Thank you so much for the wonderful reviews! They made my day:) enjoy the new chapter! and oh, i should probably say, I used a bit of swedish in this one, the translation is in the thicker style.

Chapter 8

"Have you found out anything about the attacker?" Sookie moved on quickly, she didn´t want to risk another tell off from the vampire about the reason for Eric´s lost sleep. At the question, Pam´s jaws clenched and a bit of her calm was replaced deep concern.

"I have," she said and gave Sookie a grave look "We´re dealing with something very dangerous."

The second bucket of cold water thrown by Pam hit Sookie with full force. No no no, not very dangerous. A little problem, something that could be solved in just a second the moment Eric was healed and back on his feet. He was a thousand year old vampire for crying out loud! People wasn´t suppose to be dangerous to him, he was suppose to be dangerous to them.

"Don´t you want to hear what I´ve found out," Pam´s question snapped Sookie out of her thoughts.

"Of course, we can talk in the living room," Sookie nodded in direction and Pam strode in front of her into the room and sat down on the couch. "I´m afraid I don´t have any True Blood," Sookie didn´t think Pam actually drank the stuff, but she was raised to always be a good hostess.

"That´s okay Sookie, I´ve fed" Pam said plainly. "Though I´ve brought a couple of bottles for Eric, even though I know he hates it. And I´ve also brought him new clothes, since you obviously ruined the ones he had on." She smirked and nodded towards the crumpled heap of fabric that had been Eric´s shirt. Apparently Sookie had missed that during her frantic cleaning. She scolded herself and made a mental note to get the jeans washed. And well, throw the ruined shirt away. This was not the time for that however.

"Well then," She sat down on the edge of the armchair, looking questioning on the vampire. "What did you find out?" Pam didn´t answer, instead, her eyes narrowed and her head snapped up, as if she listened for something, feeling for something.

"Eric is awake," she stated and the next second, she was gone.

"Gotta love that vampire-speed," Sookie mumbled and rose to go after Pam. She jogged up the stairs and into her bedroom. Pam was crouching down by the wardrobe, trying to convince a struggling Eric to allow her to help him sit up.

"Pam, I´m fine, stop fussing" Eric was obviously tired of being the patient and tried to push her hands off. He made an attempt to sit up but didn´t manage more than a few inches on his elbows before slumping back down.

"For fucks sake, that´s enough," Pam snorted and grabbed him firmly by the shoulders and pulled him up to sitting position, leaning against the wall.

"Believe me Pam, when I get out of this fucking closet, you are dead." Eric muttered and glared at her.

"Well I already am dead, so that wouldn´t be much of a loss," Pam smirked. Sookie felt quite a relieve over their nagging, it was a clear sign of that things were starting to go back to normal. She took a good look at Eric´s bandaged torso, for pure medical reasons of course, and wondered if the wounds had healed. Since he was able to sit up, even though it was with help from the wardrobe´s wall, she hoped that they were at least a bit better.

"How are the injuries?" she decided to ask instead of just staring at him, or… she could ask and stare at him…

"Better," Eric answered and grinned as he noted her looks at his chest. "But I doubt you can see that through the bandages." Sookie felt how she blushed a little and her eyes immediately snapped to his face. The mischievous look in his eyes was back, for which she was grateful, but behind that, there was something else. It was almost undetectable in the ice blue orbs but there was a streak of something more. Maybe it was sadness, maybe it was pain from the wounds. She tried to figure it out which, but suddenly it was gone. She could just have imagined it, maybe she was overanalyzing things to confirm that he actually had missed her.

"The one in my chest has not healed yet, but the other ones are almost completely healed," Eric turned to Pam and she nodded, seemingly happy with the improvement.

"That´s good," she said and rose from the floor to sit on the edge of the wardrobe, "I got some news to, I think I may know what the man who attacked you are." Both Eric and Sookie focused on Pam as she spoke. "I think he´s a vampire slayer."

"Pam don´t be ridiculous, the few `slayers´ that actually existed all those years ago are long gone" Eric gave her a crooked smile and raised an eyebrow

"A slayer," Sookie felt utterly confused. "You mean like Buffy?"

"Oh shut up, the pair of you," Pam snorted "Yes it´s true that the pathetic ones that called themselves slayers in the middle ages were killed, but that doesn´t mean there are no new ones. And no Sookie," she gave the waitress a killing look, "not like fucking Buffy"

"Don´t you think this is a little farfetched?" Eric asked, locking very skeptical.

"Eric please listen," Pam sighed "Just think about it. He was unnaturally strong, not a were, not a vampire. You got a better explanation?" Eric was quiet for a moment, deep in thoughts.

"I haven´t met a slayer in over seven hundred years," he shook his head slowly "But I guess that you have a point." Silence again. "Pam, I have to barrow your phone," Eric then said and reached out a hand. Pam handed him her cellphone and looked questioning at her maker.

"I´m going to call Leonard" Eric said as he dialed a number "he´s the sheriff of area three, almost as old as I am. A few years ago, he dealt with a series of brutal murders and kidnappings of highly ranked vampires in his area. They were never solved, and after eliminating the possibility of werewolves or other vampires, the leads ran out. However, it fits in quite well with our situation." He put the phone to his ear and motioned for Pam to leave the room. She rose immediately and whisked her hand for Sookie to follow her out. Sookie let out a deep sigh, she was getting very tired of being pushed around in her own house, she but realized complaining would be incredibly stupid. She closed the door behind them and turned to Pam.

"How did you find out so much in that short time?" She had to ask. Sunrise had only been an hour away when Pam had left last morning.

"I stayed up a few hours to investigate a little," Pam said simply "The person who attacked Eric couldn´t have been were, or shifter. They would´ve been in their animal form, since that´s when they are the strongest. It couldn´t have been a vampire, since he had a beating heart and didn´t show fangs. That´s when the slayer idea popped into my head, and sure I knew Eric would think it was ridiculous, but that´s the only explanation for the unnatural strength."

"So you mean slayers are some kind of supernatural creatures?" Sookie furrowed her brow and wondered silently how many weirdos there actually were out there. Vampires, shifters, werewolves, maenads, fairies… she wouldn't even be surprised if she suddenly ran into a unicorn.

"Not really," Pam said, "but in the old days, when there actually were slayers, they developed an unnatural strength by drinking enormous amounts of vampire blood."

"But what about V-addicts?" Sookie wondered "They don't develop that kind of strength. At least not for long."

"I´m not talking drops, I´m talking gallons. Many gallons." Pam sounded grave and Sookie could understand why. The whole V-buissniess was definitely something all vampires despised, and if they got killed in the process, well that didn´t exactly make things better.

"So you mean…" Sookie wasn´t sure if she wanted the continuation.

"They often tried to drain the vampires before killing them. It´s a hard job at first, but once you´ve had a lot of the blood, it got easier to overpower them."

"How come they all died?"

"Oh what do you think?" Pam rolled her eyes "As soon as the slayers got a little too cocky and started going on killing-sprees, the vampires retaliated and killed them all."

"Okay, I get it," Sookie said and after that, they were both silent. Sookie felt very overwhelmed and anxious over what she´d heard. This didn´t bode well for Eric…

"Pam, get in here," Eric´s voice broke the silence and the two women walked back into the bedroom. Eric was sitting in the same position they´d left him in, seemingly in deep thoughts.

"Seems like you might be right Pam," Eric said but didn´t release his stare at the wall. "Apparently Leonard eventually found one of the kidnapped vampires, and from the pretty unclear description he got, it actually sounds like we might be dealing with our first slayer since the fourteenth century."

"So why the fuck didn´t they tell us about that years ago?" Pam sounded furious "It would´ve been fucking useful to know! It´s a fucking disaster!"

"I think that´s the point," Eric gave her a calm look "How do you think people would react if they found out there actually were someone to hire just to kill vampires? It was simply easier to just pretend like everything was normal, and hope that the slayer would get himself killed. No such luck apparently."

"How come not more vampires have been targeted?"Sookie decided to join the conversation.

"Hire a slayer does not come cheep," Eric turned to look at her "and it´s not exactly a business you want to get involved in."

"How do you mean?"

"Slayers are bounty-hunters. Ruthless, sadistic men who´s loyalty lie where the money is," A tone off disgust could be traced in Eric´s calm voice "You don´t pay them, well that´s just your fucking problem, you won´t be alive for much longer that´s for sure."

"So," Sookie made an inquiring gesture "what kind of people do actually hire these slayers?"

"Well that´s the fun part," Eric chuckled grimly "Mostly other vampires. They are pretty much the only ones who have both motives and are rich enough to pay. This doesn´t boil down to some kind of vampire-hate, it´s all about money. Vampires have a way to get into conflicts with each other," Oh boy do they, Sookie thought to herself, "and a great way around all political consequences you can get into for killing a king or a queen for example, is to just hire someone to do it for you. Slayers are probably great for that. Since they work alone and most people doesn´t even know they exist, they are quite hard to catch," Eric finished off and sighed.

"Oh that´s just fucking great!" Pam exclaimed and folded her arms together in an angry movement "What is with you that gives others the extreme urge to kill you all the time?" Sookie knew for sure that Pam´s anger was pure worry for her maker, but Eric ignored her comment.

"I will go and talk to the queen, the one of her minions that answered the fake phone call might have a telephone number, that would give me somewhere to start," Eric made an attempt to reach out for the bag Pam had placed on the floor next to the wardrobe. Pam snatched it away and gave him an outraged look.

"You got to be kidding me!" she was almost shouting now and Sookie jumped slightly at the outfall. Pam´s emotions were surely off balance. "You are not going anywhere! You haven´t even healed."

"Pam!" Eric raised his voice for the first time that evening "I am your maker and you are in no position to question my decisions."

"But,"

"Enough Pam," he gave her a warning look. "I need to deal with this."

"Snälla Eric," Please Eric, Pam suddenly kneeled beside the wardrobe and looked pleadingly at her maker "Du får inte gå. Du kan inte försvara dig om du blir attackerad igen. Du dog nästan förra gången och jag kan inte förlora dig." You can´t go. You won´t be able to protect yourself if you get attacked again. You almost died last time and I cant´t loose you A tear made its way down her cheek and Eric´s anger seemed to ease. He put a hand on her cheek and wiped the tear away. Sookie felt like she was intruding this very emotional moment between maker and child, but she wasn´t sure what to do. Maybe she should leave… but she felt like that would be weird to, so she stayed, trying to be as unnoticeable as possible.

"Ta det lugnt Pam," calm down Pam Eric had lowered his voice to sooth her "Du har rätt, jag borde nog stanna tills jag har läkt helt." You´re right, I should probably stay until I´m completely healed. Pam put her arms around him to give him a careful hug. Sookie was surprised at the affectionate gesture, but smiled to herself.

"Jag måste bara se till att Sookie inte blir helt hysterisk," I´ll just have to make sure Sookie doesn´t get completely hysterical. That was the first thing Sookie understood. Her name. She couldn´t help but wonder what Eric was saying about her. "Jag har inte särskilt mycket emot att stanna här, men jag vet inte om om hon är så särskilt glad över att ha mig i sitt hus." I don't really mind staying here, but I´m not sure she´s all that happy with having me in her house. The conversation had definitely taken a lighter turn, because Pam laughed slightly and got to her feet again.

"Ja det är hennes problem i så fall. Så jävla mycket kan det väl inte störa henne att ha dig liggandes i hennes garderob." Well that´s her problem then. It can´t bother her that fucking much to have you lying in her wardrobe. Sookie wished they would stop speaking Swedish, it was very uncomfortable not understanding what was going on. She was on the verge of saying something about it when suddenly Eric went back to English.

"I hope it´s not too much trouble Sookie, but Pam has made me realize that it would be very unwise for me to leave in this condition. Would you mind me staying here until I´ve healed?" Eric looked stoic. It was impossible for Sookie to see if it was a decision he was happy about or if it was forced. But he was Pam´s maker. She couldn´t force him to stay right? Sookie found herself hoping that he stayed because he wanted to.

"No, it´s fine. You can stay," she nodded "But no funny business," she couldn´t help adding. Okay, she had been awful to him. Okay, he might have been missing her, and deeply inside, she´d probably missed him as well. Okay, he was injured and couldn´t actually move much without help. BUT he was still Eric.

"I promise to be at my best behavior," Eric smirked but Pam gave her a meaning "remember what I told you- look". Sookie ignored it, this was her house, therefore her rules.

"I´ll go to the queen," Pam decided and looked to Eric for approval. He gave her a nod. "As queen it´s her fucking duty to help out on stuff like this." She snorted and made her way to the door.

"Don´t count on it," Eric raised his eyebrows in a very skeptical frown. "She would probably be more concerned if you hid her dices and yahtzee-pad."

"We´ll just have a talk then," Pam threw her hair back and smiled, "Woman to woman." And she was gone. Eric and Sookie were alone again.

So, we´re getting in quite deep in the mystery. Who wants Eric dead this time? You´ll just have to wait and see (laughs slightly evil). It might seem strange that I used so much Swedish, but that´s just because I didn´t want Sookie to hear. Though I´ve translated it for you of course;)To something else. As I´m sure you noted, I didn´t make Sookie and Eric hook up just BANG, because as nice as that would be, that just wouldn´t fit in with Sookie being super stubborn and Eric being super closed off. Let´s see if they eventually can overlook their problems, shall we? The next chapter will probably be Eric POV, or the one after that. Point being, an Eric POV is coming up. That and some alone time between our favorite blonds. End of super long author note. oh and with Buffy, I meant Buffy the vampire slayer. you know, the TV-series. And you´ll get to know more about the slayer later. so, now I´m done

Hope you enjoyed, and please review