A/N: It's Stakeout Sunday! Thanks to ilovemysteries for her beta skills. :D

Chapter 13

Get The Stake Out

The first thing I did after getting up and doing the bathroom thing was check the kitchen island for a note. I had no idea what the plan for tonight was going to be. Were we just doing surveillance? Making arrests? An Eric and Pam buffet? Would it be just us, or would there be a whole team? I was so out of the loop.

Sookie,

We will leave as soon as Pam arrives after first dark. I enjoyed our date very much. Remember to wear black.

Until tonight,

~e~

Well, I didn't get much in the way of answers, but my heart was galloping in my chest. Last night had been equal parts wonderful and terrifying. The daredevil in me was turned on by both. I couldn't wait for tonight. I was dreading it. I decided to try not to think of it and get on with my day.

I did the morning routine, (even if it was almost evening, technically) but just did the one set of exercises. I drank my shake and picked at the fruit platter before stretching out on the couch in the library with a book. It was pouring rain, and I didn't much feel like running or swimming outside. I was trying not to think, but I wasn't really having much luck with it. Fortunately, I only had about three hours to kill before I had to start getting ready.

After an hour, I gave up. I kept rereading the same sentence over and over again. Relaxing just wasn't going to happen today, so I went down to the dojo and worked out for a while. I grabbed a sandwich and a shower, and was dressed and putting my hair up in a ponytail when Eric filled the doorway of my bedroom. I met his eyes in the mirror. He too was wearing black - Black jeans, a black wife beater, and a black leather jacket. His hair was pulled back into a tight braid. He looked dangerous and sexy as hell.

In the time it took me to turn around, he was standing in front of me. My nose was right at the hollow between his nipples. He caressed down my cheek with his knuckles, and then tilted my chin up.

"We are going to stake out the warehouse. Pam will be here soon. After the meeting, Pam and I will dispose of the terrorists. We will detain anyone who you feel needs to be interrogated further."

What in the fuck was up with him making intimate gestures while talking about business? I was going to need a neck brace at this rate. I didn't get the impression that he was trying to unbalance me. At least I hoped not. It really seemed natural. Organic. Like he was drawn to me the way I was drawn to him. I'm not talking about some mystical connection; we just had insane chemistry. Unless that counted. But I'm not going to argue philosophy.

Part of me was waiting for the other shoe to drop. This Eric, hot Eric, kept me off balance all on his own. But cold Eric, the one with the fangs and the glare, he made me feel like I wanted to either run and hide or fight like a banshee. More whiplash.

I wonder if banshees exist…

Eric leaned down and kissed me. I had never been kissed before. Not on the mouth. Furnan seemed to think that he wasn't really cheating on his wife if he didn't kiss me. Ok. Let's not go there.

Eric's mouth was soft. He swiped his tongue against my lips and I opened them to him. I wished his hair was down, so I could plunge my hands into it and run my fingers through it and pull it. I settled for resting my hands on his cheeks. He kept my chin in his hand, with the knuckle of his first finger underneath and his thumb resting on the front. He was an amazing kisser, and I wanted him badly.

"Knock knock. Well, don't you two look cozy?"

I stepped back, blushing. "Oh, hey Pam." Time to get back to business. "Eric, shouldn't I be armed with more than my knives?" I had my garter holster on over my pants. Wasn't much point in hiding it.

"No, that won't be necessary. You'll be staying in the car. "

"Oh, we're just staking the place out and then going?"

He and Pam looked at each other.

"No way, guys. Uh uh. I've been training more than half my life for this shit. I can read intent before anyone can make a move, so they can't hit me. I shoot any weapon better than the best human marksmen in the world. I'm a goddamn telepathic super spy! I'm not going to sit in the fucking car."

"Yes, you are."

"No, the fuck I'm not. There's no fucking way I am going to sit in the car while you guys have all the fun."

Pam interjected, "Sookie, it's not like you're going to eat them. And if you shoot them, they'll just go to waste. Mmmmmm… I love baharat!"

"Well, I can still help. I can stand guard. I am a telepath. I can see when anyone's coming."

"Eric, that makes sense. Plus we would be able to keep a better eye on her."

"No."

"Eric, if you think I'm not just going to get out of the car as soon as you're out of sight, you haven't read my fucking file."

"You won't if I restrain you."

I sat down on the bed and crossed my arms. "Sorry guys. I think my telepathy is on the fritz today. Guess you two are going this one alone."

Eric's fangs were down now. And I guess that shoe was, too, now that it had dropped. He hissed at me. I flipped him off.

Pam broke in again, "Sookie, you know you want to stop the terrorists."

Ugh. "I know."

"And you know you're not going to let us go in there alone. There might be booby traps!"

I glared at her. There weren't going to be booby traps, for fuck's sake. But Eric and Pam would be safer if I was there to tell them what security measures were in place and what to expect. "You suck, Pam."

She flashed me a grin with lots of teeth. "I certainly do."

We went in the Crown Vic. I was the lowly human, so I sat in the back seat. The rain had stopped.

I said, "I think we should go to Al-Ameri's apartment and follow him to the warehouse. If I hold onto his brain, we can wait in a holding pattern a few miles away until everyone is inside and the meeting starts. Not much chance of getting caught that way. I'll be able to monitor the conversation, and then dig deeper once you move us closer. The meetup isn't for another 90 minutes or so, so we should be able to catch him. He wasn't planning on leaving until the last minute last night. And this way, if the location or time or anything changes, we'll know, instead of just sitting there waiting for nothing."

"That's really good thinking, Sookie."

I might have put my nose in the air a little bit. "Thank you, Pam."

Al-Ameri was in his apartment, watching TV. The meetup was still on, so it was just a waiting game right now. I wished I'd brought a book. Or a sandwich.

"Sookie, did you bring something to write with?" It sounded like an accusation. Eric was obviously still feeling pissy. What a coincidence. So was I.

"Why?"

"To write down the things you hear."

"Why?"

"So you'll remember them later." His voice was getting lower and colder with each answer.

"Oh, do you write things down so you'll remember them later?"

"Sookie, vampires have perfect recall." He was seething now.

I gave him a little taste of his own medicine and raised one eyebrow at him in the rear view mirror.

"I'm going to be reading a dozen people at once. My brain works a million times faster than my hand could ever write. I'll rewind the memories and dictate them to tape as best I can when we get back to the house. As best I can because of the way thoughts work, not because I'll forget anything. I'll give you the highlights in real time. And I'll search for specifics when we know what to search for.

"And you can stop being an asshole anytime, Eric. You're the one who's in the wrong here. I am fucking good at what I do, and you're just wasting it and insulting me." I still had my arms crossed. I wanted to go back in time to when we were kissing, but mostly just so I could knee him in the balls.

Finally, Al-Ameri came down and got in his car and we were on our way. We parked at a strip mall about four miles from the warehouse.

I expanded my hold over everyone in the meeting, the way I'd done after I killed Quinn. They were all making small talk with their neighbours when a tall, striking man came in. All conversation stopped. This was Farhad Khatami, and he was the head of this jihadist cell. His hair was long and curly, and his skin was like cream with a hint of coffee. He was also a vampire. I told Eric and Pam, and had them move closer so I could dig deep on the others. This was a problem; it would make disposing of the cell much more difficult, and I couldn't read his mind. At least now Eric would realize that they needed my help.

The plan was to place small bombs throughout the Pentagon to be deployed in succession to cause the most damage. Security would wave the terrorists through with the bombs strapped to them, and although nobody seemed to know why, I had the idea that they would be glamoured ahead of time to do so. I dug deeper, and none of the humans knew of anyone else involved. I took mental notes of whatever else I could find.

I said, "We should go before the meeting breaks up and people start getting away. As far as I can tell, this is everyone in this cell. If we can keep the vampire alive, y'all can interrogate him. He surely has more information. Can I have a gun or something?"

Eric and Pam were outside with the doors closed before I could blink. I tried to open my door, and it was locked. "You son of a bitch, let me out."

"Sookie, it is too dangerous, especially with a vampire there. You really do smell delicious. You're staying here."

And they were gone. That dirty cold dead fuck. I climbed over the back of the front seat. I didn't have any tools with me other than my knives. I used one to start prying the door panel off the door so I could get to the locking mechanism inside. I saw a void coming, and I stopped what I was doing to give whichever one of them it was a piece of my mind.

Isabel Beaumont looked at me through the windshield of Eric's Crown Vic. Oh shit. What in the hell was she doing here?

"Sookie, you little bitch. You are going to pay for what you did to Quinn. I've been waiting to get you alone."

My phone was in the backseat. And Eric and Pam were too busy to answer it, anyway. I was trapped in here. Sookie in a car was the new fish in a barrel. I didn't even have my stakes with me. My throwing knives weren't silver. I was essentially fucked.

Fight or flight? Stay in the car or smash my way out? Why the fuck didn't I think to smash out the window in the first place? Would I have been able to do it in time? No, I would have waited until Eric and Pam were out of earshot, or at least otherwise occupied, and she would have been on me by the time I got out.

I decided to stay put. She could, of course, smash her way in, or rip the door off, but it would weaken her some, and give me time to fight back.

"Did you glamour him to drug me and rape me, Doctor? Because someone sure as hell did."

"You seduced him, just like you did Patrick. You're a praying mantis or a black widow spider. Love them and kill them."

"Patrick started with me when I was 8 years old!"

"I loved them! I loved them and risked my job and my reputation because of the bigotry against interspecies relationships. And you seduced them out from under me and then murdered them both!"

Dr Beaumont picked up the car and threw it. And everything went black.

A/N: *DUCKS*