Hi All!

Just a quick note about the SVM/TB Fanfiction Awards: as you know, our fandom is slowly fading as the books came to an end and the TV series isn't far behind. There are fewer authors, fewer viewers and fewer challenges. IN an effort to revive our community and our author's drive to write, a couple of authors came up with these awards providing readers and authors mean to say thank you and good job. So I am asking you, dear readers, to please take the time and fill-out the nomination form, it will only take a few minutes of your time but very well could help out our community and our authors. Please help me recognize great authors that deserves a thank you

Thank you to Lady Doughnut, my lovely beta who makes me a better person xxxxxx

Chapter 25- I Will Decay For You

Dirt was obstructing Eric's vision and hearing which had left him alone with his feelings. When the sun had come up that morning, he didn't have time to get to the shelter so he had taken to the ground and buried himself to die for the day. However, he didn't manage to stay dead as he had felt her fears creeping up and her panic washed over him. He tried to keep her company through the bond but Sookie had seemed too busy to even notice.

He ached to get out of his hole and to go help her the best way he could but instead he was condemned to play the waiting game. As he felt his lover fight through unknown demons, he paced silently under the ground. He could feel her tears rolling down her cheeks, he could experience her despair and when she had been shot, Eric's muscles had contracted as though he was the one who had been shot. He took a deep breath trying to control the deep growl escaping from his throat. He had clenched his fists and was ready for battle. But when he felt Sookie slowly falling asleep, he froze in fear.

Eric was a thousand years old. In most of his years, he had been through hell and back but never had he experienced such fear. It wasn't something he was accustomed to. He was used to be the one installing it, not feeling it. He couldn't move as his instincts were screaming to get up. The sun was already going down but Eric couldn't move a finger risking being burnt alive.

She was fading, she was dying and there was nothing he could do about it. He tried to probe the bond, to let her know he was on his way but she was already gone by the time he dug himself out. He had clawed his way out of his grave and now covered in dirt he was lying on the ground lifeless. The loss of the bond had pierced a gaping hole in his being and although he didn't need to, Eric couldn't find his breath.

She was gone. Where he had felt her presence humming within him now felt like a giant hole. His face was lying on the ground with his left cheek touching the grass which still smelled like the sun. It reminded him of her scent as his stomach turned into millions of knots which kept him from moving. Weak and filthy, no longer caring, Eric was frozen in time. He couldn't escape that hour he had lost her bond. His years of perfecting the art of repressing his feelings were useless to him now. It seemed that all the pain and suffering he had managed to escape all these years were crashing into him all at once. His fingers sank into the grass as he swallowed a ball of anxiety intertwined with sadness. As his reality was slowly sinking in, he couldn't control his tears. He imagined himself by her body, having to say goodbye not knowing how. Not knowing when it would heal, when it would ever be okay. He couldn't bear the thoughts of accepting that a part of him, a new found joy and humanity, had died with her last breath.

He had felt that way once before, but this time it was different. Eric had hoped for a future with Sookie, which he had never done before. He had imagined himself battle countless hordes with his lover by his side. He had looked forward to holding her in his arms every day and now, he was alone. As holy and immortal he had felt with her, he had now fallen. Watching himself die on that grass was the only omen to his pain. He had lost the fight, she was gone. Eric was taken away from his tremors and sorrows by an atrocious pain that hit him harder than a train. It was a mental one, as though his insides were burning up and his brain was melting.

Pam.

He could have sworn he heard her scream in the distance. The pain was clouding his judgement and in effort to analyse the situation, he sat up from the ground and closed his eyes. A part of him demanded to go to his child in heartbeat while the other just wanted to lay there and die over and over again. He felt weak and heavy. Every move, every thought required an amount of energy he no longer had. He was hit by a second wave of pain but this time, it acted like a second wind. As if he had been slapped back into reality, Eric's expression had changed.

His face was no longer expressing pain, his jaw had relaxed. Like a robot with a purpose, he had got up on his feet and smelled the air for clues of what was happening to his child. The over bearing odour of smoke reached his nostril as he ran at vampire speed to the hideout where he knew Pam had taken shelter. The very same he hadn't been able to reach that morning as he had left Sookie too late. The trap was opened and a thick grey tunnel of smoke was coming out of it. He tried to enter it but his efforts were in vain as the hallway was hindered by raging flames. Growling, Eric remembered another trap door on the other side of the lake which was unknown even to Pam and Bill. It had been an old emergency tunnel and although he had no idea if it was even safe to take it, he didn't think about it twice.

He flew over the small lake and landed right beside a bush which was hiding the old trap door. He ripped it from the ground and entered the tunnel running as fast as he could. When he reached the main wall, he knew Pam was on the other side burning. Someone, something, had set the hideout of fire and Pam and Bill were trapped not realizing that the fire place was a secret door to where he was standing. He opened the back of the fireplace with force since the button that was supposed to open it had rusted in place. As soon as he entered the room, he searched for his child. He found her on the ground on the other side of the room beside Bill's body which was still burning slowly. It was obvious he was gone. Pam's head was resting on Bill's arms and when Eric used his jacket to put out the fire that was on her back, he realizes she was no longer screaming. Instead, he saw he feed on Bill. Within minutes, Bill's body turned to ashes while Pam turned on her side.

It had never been recommended for a vampire to feed another. In part because it was a species pride complex but also because it did not contain enough nutriments to sustain another vampire and too much of it made them aloof, as if they were drunk on alcohol.

Pam looked up at him and exposed a goofy smile while her eyes kept rolling back into her skull. She had drunk enough of Bill's blood to save herself but it did not stop the side effects.

''Master! My saviour'' She exclaimed trying to get up on her own.

Under normal circumstances, Eric would have been amused by his child's behaviour but at that moment he couldn't bring his lips to smile at all. They both needed to get out of the hideout before it collapsed on itself. He grabbed his child bridal style and ran back to where he had got in. Within minutes he was out of the tunnel and was placing her on the wet grass near the lake.

He had managed to shut his feelings for Sookie but as they took a moment to compose themselves, he couldn't help but feel the gaping hole she had left. He closed his eyes in an effort to burry back the pain leaving only one tear escaping from his eyes. Pam did not miss it but did not speak either, at least not right away.

''The community?'' she asked but Eric just shrugged his shoulders. Pam was staring at him looking for answers on his stern face. Without words, they both had figured the community was under attack. How else would they explain their hideout of fire?

Deep down, Pam knew something had happened to Sookie just by looking at Eric. Everything was wrong about him. Although his physic look somewhat normal, his stance was amorph, his shoulders had fallen and his eyes were different. He had no fire burning; he looked sad and run out. In silence, they both stared at each other not knowing what to say or what to do.

Pam knew they could help some of the humans survived but she wasn't sure in what state of mind Eric was in and if he would be of any help at all. For the first time in her vampire life she feared for her maker.

Time slowly creeped away and no words were spoken. Pam was itching to take off but she would never without her maker. She had a chance to sober up but was still weaker than her normal self. She would need to feed on real human blood.

''She's gone'' Eric repeated a couple times.

Pam grew worried and in a gesture of love and concerned she slapped Eric across the face.

''Snap out of it!'' she exclaimed but instantly regretted it as her maker grabbed her by the throat.

''I will grieve whenever I choose to grieve'' He snarled but instantly let her fall on the ground fully knowing she wasn't strong enough yet for this kind of confrontation.

Eric did not want to admit it but she had succeeded in what she had intended to do. He had ''snapped out'' of it. He missed Sookie's presence through the bond and the pain of not having her any longer was atrocious but it wasn't a reason to let himself go nor what is a good reason to put his child in any more danger.

Pam was holding her throat angry at the situation.

''I knew it was a bad idea'' she simply stated referring to Sookie. She had warned her master of her effect and that she was a direct threat to his composure. He needed all of his logical side to survive this world, yet every time she was around, Pam had noticed that part was less and less important to her master.

Eric had gotten up on his feet and looked down at his child. His answer to her confrontation was simple and cold.

'' I would have rather spent a few minutes in her presence than an eternity without her.''

He did not need to elaborate further for Pam to understand that Sookie would for now on be a forbidden subject. Her master had regain most of his composure and as they ran to the community to assess the damage, she saw just how changed her master was. When they reached the main street, he did not take pleasure in killing the few runners who had tried to grab him and when they went up the tower and found a couple of wolf bodies, she did not see any excitement in his eyes. Eric was acting like a machine without a purpose and Pam swore to herself she wouldn't let anything happen to her maker. She swore under her breath her maker, whom had been through the ages as a fierce combatant was not going to die of a ''fucking'' broken heart.

The community was quiet; most runners had left the street and had killed most of its members. They exited the tower and slowly walked down the street looking around for survivors.

None.

The blood was plastering the walls of what were once stores and had become homes during the apocalypse. Pam had to watch her step has various body parts were trunking the ground and made it a dangerous path.

''I want to see her body'' Eric had declare as if it would give him closure.

''Very well, Master'' Pam replied as she smelled the air for a clue.

She could pick up on different blood smell, most of which she had had in the past. Most of the donors she had received blood from were now dead, some of them barely left a trace on the ground while others left feet and hands.

Eric had started walking towards an alleyway when she picked up on Sookie's smell. The blood could not have been more than a couple hours old. She reached the dumpster where Sookie had taken cover. She noticed the bullet holes on it and pointed them out to her master.

''The lack of corpses on the ground is very strange considering the bullet holes were most likely coming from the tower to protect Sookie who I think was hiding behind the dumpster'' she stated.

''Unless they were shooting at her'' Eric growled. ''I felt her getting shot twice.'' He bitterly added as he remembered the pain.

''Why the fuck would they do that?''

''For the same reason someone set our hideout on fire and killed Bill''

They looked at each other for a minute and thought about the consequences of such action.

''This, however, does not explain how the corpses made it through the wall, the ward and the snipers in the tower. Where were they when all of this happened'' Eric questioned knowing Pam wouldn't have the answer.

Pam crouched to look through the window and jumped out of surprise when four arms reached out to grab her. The grunts and mumbles indicated that there were corpses trapped in the basement of that building.

''She must have broken this window to get in the basement'' Pam said. ''These fuckers followed her in'' she pointed out.

She reached in the window for the two corpses head and snapped them without much trouble within seconds. She then crawled in the window and set foot in the basement where she picked up more on Sookie's sent.

Eric was right behind her when they opened the big iron door after killing the rest of the corpses whom had still been trying to enter in vain. They both saw Adele's corpse on the ground and Pam gasped when she saw her face had been mutilated in anger or maybe in desperation. She looked at her master who was standing behind her. It is then she too had her nostril flaring up as a delicious smell made way to her. Her eyes widen as she exclaimed: ''Fucking fairies!''

Don't forget to leave a review! Not cliffy this week hahah

Xxx

Z