"So when you say magic, do you mean like floaty witchcraft stuff, or-?" Lou pondered with confusion. She and Sookie sat at either end of the bed, their legs laid lazily over one another's as they took this very small window to finally catch up on what had happened in their lives. By the time they'd finally finished hugging it out they only had an hour or so before dawn, so they were trying to make the most of it but catching up on as much as they could.

Lou's side was simple enough. Something had happened between her and Eric that made her want to leave (which was about as much detail as she wanted to go into), so that was what she did. She hopped on a plane, settled down somewhere else, and lived a perfectly mundane if somewhat boring life for three years. Of course that had come to an abrupt end when she'd come home again, but thankfully Bill had already filled her in on their current predicament so Lou needn't have to.

Sook was, as always, a little more willing to share. She explained how she and Bill couldn't weather the storm that followed Edgington's Palace, which weighed heavy on Lou. She queried whether it was the revelation that he had sired her which was the final straw, but Sookie insisted it wasn't; that was simply another lie that followed many more, and her desire for a normal life had finally come to outweigh her ability to abide the deception. When Bill was made King, she simply realised this wasn't what she wanted, not any more. Then along came Alcide, who she insisted over and over again was really nice if you got to know him (even if his opinion of vampires was a little on the prejudicial side). It would be three years in the coming fall since she met him, and every day she was more glad than the last that she had.

Lou's best friend was happy, and that in turn made her happy too.

She couldn't help but be a little curious about the magic that had been mentioned though.

"Oh no, not at all!" Sookie laughed shaking her head. "It's more of an energy thing? Everything has energy, it's just fae who know how to harness it." She shrugged as though she were talking about something as light-hearted as yesterdays weather report.

"How did you learn? To harness it, I mean."

"Self taught for the most part," Sookie nodded. "But Alcide and I took a trip up state about a year or so back. I met someone, fae, like me, and they kinda gave me the basics... I didn't tell him cause y'know, not a fan of the spooky stuff even if he does turn into a wolf every now and again." Bizarre though it was to think of her as a supernatural being, Lou couldn't help but smile, because if anybody embodied fairy energy, it was most certainly Sookie Stackhouse. "You wanna see?" She asked.

"Fuck yeah I wanna see." Lou excitedly replied, shuffling to sit up as Sookie did.

With a slow and steady breath her eyes fluttered shut, and she raised her hands slowly before letting them hover in front of her. Her expression hardened with concentration, and as it did the smallest ember of orange light began to flicker between her palms. The longer Sookie held it the more it grew, radiating the same kind of mellow warmth as a sunflower on a spring day. Lou felt inexplicably drawn to it, her fingers raising of their own accord as though to gently stroke the intoxicating light, but in the same moment Sookie snapped out of it and Lou along with her.

Her hands lowered and the light was gone.

"You don't wanna touch it." She giggled with a shake of her head. "Think of it like a firefly - pretty as hell, but you're gonna get burned if you get too close." She further explained. Lou nodded, her explanation making perfect sense. "I ain't really too sure how it's gonna help you guys yet, but Bill made it sound as though you need all hands on deck right now, so here I am I guess... Alcide wasn't happy, but he'll get over it." Something in her voice didn't sound too confident at that last part, so Lou reached forward to softly squeeze her knee.

"Of course he will." She reassured. "It's impossible, staying mad forever at someone you love. I bet he'll begin to forget why he was even mad in the first place, soon enough." Though she said it to comfort Sook, Lou found her own words resonating a little too closely with her own situation, which made her think of the forlorn looking Viking she'd left behind in the study.

Knowing her as she did, Sookie seemed to jump on board with this train of thought quite easily.

"So, are you and Eric okay again?" She asked curiously. "I mean, you looked pretty close downstairs."

Lou was already shaking her head before she'd finished her sentence.

"No, no I'm just being a friend... He's not himself since he lost his memories, and with Pam out of town he needs someone to make sure he doesn't get himself into trouble. He seems to have a knack for it." She chuckled a little, but the smile didn't reach her eyes.

Sookie bit her lip, hesitating for a moment or two before she replied.

"I went looking for you when you left. Did you know that?" She finally asked, and clearly still debating how much she should say. Lou looked up, frowning now, and shook her head, having not been aware of that at all. "Yeah. Jason didn't tell me you'd been at his until a couple of months later, so I thought the best place to go look for you was Fangtasia... I didn't even know that you guys were, y'know, over."

Lou's gut physically flexed as the word 'over' felt like a hard blow to it.

"And he'd lied before about you not being there when you were, so of course I go in shouting and hollering at him as though he had you locked up somewhere... But then he told me you were gone, and he didn't know where, and that you weren't coming back. I don't know Lou, he just looked so..." He words trailed off, as though she was beginning to think better of what she was saying.

"So what?" Lou pleaded, feeling as though she had to hear this. Sookie sighed, and her eyes grew sad again.

"He was broken, Lou. All that bravado he had, it was all gone. Like the life had been sucked right out of him. You wouldn't have even recognised him, I swear. He'd just sit there staring at the floor, and even when I stood there cursing him out, he let me. Like he didn't care enough to fight, which we know ain't ever the case with Northman. I ain't really seen much of him since then, one or twice maybe while I was picking up orders for Sam, but even then it was just in passing. I guess he got some of it back, y'know? People were scared of him again in no time - if anything I think he got a little nastier to compensate - anyways, my points getting away from me... I'm just trying to say, that he was never the same after you left. Always like there was something missing from him."

This telling portrayal of Eric's life after Lou left her feeling hollow. For the first months in Scotland she'd tortured herself with thoughts of what he was probably off doing whilst she laid there, mourning their life. She had imagined him with some beautiful dancer in his lap every night, keeping business moving with ease, maybe even redecorating the home they'd shared to his own tastes now she was gone. Never did she believe that he could have been grieving too.

Because what did Eric have to mourn, if his love was never real?

"No," Lou replied quietly with a shake of her head. "No, Sookie, it was all a lie... All of it. He didn't-" She didn't want to say it, the word choking in her throat, but she forced herself. "He didn't love me, Sook. He was using me." Lou tried to feel adamant in her words, but Sookie's sympathetic expression made it hard, almost impossible.

"Well, I don't know what happened between ya'll, but let's say he was using you - why would he keep up the show long after you're gone?"

She made an impossibly good point.

The hole that had taken a part of Lou twinged, but this time it wasn't painful or threatening to overtake her. Instead it was as though something inside of it was stirring, very softly awakening, because like it or not the truth was beginning to unfold, and it painted a picture very different to the reality she thought she had been living.

And fruitless though it would be in his current state, Lou knew she needed to speak to him.

"I uhm... I need to-"

"Go talk to him." Sookie finished for her, nodding her head. "Go! Before you talk yourself out of it!" Sook insisted further with a growing smile. Stupid though it was, Lou felt herself smiling too.

Sookie was right - she needed to do this before she started to doubt it all again. You could argue that this was reckless, and that one answer from him which she didn't want to hear would be enough to bring her undone, but Lou didn't care. She was so tired with doing the smart thing to keep herself safe. If this road had any chance of leading her out of the purgatory that had become her life, she'd follow it blindly, because finally her body was waking up again, and it was time for Lou to wake up with it.

Excitedly she jumped up from the bed, and ran as far as the door before her body came to a very sudden stop.

Frozen in her stance for a moment, Lou scowled, because she hadn't made the decision to stop, just like she didn't make the decision to straighten her posture and keep walking again. Her limbs were moving entirely of their own volition, with no thought from her whatsoever. Lou tried to stop herself, but still she kept on walking. She knew this feeling, of her not being in control of her own body.

It was how she felt when Antonia had pinned her to the wall of the magic shop. The ragdoll had become a puppet.

"Sookie, help me." Lou said as she watched her hand move forward and open the door. Slowly her feet began to walk out, and fear raised like bile in the back of her throat.

"What?" Sookie almost chuckled from the bed, watching as her friend turned the corner out of the room.

"Sookie!" Lou almost screamed, fighting desperately against the hold that had her. Her feet were dragging now, as she fought to keep them still, but the powers that manipulated her kept them moving. "Sookie, come grab me! Quickly!" She pleaded, half way down the hall now. Lou managed to rip a hand away from the vice like grip that kept her moving, fingers clawing at the wall beside her in a bid to find something, anything to grab onto.

The fear ran through her like a poison, flushing her system with nothing but the upmost terror as she realised she couldn't stop. Sookie, confused though she still was, ran after her and grabbed hold of the hand reaching out, trying to anchor her. For a second or two it worked, but sensing something had hold, her arm suddenly became the most powerful part of her, ripping away with force and sending Lou stumbling forward as she regained control of her own feet again. Before she had chance to make the most of this, the power had shifted again, and her legs continued walking.

She was at the top of the stairs, and down below in the foyer she saw the scene unfolding.

The Guardsmen walked as she did, grunting and groaning as they tried to stop their feet from moving, but it was no use. None of them were powerful enough to resist it. They were all heading through the open door of the mansion, nine or ten of them already out on the front lawn, and through the glass of the front windows Lou saw it spilling over the horizon.

Dawn.

The study doors opened, revealing Bill and Eric in the exact same state.

"Louisa?!" Eric called - he was older than them, and stronger too, so somehow he managed to have both hands free from the hold that was operating them. One clung onto the door jamb, the other onto Bill's shoulder to hold him back. "Louisa, what's happening?!"

Lou's hand fought to regain some control, and though it was only a little, she found enough to cling onto the bannister of the staircase.

Agonising screams came from the front lawn, as the first of the men began to burn. Lou had to force herself to look away, because she already knew how they would appear. She saw them every time she closed her eyes.

"Sookie, the door!" Lou screamed back at her. "You need to barricade the door!" Her friend needed no further prompting, climbing around her and running as fast as she could down the stairwell, jumping over the last two steps entirely. Sookie weaved around the few remaining guards who hadn't yet to made it outside, and threw herself full force at the front door, slamming it shut again.

"There's a lock-" Bill managed to choke in, red faced and straining to get out of Eric's hold. "Top and bottom - silver!" Lou looked over, and as promised there were two thick silver poles at both the top and the bottom of the door made of the glinting metal. Sookie scrambled for both, bolting them into thick locks above and below.

Lou's legs found their footing on the stairs again and began to drag her down - the bannister was only made of wood, so her closed fist simply ripped straight through it.

"No, no-!" Lou pleaded, trying as she did to throw herself backwards, as though to escape the grasp. The daylight protection had not been enabled on any of the windows yet, so the sunlight streamed through bright and deadly. Two steps lower, and Lou's exposed legs would be one such beam of light.

"Help Louisa!" Eric growled at Sookie, who still stood with her back to the door, watching them all. She looked disorientated, sprinting from one place to the next in a bid to help, but without question Sookie ran back to the stairs again, sprinting up them as quickly as she could before she body tackled Lou, lunging with what little human strength she had and knocking her back off her feet. The blonde laid across her once she was down in a bid to stop her from getting back up. Lou felt her leg pull upwards, heel sitting at the hilt of Sookie's pelvis, and she knew her body was going to kick her off. Almost screaming with the exertion, Lou used every last ounce of strength she had to stop herself, knowing that if she were to kick full force she would shatter her friends bones with ease.

And in that last moment, when she felt her knee twitch as though she was about to lose the fight, Lou's body relaxed. All of her limbs softened and dropped, before she realised when she moved her toes that it was her doing it. Her body was her own again. It was over.

Except it wasn't really over, because the blood curdling screams for mercy still came from those who had made it out of the house before the door had been locked, but were yet to die.

Lou could feel tears beginning to prick at her eyes, because this couldn't be happening. It couldn't all be coming true.

Sookie was still half laid across her when a hand came down and pulled her off, pushing her a little haphazardly to the side of the stairs. It was of course Eric, who then reached forward to carefully take Lou's hands and pull her upright again.

"Are you okay?" He frantically asked, hands coming to each of Lou's cheeks to tilt her head up and inspect her. There was the upmost frenzied fear in his eyes, but she couldn't bring herself to answer. She was too lost in their now quieting screams as the last of them finally died. "Louisa, are you okay?!" Eric shook her a little, trying to snap her out of it. In the meantime Bill hurried around downstairs to put the defences in place, barking orders at every man still standing to put the place into the strongest lockdown they had.

Lou couldn't snap out of it. She saw the fire, flames spiralling into the sky, and she knew it was only a matter of time until Eric's eyes were trapped inside the flames as well. What had just happened served as all the proof they needed that she was powerful enough to do it, to drag each and every one of them out to their deaths. If not today, then soon.

"We have to kill her..." She whispered to herself, the soul shattering truth hitting her for the first time. Finally she looked up, the only peace she could find being in the blue that stared back down at her. "I think I know what we have to do now."

The bleeds kicked in about two hours later, when neither Lou nor anyone else managed to find the solace of sleep. They had all gone through into Bill's office, which evidently was the most secure room in the entire mansion. Silver shutters had been pulled down over all the windows, keeping the sun out and them in, in case of another take over.

Eric's hand reached over and gently wiped the blood away that ran from her ear, the soft caress making Lou jump as she'd been lost in her own thoughts again.

"You're bleeding." He murmured quietly, as not to disturb Bill who was still on the phone, as he had been from the moment they'd gone through.

Lou looked over to him with sleepy eyes and saw two identical trickles running down from his own ears. Just as he had, she reached forward and using her thumb, carefully wiped them away.

"It happens when we don't sleep in the day," She explained. "Our bodies don't thank us for it." Even now, exhausted, terrified, and utterly defeated, that stirring in her chest still swirled magnificently just to look at him. The promise of something more. What she wouldn't give to have been able to talk to him a few hours before. Now it seemed like the kind of thing that just had to wait.

"You should sleep then." Eric softly insisted. "I don't want you to get sick." Lou would have gladly explained to him that she was too scared of what she might see if she did, but before she had chance Bill finally got off the phone.

"She hit us state wide." He said, his voice carrying a severity that was rightly matched with a gasp from Sookie, who sat in the sofa opposite Lou and Eric. "The Authority are calling it act of domestic terrorism against the Vampire Community - Nan Flanagan is holding a press conference at sundown."

Lou's gut twisted.

"Did you tell them about Antonia?" She asked, still unable to associate the witch and the atrocities she was committing with her sister - to do so would be to admit that she had readily tried to kill her as well.

"Not yet," Bill replied, earning a small sigh of relief that he instantly squashed. "But I didn't do it for your sister, Lou. If the Authority found out we knew about this and didn't contain it sooner they'd have all our heads, believe me... Which means we have to deal with it ourselves, before they get to the bottom of it and put the pieces together."

Of course he was right, and now more than ever Lou felt foolish for having begged him for more time, especially as they had achieved all but nothing with it. In fact things seemed to have only gotten exponentially worse since she'd touched down on Louisiana soil. This time it was her who reached out to Eric, feeling grounded when she touched him. Her hand took hold of his, and he gladly twisted his own so he could squeeze it tightly.

Lou knew what 'deal with it' meant. She'd said it herself on the staircase. They were out of options, and who knows had many had died that morning thanks to her stalling of the inevitable - tied to her sister or not, they had to kill the witch before more died.

It was her or them.

"I'm sending a squad to the Emporium at 11:30pm. We'd go sooner, but we need the enforcements from up north thanks to our fatalities..." Bill informed them all, and for once he was met with no argument. Eliminating the threat seemed like the only way.

"You okay, Lou?" Sookie asked quietly from across the coffee table, her eyes wide and sad. Never one for vampire affairs, she clearly could care less about the grand plan that was underway. She just cared about Lou, and more specifically how callous it all seemed to be talking so freely about murdering her baby sister in front of her.

Lou smiled sadly.

"Not really." She couldn't help but admit as she couldn't see any gain in lying.

Sookie had known Sadie all their lives - when the girls were young, she'd always been so jealous of Lou's good fortunate getting a sister when she was stuck with a menace of a brother, so she'd always had a soft spot for the younger girl, like they all did. Really, it was impossible not to love her.

Lou was so exhausted with crying, so she closed her eyes and tried to shake them back. She felt as though she'd sobbed more this past week than she had this last year, and she hated it. It made her feel even weaker than she already knew she was.

"I think I want to go to sleep now," Lou admitted, having decided whatever nightmares were in store couldn't be worse than staying down there and listening to the grotesque plan for Sadie's demise. On unsteady feet she stood, keeping hold of Eric's hand as she glanced down at him, tilting her head just slightly. He read her silent question loud and clear, and stood as well, ready and willing to follow her. "If we turn into a masochist version of the Muppets again, I'll be sure to shout for help." She tried to joke, but she hardly earned a chuckle in response.

With that and one last heavy sigh, Lou lead the way out of the room. By the time they were walking side by side on the stairs, she couldn't help but rest her head on Eric's arm, feeling as though she was too tired to even keep it upright any more. No words passed between them as they headed into the bedroom. Hands finally dropped only so they could cross to opposite sides of the bed and climb on. Lou hadn't the energy to undress out of her jean shorts, but she just about managed to toe off her sneakers so they didn't dirty the sheets before she flopped down rather ungracefully.

Eric was a little more hesitant than her, taking his time in crossing over and kicking his shoes off as well. He paused, taking a moment to look down at her, before he too laid down. They each turned on their sides to face one another, and for a long while they laid there silently, simply staring back into each other.

Lou shuffled her hand closer, and gently laid her arm over Eric's, before her hand rested inside of his. He in turn found her fingers with his own and threaded them together.

That was enough for now.

"They're going to kill my sister..." She whispered. Eric said nothing, but very slightly his head nodded and his thumb swept against the side of her hand. "And when they do, we might lose any chance of getting your memories back." This time he didn't nod. He just looked sorrowfully back at her, and Lou tried as he did, to somehow make peace with the idea that his eyes might never look the same again.

She wasn't quite strong enough for that though.

"I think I'm going to sleep now." She murmured, letting her eyes flutter closed. Her body felt heavy in less than a second as the grips of the day began to take hold, and Lou's last thoughts before she ceased to be for a while was how she wished her dreams might be kind to her, just once.

That, and the final promise that came from Eric. He was so quite a part of her wondered if she'd imagined it, but with his words came the soft tickle of his breath across her cheeks.

"I'll be right here when you wake up." He said. "Don't worry, Louisa... I won't go."

Eric did break his promise, but only very slightly.

When Lou's eyes opened at the break of a new dusk, she had never been more relieved to realise that her day had been without nightmares (the irony of their given name only now hitting her considering her sleep patterns). It was enough to make a smile pull at her lips, until of course she remembered what the night would bring, and her heart sunk once more.

Like a rollercoaster it lifted again to see Eric sat on the edge of the bed by her legs, having already awoken and changed into fresh clothes. He looked down at her, as though he'd been watching her while she slept.

"That's rude y'know." She smiled. "Watching people sleep. Some would even consider it kinda weird." She stretched out her limbs as she spoke, flexing and relaxing her arms and legs to stir her body back to life again. With that she sat upright, closing a little of the gap between them.

"I've been thinking... There's some things I would like to tell you." Eric said very clearly, turning his body a little as to better face her. His demeanour was the same now as it had been in the woods. Rigid, and nervous, and entirely unlike him in every way. It seemed whatever had plagued him then was still on his mind now, but Lou forced herself to wait silently for him to continue for fear of scaring him back into silence.

"I don't remember you-" He finally said, earning a confused look from Lou.

"Really? You hadn't mentioned." She half laughed in a defeated way, unsure of where this was going.

"Do you always interrupt like that?" Eric quipped in return, brows flaring a little in annoyance. Were it not for the fact that it'd prove his point she'd have done so again. He huffed irritably, but focused again. "I don't remember you, Louisa, but I do know you. The second I looked at you in that shop, I knew you. I can't explain it, but it was this feeling that came from my chest... Like you're the centre of it all. You're the one thing that keeps the world turning."

Lou had zero intention of interjecting now, because her own chest stirred again, growing stronger and the hole where her heart had been shrinking smaller with his every word.

"At first I thought it would be like that with everyone. I didn't have anything to compare it to, so I thought maybe that's how you feel when you see someone you trust... I know now that it's not. It's only you who makes me feel that way." Eric's words made the warmth spread, running through her and setting her alive. Instinct drove her to move closer to him. "I know you don't want to talk about what came before all this, so I stopped myself from telling you... And then I realised we don't need to about the past, because I don't think it's about the memories. So I need you to know, that if we can't get my memories back-"

"Eric-" Lou closed her eyes and shook her head as she tried to stop him, unable to accept that reality as being certain. Eric reached forward, hands cupping both of her cheeks and tilting her head to make her look up at him. A soft thumb ran along her cheek bone as her eyes opened, and she saw his own were perfectly serene. Like he didn't have a worry in the world.

"If I don't get them back," He repeated. "Then I need you to know, that with or without them, you are enough. I know that to you I might be a shell, but to me you are everything, Louisa. And I'm with you no matter what."

Lou fell head first into his words. Her hands came up to rest on his chest. Sitting there with him felt like muscle memory, as her body remembered how to slot against his with perfect ease.

Eric may not have understood what it was he described, but she did with astonishing clarity.

It was love. Pure, simple, and without agenda, love.

As he was now, he hardly knew her. Eric had no knowledge of Lou being a breedmate. Even if you explained to him what one was, he'd have no reason whatsoever to believe her to be one. He had managed to endure losing her, losing himself, and somehow that love was still the only thing he carried through with him, so could no longer doubt what had been there all along. She wasn't blinded by anger or hurt. The scars would perhaps always stay with her, but the wounds were long since healed now, and it was time for her to heal as well.

Any hope she'd had of holding that door shut a little while longer slipped from her grasp and she didn't even care to try and keep hold, because she was wrong. Eric loved her.

Eric had always loved her, and what a fool she'd been for ever doubting it.

"It's you and me." She whispered, saying it for the first time in so very long. The hole was gone, sewn together entirely, and though she knew it to be insane she felt as though her heart was somehow beating beneath it again. Quietly, it said hello to him.

Eric smiled, that soft, tender smile that was only ever shared with her.

"It's you and-" He went to repeat, but the final word stuck in his mouth. Lou's brow furrowed, and she could do nothing but watch as his body went rigid.

"...Eric?" She asked.

There was one last moment of recognition between them. His eyes became alive with fear for just a second, and then they went blank. No emotion remained in his glassy stare, as though he had been there with her one moment, and the next he was gone.

That was when Eric took off running without looking back.

two chapters in one day? again? honestly i'm a reformed woman, you just can't stop me.

but i couldn't resist getting this one uploaded tonight - i won't lie, it pulled at my heart strings writing it, so i really do hope you enjoyed it. i've wanted to slap some sense into my poor girl for several chapters now, so i'm beyooond relieved she's finally caught up with the programme and realised it wasn't all a lie.

anywho - i'll hopefully get some uploads sorted next week, but no schedule because life is crazy with work & school. as always my deepest thanks for your amazingly kind reviews, and lots of love to anyone reading xoxo