A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long but I did warn you at the start of the story that updates would be slow until I got a new computer. Bad news is that Eric and I disagreed on this chapter but we eventually worked it out, just keep in mind that it might be a little weird because of it. Good news is I just got a new laptop and soon it will be fully operational (I still have to make a few adjustments though). And thank-you for all the support I have received for this story i really appreciate it!

Don't forget to R&R!!

Okay enough rambling...Enjoy!


Chapter 3- The mystery man

SPOV

"Sookie can I come in?" I heard Amelia ask, knocking softly on my bedroom door. She quietly slipped into my room, not waiting for me to answer, she knew that if she had let me that I would have said no. She sat down on the bed beside me and I curled in on myself even more, I didn't know if I could deal with her right now, especially her thoughts, they were practically impossible to block out. And of course those thoughts just had to be about Eric and I. It was bad enough that Amelia had seen me like this but for her to know that it was Eric that had caused it was just shameful because if she knew then that would mean that soon enough Tray would know, then pretty much all shifters and Were's in the area would know, and eventually a vampire was bound to find out and it would undoubtedly get back to Eric and he would know...everything...damn.

"Sook are you okay?" Amelia asked softly.

"Of course I...I'm fine" I answered whilst wiping my face and sitting up in bed. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well I don't know what happened last night since you refuse to tell me but I can tell it wasn't good, otherwise you wouldn't have spent all day in bed" she pointed out.

"Yeah well don't you worry about me." I said attempting to convince her that I was okay. "How about you go and fetch Octavia from the garden and we can get something to eat, I think there's some leftover gumbo in the fridge..." I trailed off. I was tired of trying to keep my shields up, I'd been struggling all day but somehow I had managed to do it perhaps it was through sheer force of will.

"Octavia?" She looked thoroughly confused, "She's not in the garden. She left for New Orleans last night to visit family" she explained.

"What?" I asked, now it was my turn to be totally confused, but then it dawned on me. "...Oh no. Amelia lock the doors" I ordered in a frenzy, dropping the mental shields that I had worked so hard to maintain all day and I heard the mind that I had assumed was Octavia's thinking about...flowers? Well that explains why I thought it was Octavia gardening. But why would an unfamiliar person be lurking around my house thinking about my garden of all things? Oh well at least they were human...I think.

"Sookie what is it? Maybe I can cast a spell" Amelia whispered re-entering the room after locking everything.

"I'm not quite sure...it's weird." I replied and cast a mental net around the house and a little into the woods. I gasped and practically jumped off of the bed at what I found.

"What? What is it?" Amelia fretted. I ignored her and scurried out to the front of the house and snatched the Benelli out of the closet by the front door, and clicking off the safety I began to explain the situation to Amelia.

"There is one person...human I think in the garden just outside my bedroom window. They seem to know I'm telepathic because they're thinking of the flowers surrounding them but I know that they are there to watch me..." I hesitated wondering if I should tell Amelia the entire truth of the situation, of how I knew that they were after me, of the others lying in wait, of what they wanted me for and of who they were. I couldn't even call anyone because I wasn't dragging Sam into my shit anymore, he deserved better, I couldn't ask Alcide, he was too far away, Jason...I still wasn't talking to, and it was the middle of the day so it didn't look like any vampires were about to come to my rescue. Even if it wasn't sunny outside what vamp would come? Bill was in Europe working on his database and Eric...I sighed pushing all thoughts of Eric to the back of my mind before it became to painful.

But it didn't matter because in the next second there was a gunshot and the front window of the house shattered. Amelia began to panic but I had been through enough of this shit to remain calm. So I moved as quickly and silently as I could towards the broken window as I could, cocked my gun and took aim. Now I'll be the first to admit that I'm not exactly the kind of person that can hit a bulls eye from a mile away but I had a little experience with guns, mostly from watching Jason go hunting and when my father was alive he hunted a bit. I don't remember him much but just knowing that he had known how to handle a gun made me feel a little more confident.

Another gunshot sounded and Amelia ducked for cover whilst I tried to get a good view of the mystery man firing at me. I took a guess at where I thought he would be and returned fire. The cycle continued for a while, the gunman and I firing shot after shot at each other while I got more and more nervous every time. Honestly I might have sounded cool, calm and collected but I was scared out of my skin, no matter how many times you do it it's still frightening. I was so focused on the shots coming in through the window that I didn't notice when Amelia went silent.

I knelt up at the window after reloading the Benelli and then...everything went black.

***

EPOV

I woke from my daytime slumber with a sense of longing...for my bonded. I reached out to her through the bond as a force of habit but stopped when I hit a mental wall, a wall that I had constructed to keep the bond closed. After last night when Sookie came into Fangtasia things were difficult. Sookie's emotions were strong and tortured, and mine were...distracting, to say the least. Pam insisted that she was right and that I should run to Sookie in an attempt to repair our 'relationship', but I had Sookie's best interests at heart, I was keeping her safe. At that moment my cell phone rang, I growled and snatched it up, 'PAM' the screen flashed. The last person I wanted to speak to, I really hoped my child had dropped her attitude or I might just be forced to punish her accordingly. I took a deep, un-needed breath and reluctantly pressed the 'answer' button, preparing to face the inevitable.

"Pam"

"Eric" she replied "Where are you?

"Home. Why? What is wrong?" I asked, urgency rising in my voice.

"Oh" she answered sounding incredibly disappointed. "I was hoping that you would be in Bon Temps with Sookie."

"Pamela. I thought I told you not to interfere." I said, my voice hard but I was groaning internally, one more comment and I really would need to punish her, so I set my mind to finding a suitable form of disciplinary action.

"I didn't do anything. I was just commenting." Her voice becoming defensive.

"Pamela. Let me make this very clear for you, no interfering, no commenting and no voicing your opinion on the subject in any way, shape or form" I ordered making it as clear as possible. "You will work on the door at the club tonight" I finished, deciding that two nights in a row of dealing with the vermin deemed unworthy of entering Fangtasia was punishment enough.

"Yes master" she conceded defeat and remembered her place before I needed to impose a much harsher penalty.

"Now surely that is not the only reason you contacted me" I ended the topic swiftly, moving on to business.

"No" she deadpanned, all business now. "Victor Madden left a message for you last night just before dawn." I growled low in my chest at the thought of what Victor's call meant. "He called on behalf of King DeCastro. The king wishes to 'borrow our telepath'. Apparently he doesn't trust his Nevada staff with his finances. He also expects you to attend because there are some 'issues' that you and he need to address" she concluded.

"When?" I asked, straight to the point. I never was one for idle chatter, not even in my human life. And I was also slightly uneasy about the fact that Feliepe DeCastro wanted Sookie in his main territory. The fact that Sookie and I weren't in a good place in terms of our 'relationship' as Pam put it, wasn't exactly going to help either.

"Monday" She replied. That was two days away, great, now I had to speak to Sookie and convince her to go to Las Vegas with me by tomorrow night, so that we could leave the next day. I had better get started.

"Pam, call the shifter and notify him of Sookie's absence from work for all of next week and then let DeCastro know that we will be present in Las Vegas this coming Monday." I commanded, covering all of the bases. "I will be in Bon Temps, Sookie needs to prepare."

"Yes master" my child said and hung up the phone. I stepped out of bed and dressed in my usual black jeans and black T-shirt just in case I had to go into Fangtasia later tonight. I got into my corvette and sped towards Sookie and Bon Temps, wondering if there was any way I could talk some sense into her, that's if I could get a chance to talk to her before she rescinded my invitation.


PLEASE REVIEW!!!