Eric Northman scared the shit out of Area Five's sheriff and it took her all her courage to keep her knees from knocking.
"He's just a bully, Jess," Hoyt said in a low voice as Northman slammed the door of the car shut with such violence that the bodywork seemed to vibrate. "Stand up to him, hon."
That was easy to say. Jason Stackhouse was being tended to by his sister, who was dabbing his neck with a cloth soaked in antiseptic spray. He was yelping like an injured animal, something that Sookie was patently ignoring. Her husband was sitting on the steps of the porch, pressing a pack of frozen peas in a towel to his head. The two vampires, Tyler and Gomez, were both dead – eviscerated by the grey-haired one who moved so silently and so stealthily that the other vampires could barely detect him. Jessica and Hoyt had briefly come face to face with the dark-haired one, who'd stood before them, fangs extended for an interminable moment, till some sound on the porch had made him stop. He'd swung the metal disc he'd held at Hoyt, knocking him backwards in a spray of blood. While Jessica had fallen to her knees to check her husband, the other vampire had started to stride up the lawn, his head bowed intently as he stalked his prey on Sookie's porch.

Northman stood in front of them silently, Pam behind him. He seemed to draw in a breath, something Jessica knew he did out of habit – a trick to gain him a second or two before he unleashed his wrath.
Three – two – one -
"What happened?" he said in a low voice, so low the humans had to strain their ears to hear.
"It was a planned attack," Jessica said. "We thought it was, like, a crazed vampire with Hep V but it wasn't. We were attacked."
"Ambushed," Hoyt added but Eric whipped around to stare at him. Hoyt raised his chin defiantly but Eric did not flinch. After an instant her husband looked away, sullen.
"There were three of them," Jessica said carefully. "At least three. Two of them kept us busy and the third went up to the house to get Maggie."
"Did she not go in the house?" he demanded.
"Of course she went in the house," Sookie said, looking up. Her face was tear-stained and flushed. "Of course she did, Eric. But he came on to the porch and yanked her out."
"Yanked. Her. Out?" the vampire repeated, enunciating every word.
"Yanked. Her. Out," Sookie said, standing up. Her tone was mocking. "I'm pretty sure you're familiar with the concept of yanking, King Northman. Y'all yank humans about quite a bit, as I recall."
Eric looked her up and down, taking in her pregnant belly. The two of them stared at each other until Sookie's husband reached out a hand and grasped hers. Then she looked down at him, her face wreathed in a tender smile. Pam snorted.

Eric turned back to his Sheriff.
"Who was he?" he said. "And where did he take her?"
"I ... I ... I don't know," Jessica stammered.
"Sheriff!" he shouted and Pam shushed him.
"Stop that," Sookie scolded. "You're in my yard, on my lawn. You watch your mouth, Eric Northman. None of us know who he was. And obviously if we knew where he'd taken Maggie, we'd already be behind him."
"He had a British accent," Jessica said, eager to be helpful. "Tall, thin, dark hair, dark eyes, and a British accent."
"English? Scottish? Welsh?" Eric asked. "Define British."
"He, eh, it sounded, um, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what a Welshperson sounds like," she replied, suddenly feeling a sense of despair. Eric always made her feel stupid.
He rolled his eyes in exaggerated exasperation, only exacerbating her despondency. She'd never been able to figure out why he'd appointed her Sheriff but had come to the conclusion that it was due to some sense of residual loyalty towards Bill Compton, rather than having its base in her own merits. She'd never felt entirely sure that she'd deserved the post and the ill-will of the vampires in her sheriffdom had made it all too clear that they didn't think she deserved it either. And now – now she'd majorly fucked up and he was standing in front of her on the bloody lawn, looking at the raggle-taggle little group that had survived the swift and deadly attack.

He conferred quickly with Pam in Swedish, and then said, "We guess they've already left the state. Sheriff, we will go back to your residence immediately. I want you to call the King of Arkansas and have someone apprehend them if they've crossed into his territory. In the meantime, your human can call the airport in Shreveport and make sure no private planes have left in the past hour."
"The name is Hoyt," said the human in question but Eric barely acknowledged him.
"What are you going to do, Eric?" Sookie asked sharply. "You got some super-smart plan to get her back?"
He glared at her. "You know, Ms Stackhouse," he said, approaching her, "in the good old days, I would've flown down that shitty little road till I picked up their trail and found them, then I would've ripped the unbeating hearts out of every single one of those fuckers. I would've crushed those organs to pulp in my bare hands. But nowadays we do things by the Charter."
He spat the word out in disgust.
"So I'm going to phone the Central Vampire Council of these here United States of America and lodge an official complaint that my consort has been abducted, like a good little king."

He turned to Jessica and smiled at her, his fangs extended.
"That's what I said, isn't it, Sheriff?"
"Yes, sir," she answered.
"So if anyone asks," he said to the assembled humans, "that's the course of action I recommended. Is that correct?"
Luke and Jason looked at each other and shrugged.
"I guess," said Hoyt.
"Good," he said. "Glad that's clear."
And he took off into the darkness of the garden at speed.
"What's he doing?" Luke said, placing the bag of peas on the porch beside him.
Pam laughed lightly. "Why, he's going to fly down that shitty little road till he picks up their trail and finds them, then he's going to rip out their unbeating hearts and crush those organs to pulp. Keep up, honey, keep up."