Pam caught his look as they entered the bar. She could see that Eric had something on his mind and she silently walked behind them.
"Eric, Sookie…good to see you as always." She bowed her head towards them both. Her straw hair was pulled tightly in a perfect chignon. Her lavender cardigan sweater set made her skin appear less white than usual. The pearls around her neck gleamed against the pallor of her throat.
"Hi Pam, you look great as usual." She smiled at her vampire girlfriend.
"Eric, what is the problem. I could sense something is wrong. What do you need me to do." She was always so to the point. There was no beating around the bush with Pam.
"Pam,…Sookie and I are expecting some type of attack. We do not know when, where, or even by who. All we know is that we can feel something that is not right. There is something in the works, it is either a plot against one of us, or both of us. I need you to find out as much information as possible, and in the most discreet manner. I want no one to know of our investigation. Do you understand what I am asking you to do?" His voice was very clear and very stern.
"Of course, I will see that everything is taken care of." She didn't even question the fact that they were working on intuition, and not cold, hard facts. "I will make sure that you are provided with every detail I uncover." She was flat and dangerous with her tone.
"Thank you. Also, one more thing Pam. Please print up a notice that we will be closed next Saturday." He gave Pam a devious grin.
"Excuse me, Eric? Why would we close on a Saturday night, especially when the Universities are just starting to enter the final weeks of school?" She was stumped as to why he would even suggest such a thing.
"Eric, allow me." Sookie kissed him lightly on the cheek and stepped forward a little.
"Pam, the bar needs to close because Eric and I are getting married on Saturday. We just assumed that you would be a part of that. You can't be here and at our wedding, so naturally…close it down." She beamed with the thought of her wedding.
Pam looked a them both. Her eyes darted between her and Eric. She knew Eric was going to ask her to marry him, but the last she knew his proposal was blown out of the water due to Bill's early touch down. All of the flowers that he had bought were now sitting in her house, wilting in their vases. Suddenly she did something completely human. Something that vampire's rarely ever do…she reached out and hugged her to her body. She held on to her with such force that she thought her bones were going to turn to dust.
"Sookie, I am so happy. Thank you, thank you for making him so happy. I want nothing but good things for you." She thought she heard her voice crack a little.
"Pam, could you let go, just a little." She felt her grip loosen. "Thanks, I know it's really short notice, but what the hell. We have nothing to wait for. We want to get married as soon as possible. Can you believe it, Saturday!" She shrieked with joy.
Pam smiled at her and glanced towards Eric. She gave him a very long, deep bow of her head. "Master, my sincerest congratulations." She smiled and disappeared silently from the office.
"Sookie, tonight I want you to sit by me all evening. I do not want you working, going to the bar alone, the bathroom alone, no where alone." He was deadly serious.
"Fine, but I don't want you out of my sight either, you got that? If I can't be left alone neither can you. Not the liquor room, not the office…understood?" She pointed her finger into his chest. He laughed, he loved it when she gave him orders.
"As you wish lover. Let us go and satisfy our many admirers." He made a disgusted sound. They walked into the bar and as usual the entire room had turned their attention to their direction. She had become very good at shielding herself from the minds of the patrons. It took a lot of energy, but she could not stand the mindless chatter that was often at her expense.
It was mostly the same faces, same fang bangers, same vampires. The only change was the tourists. You could pick them out from a mile away. Baseball hats, khaki shorts with awful Hawaiian print shirts, sneakers. Most of them had camera's around their necks and fanny packs around their waists. They all loved to go home with a picture of a vampire and show their friends at bridge night just how dangerous they were living now that the kids had gone off to college. If they only knew what was right in their own backyard. The dog they heard barking at night probably wasn't the next door neighbors. For all they knew it was a local Were, still hiding themselves in the shadows of society.
She sat next to him, his hand covering hers as it rested on his thigh. Their waitress for the night had brought her a cocktail and disappeared without even glancing at her. He chose not to have any True Blood, he hated the synthetic taste, and he knew that he could have the real thing later that night. He mindlessly traced circles on the back of her hand as he scanned the people on the dance floor.
"Does anything seem out of place to you lover?" He whispered in her ear, not that anyone could hear him over the blaring music.
"Nope, seems fine to me." She let her eyes wander around the room. A few minutes past and she turned to him, pulling her knees up close to her. She had become comfortable sitting next to him in her own chair. "Eric, where do you want to get married? That's kind of important, don't you think? We only have a few days to plan this wedding. No offense, but I do not want to get married here." She motioned her eyes to the bar and the dance floor. He laughed at her suggestion.
"Oh…no offense taken. I do not expect you to marry in a bar. When I say bar I also do not expect you to want to get married at the Shifter's." He stumbled on his words. "At Sam's." He smiled brightly at her hoping she would recognize and reward him for remembering to try and use his name. She did notice and gave him a long deep kiss.
"Thank you baby. I know it's tough to have to remember that he really does have a name." She pinched his cheek and he flinched.
"Is there someplace special that you had in mind lover?" He was thinking the same thing himself.
"Well, sort of. It might be kind of awkward though. My folks house, where Jason lives. They have a real nice piece of property. there is a pond behind the house and it has woods surrounding it. It's real peaceful and relaxing. It's beautiful there." She felt funny suggesting she get married at her brother's house, the same brother that she hadn't spoke to in months, the same brother that didn't even know she was getting married.
"I think that sounds beautiful. If that is what you want, I will see that it happens. The weather is warm enough now that you can enjoy having an evening wedding outside. I thing it sounds perfect. Consider it done." He kissed the tip of her nose and she laughed at the feeling.
Just as she settled in to planning more details she thought she caught the very end of a thought. She closed her eyes and waited to see if she could pick anything else up. Her body tensed as she focused all of her energy on this one stray brain.
fucking monster I'll kill them all I don't care if I get the girl or the vamp orders to follow huge payout contract didn't say it had to be both all I have to do is take one of them down
The thoughts were fading, whoever was thinking these things was leaving, or already gone. She jumped up out of her seat and tried to follow the voice in her head. Eric motioned his head towards Pam and they were both flanking her sides. She walked frantically through the crowd of people, purposely bumping into them to try and touch them. It was no use, the person behind the thoughts was no longer there. If her shields hadn't been up so much perhaps she could have caught the thoughts earlier, perhaps she could have heard them sooner and located the brain that they were coming from.
She walked directly into Eric's office and sat on his couch. She dropped her head into her hands and began crying. She felt his hands on her shoulders and start to rub her neck. He didn't say a word, he let her have her cry. Finally she looked up at him.
"I'm sorry, if I could have just heard him sooner. I could have found him and we could have taken care of it. I was too late, he was gone by the time I heard his thoughts. He's still out there, he's planning on taking one of us out. He doesn't care if it's you or me, he just needs to get one of us. Eric, he thought about something involving a contract and a huge payout." She looked at him and was terrified. Eric was not looking himself, he was looking more dangerous than she had ever seen him. More scary than the night he killed the pack of Jackson Were's for attacking her, more dangerous than the night he took Sigebert's head off. This was not going to end well.
