped Shelly, punctuating the truth of my assessment.

But why on earth would a vampire be cutting a human, I wondered?

I pushed in further, trying to see around the edges of the confusing pastiche of images in Shelly's mind. A small sharp knife, no sharp teeth…. This vampire had been… defanged? But by whom and for what reason? I tried to find an image, any image, that would clue me in. I tried going back further in her memories, to see how she had met this man, for I knew it was a man. He was using her in more ways than one. Further and further back I pushed, until two weeks ago, in another bar where she worked part time, I saw the face of….

Mickey!? The same Mickey who had tormented and used Tara! I gasped in shock and I looked over at Pam.

"Pam, it's Mickey! Salome's Mickey. The one that Eric sent back to Salome for using my friend Tara so badly. He's here in Monroe and he's cutting her because someone broke his fangs!"

Shelly just completely collapsed into a sobbing heap.

Pam had her phone out and was already calling Eric. Monroe was part of Eric's territory. In fact, Eric now held all of northern Louisiana, after Area 5 had been redrawn by Felipe and his crew. Mickey had no business being in the area without Eric's knowledge and it was very apparent that he was feeding on Shelly without her desire for him to do so. He had been glamming her repeatedly to keep her from fighting back and trying to get away.

Pam looked over at me and whispered "He's calling Salome…".

Salome was Mickey's sire. I had to say that she had bad taste in who she chose to grant immortality. I had heard that sometimes vamps personalities did not quite follow their human ones and that there was an element of unpredictability when you turned someone. Salome had made herself an abusive monster in my book.

I reached out to put my arms around Shelly. She was just shaking and sobbing. What kind of bastard was this guy? He wasn't even making the slightest attempt to clean her up and heal her after feeding, I reflected. And he knew she was a dancer. He was leaving the marks all over her. How was she supposed to work? I realized, with a chill, that based on my previous encounter with Mickey he likely didn't even care. From what I'd seen she clearly hadn't been willing to be with him after the first night with the man. He kept coming back for more. Of course, she worked in a club with fairies, and I imagined that the scent clung to her. I just shuddered to think of what she had been living through for the past two weeks.

I glanced at Pam who was now nodding as she was talking in a low voice on the phone. She glanced over at me and said,

"Eric says that Salome broke his fangs as part of his punishment for avoiding her summons last year. She didn't get him back until late November… he's only been out for about three weeks."

I winced. Geez, I wondered what else she'd done over the past two months. I remembered that laugh of hers. I can't say I felt that sorry for him. And I knew like everything else on a vamp that his teeth would grow back. But what he'd been doing to feed was hideous. He could have just had True Blood, but no. That clearly wasn't this guy's style.

Shelly began shaking uncontrollably and began a soft whimper. I tried to comfort her, but she kept on shaking.

Suddenly, the backstage door that had been propped open swung open wider and there, framed in the doorway, was Mickey, eyes blazing. He stared at the scene and looked at me with unconcealed hatred as soon as he clapped eyes on me.

"Get out!" I shouted at Claudine and Claude, who needed no further persuading. They went back into the club.

I held my ground, with my arms around Shelly, both of us trembling. Mickey had tried to rape me the last time I'd seen him. He'd tried to break my neck or jaw by backhanding me hard enough to knock me off my feet. Eric had been with me that time but was injured and slow to respond. I trembled but didn't move. Clearly Shelly had given him prior permission to enter the dressing area and she was not in good enough shape to rescind it now.

Mickey launched himself at me. But Pam was too fast for him. In one quick movement she picked up a large makeup brush from the dressing table and took off at him and just as Mickey got within a foot of being on top of us, she impaled him on its long, pointed handle. He let out a horrible scream and then slowly began to dissolve and flake.

Pam calmly brushed off a few flakes and went back to retrieve her dropped cellular phone.

"Eric? Oh yes, I'm fine. So sweet of you to ask. Tell Salome that I solved her problem. Yes, yes, Eric, of course, Sookie is fine. No, she's just scared. She's shaking. He didn't lay a hand on her, don't worry. Well, I think she needs a new pair of jeans. There were… some spatters, if you take my meaning. I hope we don't owe Salome anything for this one because let me tell you, he wasn't worth a red cent. Ugly, vulgar looking man. I really don't know what she was thinking, turning him. Yes, we'll be back in a hour or so. Maybe a bit more. Sookie seems to think my driving is a little … No, no, the car is fine, Eric. We're all fine."

Claudine and Claude had come back in cautiously. It had all been over so fast. Claudine looked with distaste at the mess all over the dressing room floor. Claude quickly edged past Pam and closed the backstage door.

With a snap of her fingers Claudine produced a deep blue beverage in a fluted glass. She pressed it into the sobbing Shelly's hands.

"Nepenthe," she said by way of explanation as she glanced at me. "Are you alright Sookie? I take it you had a prior experience with him?"

"He was a very horrible person, Claudine. He had also abused one of my friends in Bon Temps and Eric sent him back to his sire. She had him for a while, but released him. I guess he just moved on to another town after that," I said, swallowing that bitter recollection of his abuse of Tara.

After drinking the blue drink, Shelly appeared to fall into a sort of smiling slumber and slumped down in her chair. The glass rolled onto the floor and promptly popped.

Pam caught my eye and said brusquely, "We should go. You did what you came for, and we should get back."

Claudine and Claude stood side by side near me as I stood up.

Claudine bent her head down and kissed my cheek. "Are you sure you don't want me to whip something up for you? You still look shaken."

"No, no, I'm fine Claudine. I guess… I guess I should be shaken, right? I mean, if Pam hadn't been here, I really… I don't want to think what might have happened." I shivered.

Claude laughed at me. "Sookie, Claudine and I could have ripped that one apart at the seams, especially if he had been defanged. But it was Pam's watch and it seemed like the best option to let her handle it, his being her kind and all. We let her do her work, at which she seems to be," and here he nodded at Pam, with a raised eyebrow, in acknowledgement "rather adept." This was quite some speech for Claude, in my experience. Saying something positive about another person and a vampire at that? Wow.

Pam smiled broadly.

I looked at Shelly. "I hope she'll be alright. Will you be able to heal her, Claudine? She's really been through hell."

Claudine smiled. "Don't worry Sookie. She'll be well taken care of."

Claude helped me on with my coat. Claudine and Claude hugged me goodbye lightly and then Claude picked up Shelly to take her back to the office, while Claudine looked at getting someone to clean up the vile mess on the floor of the dressing room. How on earth would they explain that, I wondered.

As Pam and I walked out into the frigid nighttime air, she said to me,

"Wait until I tell Eric that you actually admitted he was right to send me with you. He's going to be so delighted. You know maybe I can get my fun going the other direction, eh? Now I can get a lot of mileage out of Eric being right." She laughed.

I stopped in my tracks.

"Pam, you saved my life back there. It's not about Eric being right. It's not a joke. Mickey would have killed me after the last time. You killed a vampire because of me, Pam. You saved my life."

"And happily so, my little telepathic friend. Remember that I'm under the direct orders of our King to protect you."

"Pam, I don't think you would have let Mickey harm me whether Eric or even Felipe said to protect me or not. In fact, I know that Felipe didn't even cross your mind."

"Sookie, I told you that my mind was off limits. Really." She looked at me with a glare.

"Pam, I don't need to be a mind reader to know a good friend when I see one, okay? You wouldn't have let him touch me. Thank you. I'm really grateful."

"You didn't move when he went for you. You wouldn't leave her."

I just stared at her. "I couldn't leave her. I can't just leave people, Pam."

She paused for a moment and then resumed moving toward the car. We got in and began our drive back home.