I went to bed with eager anticipation that night hoping that when I finally fell asleep Eric would be there waiting for me. Sadly, I was disappointed. In fact, the next several days were pretty much torture – although having endured torture I knew that it wasn't that bad, even as I thought it. He wasn't there at night and I was bored out of my mind during the day. I played with Tanya and Cal's kids, helped with meals and surfed the Internet looking for information on Valkyries. There was a lot of information, but it wasn't terribly useful. I didn't dare email anyone for fear of it being tracked by the unspecified person that was after me. Pam didn't come by with any information and I hoped that she was all right, but didn't want to use the number she'd given me unless there was a real problem.

On my fourth morning I couldn't take the boredom anymore and told Tanya I was going to check out my house and see, if since I was here I could meet with some contractors to start getting the damage repaired. I hadn't had time to take care of that since the bomb had gone off. She frowned at me and argued for a minute or two before agreeing to lend me her car. We both knew that the arguing was just a front, she was as sick of having me underfoot as I was of being there.

As I drove up, it was hard to look at Gran's house all broken and blackened. I would go through and see what was salvageable and what I thought might need to be fixed. Then I could make a list of contractors that could do the job. At any rate, it would give me something to do.

There was crime scene tape around the property, but it was falling down in a lot of places. The investigation had been and gone. They hadn't found anything that had led them to anyone, big shock. Seriously, how did Bud Dearborn keep his job? Although maybe I was being unfair, when you become Sheriff in a town like Bon Temps, you mostly think you are going to be dealing with drunks, domestic disputes, maybe some robberies, you probably don't think murders and bombings. And as it turned out for Bud that was really not the case, it was no wonder he didn't like me much. He'd all but groaned when Sam had called him and told him about my house.

I looked at the house, gathering my courage to walk inside. Well, I suppose now was as good a time as any and walked around the back of the house to go through the back door. The foyer and the living room were the worst hit. The kitchen appeared to be mostly intact as was my bedroom and the downstairs bath. The guest room, which had once been my room, wasn't looking too hot though.

The house needed some work anyway. Three years without a regular resident had taken its toll and everything needed to be painted or wallpapered. Some of the furniture could stand to be replaced, although the appliances, still pretty new thanks to Charles Twinning burning down my kitchen, seemed to be holding up. And as I stood there, I desperately wanted to fix the house. I wanted to make it like my Grandmother had always talked about making it. And even though I didn't know if we'd ever live in it, I wanted to have it. Not that Bon Temps was exactly where people "countried," but whatever I was a telepathic barmaid that wanted to marry a vampire, it wasn't like I followed a lot of trends.

Okay, I needed a list. I went back out to Tanya's car to get my bag – cleverly I'd put in a pad and paper. After searching around for a few minutes, I stood pad and pencil in hand and happened to glance toward Bill's place. Quinn was striding toward the cemetery toward me. This was not good. Finding myself alone with the tiger that my fiancée thought was crazy definitely did not fall anywhere under the category of "Be Careful. Be Safe."

I had a feeling some sort of violence was about to befall me and I contemplated my options. I could run – and that was without a doubt my first impulse – but Quinn would catch me in no time. I could walk up to him and face what was coming head on. That seemed like the best option, although I didn't plan to go unprepared. I leaned across the driver side and reached into the glove compartment. After Pam had left, I'd found a box in my room with a big red bow. Inside, a handgun complete with a box of silver bullets. I loaded the gun and dropped the box of bullets in my handbag. I really didn't want to shoot Quinn if I didn't have to – not that I wouldn't if it came to that. I put the gun in the outside pocket of my bag and tried to hide it behind my arm, but somewhere that I could still get at it quickly. With my other hand I waved and plastered on a big old Sookie Stackhouse smile. "Hey Quinn, what brings you out here?"

He advanced on me not even bothering with the pretense that this was a friendly call. He was still in human form, but he looked like a tiger just the same. Well, if we weren't pretending, what the hell, I brought the gun out of my handbag and leveled it at him holding it firmly with both hands as Jason had taught me.

"Stop right there Quinn."

He stopped for a second looking startled as if he was trying to reconcile that the woman aiming a gun at him was once the woman that had gone to a play with him. Well, I was trying to reconcile that in my head too. And then he laughed, and not a friendly, 'you've got it all wrong' kind of laugh, more of a 'give me a break' kind of laugh, which really pissed me off.

"You're not going to shoot me Sookie," he sneered. Obviously, he didn't know me very well because I was absolutely going to shoot him if I thought he meant me harm.

"I may or I may not depending on your intentions here. Right now, your intentions don't see very good."

He looked at me coldly, "I think my intentions are excellent. You are under the thrall of a vampire and you're acting crazy. I'm going to help you come to your senses."

"Thrall? Are you frickin' serious?" I snorted. I tightened my grip on the gun.

"Yes, thrall. How can you not see what he is? It's always been like that. I knew it in Rhodes, every time I turned around, there he was, and even though you were saying you weren't interested, you never walked away. That's thrall – you're telling me you don't want him and yet…"

"Quinn that was like four years ago, more." Quinn was a threat, no doubt about it. And I wondered briefly what it was with ex-boyfriends and me. Why did they hang on like they did? Was it a supe thing? Give up! There are some things a relationships just don't bounce back from and being a member of some sort of posse sent to kill me, is definitely one of them. And yet, here Quinn and I stood. I was pointing a gun at him, pretty certain that he'd been involved in kidnapping my fiancée and he truly believed that any second I was going to realize that Eric was the bad guy. I tell you soap operas have nothing on me. It was so ridiculous I decided to change the subject.

"Do you know where Eric is?" I asked. Probably it sounded more like I was pleading. I hadn't meant to sound quite so whiney and desperate – it's embarrassing to be whiney when you are holding someone at gunpoint – but it just came out that way.

Quinn snarled at me and I took a step back and bumped into Tanya's car. "Eric, Eric, Eric," he mimicked. Well, that was just uncalled for.

But as pissed off as I was the feeling began to gnaw at me that shooting Quinn, a man that I had once thought I could love, was very different than shooting Debbie Pelt after she had shot at me. Maybe I could reason with him. I loosened my grip on the gun a little and relaxed my elbows.

He sensed my doubt and was on me before I could even get a word out. He was pushing me to the ground and I let out a few good screams before he shoved something in my mouth. I was on my stomach and he was binding my arms behind my back, which made me kick and fight like hell – fairy flashbacks. Once he had my wrists and ankles tied, he flipped me over. At this point, I was just thanking the heavens that he didn't seem to have rape in mind. But then when I looked at those large purple eyes, I felt less scared and angrier than I ever thought was possible. I had trusted this man, cared for him. And now, he betrayed me, twice.

He ran his hand softly down the side of my face. And smiled at me, "It's okay Sookie. I won't hurt you. Everything will be fine soon, you'll see."

He had tied me up and was kidnapping me. He'd brought back memories of the worst moments of my life. He had betrayed me. He'd already hurt me more than he could even comprehend, although I was hardly fool enough to believe that it couldn't get worse.

Maybe it was childish, but I wanted to hurt him back. I was feeling pretty woozy from whatever was on the cloth – some sort of drug I suppose - and I guess he was worried that I had a little too much because he removed the cloth from my mouth. I looked him in the eye and said, "Eric says the first thing you should do is render your victim speechless. I bet someone heard me screaming."

Of course, I doubted anyone had heard me. I live in the middle of nowhere and my nearest neighbor was dead for the day. If he was even there. He might be with Pam or she may have told him to get gone. I didn't know. I had just been trying to piss Quinn off. You would think pointing out that someone had less than proficient kidnapping skills wouldn't be an insult, but it was, the look on his face made that pretty clear. As I had known it would be. I had a brief moment of triumph before he punched me in the face. Effectively silencing me as the drugs had not. If I had had a moment before he knocked me cold I would have thought that it probably hadn't been worth it. Bastard.

I woke up with the taste of blood in my mouth and a splitting headache. My throat felt so dry I could hardly speak and I had no idea where I was. Normally, I would have gotten up and started my Nancy Drew routine trying to figure out what was going on, but Quinn packs quite a punch and I couldn't manage it yet.

I wouldn't have accomplished anything anyway because I'd pried my eyes open for all of thirty seconds when I heard, "Good evening Miss Stackhouse."

I looked around what appeared to be a very nicely furnished office, almost more like a library. I was sort of expecting to see Sherlock Holmes the way everything was furnished, but instead was greeted by the ever-smiling, always dapper Victor Madden. Had he saved me from Quinn or was he in on it?

"Or is it Mrs. Northman?

"Stackhouse," I managed to croak out. "Water?"

He handed me a bottle of water and sat in the brown leather armchair beside me. I was lying on a very nice matching couch. I sat up a little to drink the water and pushed my hair out of my face.

"And why is that?"

I looked at him blankly…why had I wanted water?

"Why do you not use Northman?" he clarified.

I sighed. Seriously, we were going to talk about this right now. "Well, I don't see us as married. I know we're vampire married. But I'm not changing my human name unless I'm human married, which I'm not. Since you know…I'm human." I'd just been kidnapped and punched in the face by my ex-boyfriend; I wasn't really at my most eloquent.

He smiled. "I see."

Great, so happy I could enlighten him. "Um, Mr. Madden, could I ask you something?" Sometimes vampires could get a little touchy if you just started hitting them with questions. I didn't want Victor Madden deciding I was rude.

He smiled more and nodded once. I wondered if that meant one question.

"Where am I?"

"You are in a club that I own. Quinn brought you in." Well, I guess that cleared up whether he was a good guy or a bad guy. Black hat for Victor please. Not that I didn't already think he was a bad guy. I had lots of reasons to think so.

"A club?"

"Yes," he said. "You'll be here for a few days. We don't have a lot of rooms for occupants and we're quite full with the upcoming event, but we're happy to have you nonetheless. I think it will make everything more dramatic."

Dramatic? What the hell was he talking about?

"Is Eric here?"

Madden stood and crossed the room to his desk. "Oh yes, I'm amazed you can't hear him. He's been roaring at me for the last hour since Quinn brought you in. I should send someone to tell him you are awake. He'll be relieved. He thought you might be badly injured." Was Eric in on it? I didn't think so. Because if Eric was in it then Pam would be too and it had been clear to me that she was not.

"Can I see him instead?"

Victor was flipping through papers on his desk. "I suppose that would be fine for a few moments. I can't have you two plotting your escape." Okay, clearly Eric was not in on it…whatever it was.

"Mr. Madden, if you don't mind me saying so, I'm kind of confused. Are we your prisoners?"

He smiled again at me looking up from his papers. "Is this the part Miss Stackhouse where I give my villains monologue and tell you what is happening?"

I shrugged and smiled back, "That would be helpful."

He laughed, "You are charming. And you smell wonderful. I understand why Eric chose to marry you in order to keep you. I would have done the same. It was clever."

I smiled harder. I didn't understand what was going on.

"However," Victor's voice hardened. "When he took you, he went too far. He interfered with my plans. And then, he brought you back. I cannot have the two of you here in Louisiana. This way, everyone wins…well, except Eric."

"And what about me? Do I win?" I didn't really see how that was possible. When you're married you share things and I was starting to get the feeling if Victor Madden had his way, we'd be sharing a horrible death.

Victor smiled, "I suppose that depends on your definition. I would prefer to keep you alive, but I do have an equally viable contingency plan in case you are not willing to cooperate. With the nauseating way the two of you have been cooing and cuddling your way around Shreveport, I imagine you will be uncooperative. It's less convenient, but hardly pivotal."

"Are you going to tell me what your plans are?"

He crossed the room and sat down in the armchair. "That doesn't seem very safe to me," he said in a patient voice. "I'm sorry Miss Stackhouse, but you are in fact, 'vampire married,' as you so charmingly call it, to Eric and despite what Quinn believes, I have to assume that your first loyalty is to him."

I narrowed my eyes at Victor Madden, "My only loyalty is to him."

He stopped smiling and said quietly, "I find it amazing how unafraid you are."

Well, that was a laugh, I was terrified. "I'm scared to death, Mr. Madden. That doesn't mean I need to sit here telling lies."

He leaned back in his chair, "What a refreshing attitude. The tiger wants you as his reward, but we'll have to see. I think that could be a terrible waste."

I didn't press him on that one. There was no way in hell I was going to be Quinn's anything – certainly not his reward, but why get into it. What I was getting was that Madden seemed to have some sort of master plan that involved killing Eric and keeping me around to do his bidding. And I was going to have to go ahead and say no thank you to that one as well, but again, probably not the time to bring it up. Quinn and I had to assume Madeline were in on it. And Eric and I were captured. Things weren't really looking so good.

"If you like, I'll take you to see Eric now."

I pushed myself to my feet. "Let's go."

The same sensation as the night I went to Fangtasia was engulfing me as I followed Victor down corridors. The closer I got to Eric, the more I felt it building inside me. If I didn't get to him soon I felt like I would explode and Victor was moving like molasses in January. What was this guy's problem? Wasn't he a vampire? He could tell I was impatient and started laughing, "Ah, love. It really is a shame. So rare to happen like this."

I just cut him a look and didn't respond. We had left his office and gone down a long corridor. There was an opening to my left that looked almost like some sort of event hall. But we kept going. It seemed to me like we were headed underneath the building.

Maybe five more minutes and we came to what were clearly cells. We passed through a couple of occupied ones. I didn't recognize any of the occupants and then several unoccupied ones. After another two minutes, we stood in front of a cell that held an occupant I did recognize, Eric paced the small room like a caged animal. When he saw me, he stopped. "Thank God," he breathed out.

"Hi honey," I waved and he smiled.

A/N: Hi all, hope you enjoyed! A couple of people have suggested an EPOV to me and so I wanted to let you know that I do plan on doing one, but it will not exactly be part of the story. Eventually, Eric is going to explain why he decided to run with Sookie in the first case, but it will be a prologue.

I've really loved all the reviews and they've been really helpful with writing this, so keep them coming