Possibility Two—Enraged

"Did it work?" Lafayette asked.

The spirit medium got to his knees, but before he could straighten up completely, there was a blur of motion and he was up against the wall, held there by a single hand around his throat.

"Fuck!" he croaked.

Eric's fingers tighten around the witch's neck. Lafayette struggled to inhale as his feet swung helplessly in the air beneath him.

Pam smiled. Her maker was back.

"Eric! Put him down!" Sookie shouted.

Pam rolled her eyes and sauntered up behind Eric who, for his part, didn't look away from Lafayette's face when he replied.

"Why should I? This piece of filth fucked with my memories."

"That wasn't him, it was Marnie!" the witch's lover cried out.

When Eric didn't budge, Bill stood from behind his desk.

"Eric, release him immediately! As your king, Ah command you!" he bellowed.

Eric's lip curled into a sneer, but he obeyed, releasing Lafayette so suddenly that the man crumpled to the floor in a heap, gasping for breath. He didn't back away, however. He towered over the medium's huddled form.

"Did you enjoy it? Seeing me wander around like a lost little lamb?" he hissed.

Pam stepped forward so that she was beside him and cast her own contempt-filled glare down on the witch. Lafayette didn't even try to stand. He held his hands up in front of him, as if in surrender, and started talking a mile a minute.

"No, it wasn't like that at all! I didn't even know what had happened to you! Shit, I been sweatin' my ass off tryin' to make this right since it happened, terrified of you killin' my ass!"

"Eric, knock it off," Sookie scolded.

But the Viking didn't even acknowledge her.

"I liked you better when you were just a wisecracking drug dealer with a webcam. You were funny then," he went on in that calm, deadly voice of his. "Why did you have to go and ally yourselves with that pathetic coven?"

"I ain't no witch, I swear! I didn't ally myself with nobody!" Lafayette insisted.

"Well, that was a funny way to show it, by joining hands with the rest of those pentagram-wearing hippies when I came to break up the party," he snapped.

"You had your fangs an inch from my cousin's throat!" Lafayette shouted. He seemed to realize a moment that he had raised his voice and shrank back against the wall, but Eric replied in an even tone.

"She tried to stab me in the back. Literally."

Lafayette swallowed hard and tried again in a slightly more conciliatory tone.

"Look, I didn't know that joinin' hands would bring the motherfuckin' cavalry! How was I supposed to know a crazy bitch mournin' her pet fuckin' parakeet could become possessed by a medieval spirit with a chip on her shoulder?"

Pam didn't care for the theatrics. As far as she was concerned, anyone complicit in her maker's torment deserved a world of pain that she was only too happy to deliver. But, unfortunately, that wasn't her call. It was her king's.

"Pam," Eric said.

"Yes, Eric," she replied.

"Let's go."

He made for the door, apparently coming to the same conclusion she had only a second earlier, but a frantic voice stopped them.

"Wait! Eric, what about…"

Sookie Stackhouse's voice trailed off, and Eric turned to watch her fidget anxiously with the hem of her dress.

"Us? Is that what you were going to say?" he prompted.

She swallowed and nodded.

"Well, yes. I mean we—"

"Fucked under the full moon?" he completed for her.

Her eyes went wide, and she shot a nervous glance at Bill.

"Oh, he knows. He would have felt it through your bond," Eric noted. Then he turned to his king. "How did it feel for you, I wonder, when she came under me?"

Bill slammed his fist down on his desk with such force that the floor shook. His fangs popped out, and he snarled ferociously.

"You will do well to remember that Ah am your king," he growled.

Pam bit back a laugh. Eric didn't give any reaction at all. His focus was back on Sookie.

"I will be only too happy to continue our passionate lovemaking," he informed her. "After all, I've already moved in."

Sookie gaped at him for several seconds before she mustered the ability to respond.

"Nuh-uh. You aren't stayin' with me anymore. That was a temporary thing while you were in danger. And Pam still has to pay me for that," she sassed him.

Pam narrowed her eyes at the annoying human, but before she could say something scathing, Eric was speaking.

"One would think that the $50,000 I invested in cleaning up what the maenad did to what was formerly your home would be payment enough," he said pointedly.

Sookie seemed momentarily chastened by this fact, and her expression softened some.

"What about all of the things you told me about not wanting to be evil anymore? You should be horrified now that you remember all the things you've done."

"There is one thing I'm horrified about," Eric admitted.

Sookie got that hopeful puppy-dog posture on. Pam half expected to see a wail wagging under her dress.

"The whole 'My liege' thing," he muttered, shooting a dark glance at Bill.

Pam reeled back in disgust.

"You called him 'My liege'? Not sarcastically?" she asked.

Eric shuddered.

"I knelt before him. It was… extremely regrettable."

"I hate you," Sookie spat with all the vitriol she could summon.

Eric nodded as if this was expected, but did not seem particularly put out.

"I will come to you tomorrow night," he told her. "I have to catch up with business at Fangtasia."

Pam threw a glance over her shoulder and acknowledged each of them in turn by way of saying goodbye.

"Sookie. Lafayette. Whatever your name is. My liege."

They were almost out the door when Eric paused and ducked back in.

"Oh, and one more thing, sweetheart." His fangs popped out. He pinned Lafayette with a lethal glower, made all the more terrifying by the fact that he was smiling. "If I ever catch you so much as lighting incense, I will tear off your limbs one-by-one and beat you with them, no matter what my king decrees."

And with that, they left. It was only due to there superior vampire senses that they heard Lafayette mutter a single word in response.

"Shit."