Chapter 20: Progenies

Eric returned to Fangtasia, where Pam, Tara and Nora were waiting for him. They all stared at him in disbelief that he was even alive. Or maybe it was because Eric was half-covered in blood. Still, he could cut the tension in the room with a knife. He could tell by their body language he was 5 minutes early to a fight between Pam and Nora. Just in time, he thought. Because he was about to rip his sister a new asshole.

"You have a fucking sister?!" Pam asked, irritated. She had bloodstains all over her face. "A century together and you didn't think to tell me once that you have a fucking sister?"

"You are not entitled to fucking my life, Pamela." He sneered. "If I didn't tell you, it's because you didn't need to know."

"Oh, really?!" Pam yelled. "I've been your fucking ride or die for a century now and you still have the balls to keep shit from me?!"

Eric was starting to lose his temper. She had been a thorn at his side for a while now, and he was getting tired of it. "Does it look like I am in the fucking mood to argue right now? Get on my fucking side, or get the fuck out of my sight!"

His progeny pursed her lips and crossed her arms. He really took no joy at yelling at her, but lately, she had been asking for it.

"Asshole," Tara muttered under her breath.

He could still smell Elijah Blackwood on his clothes and all he wanted was to take them off and burn it. He had been played - again. Like a little pawn in a game, he didn't even know he was playing in. Elijah Blackwood had been the real puppet master behind all of this. Eric was so focused on Nora, Bill, Salome and Russell Edgington he didn't even see Elijah coming. And Raven was dead because of it. And she didn't even know why.

"Lilith is back," Nora said, finally breaking the silence. "And if she is, in any shape or form we have to destroy her, Eric."

"How?" He asked her.

"I don't know," She told him, nervous.

Eric snapped with rage. "All those years in the fucking Authority, and you don't know? All those years on your knees praying to that bitch and you don't know!?" Eric roared at his sister.

"No! I don't know!" Nora yelled back. "I read the book of Lilith a thousand times, I devoted my life to that fucking religion! If there were any mention of a resurrection in that book, don't you think I would know about it?!" She came closer to him, anger spilling over. "One drop of blood and it was all it took for me to turn my back on my family. You made her drink the whole fucking thing!"

Enraged, Eric smashed a barstool to pieces against his knee and grabbed a broken leg with a sharp end. He grabbed Nora by the neck and pushed the wood halfway to her heart.

"This is all your fucking fault," his fangs were almost touching her face. He looked deep in her eyes, studying her fear. "You betrayed me and I forgave you. I spared you-"

"And I will always be grateful for it big brother. You saved me," Nora said between tears. Save your sister, Eric Godric told him. But look at what had cost him. "But now we have to fix this,"

"We?" The stake went in half an inch further, Nora moaned in pain and he could fear her trembling under his grip. "I didn't bring Russell back. I didn't kill Roman. I didn't bomb those factories, made a fake deal with wizards, pissed off the U.S military or caused a fucking vampire uprising! You did that. So you are going to fix it,"

Eric took the stake out from his sister and threw her on the floor. She coughed a bit of blood and stumbled getting up. If she were anyone else, she would have been dead. Nora really made him question why he should trust anyone.

"You are going to find out how to kill Lilith and bring Raven back and until you do, I don't want to see your fucking face again."

"Eric, I-" Nora started.

"GO!" Eric roared so loud the whole place echoed. Nora left Fangtasia crying. But it still wasn't loud enough to drown out her words.

You made her drink the whole fucking thing.

Eric never really came back after Raven died. Sure they went back to running Fangtasia together, and most things went back to normal-ish. But he was… Off. The club opened 7 nights a week, and although it wasn't as busy as it used to be, with the Tru Blood reserves being gone and all, there were always going to be humans seeking a thrill to make their boring-ass lives a little more colourful. Plus there was now the "forbidden" factor, which always made things spicier.

There was no more AVL or Vampire Authority. Vampires answered to no one, as it should be. Even though Pam despised them for every bullshit they've put her maker through, vampire life got increasingly more complicated after the video of Russell Edgington having a feast in a bar leaked. A lot of human businesses didn't open past sunset anymore, and all of those that did make some anti-vampire adjustments, like adding indoor UV lights to keep vampires out. Needless to say, vampires weren't welcome in most places anymore.

Governor Truman Burrell had a real stick up his ass, and every week he passed tighter and tighter restrictions each month to keep "peace" and "safety". He started the Louisiana Vampire Task Force, a militarized police team that arrested or killed any vampire stirring trouble. Any vampire caught biting humans - consensually or not, was hauled into jail by the LAVTF. The IRS and all business regulating bodies cracked down on all vampire owned businesses, trying to catch them red-handed breaking any minuscule rule and shutting them down. Luckily, Eric was a genius at cooking the books. And with no Vampire Authority to answer to, they actually got to keep all their profits.

Most people took sunset as curfew, but anyone who was out at night was usually armed. They were already before, this was still Louisiana, but now they all had wooden bullets and silver spray too. The world's most precious resource was now silver. Everything you could possibly imagine now had a silver version. Silver pens, silver sprays, silver-coated baseball bats, silver handcuffs, silver chains. Hell even the CVS sold silver infused body wash - and not for antibacterial purposes.

Feeding was not much different. There were plenty of patrons who visited who were more than willing to play. And if no one showed up, there were underground "take out" meal services available - and the food was much sexier than anyone who walked through Fantasia's doors.

All of this led to a much less friendly clientele in Shreveport. Fangtasia now had a security team that scanned patrons for weapons and explosives. Painting over graffiti outside was now a weekly chore (for Tara). There was no official King or Queen for Louisiana anymore, Bill lost any pull he had with no Authority to back him. There was no sane creature in the world who would dare fuck with Eric Northman. Especially now. He was now the unofficial King to all land, as far as Pam was concerned. Everything moonlight touched was his. He still did business as usual, but he was less than flexible or generous as of late. And no one was brave or dumb enough to try to negotiate his terms. In the words of Russell Edgington - "Authority? Who gave you Authority?". No one needed to fuckin' give Eric Northman any. He just fuckin had it. And anyone who wanted to dispute that so far has ended up on a mop and in a bucket. Luckily for her, Bill never tried anything. He was too preoccupied with tenderly loving Sookie, or whatever the fuck they did.

Pam looked at her maker sitting in his usual throne from behind the bar counter. For the untrained eye, he was just watching the dancers twirl around the poles just like his old usual self. But Pam knew better. His body was here, but Eric was not. His mind was always elsewhere. No dancer was good enough to distract him, and Pam hired only the best. She even hired one from New York, paid the bitch a fuckin' lawyer's salary - she was that good. But nothing. And there was nothing she could do about it but wait. He had fallen for other women since they met a hundred years ago. Sylvie, Sookie, another chick Pam couldn't even remember the name of. See? Time heals everything. A little voice in Pam's head told her this time was different. She didn't know why, nor did she listen to the said voice. The witch was dead. A demon snatched her body and disappeared forever. Poof.

And so did Eric's sister, Nora. What a fucking bitch. Pam was monumentally pissed - and rightfully so - for Eric not telling her he had a sister. But Pam didn't have to deal with Mary Poppins for too long. Eric soon banished Nora until she found a way to kill Lilith, but they never heard from her again.

For weeks Pam flipped the channels on the TV, expecting to see all 10 biblical plagues, but there was only one thing that caught her eye: birth rate. For some "unknown" reason, the mortality of human babies had plummeted and the number of SIDS cases had skyrocketed all around the world. If this was Lilith's doing or not, she didn't know. But if this was her doing and she kept going down this route, their food supply would run short in about 20 years. Other than that, the world just moved on. Lilith or whoever the body snatcher was, had just disappeared off the map. All that prophecy business was a fucking scam. Nora didn't have to go a wild goose chase to find out the obvious.

Something caught Pam's eye from the corner of the bar. Ginger had finally shown up to her shift sporting a different look. She immediately dragged the bitch outside through the backdoor and threw her out, in the middle of the parking lot.

"Are you OUT OF YOUR DAMN MIND?!" Pam yelled.

Ginger winced and whined. The dumbass box dyed her hair black, added hair extensions and she was wearing a black satin slip dress. Just like a certain someone.

"I thought it would cheer him up!" She whined.

"Oh yeah, killing you certainly would, Ginger." Pam sneered. "Go home, died it back to whatever fuckin' colour you want, and wear your regular cheap stripper clothes! This look is FORBIDDEN, got it?"

"But it's black die… It don't come out that easy! I spent hours just bringing it from 10 to 1!"

"Do I look like I give a shit?! Do whatever the fuck you want, shave it all off if you gotta, but you ain't setting foot in front of Eric lookin' like this."

Pam turned on her heels and slammed the door shut behind her. Tara gave her an inquisitive look, but all Pam could muster was shaking her head. I swear to fucking God I'm going to kill Ginger myself one of these days. When she looked back at Eric - he was gone. The throne was empty.

That was another one of his new habits. Sometime in the evening, he would go to God knows where, and come back at 4 AM to count the register after the bar closed. Then he fucked one of his regular groupies, fed and went to sleep. Where he went all night though, Pam had no idea. She had followed him many times before, but he always managed to lose her.

"He left already?" Pam asked Tara.

"Oh. Uhm, I guess so. I didn't notice since my nose ain't not up his ass," Tara said over her shoulder while serving customers. "Where do you think he goes?"

Pam didn't answer because an idea popped in her head. Thanks to Ginger, actually. She reminded her of the one place she didn't look.

"Hold down the fort, I'm going out for a bit," Pam told her, leaving again.

"The fuck you are!" Tara cried. "And leave me alone workin'? Ginger was supposed to help me! Pam!"

The black house still sat by the lake which surprised Pam, for whatever reason. But it looked very different than before. If the house gave her the creeps then, it had nothing on how it looked now. It really gave The Haunted Mansion a run for its money. The rose bushes surrounding the porch were dead and dried. The roof was caving in, with several shingles missing. Half of the window panes were broken or fractured. Several shutters were scattered on the overgrown dead lawn. Pam carefully stepped up the porch, trying to avoid the holes on the wood floor.

Inside the house it was dark, and it was much smaller than she remembered. It somehow looked emptier and more crowded at the same time. The wallpaper was peeling off the walls, termites crawled on the old banister at the bottom of the stairs. There was dirt, dust and webs covering everything. There were dead leaves and bugs accumulated on the corners. The place was just… Dead. It didn't have the sparkle of magic or that odd comforting feeling like it used to have. It was forgotten. She walked by what she remembered the study was: it was completely empty. Not even a single piece of furniture was left in it. Someone had emptied it.

Once she arrived in the kitchen she found what she was looking for: Eric.

He was sitting on an Adirondack chair in the sunroom, facing the lake, surrounded by dead plants. The house was eerily quiet, and Eric just sat there, with his legs stretched out as if he were moon bathing on a nice summer evening. Had this really been the place he was hiding this entire time? Of all the places he could be, this had been it? Pam felt suddenly angry, but there were no words in the English language to describe the frustration and sadness she felt at seeing Eric moping around like this.

"Unfuckin' believable," Pam shook her head.

"Took you long enough," he spoke after a while.

"Really, Eric?!" She asked him, crossing her arms. Raven was a topic neither of them spoke about. One she avoided at all costs, but here she was right in the fucking middle of it. "She is gone."

"She might-" he sighed frustrated.

"No, Eric! She is! The old man told you himself! Her purpose was to die and she did. It's too bad but it's done. Look at her house - it's over!" Eric sat quietly still, watching the lake. Pam walked over and carefully sat on a chair next to him, praying it wouldn't disintegrate under her weight, because it sure looked like it was going to. "You're not the only one who's lost someone they love you know?" She told him, and at that word, he finally looked at her. "You may be alive, going through the motions of the life we had before all of this shitstorm, but you ain't here. You haven't been here for a long time now. I've lost you too, you know?"

"What do you want from me, Pam? I've released you. You are free If you aren't happy, take Tara and just fucking leave."

"I am not leaving you, Eric." Her voice trembled, tears threatening to come.

"So you just to watch me go about my night pretending the world isn't utterly fucked and there's no fucking point to anything?"

"No fucking point? No fucking point?!" She yelled, feeling the tears coming to the edge of her eyes. "Is that what you call our life together?!"

"No, I meant the same life that I managed the royally fuck up, and I can't unfuck it."

"Unfuck it? Eric, you almost single-handedly brought down an 8 thousand-year-old vampire government. Everyone knows what you did, and you basically rule the whole world now. You have the world by the fucking balls, but you are wasting it by spending your nights sitting in this rotting house, rotting away with it. Unless you bought this piece of shit too, and you're going to add it to your newly founded real estate empire?"

Eric sighed again, looking away at the water. She knew this wasn't what he was talking about.

"Have you ever wondered if what you felt for her was just destiny?" He cocked an eyebrow in protest but she persisted. "You had a role to play in the coming of the antichrist or whatever, and that's why you felt so strongly for her?" He pursed his lips but said nothing. "It doesn't matter what you did or didn't do, Raven Blackwood was always going to end up drinking that blood. It was an old prophecy beyond your control. You could never have saved her."

"Godric did."

"Sorry, what?"

"At the cold moon, when the blood of her covenant is spilled, an immortal shall take her vessel to the light and she will rise again - that's the prophecy. I looked at the records, five witches were burned in Boston two hundred years ago, and the youngest was spared to be reformed by the Church, that was Raven. This happened on December 19th, 1755, during the only full moon in December-"

"A cold moon?"

"Yes. And Godric - an immortal - saved her from the Church and helped her run away. Why didn't the prophecy turn true then? Why now?" He asked angrily.

"I don't know," Pam told him quietly. "But what I do know is that Raven wouldn't want you in here." He looked at her confused. "She spent half of her life dwelling on the past, and now here you are doing the same. Do you think this is what she would have wanted for you?"

"What she would have wanted was for someone to find a way to take Lilith out of her body and give her the life she deserved. Except that it is apparently impossible because no one has ever successfully done what Blackwood did, so no one knows how to undo it. All her library is gone, what's left of her coven has no idea on how to help… But we all know Lilith has died once before, so I know she can be killed-"

"You tried that. You put a stake right through her heart."

Eric paused for a long time. "That's the wall I keep hitting. So I just come here and I try to think. But every so often I catch her scent still and…" his voice trailed off.

And the truth was out. The real reason why Eric still came up here. To relive their memories over and over again. The good ones… And the bad ones. He just wouldn't let that damn woman go.

"How many more times do you have to lose her, Eric?"

He glanced at his watch and got up at once, and finally looked at her. The moonlight highlighted his muscular body and shined the prettiest light on his face. "As many as it takes."

A.N.: Hello angels

What a rollercoaster I've put you through lmao. I loved writing this chapter, I'm a sucker for a Pam POV. There will be some significant time jumps happening because I'm going to fly through season 6 (I will also change the order of some events). Black Moon Lilith will OFFICIALLY have 26 chapters and maybe an epilogue. I'm almost done writing this whole thing CAN YOU BELIEVE? I cannot.

See you next week xoxo DONT FORGET TO COMMENT