"I don't like this," Eric muttered the next evening.

"If I let you only do what you liked, Eric, I would never be able to get you to do anything," Bill replied out of the corner of his mouth. "Besides," he continued as they both took their seats on stage at the Festival of Tolerance, "this is a public place, in theory there's nowhere safer for Pam to be."

"In theory," Eric muttered darkly. Looking out over the crowd he could see Pam standing with Sookie towards the front, still clutching his shirt.

He shot her a reassuring smile, tinged with a hint of amusement as he considered how much he was going to tease her about that when the curse was broken.

Absently he scanned the room, listening with half an ear as Nan and Bill made their speeches. He knew that Bill was right and that a public arena was the safest place for Pam at the moment. But that didn't change the fact that he wanted nothing more than to find a safe, secluded place and keep her there until everything had blown over.

A movement on the upper level of the building caught his eye and he saw Marnie standing on a balcony.

"She's here," he growled, getting slowly to his feet just as Marnie's minions – several of whom were enthralled vampires – stormed the building and all hell broke loose.

"Eric!"

Pam's terrified scream cut through him like a knife as he tried desperately to reach her through the pandemonium.

He grunted in frustration as he shoved people and vampires alike out of his path, only to find that she wasn't where he had thought.

"Eric!" she called again and he whirled around to see her struggling against the hold of an enthralled vampire.

The sight of her in danger made Eric see red and he launched himself after her with a roar of pure, unadulterated rage. Only to end up skidding to a halt as Pam and the rest of Marnie's followers suddenly disappeared.

Eric let out a deep, almost feral cry of pain and fury.

Hanging his head he caught sight of the shirt that he had given her lying on the ground nearby and, somehow, that hurt him even more.

...

A/N: As you may have noticed, this is going to deviate from events in Season 4 but I hope you still enjoy where it's going :)