A/N I'm coming back to this piece after a very long hiatus. I plan to finish it, however, and it will be about 20 chapters in total. Thank you for reading. No copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter Six

"Carly?"

Every inch of her visual field was filled with blood, and the stench—like a refrigerator full of warm, rotted, meat that sat next to an overfull toilet—flooded her nose and kept Carly from breathing in a full breath, from filling her lungs, or from exhaling the terror she felt now that she saw what she'd done.

Eric touched the tips of her fingers and she recoiled.

"Carly, please, speak to me."

"How could we do this?"

"We had to, Carly. Jimmy and the other officer would have died," Eric whispered in her ear so that the rescue personnel and the crime scene investigators who rushed into the living room couldn't hear. "Others would have died as well."

She turned her head to look up into Eric's eyes, grasped his hand and smashed it into her bracelet. A surge of energy went through her—went through both of them—but the third entity didn't rise up autonomously and displace their will.

But the last obstacles between their two minds vanished, leaving only a vat of memory, of longing, of fear, perched between them. Carly knew Eric's pride in their power, his thirst for revenge slated entirely and transformed into a sense of peace that they could end such extreme violence in safety—that Pam, and even Thalia—would be safe, unharmed by monsters that startled even him in their brutality and appetite. Eric knew Carly's terror, her fear of losing the ability to navigate within a moral universe, the fear that they would become a power unto themselves, that this creature they became together would violate the constraints the ancestors placed on her. Its abilities—to speak to others silently—to move through space invisible to the eye—seemed unstoppable, which seemed also to be an end for them, to be a place where they would cease to be.

"Dear god!" Andrews stepped into the scene, saw the quartered werewolf—its torso popped like a balloon full of intestines and its limbs distributed to the edges of the room—and vomited. "Oh god...Harrison! I need a marker so you know that's mine." Andrews, hunched over with his hands on his knees, asked Eric: "Why are you so damned clean, Northman?"

"Vampires can move quickly, Miles."

"Not that damn quickly." He straightened. "Carly, how can you stand this? Why are you in here?"

Carly felt her spine straighten with anger. "Please stop asking these questions. You don't want to hear the answers, and we don't want to give them."

"Fair. Will my suspects answer my questions?"

"Much more willingly than your allies." Eric put his arm around Carly, looked for Thalia and Pam, and asked, "May we be excused?"

"Not quite yet," Carly interrupted. She scanned the room for the familiar shimmer—the waves of death that rose from the ground, that hovered, bending the light that refracted through it for her eyes, not for others'. She stepped away from her lover and toward the horrific scene at the front door, where the two officers' heads had been gnawed upon, but found nothing.

"Carly," Eric cautioned, but his voice betrayed fear rather than patriarchal insistence.

"I have to..."

"But it's over in this corner." I see it, Carly, next to the wolf we killed. I see it.

Carly watched as Eric walked straight into the shimmering energy to stand beside the neck of the mauled wolf, but it stayed there, even once Eric moved within it.

"It still needs me, I guess." Carly took long strides to her vampire and felt the agony as she was crushed by a many-headed hydra with fiery tentacles, as the pressure on her body caused it to explode, and as smaller tentacles wrapped around her head, wrists, and ankles and ripped them away with enough force to tow an airplane.

Eric wrinkled his nose in disgust as Carly felt the energy churn through her body and transform and hum with life.

Carly looked down at her hands and contemplated the garnet eyes of the dragon and the wolves that encircled her wrist, the legacy of Eric's grandfather that had somehow, through some unknown course of miracles, found its way to her. The ancient creatures returned her gaze and a fire came alight within the stones. The greasy energy left behind from the shape-shifters, what Eric perceived as a horrible turpentine-like smell, now clearly less offensive than it had been the first time he'd encountered it months ago in Sweden as he saved her life, siphoned away through the red fires of the bracelet.

"It's gone." Eric said quietly.

"Are you two okay? Should I get a patrolman to drive you back?" Andrews asked. "I have to stay here to supervise."

Eric replied. "Pam can drive us back."

"Excuse me," Pam called from outside the back door. "Don't take this the wrong way, or give me shit about it, but shouldn't we take Jimmy with us? And if we do, can we make sure he doesn't ruin my upholstery?"

The injured vampire still leaned back against the wall, his legs splayed out in front of him, one still at an impossible angle, sipping on a TruBlood offered by an EMT. Jimmy trembled, alternating looks between the throat of the EMT, whose hair was pulled back tightly in a pony-tail, and looks toward Eric, who finally reciprocated the attention.

"Yes, Jimmy, you should come with us." Eric avoided the wreckage left behind by humans and werewolves and moved to squat at eye-level beside the young vampire. "Are you ready to move? What do you need?"

"Clean clothes... In my dresser. Could you or your friend go get some for me?"

"Pardon me," the EMT interrupted, "but shouldn't he get some kind of medical treatment?"

"With more blood, he'll heal." Eric stood. "Bedroom?"

With effort and audible grunts, Jimmy raised his arm and pointed down a hallway.

At self-consciously slow speed, Eric maneuvered through the room and turned a corner into a short hallway. In a few moments, he returned with a small duffel bag and a few towels.

"I'll take over from here," Eric hoisted Jimmy up to standing.

He whimpered as his bones fell back into alignment.

"Don't worry. We'll get that straight." Eric looked out the door to Thalia. "Please?"

Without hesitation, Thalia took Jimmy's other side and the two—Eric stooping to match Jimmy's slight frame and Thalia pushing up with her arms above her head—gingerly walked him toward a bathroom. Please go be with Pam, Carly, you don't need to stand here any longer. You don't need to see all this.

Carly closed her eyes. But we did this.

Some of it. But I think that it is reactive—I suspect it acts justly.

I'll hold onto that...and hope.

Reunited with Pam, Carly looked across the trees that separated Jimmy's house from his rear neighbors. This could be any subdivision in America. Ticky-tacky, unimaginatively built boxes tightly packed into quarter acre lots with thirty feet between neighbors, flimsy fences separating them from one another. "Has Jimmy always lived here?"

"Yeah," Pam nodded. "He inherited it from his parents—they died in a car wreck a couple of years ago. He was an only child, pretty pathetic, but pretty. His maker likes them young and attractive, but he has a short attention span. If he hasn't learned his lesson, at least he's at least not here anymore."

"How long has Jimmy been a vampire?"

"Since right after the Great Revelation." Pam leaned into the irony of the term and drew it out. While she didn't put "air quotes" around the name, she might has well have. "He has the dubious distinction of being the first vampire made in Shreveport after it happened. But Joseph's attention didn't even hold for a month."

"Seriously?"

"Serious as a heart attack. The bastard even cut him loose. Kid had no idea how to do anything and just wandered in to Eric's office, desperate for help."

"It's a miracle he didn't kill anyone," Carly added.

"It really is." Pam lifted up her feet and looked at their bottoms. "Did Eric give you my keys?"

"No. Do you need them?"

"You don't have to go back in there, Carly, really. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. I can wait."

Carly concentrated a moment, thinking about Eric's long fingers as they shoved Pam's ridiculous keyring—two keys, the car fob, and a sequined high-heel—into his pocket. In her mind's eye, she watched as smoke curled around his hip, contending with the steam that rose from Jimmy's shower, and plunged into Eric's pocket to encircle the keys. Once they were in her grasp, she unrolled her fingers from her palm to reveal them to Pam. "Here."

"You know, Carly, in 1951, I lost this fabulous pair of earrings." Pam smiled a little devilishly. "What do you think? Could you get them back for me?"

"Very funny." Could I get them? Would I get them from whatever thrift store drawer they're sitting in or retrieve them from the landfill they found their way to or would I find myself in 1951? A hot wind blew past her ear carrying laughter and a cry ... do not break time. "I don't think so, Pam. I think I've got some temporal limitations. And what if they were gross now because you dropped them in the dirt?"

"Hell, it's worth asking."

"You'd probably have more luck with your New York antique dealers." Carly raised her arm and rattled the slightly loosened bracelet at her friend. "I think that they have their own magic."

"That's not a bad idea..." Pam drifted off. "But why cry over spilt milk. I can always buy new earrings, or have my maker buy them for me."

Without warning, Carly's throat loosened and she took a deep breath, and then laughed. "Or, alternatively, you can go shopping with my mom."

"That sounds divine." Pam reached out and patted Carly on the shoulder. "It's going to take me a little bit longer to get used to all of this, but I'm grateful that I'm on the same side as you. I just wished I understood what was going on a little better."

"Maybe talk to Thalia?" Carly remembered that it was altogether likely that Thalia and the Pythia not only knew each other but were related to one another. "Perhaps she can put a good word in for you with the Pythia."

"Oh ho, no." Pam waved a hand in denial. "I don't want into the club. It seems to have terrible hours." Pam smiled. "I may be lazy, and vain, and superficial, and vain, but I am patient. Eventually, you or Eric will be able to tell me more. And I'll just stay out of your way until then." She paused again, "And be as much help as I can. So far, it looks like you just need me as a driver, except when you and Eric do that nonsense and just show up."

"Pam," Eric called out as he, Thalia, and Jimmy emerged from the house, "I think I will need to carry Jimmy to your car. Could you try to move it closer to the house to save him the pain?" Eric reached for the keys—

"I took them," Carly interjected. "Pam already has them."

"You've taken up pick-pocketing, my love?" Eric chuckled slightly as he lifted Jimmy over rough ground.

The vampire still couldn't walk, but his leg seemed straight again.

Thalia provided the update for Pam and Carly. "He will heal, but human blood best."

"Let me get to my phone, then," Pam headed out at the front of the group. The street was too filled with emergency vehicles for her to get any closer to the house, so they had to walk the full distance.

As the group walked back to Pam's car, they caught snippets of speech from the police and paramedics.

"Reports from all over the state..."

"...what the hell are these guys on?"

"Supermeth, I heard about it, you know, they're bikers..."

"...wolves..."

Jimmy's voice quaked. "Sheriff, sir, will it stop hurting?"

"Yes. Soon." When they reached the car, Eric asked, "Pam, can you and Thalia sit in the back with Jimmy?"

Thalia climbed into the car, reached out her hands and said, "Put him across me." Eric placed Jimmy's head and shoulders in Thalia's arms and she cradled him close to her. "You will live, child."

"Ugh...his shoes better be clean." Pam snarled, but added. "We'll take care of you until you feel better. But don't you dare cry. I don't want to have to get this detailed.

When Carly climbed into the passenger seat, she reached across the center console and grasped Eric's forearm. Can one of them remake Jimmy?

Eric shook his head as he backed away from the crime scene. I know they seem maternal right now, but I doubt it.

The five of them traveled in silence back to Fangtasia. By that point, Jimmy could stumble into the back entrance of the club on his own power. In the time since their departure, the club had opened and patrons filled the bar. Carly sensed that there were a few more vampires present than there were typically. Rather than four or five, Carly could hear almost thirty distinct sets of the buzzing characteristic of vampire minds. All of them were vaguely familiar; she concluded most of the vampires of Shreveport were in the crowd.

Once Jimmy was comfortable on Eric's sofa, Pam went out into the fray. Eric sat behind his desk and moved Carly into his lap. Thalia remained on the sofa with the young vampire. "Pam says you do not feed correctly."

"Yeah, I never learned how." Jimmy's voice turned wistful. "I really thought I loved Joseph and that he loved me, and we would be together forever. I was so lonely. Then he just left."

"You need to learn so you can heal." Thalia would not leave aside that topic to commiserate over Jimmy's romantic disappointments. "The bottled blood will not be enough—it has no spirit to it."

At that moment, Pam returned with a solidly-built woman in her early forties. She introduced her to the occupants. "I think you know Eric and Thalia, right Angela?"

Angela nodded, but held out her hand to Carly, "I've seen you in the club. Just call me Angie. I don't know why Pam's so formal. She acts like I'm a nun or something." The woman chuckled.

"Nice to meet you, Angie."

Pam gestured toward Jimmy. "This is Jimmy. I told you about him on the phone."

Angie moved so that she flanked Jimmy on the other side of the sofa. "Hi, Jimmy. I'm a friend of Pam's, and she told me that you weren't feeling well."

"Yeah," Jimmy replied and then started to shake. "These men—"

"Werewolves, Jimmy," Eric corrected. "Your eyes did not fool you. They were werewolves."

"God—" Jimmy's weeping escalated and he started to suck in swallows of air. "They broke into my house and my alarm went off." Jimmy pointed to Pam. "Pam helped me put it in so that she knew if I left the house without calling her."

"Yeah, well," Pam hemmed. "He was low. I didn't want him hurting himself."

"So it went off, and the police came to help me," he whimpered. "And they ripped them apart, right in front of me."

"You don't need to tell me," Angie comforted him, speaking softly and stroking his hand. "But Pam tells me that it's harder for you to heal if you just drink TruBlood."

"I guess so." Jimmy wiped away the blood from his eyes with his shirt-tails. "I really don't know too much."

"Pam and I have known each other a while," Angie smiled at Pam with a loving, although somewhat disappointed smile. Angie tapped her substantial thigh. "I've got a little blood to spare, so I'm happy to help. Are you strong enough to bite me?"

Angie pulled her arms from a jean jacket and pulled aside her tank top and the bra strap beneath it. She angled herself slightly away from Jimmy, but peered over her shoulder at him. "If you bite me right here, not too deep, you can get enough blood, but you won't kill me."

"Are you sure?" Jimmy was overcome with desire and fear at the same time, and he looked to every other person in the room for permission before his fangs popped down.

"I will keep hold of you," Thalia reassured him. "I will take her pulse—pull you away when you need to finish."

Angie took his hand in hers and pulled him toward her. "Just here," she pointed, "it won't take much, or too long."

With that final encouragement, Jimmy bit into Angie's throat and started to pull blood from the wound.

Throughout this all, Carly watched, but never thought, never listened. Here were three of the biggest "bad-ass" vampires in Shreveport, the thousand year-old Viking sheriff/nightclub owner, the practically feral Greek vampire who would have been a contemporary of Anixameter or Pythagoras, and the dismissive, aloof, one hundred year-old vampire who had run a brothel in Vichy Paris and regularly outsmarted and humiliated Nazis. Yet here they were, patiently teaching an abandoned vampire how to feed from a compassionate, willing donor, who seemed to be a close friend of Pam's.

"Stop," Thalia commanded.

And Jimmy pulled away without protest.

"This is good, child. You have no hunger—even wounded." Thalia patted Jimmy on the head as if he'd been a good puppy. "You shall go with me to your rest."

"Really?" Jimmy looked to Thalia with a wide-eyed wonder.

"Yes, you will be mine now." Thalia rose, "You will be a good companion. I have been alone too long."

Eric interjected, "Godric will not object."

"Notify him," Thalia replied. "It is done tonight."

Jimmy rose and followed the tiny vampire obediently out of the office, out the back of the nightclub, and into the woods.

"I'll be damned." Pam sighed. "I was not expecting her to do that."

Once Pam healed Angie's wounds, the two of them left together, hand in hand, and Carly and Eric continued to sit together, curled up in his office chair.

"Have you recovered, beloved?" He asked after almost an hour passed. "You should rest. Shall I take you home?"

Carly caressed Eric's cheek and then traced his jaw line to his chin, which she pinched gently and drew down to look at her. "I don't want to live at the Kelseys' anymore. I want to live with you." She kissed his lips, but the kiss was a kiss of sorrow and fear. "I want to make sure that when I wake and leave, you are in the safest place possible."

Eric closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against hers. "My home is your home." He kissed her again, and bored into her with his thoughts. You are my home.

Carly laughed, "But don't have a bed or security system built in."

"A house is not a home," Eric smirked, "isn't that how the song goes?"

"Yes, of course the problem is also that I don't have a car with me so that I can get to work in the morning."

"Are you sure you want to go to work?" Eric asked.

"I have to." Carly remembered that the last time she'd been to the office, Ellen was waiting to hear from her oncologist about a treatment plan for her ovarian cancer. "I have to check in with Ellen and find out how I can help."

As Eric traced the lines of her palm with his thumb, he said, "It is too bad you can't remove her cancer."

Carly had never even considered it. "Do you think I should try?"

"I have no idea, Carly. I don't think that you should reveal these additional powers to anyone. Pam and Thalia can be trusted, but I doubt others are as trustworthy."

"Should you have mentioned the werewolves in front of Angie?"

"Angie is an old friend—at one point, I expected she would be added to our family. Once upon a time, she and Pam were very much in love." Eric kissed Carly's cheek. "But Angie also loves her family very much and was not willing to leave them behind. And Pam did not want to leave me again."

"Why would she have to?"

"Before the Great Revelation, how would someone like Angie say, 'No, mom, I can't come to see you in the daytime, or come to Thanksgiving dinner, or help you clean the family silver'? And most vampires—really all vampires, since I've never seen one like Jimmy—cannot control themselves when they are first turned. They are always hungry and run the risk of killing in blind bloodlust. Their anger, or their desire, can get the best of them, and they can kill without remorse." Eric shook his head. "It really makes Jimmy all the more interesting, really. This is one of the reasons why we wanted to help him. Before the Great Revelations, I would have just staked him to protect the human public and to put him out of his misery."

"Do you think his maker ordered him not to kill?" Carly asked.

"No, because his maker has released him. None of his commands hold any sway over him, so even if he did, Jimmy would no longer need to follow them. No, something is different about him, which is likely why Thalia decided to take him with her."

"So she'll drain him again?"

"Yes, and spend the night in the ground with him to make him her own." Eric chuckled. "He might have a calming influence on her." Eric moved for Carly to disembark and take a seat on the sofa. "Let me call Godric."

Within moments, Eric had Godric on the speaker. "My child..."

"Yes, and Carly is here as well."

"Then, it is to be my children. I heard that Carly has taken a tour of the state today."

"Have you talked to Sookie?" Carly asked.

"No," Godric's disappointment was clear. "But Yevgeny gave me an update about the wolf in Bon Temps. He said you departed abruptly. He asks that you not do it again, for Adele's sake."

"Oh my god..." Carly remembered that she'd just disappeared from sight. "I'm sorry. I need to apologize."

"Perhaps another day." Godric changed the subject. "Eric, why do you call?"

"Wolves attacked a young vampire here in Shreveport."

"How many?"

"Three."

"So we have accounted for nine in Louisiana."

"At least." Eric looked down at his cellphone as he spoke. "Andrews sent me a text message during daylight that mentioned additional state police reports. But two are dead, four are in my dungeon, two are in custody in Shreveport, and one in Bon Temps."

"Did the vampire survive?"

"Yes, but two police officers were killed, and one is badly injured."

"Ask Esther Night to visit the injured officer. She may atone for her complicity with Edgar by offering her blood."

"Yes, my king." Eric added. "The injured vampire is named Jimmy Watson. His maker turned him immediately after the Great Revelation and then abandoned him. Thalia will make him her own tonight. She asked me to notify you."

"Thalia?"

"Yes."

"That is extraordinary."

"We thought so." Eric added, "We were startled by her choice, particularly because Carly had asked me whether Thalia or Pam might be willing to remake him while we drove back to Fangtasia. Is it possible that Thalia has some abilities that we do not know of?"

"Anything is possible, as we have recently learned." Godric went silent a moment. "It is also possible that she has capacities for mercy we were unaware of- or loneliness."

And again, just as he did when she first met him, Godric sounded depressed, lonely, tired of life. The passion, intensity, and the promise of joy that had been there days before, when he met Sookie, had departed just as quickly as they had arrived. And Carly felt a rage well up in her that caught her by surprise.

It surprised Eric even more abruptly and violently. "Carly, what have I done?"

With that, she laughed. "You are not the only being in the world that can make me angry, Eric Northman."

"Carly," Godric contributed over the phone line, "please, I felt the echo of your anger, and I suspect that it is directed at Sookie."

"Yes," Carly agreed, "it is. I don't understand why she hasn't called you. Really, I don't understand why she didn't stay with you in New Orleans."

"If she wishes to return to me, she will. Until that time, I must give her sufficient space. Otherwise she will feel ensnared." Godric changed the subject again. "Eric, please check on your dependents tonight and make sure that they are all accounted for."

"Lots of them are here," Carly volunteered. "I felt them when we got back."

"I will contact the other sheriffs to give them the same directive." Godric wrapped up the call. "Keep me apprised of the situation. I would also appreciate it if you could check on Sookie and Adele in the next few days. I am certain that Adele would be happy to feed Carly again. She seemed to appreciate her capacity for macaroni and cheese."

Just as they were preparing to leave Eric's office, he looked again at Carly and realized that she was still filthy, covered in household dust. "Let's clean you up."

Eric yanked her shirt off over her head and rummaged through a box for a Fangtasia t-shift. He kissed her aggressively and said, "If duty did not call, I would take you straight home and keep you under me until the sunrise."

Carly returned the kiss and then whispered, "But duty does call."

Hand in hand, the two—the valkyrie and her viking—went out into the club. Eric lifted her onto the stage and then followed. Carly pulled her "Carly" pillow up to his "throne" and leaned against him once he was sitting. Even with the pulsing music, Carly felt herself begin to drift off until Eric reached out to her silently. I'm going to summon them up one-by-one. They know better than to say anything about you, but I might have to send you to Pam.

That's okay. I understand. Do you want me to go now?

No, I need your counsel.

Eric spotted Esther in the crowd and crooked his finger to her to summon her to him.

"Yes, sheriff," Esther said, once she was up on the stage with him.

"Godric commands that you go to the hospital and find the police officer injured tonight in the invasion of Jimmy Watson's home. Give him your blood so that heals more quickly." Eric added, "Take Longshadow with you. Alan can fill in for him." Eric got Longshadow's attention and then gestured first to Esther and then to Alan."

"I understand," Esther affirmed.

"Is all well otherwise?" Eric asked.

"Yes, but everyone is on edge after the wolf attacks. I think that they just want the reassurance of being together."

"Yes, I can understand that." Eric went silent for a few moments. "Return to the club when you are finished."

Eric spotted a group of young vampires and summoned them to the stage together. "Are all in your nest accounted for?" he asked.

"Yes, sheriff."

One by one, and in small groups, all the vampires checked in with their sheriff. They shared the locations of nestmates who had not come to the club, of friends who had gone into hiding, or locked themselves into safe-rooms in their houses. After sending a number of text messages, Eric had accounted for all of the vampires in his district. Carly had never got a precise census of how many vampires lived in the area, but she knew it was a surprisingly small number, especially given the way the threat was presented by groups like the Fellowship of the Sun.

At two AM, the bar stopped serving alcohol, but rather than bringing out the go-go dancers, Eric stopped the music and announced, "We must say goodnight to our human friends early. We look forward to seeing you again soon, but you must leave now." The remaining humans a little dazed as they got up and left the bar, but they departed without protest or delay.

Eric retreated back to his throne and addressed the crowd of vampires. "As you all know, my companion has pledged the same fealty to our king that we all have, so I have not dismissed her."

A small ripple went through the group as Esther and Longshadow returned to the bar. Esther nodded to Eric, but Longshadow glowered and growled at a young vampire who blocked his path. Only when he returned to stand behind the bar did Carly see that he was covered in blood to his waist.

Carly tried to focus on Longshadow's mind, but was distracted by the dark waves of energy that rose around him.

"Longshadow," Eric called out. "Approach before we begin our meeting."

Longshadow crossed the distance to the stage in an instant. "I'm not interested in another errand, Northman."

"Up," Eric summoned. "Closer." I'll get him close enough to you, Carly.

As Longshadow stepped into her orbit, Carly felt fur rise to stand along her neck and blood and muscle go down her throat—she was a wolf tearing at the throat of a man—not a vampire—at the edge of a stand of trees not far from the bar—she recognized the smell of adhesives that wafted from a book-binder half a mile from Fangtasia. And then she felt fangs at her own neck, ripping, tearing, and silence.

She focused her intent on the eyes on her bracelet, felt the spark within them come to life, and felt the energy depart through them into the world where it belonged, leaving behind a human energy that continued to pulse and resonate through her body.

"What happened, Longshadow?" Eric asked so quietly that Carly could barely hear.

"Another wolf. It was distracted by a kill—a human kill—so I could rip its throat out." Longshadow glared down at Carly. "Have I done well, mistress?"

"Do not test me," Eric growled. "You will not address her, and if you try to shame her, you will die the true death."

"Yeah, whatever." Longshadow stood straight. "I want out. Give me my cut so I can leave this damned town. I'm done."

"You will have a check tomorrow." Eric lifted his chin sharply to dismiss the other vampire. "Be here at sundown to sign the papers."

Once Longshadow was off the stage, Eric carressed Carly's cheek and stood in front of the crowd. "As you know, werewolves have attacked vampires and humans in the last two days. The king of Mississippi is missing, and Heinrich Himmler has met his true death, at long last, a creature that should never have been made vampire. Many of you have shared with me tonight that you feel unsafe in your homes. I wish to offer you sanctuary during the daylight hours if you believe that your homes are not sufficiently secure. You will recall that my former office was once a bank. Years ago, I modified the vault so that it could be opened and closed from the inside so that it could be used as a secure refuge for vampires. Although it will be close quarters, it can accommodate all who wish to stay there until this threat has passed."

Many of the vampires began to nod and say "thank you, sheriff."

"I must leave enough time to go to my own rest, so please meet me there at 4:00 AM." Eric turned to lift Carly to standing. "You may stay until that time."

Eric retreated to his office with Carly. He kissed her and whispered, "Let us go get what you need."