A/N: Thanks to everyone that has reviewed! I'm a little nervous about this chapter because it explains a lot of your questions and sets up the rest of the story.

Disclaimer: Don't own them. Don't sue.

It was a really depressing meeting. It felt weird that they were having it in the middle of the club over drinks. It seemed more like something I would have watched on TV – like on CSI or Bones or something. The crimes had started slowly at first. Supes disappearing and turning up dead in public places just one or two every once in awhile. And nobody really thought much of it because Supes tend to have a higher mortality rate than regular humans, a lot of them sort of run on the darker side of life.

But then people kind of began to notice that it wasn't those darker side ones that weren't that were disappearing. Instead, it tended to be the ones with jobs and houses in the suburbs and human partners. And it was escalating – that wasn't a word of the day, I had gotten it from Eric, living with him I'd found a lot more battle-type vocabulary slipping into my everyday speech. Anyway, there had been a televised execution of a Were three weeks ago. It was what had brought up the discussion of bringing us home.

He'd been an attorney, the Were. I could see that Weres would be real confusing for everyone anyway because well they were human most of the time, of course, a lot of them were married to full humans. So if there's a group that is targeting human and Supe relationships, they were going to be all over the Weres like a duck on a june bug as my Gran would have said. This guy, he'd had two kids – that would never be Weres – and a fully human wife. Apparently, after it had first happened the publicity was so bad that she just backed up and disappeared. Alcide, since he was Packmaster now, had come to Pam to ask for help getting the woman safely away. So she was gone up North, Boston or someplace, Pam said the woman would have moved to Siberia just to get away from it all. She could grieve in peace now.

And this is what I had wanted to come home to. I'd brought us back here without giving it much thought. I'd loved life with Eric, but it had always felt like a vacation. I guess in my head coming home had just been that final step we had to take. You'd think I would have finally learned to just enjoy the happy times when they came around. Although if I was honest with myself, I probably would have just packed my bag faster if someone had told me that I could do something to help. I loved my home and I didn't want it to have gone crazy.

Wanting to distance myself from the conversation because I just couldn't take the sadness anymore or the way they all casually discussed it, I looked around the bar, which looked real good. Pam seemed to be her usual self, dressed in a sweater set and pencil skirt. Her outfit kind of reminded me of the wife on Mad Men. I didn't really like that show too much, but Eric roared with laughter through most of it. Maybe it was funnier if you'd been there the first time. I did like the clothes a lot of the time. She winked at me when she saw me looking at her and said, "Banana Republic."

Victor and Bill both scowled at her and Eric just ignored her. I have to say, Bill was always big with throwing around the faces when you were breaching vampire etiquette, but personally, I thought Eric's acting like it was beneath his notice was a lot more effective. Sort of like ignoring a whiney child.

And Bill, I have to say, he did not look good. I'd heard it could take years to recover from that level of silver poisoning and it showed. He looked like he had cancer. But, he smiled at me when he saw me looking at him and that helped his looks quite a bit. Maybe if he was just happier, he wouldn't look so bad.

"Why now?" I asked the group. I hadn't really intended to get involved in the discussion, but apparently I just couldn't keep quiet. Besides, it was bothering me. I mean what were the crazies all stirred up about anyway. Why did it matter if humans and Supes had relationships? It had always been that way. Even way before anybody knew about Supes there were some humans that did.

All eyes were on me in a way that I really didn't like and Victor Madden said, "My dear, don't you know? It's part of the reason we wanted your help so specifically."

I thought it was a ridiculous question. If I'd known, why would I have asked? I shook my head.

"There is a bill before the state legislature to legalize cross-species marriage here in Louisiana. The Weres have been lobbying for it especially hard, but of course it does effect Vampires as well."

And so now it was all becoming really clear. This terrorist group, because that's what they were, was stepping up their executions because this kind of marriage might become legal and I was sitting there wearing a three-karat target. I really didn't want to hyperventilate, but it was hard. I didn't want to cry. I didn't want to seem like this bothered me, but I'm sure there was nothing that could disguise the way my heart was about to pound out of my chest. "Eric," I said and even I knew that my voice didn't sound right. "Am I bait?"

His looked at me in a way that I hadn't seen in a long time. Like not since I'd been dating Quinn. Like maybe he was about to leap across the table growl at anything else supernatural in the room and just run off with me. But the look was gone in a moment and he was super-controlled again as he said, "No lover, I am the bait."

Right because it was Supes they were targeting not their human companions, at least not yet. Oddly, this did not slow down my breathing at all in fact I think it might have sped up a little bit. I really don't know what the hell came over me because I am not a fainter, but I could hear how fast I was breathing. Eric was sitting across from me and I heard him say, "Pam, she's going to faint." I opened my mouth to say that was the dumbest thing I'd ever heard and then when the noise in the club seemed to drift away and I thought that I couldn't believe how pathetic I was and then it was lights out.

I heard Bill yelling at Eric as I came to. "You should have better prepared her. It was ungentlemanly in the worst way."

Geez, Bill even half-conscious I knew enough to know that Eric would not be interested in whether or not it had been 'gentlemanly,' although I could tell he felt a little guilty because I could feel it.

"I believe the entire plan was your idea, was it not, Compton? Were you not the one to point out to de Castro that there are few better-known human-vampire couples than Sookie and I? And with Sookie's friend of the pack status, we'd really be ideal to handle things while serving as a lure for the guilty party. "

I hadn't opened my eyes yet, but knew that Bill was guilty as charged because of his silence. Eric continued and his voice was glacial. "Not that I can blame you, it would be difficult to win her back from two thousand miles away."

"I assumed," Bill said frostily. "That you had enlisted her cooperation in some way. Her behavior tonight…yelling at those women about yur engagement… I just assumed you'd told her and she was prepared to play along." Bill made engagement sound like something really filthy.

Eric's laughter rang out in the office. "That was just Sookie, Bill. Honestly, I do not think you know her as well as you think you do. It did work out nicely though."

"The ring seems a bit cruel though as a prop," although Bill sounded smoothly disinterested even I could tell he was fishing.

Eric's voice was equally casual or what I had come to think of as pretend casual since I had started hanging with vampires. "It's not a prop. Well, perhaps the size is. I doubt it's what Sookie would pick. But regardless Bill, if the law is passed, I'll marry Sookie. If she wants a different ring, she can have whatever she wants."

I was trying very hard to lie still. As pissed off as I was with Eric for not telling me about the whole bait thing I found the way he said 'anything she wants' like literally any ring I might have wanted would be no trouble at all, if I'd wanted to demand that he make the stars into a ring he would have done it, to be one of the most oddly endearing things I'd ever heard him say.

"But will she have you?" Bill sneered.

Eric sounded weary when he replied. "She's wearing the ring Compton, I didn't glue it to her hand."

I took the opportunity to sneak a peak at Eric through my lashes. He was looking right at me so he knew I was awake. He was resting his chin on the hilt of a broadsword. He didn't have it when he came in so I guess it had been somewhere in the office. Maybe Pam kept it in the closet? It didn't really go with the suit, but it still managed to look really hot.

"Do you need water lover?" he said softly. I didn't respond and tried to sit up.

"Ah," he purred. "I am in trouble."

Now I sat straight up. "Oh yeah mister, you are in some deep you know what."

He laughed and I felt my anger unknot a little, I loved that laugh. He stood up and tossed the sword on the desk, which could have been kind of a stupid move because I thought for a second Bill was going to grab it and chop his head off.

"What if I take you home and allow you to punish me?" he leered holding a hand out to help me rise.

"Seriously? You think you're getting inside of me any time soon?" I snapped back and then froze in absolute mortification as I realized Bill was still standing there. It's one thing to say that kind of thing to him when it was just us, but in front of people. And yelling at those women tonight, what was the matter with me.

Well, in for a penny in for a pound. "And what do you think the right punishment is for dangling yourself in front of a bunch of crazies yelling, 'look at me I'm screwing a human."

Eric had been leaning against the edge of his desk while I kind of stood in the middle of the room making wild emphatic gestures the way I sometimes do when I am really upset. He gathered me in his arms and shushed me like a small child. "I have no plans to die, my Sookie. I just wish to make you safe."

Bill had left. I don't know when. I didn't care. I felt like standing over Eric and growling at every other living thing that came near us in case they were a threat. I also wanted to smack him senseless for taking such a risk with his life and being so damn overconfident that it was going to work out.

"You better not," I snapped. "Or I'm going to beat the tar out of you."

He kissed the top of my head and sighed, "I would expect nothing less."

"Honestly, Eric, how the hell could you do this? How could you not tell me? This was a big decision to make without even a 'what do you think.'"

He looked at me steadily and replied, "You know every vampire I know thinks I have gone mad. Perhaps I have. They wonder how I have allowed you to gain so much control. They believe it will kill us both. Maybe they are right. But I do not think so. You have given me a wonderful gift to feel again. I do not intend to betray your trust Sookie. All I want is to keep us alive. It appears it is going to be more difficult than I anticipated. Of course, right now it seems that I am in the most danger."

"And you don't think that's a pretty bad situation for me?" I hated the way my voice sounded; clearly I was trying to keep a sob from escaping. Especially considering that whole "gift of feeling again" statement. Wow, you know dating the undead has its limitations, but not many girls get to hear something like that and know that its true and here I was trying not to cry out of terror. "At best, they'll ship me off with de Castro to be his personal telepath."

"And I don't want to think about worst," I hissed after a pause.

"He does not wish to destroy you. He wishes to destroy me. At least at the moment, he sees it as the easiest way to get what he wants."

"Maybe we should just leave again," I whispered.

Eric shrugged. "Sookie, we could not run forever. This moment was always coming. As I once hoped that you were too unique to destroy, unfortunately, you are also too unique to let slip away." His arms went around me and he held me close. "We're in it now lover. And as I said, I do not plan to die."

I sighed, "Look, I know it's been awhile since we've been in this sort of situation. I believe you can get us out of it. But I should let me help you. I can help you. I'm an asset."

His lips brushed the top of my head, "I should have told you. I did not wish to frighten you. It was not…it was a mistake."

Well, hell, that was something I never thought I'd hear. And it certainly did a lot to repair the damage he'd done. "Did you just say that out loud?" I laughed.

I felt him smile against my hair. "We are alone here. And no one would ever believe it."

"Pam would believe it," I teased.

He chuckled a little, "Yes, Pam would believe it. Pam thinks I have lost my mind. She knows that I was aware of the plan, but thinks we should have kept running." He looked at me as if asking for forgiveness. "I have never run Sookie. I have retreated, but only to retake ground. It is who I am…"

"I know that." And I did. I knew it. That was how I loved him for what he was – although possibly it was going to get us both killed. I guess turnabout is fair play though, me being what I was had almost gotten him killed a couple of times too. But one thing was still kind of bugging me so I asked, "The ring isn't a prop is it? I mean we really are…" I couldn't even bring myself to say it the idea that we weren't really engaged.

"I've answered this question, dear one. Why are you so insecure now that we're back?" Huh, good question. But he wasn't real interested in answering it, but moving on to another topic entirely. " I have a punishment that I believe you will enjoy."

I raised an eyebrow at him. He was really determined to make up with me in a naughty way. But he surprised me, "The shifter wished to have welcome home drinks tonight. I will bring you. And you can show off that atrocious ring."