But you know that you can't fight the moonlight

No you can't fight it

No matter what you do

The night is gonna get to you – Leann Rimes

Eric POV

I register Felicia as she rushes into the room but for the first time in my vampire life, I just do not have the strength to react. I hear her say that she may know where Sookie is and some of the fog that had settled over me after that phone call starts to lift. It lifts barely but it is enough for me to ask where she is. I feel like I am on a delay though because I do not hear her response until Karin and Pam have already reacted to it.

I sit up on the bed hoping that will clear my head more as I hear Felicia say, or more like process what she said, that Sookie could be in Oklahoma. I shake my head trying to clear it as I try to think about any connection my maker has to Oklahoma and I am coming up with no plausible connections. Appius hasn't even been in this country since I have left him. I don't know much about the Queen of Oklahoma but nothing I do know of her would connect her to Appius in any way. Why she would be offering him refuge, if she even knows that he is in her state is beyond me.

My first instinct is to rush into Oklahoma and destroy anything in my path until I find Sookie. In my mind I am already laying out all I know about the state and just where the likely spots are that Appius could be holding her, if he is even there of course; and that thought is why I am still sitting on my bed and not flying to Oklahoma this second.

It is not that I doubt the work Felicia has done; I have no doubt that there was a second plane that left from that particular spot and that it landed in Oklahoma. I just don't know if that is where Sookie is now. I wouldn't put it past Appius to send me on a wild goose chase, having me think I am so close to her when the truth is I am moving further and further away from her. It would not surprise me at all if he even doubled back and is somewhere close, right under my nose. That is exactly something that he can do.

I rest my head in my hands as I listen to the three female vampires discus what I am already thinking. I cannot add anything more to the conversation so I just sit quietly and listen.

The presence of Appius makes me further believe this is all my fault. My maker had Sookie kidnapped as a way to get to me, as a way to hurt me. I have no idea what his plans are let alone what he may be doing to her at this precise moment. My mind runs wild with the endless scenarios of what could be happening to her, what he could be doing to her.

Sookie had described a place in her head that she went when there were things in her life that she could not deal with, when she needed to escape the events occurring around her. That is something that I can relate to. When I needed to block everything out, I did so with a black cloud in my mind, focusing on nothing but that black cloud. I can see that black cloud slowly creep into my mind and I admit it is tempting to again focus on it; to just allow myself to sink into the nothingness it would allow and push everything else out of my mind.

But I can't do it. I can't do it for many reasons, the first of which is that I can't let my maker win again. I have to stay strong and fight against whatever power he has over me. There is much magic in the maker-child bond that is difficult to fight; this is something that I can. I cannot let him reduce me to this again.

A second reason, and a far more important reason in my mind, is that if I give in to that black cloud that does Sookie no good. I have to stay strong for myself but the bigger reason is to stay strong for Sookie. I cannot fail myself by giving in; I cannot fail my children and the rest of our little family by giving in. But most importantly, I cannot fail Sookie by giving in, especially given that she is in the hands of my psychotic maker.

So I push the black cloud back, not giving it any entry into my mind.

"Why now?" I ask, getting up off of the bed. It is less of a question and simply me thinking out loud. If I can find out why now, what motivated Appius to act now, I may be able to try and determine his endgame, his goal in all of this. If I know what he is trying to do, I can try to get one step ahead of him, or at the very least predict his next move. That will get Sookie back to me sooner. That is what we need to try and do.

I look up to see the three females vampires simply staring at me. Felicia gives me a little nod while my children give me a smile that I have not seen from them in nights. "Welcome back," Pam says to me as Karin comes over and wraps her arms around one of mine.

"I did not go anywhere," I tell them.

"Physically, you were here with us, but in here," my older child says while wrapping gently on my head. "In here you've been somewhere else almost the entire time Sookie has been missing."

I know I have been numb. I know I have been in a fog but if something like that made me miss something, made me do something wrong that could have cost us getting Sookie, I will never be able to forgive myself. I am about to say just that when Pam says, "Do you really think we wouldn't have stopped something or we wouldn't have done something that needed to be done to get Sookie back. You needed your time Eric. You needed your time to mourn otherwise it would have affected you this whole time. That's why you have us. We hold down the fort for you."

"And I could not be more thankful," I say to them before taking each of my children in my arms. Felicia come over and gives me on pat on the back, which is more than I would expect from her. "Okay, this is what we have to do," I say before starting to explain my latest plans. I have to call Sophie-Anne again and see what she knows about Oklahoma. As another monarchy, she would probably have more information than me. Maybe Oklahoma has started to move in on Louisiana as well; the Queen's penchant for females is not a secret.

I also need an update on anything de Castro has been up to. It will not matter if I get Sookie back if I have no place safely to bring her back to. I will also have to see how she would feel about a potential attack on Oklahoma should the situation call for that. I will go in without her if need be, the second I get any proof that Sookie is truly there, but it will be easier if I have her support. To get Sookie back, that is something that I think I will have.

"Felicia, I need you to see if you can find where in Oklahoma that plane landed and see if you can find any proof of how they could have left that spot." I hand her my cell phone and tell her, "See if you can get anything from this, from where the last call came in from. That may help."

I turn to Pam and gently ask her to see if she could contact Alcide to see if we could get help from the pack. I know Tray has not woken up yet; I know at this point the chances of him waking up and being healthy are slim even with his Were healing. I know that would simply crush my child who may not even understand herself how much she feels for Tray and Amelia. She nods though before giving me one last hug and leaving the room, probably to check on Tray before calling Alcide.

I turn to Karin and ask if she will work with Thalia to make sure we are covered with the vampires here, in Arkansas, and if we have to attack anywhere. She nods as she, Felicia, and myself leave my bedroom. I take one look back at the bloody sheet on the bed, bloody from my tears. I will have to wash them tonight and with the blood, Sookie's scent will be washed off with it.

That's just more motivation to get her back quickly so I do not have to go many nights without her scent or without her by my side.

Thalia POV

As soon as I know that Jason is here I immediately go to him and wrap him up in my arms. He shakes them off though and immediately goes over to Eric when he comes back into the room. This is despite my hold on his arm. He looks determined and I am just worried about what will come out of his mouth. I'm worried about how Eric will respond to whatever is about to come out of Jason's mouth. I am worried how Sookie will respond to Eric's response to what is about to come out of Jason's mouth.

I have a lot of worry at the moment.

Eric stands up taller as Jason approaches him and no one tries to stop him. He makes his way to stand in front of Eric and the height of the taller vampire does not seem to intimidate the older Stackhouse. I see the tears Jason has been trying to hold back start to fall down his face as he says to Eric, "You said that you would protect my sister. You promised she would be safe."

This is the last thing Eric needs at the moment; he's doing enough of blaming himself he doesn't need others to do it as well. I start to make my way over to the two men as I hear Eric say, "I did and I meant it."

I make it to the two of them who are simply staring at each other. These two both have so much love for the little blond woman in question and I sure as hell hope that is doesn't explode right now.

"Well," Jason says stepping impossibly closer to Eric causing me to step even closer to him. "What do you plan to do to get my little sister back to both of us, to all of us," he amends while he starts to look around the room. He extends his hand to Eric who immediately takes it and wraps the shorter man in a hug, surprising everyone.

"We will get her back," Eric tells Jason. "I will make sure we get her back and make sure who took her pays for it."

"That's all I ask," Jason tells him taking a step back. "That and the opportunity to make him pay right along side you," he adds sticking out his hand for Eric to shake again. I feel my own little internal panic at that thought. It's just like Jason to come and want to dive right it; in fact I am shocked that he didn't come here with the proverbial pitchforks ready for a fight tonight. He would do anything to get his sister back.

And that right there is what my fear is.

Jason will dive right in where this search for Sookie takes us but he isn't prepared for my world; Sookie's kidnapping shows that sometimes we aren't even prepared for our world. I look past Jason to Eric who gives me a little nod, which shows he understands my fear. He shows Jason some paperwork and the two of them look over that. I see what he's doing; he's going to make sure Jason is involved, feels involved, in every step of the way.

I am just hoping that doesn't include the inevitable fight.

There is suddenly a loud pop in the room. Looking around, I see that there is one more person in the room that wasn't there a split second before. We all tense as we take in the newcomer. We haven't seen her often but the situation has never been tense when we have until now.

I don't know how she will take that Sookie is missing. I don't know how her family will take it that Sookie is missing, that a Fae princess has gone missing under our watch.

"Well," Claudine says as she takes in the room. "We have to start plan out just how we are going to get my cousin back."

Sookie POV

The bastard actually did let me talk with Eric. I'd give credit where credit is due but I know he must have had some sort of ulterior motive. He wouldn't let Eric talk to me out of the goodness of his heart; hell, I am starting to worry that when I do finally get to stab a piece of wood through his chest, there may not be a heart to hit.

I focus on the bond I share with Eric; that's what I have been clinging to through all of this. To know now that he doesn't have the same, that Appius made sure that he couldn't feel me through the bond, that nearly destroys me. Appius let that little tidbit of information spill after the phone call and my resolve to kill him gets a little stronger because of that.

The only thing that is keeping me from becoming destroyed, is knowing that is exactly what Appius wants. I still may not know what his overall plan is but I can imagine it would work better if both Eric and I were broken. I am going to make damn sure that doesn't happen on my end and I'm hoping Pam and the rest of our family is helping Eric make sure that it doesn't happen as well.

I cannot imagine what must have gone through him when he could no longer feel me. I can think about how upset I would be, how broken, how inconsolable I would be, and that is just with the thought of it. To actually experience it, well that would be a-whole-nother story all together.

Appius comes back into the room with a smile on his face that makes my insides freeze. Nothing good comes from this vampire's smile. "Did you enjoy your little chat with my child?" he asks me as he steps closer. I fight the pain and cradle my arm against my chest in case I have to run, at least that helps me think I stand a chance in running if it comes down to that.

I stay quiet not knowing which answer Appius wants; not knowing which answer will result in more pain for Eric. He seems to understand my hesitance though and doesn't seem to want any of it. "I thought you learned last night what would happen if you ignored me," he says as he motions to my arm, which brings a question to my mind.

I hesitate before I decide to ask it. I'm trapped in an empty room with my vampire husband's abusive maker. I have very little to lose in this scenario. The problem is the little I have to lose I very important, vital even. But I ask anyway. "You've done something so Eric can't feel me. I would have though you would have wanted him to feel whatever you have in store for me."

He looks at me in astonishment at first before letting out a little laugh. "I may have underestimated you."

"That's something Eric never did," I tell him and his laughter stops immediately.

"Yes, well something Eric also never will do is find you. He can't feel you so he can't find you." Yes, that much was obvious. If Eric could feel me he would have been here already and instead of dealing with this vampire, I would currently be standing looking at a pile of goo. Disgusting as it would be, I may even be celebrating my making goo angels in said pile. I internally shake my head at that thought; as happy as I will be when Appius is finally dead, there will be no goo angels…from me anyway. Thalia can do whatever it is she wants.

"That makes sense," I say, giving him that little caveat. "I just don't understand why you wouldn't want Eric to feel more," I say, barely getting those last words out. We both know what I am really asking in this question, what information I am actually asking for.

It earns me another laugh. I never realized I was quite this funny before.

"Eric doesn't need to feel anything that I may do to you, little bird. His mind will imagine much worse than I can ever dole out. It's always been like that with him; he has always been his own worst punishment. I haven't seen a reason to change that."

Something that Eric and I haven't spoken about in a long time enters my mind. Eric had thought that he had hurt me, was so worried that he had done the unthinkable; he has spent most of his vampire life ashamed at what he thought that he had done. It could have been me simply in denial but the way that Eric had reacted had me believing that it was something he could never do, no matter what the circumstances were.

But I had no doubt that his bastard of a maker would put him in a situation and have Eric believe that he had hurt those women, especially with what he just told me. "Eric never hurt any of those women he thought he did, did he?" I ask even though in my head I already know the answer; in my heart I have always known the answer to the question.

The look of shock on his face is worth me asking the question. Even if the answer is not what I expect, though that would probably be a lie, the shock on his face is worth it. It doesn't last long though but it is firmly ingrained in my memory.

"Of course not," Appius bites out, the disappointment ever in his voice. "Eric has never been strong enough or smart enough to grab what he wants, to take what he needs. He should have taken those girls. He should have used those girls in every single way that he could have. But Eric, my child, has always been weak. I thought I had managed to beat it out of him but it appears that I have not," he bites out motioning to me.

His words are cruel enough as they circle around in my head but his tone as he said those words is simply horrific. I have heard stories. I have seen the long lasting affects his actions have had on Eric. I have seen a small portion of that with what he has done to me her and now. But the tone I heard in his voice as he said those things makes me realize how monstrous this vampire standing in front of me is.

I start laughing which causes a look of confusion on Appius' face. "You think Eric is the weaker of the two of you. You are dead wrong. He's the stronger one, stronger by miles. It's you that's weak and I am going to love the look on your face when you finally figure that out." And I will, almost as much as the look on his face when I ram a piece of wood into his chest. I don't mention that, thinking it would cross some invisible line, but looking at the look on the vampire's face, I already did cross that line.

Appius approaches me and suddenly, I don't think he remembers his plan to have Eric's imagination be all the punishment for us. Now he looks like he is dead set on punishing me.

The door opens and I never thought I would be thankful to have another person in the room with me here but I am happy for the interruption and distraction at the moment. I feel the void before I see and hear the vampire who belongs to it. I make a mental note to try and see if anyone will tell me what is keeping me from hearing anyone that is not in the room with me. In fact, I am about to ask Appius when I hear the voice of the second vampire say, "My, my. It certainly sounds like you two are having fun in here. Mind if I join?"

I close my eyes as I take in the voice of the second vampire. I don't need to see his face to know who it is. I may have only met him once, but I won't forget the sound of his voice.

I don't know how we could have been so stupid to not even think of this; to not even consider that all of these coincidences were more than that, were somehow connected. The events of the past few months come rushing back into my head and I just don't know how we didn't see it. We must have been really off our game to miss everything. If we can end this, this is something we can never do again.

I open my eye when I don't hear anything more to find both vampires simply staring at me, an evil smirk on both of their faces. "You are more than welcome to join," Appius says, once again gesturing to me. "In fact Felipe, I damn well encourage you to."

Hello dear readers. I do hope that you have enjoyed this chapter as we have a few more characters coming in to thicken the plot a little bit. We also got an answer to something that has been weighing Eric down for a very long time. More and more pieces are starting to be known so you can imagine that whatever is coming is getting bigger.

As always, thanks for reading and thanks for taking the time to review. Thanks to all the guest reviewers I can't respond directly to. I really appreciate it.

Jackie69 – Sorry about your computer issues and I am certainly glad that it appears to be fixed now. Yes, Appius sure knows Eric well and unfortunately that means he knows his vulnerability. Though, Eric has gotten a bit stronger since he last saw Appius so hopefully that helps him get through this. And yes, we have a mention of Oklahoma – though what that means will be seen in the coming chapters. You are not the only one hoping that Pam's words are some foreshadowing to come.