A/N: Um. Sorry about the cliffhanger again? Thanks to ilovemysteries for the quick turnaround and LeaveSookiealone for the very patient ear. They're both swell. Plus LeaveSookiealone is the best name ever. So much more unlame than mine.

Chapter 19

Eric jumped back, but he was slow, and the blade sliced a long line down Sookie's leg. The wound gaped, but was bloodless. She didn't seem to feel it, at least. Eric tried to fly, but he could only hover an inch or two off the ground. The silver chain was touching him in half a dozen places. Through his clothes, but nevertheless. He didn't have a hand free to try to readjust. He was unarmed, weakened, and holding Sookie. Unable (and unwilling) to put her down.

It was hard to tell that Mickey had ever been human. Sookie was right — he was a monster. His eyes were cold and mad and locked on Sookie. His jaw was clenched tight and his lips were stretched into a terrifying grin of pure rage. His fangs were impossibly long. He looked reptilian and evil and cruel. Completely insane, and absolutely deadly.

"Sookie is mine." He drew out the S into a long hiss. Mickey started circling around, herding them slowly back towards the door. So he could keep an eye on both Eric and Pam. As soon as she got into view, he cut his eyes to her every few seconds.

"Nobody gets to touch her or smell her or taste her but me. Nobody gets to kiss her or give her his blood or walk around drenched in her scent. She. Is. Mine!"

That triggered something in Eric's brain. He remembered that he'd seen Mickey at the Seven Veils two nights before. Mickey's maker, Salome, was the hotel and casino's owner. Eric had pushed his way through a group of vampires in the lobby on his way to the exit, and Mickey had been one of them. Eric replayed it in his mind, focusing on Mickey, whose nostrils had been flaring when Eric walked by. Pam had told him later that night that he'd still smelled like her. Not only had he left Sookie unprotected, he had been the catalyst that had set all of this in motion.

The guilt and responsibility settled in his chest. He felt sick. Worse, he felt helpless. The only move he had was to drop Sookie or keep walking until he got to Pam. He could hand Sookie over and kill the sadistic fuck. Eric picked up a little speed.

Mickey lunged forward and cut him off with the sword. The blade was against Eric's throat, creasing the skin. A trickle of blood slowly ran down his neck. "You want to stop right now, Northman. If you think I'm going to pussyfoot around to make sure Sookie isn't hurt, as long as her head stays on, I don't give a fuck. I don't care if I cut her in half. She heals fast and deserves worse. Her tongue only takes a couple of days to grow back. Hurts like a bitch, I understand. But it's all good. She has other holes that I can fill in the meantime, no matter how long it takes."

Eric narrowed his eyes and growled. Mickey curled his lip in a sneer. They glared at each other, and neither could look away. The tension in the room was nearly unbearable. Eric knew that he should drop her, or even throw her at her maker. Anything to make a diversion and get free of the silver so that he had a fighting chance. And he knew that he had to do it quickly, but he hesitated. She had been hurt so much, and he wanted so badly to protect her.

He saw it in Mickey's eyes when he decided to take a swing for Eric's neck again. Eric tried to feint left, but Mickey moved with him. Eric couldn't make himself drop her and fly. If he did, her maker could hurt her even more. Worse, he could grab her and get away somehow. But if Eric didn't put her down, Mickey might end him, or at least injure him badly enough that he wouldn't be able to help Sookie and Pam. Eric gave Sookie a silent apology and prepared to let her go.

When Eric and Mickey's eyes locked, Pam reached into her bag. She had to be fast. She put on Eric's ridiculous driving gloves that she'd found in the Corvette's glove compartment. His hands were enormous and the fingers were sticking out nearly two inches past hers. She pulled out the velvet sack that she'd confiscated from a wanna-be drainer at Fangtasia a few weeks back. She opened the drawstring and pulled out the silver net. She hoped like hell that she could throw it with those gloves on. And that the webbing wasn't a tangled mess. She took a deep breath, to steady herself, and tossed it.

She thought that the sword might snag it and deflect it away, but it didn't. The net opened beautifully and hit him just right. It draped over him like a sheet, and Mickey was trapped underneath, writhing weakly and trying to scream. He only managed growls and grunts and weak, raspy roars.

Pam pulled off the gloves and set them on Sookie's stomach before she picked her up and took her out of Eric's arms. Eric grabbed the gloves and put them on. He caught Pam's eyes and pushed love and pride and gratitude. She smiled back at him.

Pam laid Sookie down on the bed and walked over to the kitchenette, where Mickey kept all of his nasty playthings. She had mapped out the cabin while standing in the doorway, so she had a pretty good idea of where everything was. In a general sense, at least. She found a pair of Mickey's gloves and put them on. They were a much better fit. She grabbed a pair of wide silver cuffs and some duct tape. She tossed the cuffs to Eric, and picked up a dirty sock that she found on the floor. She went back to the toy section and grabbed a silver dagger and a crowbar. She didn't want to think about what he'd used it for, but she knew what she was going to.

Eric carefully pulled the net aside and put the cuffs on Mickey. He took off the net, grabbed Mickey's keys out of his pocket, and wound a thin silver chain he'd found around Mickey's neck and arms and body. Eric went to Sookie and unlocked her manacles. He bit into his wrist and trickled the blood into her mouth. Her maker did manage a scream then and, despite all of that silver, he began to thrash.

Pam walked over and slapped Mickey's face. "Open your mouth."

Mickey tried to spit at her but it just ran down his chin. He clamped his jaws shut and growled, "She's mine, cunt," through his teeth.

"You can open your fucking mouth, or I'll knock out your teeth, use the the crowbar to pry open your jaws, and then cut out your tongue. See how you like it."

Mickey glared at her, and she glared back. When he didn't open his mouth, she drew back the crowbar and aimed it at his face. He started to panic. "You can't have her. She's mine! I will fucking end you both. Let me go bitch, and give me what's mine! Sookie, I command you to ki…"

Pam grabbed his chin and held his jaw open. She stuffed the sock in as deep as it would go and duct taped over it, wrapping it around his head four or five times. Making sure to seal his nostrils, just in case.

She went to Eric and got the keys. He didn't even notice. Sookie was awake, sitting up against the headboard, holding Eric's wrist tightly with both hands as she drank from it. They were staring into each other's eyes, and Pam got a terrible feeling of unease. She pushed it aside.

She sat Mickey in the office chair that was in the computer nook and duct taped him to it. She held onto the chair back and rolled him to the door. She had to lift the chair over the threshold, but it was still easier than navigating the silver covering much of his body.

She pushed him across the hard packed dooryard and into the shed she'd ducked into on the way in. She cut him free of the chair with the silver dagger and threw him onto the table. His eyes were wild, bulging and darting back and forth. His pupils were dilated wide in fear, leaving only a narrow ring of mud-coloured irises showing. She freed his hands and snapped the silver cuffs around his ankles and wrists. She took one of the big needles with a drain tube attached and stuck it into his jugular. She let the tube drain into a clean five gallon bucket she'd found in a stack in the corner. Presumably for when there wasn't time for filling one hundred and sixty vacutainers.

Pam took off the gloves, dropped them on the floor, and dusted off her hands. She glared at him. "I would love nothing more than to keep you locked in a dungeon somewhere. I would spend the rest of my existence torturing you in the most painful ways imaginable. But I'm not a sick fuck like you are."

He was still trying to thrash around, but he'd exhausted himself. Pam grabbed another empty bucket and swapped it out for the one that held about two quarts of his blood. She carried it into the cabin and poured some into a large mug she found in one of the cabinets, left over from the previous owner.

Sookie was lying back down. Eric was sitting next to her on the bed, stroking her hair away from her face. Sookie looked a little better, but she still didn't look close to well. She was healing very slowly, where she was healing at all. Silver poisoning, Pam thought, along with being completely drained.

Pam walked over with the mug, and Eric gently sat Sookie up, holding her steady with his hand splayed across her back. Pam held the cup while Sookie drank. The effects were almost instantaneous. Her wounds began to heal and her colour improved markedly. She was sitting on her own, although Eric didn't move his hand until she finished every drop that was in the bucket. He liked it there.

Sookie lay back down again, and immediately drifted into her healing rest. Eric grabbed his sword and Pam led him to the shed where Sookie's maker was shackled to the embalming table. The way Sookie had been so many times. The plastic tubing was only dripping into the bucket occasionally now. Each drop made a faint plopping sound as it landed, rippling the surface of the blood.

Eric punched Mickey in the cheek, snapping his head to the side with the force of the blow.

"I have seen many different ways to cause pain in one thousand years, and I would very much like to try every single one of them out on you. Maybe start with peeling off all of your skin before chopping off your arms and your legs and your cock."

Eric grinned down at him, his fangs long and his eyes glowing red. He looked like danger and malice. "I felt in her blood that she cares for me. That she wants me. Did you feel it, too, just a few minutes ago? When her fangs were buried in my wrist and she was drinking my blood? I did, so much better than before I'd had her blood and she'd had even more of mine. Attraction and affection and need. Has she ever felt like that when she was with you?"

Mickey struggled a little more, his gravelly screams barely audible through the gag. Eric laughed. "I could make love to her while you watched. Drink her blood while she drinks mine. Make her cum over and over. You could feel it again, just to make sure."

Eric leaned over and whispered in Mickey's ear. "If she and I exchange twice more, we'll be bonded. Less than that now that she's had even more of my blood. And I can't wait to drink hers again. It was the most delicious thing I've ever tasted. How does it feel, knowing you'll never get another drop?"

Pam's eyebrows had disappeared under her hair. Bonded? To another immortal? Was he insane? Even if it was just talk, it was a stunning suggestion. He couldn't be anywhere close to serious.

Eric punched Mickey again. "But she will never be free if you still exist. She is bound by your commands. Bound by your call. She would spend her death always looking over her shoulder, terrified that you would somehow get away and come for her. Plus, your maker is very powerful. No point in tempting fate."

Eric twirled his sword in a flourish at his side before raising it and swinging. Mickey's head rolled off of the table and onto the floor.

Inside the cabin, Sookie sat up and screamed.