Sookie crossed the cemetery back to her house with a heavy heart. Hadley had of course been assumed dead before. No-one in the family had heard from her after she checked out of the drug rehab clinic a couple of years back. It had been quite a shock when she reappeared a few weeks ago. Finding out that her cousin was now really dead upset her more than she expected. Perhaps it was the manner of it; her only chance of any kind of survival would be if Sophie-Anne was willing and able to turn her, but who could guess what the result would be.

Thinking about Hadley upset her too much, so instead she directed her thoughts to what had become her favourite topic: cuddles and more with her favourite Viking.

She really had no idea whether, when all this was over, she and Eric had any chance of maintaining a successful relationship. He'd be back in Shreveport after all, and she wasn't keen to leave Bon Temps. But then it was only a thirty minute drive, probably quicker if Eric was driving. It wasn't just the geographical distance though; everything about their lives was so different. He was important and powerful with his business interests and the demands of vampire politics. She was just a waitress.

Even so, she couldn't see any reason why they couldn't date. 'This is my boyfriend, Eric Northman'. She tried out the phrase in her head, trying to imagine how it would sound to people. Okay, at 1000 years old Eric wasn't exactly a boy. 'This is my partner, Eric Northman'. No, she hated that term. She didn't even dare think the about the alternative, that was just asking for trouble.

Of course, being Sookie Stackhouse, trouble was what she was just about to get.

She knew something was wrong as soon as she entered the house. Eric was standing in the living room, staring at the fire, but he had changed out of the old sweat pants which had had been wearing and changed into what was, for him, formal dress of designer jeans and a tight-fitting black vest.

No sooner had she closed the door than he rounded on her in full on attack mode, his fangs down and his expression fierce. She barely had time to stammer "Eric, what the…" when he had her pinned against the door frame.

Acting on instinct she brought up a knee hard into his groin. As the shock assault loosened his grip on her shoulders, she forced a hand up to his face, channelling her anger into a blue light which threw him back against the opposite wall.

He lay there stunned for all of two seconds before struggling to his feet. "Who are you?" he asked, sounding wary.

Sookie couldn't keep the fear out of her voice. She had no idea what was going on, but she knew it wasn't good. "Eric, what the fuck is wrong with you. You know who I am."

"If I knew, I wouldn't be asking now, would I?" The sardonic tone was very familiar but it was completely lacking in even the slightest hint of warmth or emotion.

Deciding the safest course of action was to play along, Sookie stuck to the facts. "My name is Sookie Stackhouse, and this is my house. We are in Bon Temps, about 30 miles north of Shreveport, and you are staying here because someone is threatening you."

"Threatening me?" Eric sounded incredulous. "Do they know who I am?"

"Who are you?" Sookie asked, thinking that it might help if she was to start from the beginning.

"I'm Eric Northman, businessman, owner of Fangtasia and Sherriff of Area 5." He looked at her as if for confirmation, which she gave with a nod.

"Do you know Pam?" she continued her questioning as if she were testing for evidence of senile dementia. She was tempted to ask if he knew today's date and who the President was.

"Yes, of course, she is my child." Eric shot back without hesitation. "Is she alright? Has something happened to her?"

"No, she's fine, as far as I know she is back in Shreveport. You can call her if you like." Sookie paused before her next question. "What about Godric?"

"He is my maker; he is the Sherriff of Area 9 in Texas."

To Sookie's relief, he didn't ask if Godric was alright, as she would hate to see his reaction if she told him the truth. What his response did suggest was that he remembered nothing of the events of the last months. She needed to check out how far back his memory loss went.

"You know that vampires now live openly amongst humans?"

"Of course," he responded, with a derisive look. "I opened Fangtasia immediately after the great revelation, four years ago."

"Do you know Bill Compton?"

Eric didn't answer immediately, which surprised her. After a couple of moments thought he spoke. "I know of him. I've seen him at Sophie-Anne Leclerq's place in New Orleans. He works for her as…" he stopped short, deciding not to share vampire secrets with a human. "He's one of her closest associates. Personally I can't stand him, he's sanctimonious and boring, but he keeps his nose far enough up Sophie-Anne's ass to stay in favour."

"But you don't know me?" she asked, swallowing hard.

"No, I don't. Am I here because you want me to fuck you?" his tone was brutal and he matched it with an unpleasantly lascivious leer, the sort that the old guys in Merlotte's gave her when they'd had a few too many beers. "I'll be happy to oblige you."

Sookie was hit by an unexpected wave of nausea as the reality sunk in. This was no joke, Eric obviously had no memory of ever meeting her. Everything they had been through in Dallas and in Jackson was gone. More importantly, as far as she was concerned, the last few days might as well never have happened.

Eric had pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and was punching in a number.

"Don't," Sookie said, and to her surprise he complied.

"There is a woman called Marnie Stonebrook. She is a witch who is possessed by the spirit of a necromancer. She is trying to take over your spirit and control you." It sounded crazy when she explained it like that.

"Why?"

"We don't really know. I would imagine that she wants access to your businesses. I'm guessing you're worth quite a lot?" Sookie hadn't really given any thought to Eric's business interests before. He certainly didn't dress like a wealthy man, and money didn't seem to matter to him.

He shrugged, confirming her opinion. "I guess so. It's not hard to make money when you've been around for as long as I have. Anyway, you still haven't explained why I'm hiding here."

Sookie toyed with the idea of telling him that they were, or at least had been, lovers, but decided against it. For now she would stick to the facts. She would worry about her slowly breaking heart later.

"Marnie came to Fangtasia and threatened you with some terrible consequences if you didn't comply with her demands."

"Let me guess," Eric smirked, "I refused. So what did she do?"

"You remember Ginger, the waitress at Fangtasia?" Sookie waited for Eric to confirm with a nod before continuing, "Well I'm afraid she's dead. Marnie had her killed as a warning to you."

Eric shrugged. "She was loyal I guess, but extraordinarily stupid," he said, dismissively.

"Eric, how can you be so heartless?" Sookie glared at him, but got only another shrug in response.

"Anyone else I should know about?" he asked.

"Do you know Hadley? She's the human favourite of your Queen Sophie-Anne, and she's my cousin."

The name was familiar to him. "Oh her, a pretty girl, nice…" he made a gesture with his hands indicating his appreciation of Hadley's generous cleavage. "I wanted to fuck her but the Queen wouldn't let me."

His words hit her like a punch in the gut. She knew he'd had thousands of other women, but hearing him speak so casually was the final confirmation that everything she had thought they had between them had disappeared.

Willing herself to stay calm Sookie continued the story. "Hadley she was sent to Fangtasia to threaten you, or perhaps to bewitch you. I think Marnie Stonebrook has killed her and possessed her corpse. She's staying with Pam now."

"And you're saying it was Pam's idea for me to skulk away and hide out here?"

"Pam knew this old house was empty. I was away visiting with my relatives. She thought it would be far enough away from Shreveport to be safe."

"It's not safe anymore is it?" He sounded wistful for a moment; as if he had a vague memory of something he had lost.

"I guess not. I'll send a message to Pam. She'll have to decide what to do."

Before she could even extricate her phone to text Pam, Eric was out of the door and had taken flight. Sookie's knees gave way under her and she collapsed on the floor in an ungainly heap. She forced herself to compose a text message before giving way to a cathartic flood of tears.

'Memory gone, on way back 2 U' was the message she had sent, to which Pam's reply was characteristically blunt: 'WTF!'

An hour must have passed as Sookie sat staring at the wall, all cried out. Alcide's crew had done a good job redecorating and all trace of the damage done by Maryann was gone, but as Sookie looked closely she realised something wasn't quite right. She'd chosen a neutral magnolia shade, but it was looking just a little pink. She ran her finger over the surface, drawing in a deep breath as she pulled it away and realised it was covered in blood.

As she examined her surroundings more carefully she realised that every surface in the hallway was covered in a fine sheen of body fluids. Too many creatures had died violently in this house for her not to recognise the pattern of blood spatter, but this was different. It was as if someone had been completely vaporised. It might be a clue to what had happened to Eric but she had no idea of how to decipher it.

The shocking events of the evening were catching up with her, and she was overcome with exhaustion as she dragged her weary body up the stairs. Her bedroom smelled of sex and of Eric, which provoked another little flurry of tears. Sleep came mercifully quickly, but the relief didn't last. It seemed that only moments later there was a hammering on the door. She glanced at her alarm clock – three am. With no vampires in her life, who an earth could be calling?

"What do you want, Hoyt," she groaned, finding her brother's old friend on the porch.

"Have you seen Jessica? She said she was coming out to see you, but that was hours ago and she hasn't come back."

Sookie didn't react. Someone had died here tonight, but she had no idea who and there was no point in upsetting him unnecessarily. "I'm sorry, I haven't seen her, but I was out most of the evening. If she did call, she must have gone on somewhere else." The pathetic look on Hoyt's face forced her to offer him some comfort. "I'm sure she'll be fine, she can look after herself. If she does call by, I'll be sure to tell her you're looking for her."

"No, don't do that," Hoyt interjected. "You're right, she'll be fine. I'm worrying over nothing." With that he turned and walked down the steps and off into the night.

Sookie's second attempt to get to sleep was less successful. She knew Jessica was up to something, and she instinctively knew it wasn't something good. She'd seen her talking to the woman Marnie. What if she had allowed herself to be possessed? Could she be the person who had met their final death in this house tonight?

Her train of thought was interrupted by a second bout of hammering at the door.

Why can't you just fuck off and leave me alone, she thought as she dragged herself down the stairs again. Her bad language was yet another thing she could blame on vampires. She'd never used to swear before she had got herself entangled in their world.

This time the visitor was Pam. She hadn't bothered with a disguise this time, but was wearing the casual pink pant-suit she favoured out of working hours. Naturally she wanted chapter and verse on what had happened to Eric.

Sookie had to confess herself quite mystified, but she shared her suspicion that someone else had been in her house tonight, and that someone was now dead. What she couldn't understand was how it was linked to Eric's memory loss.

"So what does Eric remember?" Pam asked.

"He doesn't know that Godric is dead, and he doesn't know that Bill Compton lives here in Bon Temps. He thinks Bill is still at Sophie-Anne's court."

"So for some reason only the last couple of months have been wiped. Strange, I wonder why?" Even as Pam uttered the words a knowing smile crossed her face. "So presumably he doesn't remember you either?"

"No," Sookie admitted sadly, "as far as he is concerned we've never met."

"I won't pretend I'm sorry. You're a bad influence on him, you bring out his human side and that makes him weak."

"Gee, Pam, thanks a bunch. I'm just so glad I've risked death for you both." Sookie hid her fury behind a heavy veil of sarcasm, which Pam ignored.

"Yvetta!" the vampire exclaimed, changing the subject abruptly. "Damn her, I knew it was a mistake to let her in."

"Don't tell me, she escaped," Sookie said, anticipating how the story was going to go.

"Yes," Pam had the grace to look a little shamefaced. "She must have picked the lock or something, but when I got back tonight she wasn't there."

"So what's your theory?"

"I've known Eric for over two hundred years. He remembers everything that has ever happened to him. The only way he could possibly lose his memory would be through witchcraft, and even then it would have to be very powerful."

Sookie picked up Pam's train of thought and interjected, "So you think Marnie must have bewitched Yvetta, used her somehow?"

Pam wasn't listening; she'd noticed something on the floor and had gone to retrieve it. It was a garish ring, all Swarovski crystals and gold plate. She turned it around in her hand, deep in thought.

"This was hers, Yvetta's, she's definitely been here tonight. Sookie, I'm not asking this just to be a bitch, but do think it's possible that Yvetta came here to see Eric and persuaded him to resurrect their relationship? Perhaps he just pretended to lose his memory because he was too ashamed to admit what he'd done?"

"No," Sookie insisted firmly, "Yvetta didn't have a relationship with Eric, you know that. He fucked her, that's all." That's what Eric had told her, and she believed him. "I think the ring is here because Yvetta is dead. Taste the blood, see what you think."

Sookie grimaced as Pam licked the wall, like a cat cleaning out its bowl. "Mmm," she said, appreciatively. "I think you might be right, this does taste familiar."

"So could she have been some kind of suicide bomber then, but instead of killing Eric she bewitched him?" Even as Sookie said the words, they didn't ring true. She'd been a witness to a suicide bomb in Dallas, and Luke hadn't been completely vaporised.

"Possibly," Pam conceded, "or perhaps she was a human booby-trap. We'll never know. I think Marnie has succeeded in her plan though." She was watching Sookie's reaction, feeling uncharacteristically guilty at her earlier callous remarks. Giving her a tentative peck on the cheek she announced her intention to go back to Shreveport. "I need to get back to Eric. He's Mr Machismo all of a sudden, I can't persuade him to take Marnie's threat seriously. I'll call you if there are any developments," she said before turning and disappearing into the night.

Sookie didn't even bother going back upstairs after Pam left. Call it a premonition, but she had the feeling that her second visitor of the night wouldn't be the last. Poking around in the embers of the fire which Eric had built earlier she managed to get it going again, and snuggled down on the couch under an old throw.

It was nearly dawn when she was woken again. The living room was bathed in a pale light, and she could make out the silhouette of a man on the other side of her front door. Some instinct told her who it was going to be before she opened the door. She thought briefly about fleeing, but there would be no point.

"Preston," she sighed, as she was confronted by her fairy cousin standing on the porch.

"Sookie, I need you to come with me."

I read a post recently in which Alan Ball said that Eric would definitely get amnesia in Season 4. However in my opinion AB can be very sneaky, which is where I got the idea that the amnesia plot could be turned round into something sinister – the opposite of the E/S lovefest in book 4. I just hope I'm wrong!