In the last chapter, Sookie got to see just how bad cursed Eric has become. For my reflections on his character, and how it compares with the TB canon, check out my author's note at the end of the chapter.
Pam experienced the strangest feeling as she watched Sookie walk to her car. After a few moments' reflection she decided that it was an emotion. It was so long since she had felt one that she couldn't immediately recognise what it was. She wasn't entirely sure how to react, but it wasn't an experience she wanted to repeat in a hurry.
Not so long ago she had been forced to warn Eric against antagonising Yvetta, but that was for his sake, not because she cared about the dancer. This was a different person and a different situation. To upset Sookie, as he had, seemed cruel and unnecessary, even to her petrified heart.
"Well that was a great success," she announced, sarcastically, as she returned to the Fangtasia office.
Eric's attention was still focussed on his laptop, and he ignored her barbed comment. "Why are these files on my computer?" He sounded uncharacteristically puzzled.
"You put them there." Pam snapped back, rolling her eyes.
"Pam," his tone was intended as a warning that she was pushing at the limits of his tolerance
She ignored him, and moved closer to the desk, propping herself against it with one arm. "I'll tell you a story. Not that long ago, a vampire known as Bill Compton turned up in a small town called Bon Temps, about thirty miles north of here. He reported to you that, following the death of his last human descendant, he had decided to take over the property and live openly among humans."
Eric's face showed his disgust at the idea, but Pam ignored him and continued in the same matter of fact tone.
"Anyway, it turns out he was lying. There's a resident of Bon Temps who has special powers, powers which our delightful Queen, Sophie-Anne would like to annex. Compton is her chief procurer so she sent him to procure said resident."
"Sookie Stackhouse."
"Yes. Unfortunately his procurement was a little too successful. He fell in love with the girl and she fell in love with him."
"Where exactly is this sorry tale leading?" Eric's attention had begun to wander.
"This 'sorry tale' is me trying to explain how you've managed to devastate the first human you've ever cared about, the one who stood by you when Godric met the sun, the one…" she didn't get to finish the sentence as Eric interrupted, a slight tremor in his voice.
"Godric is dead? I don't believe you, I would have felt something."
"Ring Isabel if you want," Pam responded, holding out her cell-phone for him to use, "she can tell you."
Eric ignored the offer and extracted his own phone from the pocket of his jeans. Pam heard it ring, and then the heavily accented voice of the Texan Vampire came on the line.
"Who is the sheriff of your area, Isabel?" Eric asked, keeping his voice as neutral as his question.
"The AVL still haven't agreed a permanent replacement so I'm standing in for now. I miss Godric though; I still can't believe that he chose to meet the sun." She paused, waiting for a response from Eric but none was forthcoming.
"Well, it's good to speak with you Eric. If there's ever anything I can help you with, you only have to call. Oh, and give my regards to Sookie, she really is quite something, for a human."
Eric snapped his phone shut quietly, but Pam could detect just a hint of red in the corner of his eye.
"I just don't get it, Pam. You've said often enough that the human are just vermin, here only to serve us. Why is everyone suddenly so concerned about this one?"
Pam had by now reached the limit of her tolerance, as she snapped at her maker, "For fuck sake Eric, she saved your ungrateful, undead existence. She let you use her as bait, and even after that she rescued you from the sun, and gave you her blood." Pam's heels clacked on the office floor as she stomped angrily up and down. "Besides, you were keen enough to trick her into drinking your blood when you had the chance."
"If I've had her blood, and she's had mine, why can't I feel her?"
"That I don't know, but I have an idea. Let's just test something. I'll go out to the bar and you call me. I'll come back in when I feel the pull."
She sashayed out of the office with an exaggerated swing of the hips and walked through to the bar to wait. A particularly gorgeous young brunette caught her eye. She had the nervous grin of a first timer, and Pam returned it with her most dazzling smile. Unfortunately it only had the effect of terrifying the girl, who turned tail and ran to join her companions. Meanwhile there was no sign of the maker's call she had been expecting from Eric.
She waited another five minutes then returned to the office. Eric was looking worried.
"I called you over and over, did you not feel it?"
"Not a thing."
"It must be very old magic to be this powerful. I have never heard of anyone being able to break the maker-child bond before."
Pam's sense of relief that he was finally taking the matter seriously was tempered with her concern at just how bad things must be. She winced involuntarily.
"What?" Eric challenged.
"I could have put Sookie in danger again. If it's such a powerful spell, and we have no idea what else it might be capable of. For all I know it could give the necromancer access to your thoughts."
"Well in that case we'd better work out exactly what we're going to do about it. And according to you, this human, Sookie Stackhouse will help us."
"She said she would, but after your little performance tonight she may well change her mind."
"But she means something to me, and I mean something to her?" He still sounded unconvinced.
"You did, yes."
"In that case tomorrow night we will go to see her."
Next morning, in Bon Temps
'Everything will look better in the morning'. It was one of her grandmother's favourite little homilies, but, to Sookie's surprise, when she woke she didn't feel anywhere near as bad as she expected to. How on earth she had made it back the previous night without crashing remained a mystery. Her vision had been blurred with tears, and she'd had to pull over several times to wipe her eyes.
Now she was determined to put that hurt behind her. As Scarlett O'Hara said, "tomorrow is another day."
The first order of business was to make some fresh lemonade. She'd taken Preston's advice to heart and asked Sam to order her a couple of crates from his fruit and veg wholesaler. She was busy slicing and juicing when the doorbell rang. Even though she was expecting Holly and Cody, the sudden noise gave her a start and she nicked her thumb.
She waved her visitors through to the sitting room, sucking the cut as they took their seats, both looking rather wary. The niceties of lemonade and sweet tea out of the way, Sookie turned to the boy.
"Your Mom tells me you've been having bad dreams," she said, kindly.
The little boy looked at her apprehensively; then transferred his gaze to the floor, fixing his attention on a threadbare spot on the rug. 'Mom will be so angry,' he was thinking.
"Holly, why don't you let me have a little while alone with Cody," Sookie suggested.
Holly didn't look happy about the idea, but she got up and went to sit outside on the porch.
"No-one's going to be angry with you, Cody."
The little boy looked for a minute as if he was going to burst into tears. Sookie offered him another glass of lemonade which seemed to calm him a little. Then she waited.
"It's not a dream, I can hear voices inside my head, but they're real," he blurted out abruptly.
Sookie gave an understanding nod and waited for him to continue.
"Well, it's one voice really, a lady, and she tells me to do bad things. I don't want to do them, really I don't, but once she's said it, I can't stop myself." Now he was beginning to cry, silent tears rolling down his cheeks. His little body shook as he continued. "She told me to put spiders in Alisha Jones' lunch box and I did, even though Alisha is my friend. Then she told me to beat up Coby after school and to say the vampires would come for him at night if he told anyone. Coby's stronger than me, but I beat him easily."
"What does the lady sound like?" Sookie asked.
"She's old…" Cody replied, uncertainly, "and she sounds kinda….coloured?"
The suggestion of age, Sookie discounted. To a boy like Cody, anyone much older than her would be considered old. He was unlikely to have mistaken the accent though, that was quite distinctive. The thing was it didn't sound anything like the woman she knew as Marnie.
She felt at a loss as to how to help the boy. She'd learned to develop her own shields to block out the thoughts of others, but she had no idea how to transfer that skill to another. Still, she reached out to the boy and took his small hands in hers.
"First of all, I want you to promise you'll say sorry to Alisha and Coby," she said, kindly but firmly.
The little boy nodded.
Tell them you're suffering from…" she cast her mind around, thinking of the most recent daytime TV shows she'd watched for an idea, "….Oppositional Defiant Disorder." Yes, that sounded good; meaningless but suitably serious.
"Now hold my hands tight and concentrate."
Cody complied, screwing up his eyes to indicate how hard he was trying. Sookie meanwhile focussed on her own mental shields and visualised them transferring through her hands to the boy. She felt an odd tingle in her arms as she did so, and saw Cody tense involuntarily.
"Next time you hear the voice, I want you to tell it to go away. Say you don't want to listen, and you won't do what she tells you. Then I want you to tell your Mom exactly what happened." She watched Cody carefully, as he opened his eyes and nodded. "Good, now go wait outside, and ask your Mom if she'll come back in."
Holly looked apprehensive as she re-entered the room. "Did you find out anything?" she asked.
"I don't know what to make of it, Holly," Sookie replied, unsure of how much to tell her. "Do you think your friend Marnie is completely in control of her powers?"
"Yes," Holly didn't sound too certain about it though. She paused briefly before continuing, "well, that is recently she seems to be a lot more powerful. For a long time I thought she was a bit of a fraud, to tell you the truth."
"Look, I'm going to leave it to Cody to tell you what's been the matter with him. I can't explain it, but it's obvious that something wasn't quite right with the magic Marnie used on him." She decided not to say any more, it was safest to let Holly make up her own mind. Her best hope was that at least she had planted a seed of doubt. The fewer allies Marnie had, the better.
It was nearly lunchtime when they left, but Sookie found she had completely lost her appetite. The thought of anyone using an innocent child like that made her so angry. It brought back painful memories of her own childhood, when her parents had been sacrificed for something she still didn't fully understand.
One thing was certain, she wasn't going to sit around in Bon Temps waiting for things to work themselves out, or worse still wait for Eric and Pam to sort everything. She determined to go to Shreveport and see this Marnie woman for herself. She changed into a short-sleeved dress and cardigan before she could change her mind.
Thirty minutes later, she had parked up outside a small shopping mall in a quiet suburb of Shreveport and walked into the small shop. It was full of over-priced 'new age' tat and smelled of patchouli oil. Inside, for the first time, she got a really good look at the woman who had the power to ruin her life. She was so mousy and frumpy; it was hard to believe she could be a threat to anyone.
"Sit down, my dear," Marnie motioned to a table which was dominated by a crystal ball. It was so predictable that Sookie had to fight the urge to laugh. A pack of tarot cards lay next to it, and it was these which Marnie picked up as Sookie took the seat opposite her.
She handed the cards to Sookie with instructions to shuffle them. "I want you to focus on whatever it is that is troubling you, my dear. Push every other thought from your mind and ask the cards your question."
Sookie opened her mouth to speak, but Marnie silenced her. "Don't say it out loud, that is not necessary."
Following the instructions she shuffled the pack several times. "Will I ever find true love?" was the question she had decided on. She didn't expect an answer from the cards, but it was something Marnie must have been asked hundreds of times, so it shouldn't raise any suspicions. Meanwhile she would try to focus on the older woman's thoughts.
As she put the cards back down, Marnie reached out to take her hands. Sookie adopted a serious expression, but her focus was entirely on the contents of Marnie's mind. What she heard surprised and puzzled her. There appeared to be two voices. The voice she recognised was thinking about the reading ahead, worried about interpreting the cards correctly. The voice she didn't recognised was much less clear, but appeared to be muttering 'stop wasting time, get on with the business, I can't wait forever'.
This second voice sounded elderly, and if Sookie had been forced to guess she would have said the speaker was black, there was something about the accent and the intonation that sounded familiar to her. She remembered what Cody had said that morning about the voices in his head.
Slowly the cards were laid out, face down in the shape of a cross. As the first one was turned over, Sookie felt a stab of pain. It was the Lovers.
"You recognise it then," Marnie noted, "but this is reversed. It indicates deception and dishonesty. It is a warning as well, you should not make any important decisions too hastily. This card represents your present situation."
As she watched the reveal of the second card, Sookie was unable to supress a gasp: The Devil. Marnie looked puzzled and Sookie couldn't resist trying to listen into her thoughts. It appeared that she had been getting this card a lot, and it was worrying her. She gave no indication of this, though, as she explained the meaning, "This position indicates the obstacles you face. The Devil symbolises true evil, greed, bondage, emotional blackmail."
That could be an awful lot of people, Sookie thought to herself, but said nothing.
"The third card," Marnie continued, "indicates how things may seem." She turned over the Five of Wands. "This indicates dilemmas and upheavals that cannot be avoided."
'No shit Sherlock,' Sookie thought but still remained silent. She'd seen enough documentaries to know that most of what was passed off as being communication from the spirit world was just good cold reading of the words and reactions of the sitter.
"This next card is important; it is an indication of what it at the heart of the matter you have presented." She turned over the Tower. "It is reversed, meaning conflict and change. It seems that you face some dramatic challenges in your life."
"The fifth card will tell us what caused your present situation." Marnie paused for dramatic effect; clients seemed to like that, she found. "The Two of Wands, reversed. This symbolises naked ambition, achieved dishonestly."
It was a strange hand, Marnie thought, complex and disturbing. The woman in front of her looked so gentle and kind, out of keeping with the powerful forces which the cards were indicating.
"We move now into the future cards, this will tell us some of the things which will influence you." She turned over the Lion. "Strength – this is good, it represents courage and the power of love. The next card will tell us more about how the situation will unfold."
Sookie's eyes widened as she saw the hanged man, surely this couldn't be positive.
Marnie must have recognised her expression, as she moved to reassure her, "don't worry, this is not as bad as it seems; it indicates upheaval, many things will be transformed in your life. There will be sacrifice, but it will be for your future benefit."
Any hope of focussing on Marnie's inner voice had disappeared, as Sookie found herself drawn into the meaning of the cards. She wished they could speak a little more clearly; who were the evil forces. Possibly Marnie, but then perhaps they were indicating Eric, or Bill Compton. She determined to be wary of all of them.
The next card, Marnie explained, would be a person who would be a powerful influence for good. "The High Priestess: This represents feminine influence and intuitive insight. She may be hidden and work behind the scenes, but she will be working in your favour."
Sookie thought briefly of Pam, but then rejected the idea. Although the female vampire had been behaving a little more kindly towards her, she doubted they could ever be friends. Perhaps the card referred to her cousin, Claudine. She didn't have many close female friends to choose from, and certainly neither Tara nor Arlene had demonstrated a great deal of insight in their relationships recently.
"Now we come to your own hopes and fears," Marnie explained, as she turned over the penultimate card. It was the Queen of Swords. Marnie nodded sagely. "The Queen is a complex character. She is courageous and intelligent, and able to overcome adversity, especially when experienced at the hands of men." She examined Sookie carefully. This wasn't a card she saw often in her readings, but somehow she knew it was quite appropriate for the woman in front of her. Then, without warning, the voice she dreaded popped into her head.
'Do not trust her,' the old woman said, 'she is allied with the vampire, she is dangerous. Spend no more time with her.'
Marnie's eyes had clouded over and she no longer saw the woman in front of her. Sookie shuddered, wishing that she had never come. She'd heard every word that was in Marnie's head of course, and that, combined with the spooky effect of seeing Marnie in the state of possession, brought home just what kind of a threat they faced.
Then, just as suddenly, Marnie snapped out of her trance, and turned the final card as if nothing untoward had happened.
It was the Star. As soon as she saw it, Sookie felt a sense of peace.
"You can tell that this is a good outcome, I can see that," Marnie said. "You are right. The Star represents fresh hope, renewal, new beginnings."
"Well that's all very interesting," Sookie said hurriedly, keen to get out as soon as she could. "How much do I owe you?" She fished the twenty dollars which Marnie requested out of her purse, and left with a quick goodbye.
It was getting dark as she left the little store, the sun fully hidden below the horizon. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted a figure approaching through the small parking lot. She recognised the flash of auburn hair instantly, but to her surprise Jessica ducked down behind a car, avoiding her. Sookie walked towards her but by the time she reached the spot, the young vampire had disappeared. She shook her head, feeling slightly sick. Jessica could of course be visiting the dry cleaners or the liquor store which were the only other occupants of the small shopping mall, but somehow she doubted that either was her intended destination
Checking her watch, she realised she had little over an hour to drive home, change, and get to Merlotte's for her evening shift. Her little car rattled and groaned as she pushed it to its limits along Highway 70. For once, she didn't notice the noise; her mind was still fixed on the tarot reading. She'd only done it as a device to try to get into Marnie's head, but what she heard had disturbed her.
The warnings of conflict and change had come as no surprise of course – that was her life ever since the night she'd first met Bill Compton. What had shocked her most was the look she'd seen on Marnie's face when the Devil card was revealed. True evil, she had said. There were plenty of candidates for that, the question was how to find out which of them was the real threat.
The security light on her porch illuminated two figures sitting perfectly still on the bench. Even from a distance their posture marked them out as vampire, and they were both distinctive enough to leave her in no doubt of whom her visitors were. To her surprise, though, she felt a distinct tug in her chest as she got out of the car and walked towards the house. At the same moment Eric snapped out of that strange state of downtime which vampire went into when nothing was happening, followed a couple of seconds later by Pam.
"What are you doing here?" Sookie asked Pam, a little breathless from running up the steps, "I thought we weren't meant to know each other."
"I'm afraid it's too late for that, things are moving fast."
Puzzlement, mixed with concern, showed on Sookie's face, as Pam continued.
"We've had another message from the woman Marnie. She has Jessica and will stake her in two night's time if we don't meet her demands."
"I saw her there tonight, as I was leaving," Sookie blurted out, unable to contain her shock. "She avoided me, but I know she went there of her own free will."
"Stupid girl," Pam muttered under her breath.
"What do you expect if Bill Compton is her maker, as you say he is?" It was the first time Eric had spoken, and both women turned to glare at him.
"What were you doing at Marnie's?" Pam asked Sookie, ignoring her maker's intervention.
"I just…" Sookie hesitated, wondering if she needed to justify herself, "I wanted to check her out, see if I could find out anything about her that might help, so I said I needed a tarot reading."
"Really!" Pam looked genuinely interested, which made Sookie smile. "What did you find out?"
"Well, it seems the cause of my problems is someone who is ambitious and dishonest. Of course I have no idea who that could be." Sookie replied, sending a suspicious glare in Eric's direction. "The main obstacle facing me is something truly evil, greedy, and into emotional blackmail. Apart from that, all I have to worry about is conflict, upheaval and sacrifice… just a normal day in the life of Sookie Stackhouse I guess."
"I meant what did you find out about Marnie; although I have to say your reading sounds quite fascinating, I wonder if she would do one for me."
Sookie rolled her eyes and walked towards her front door, followed silently by the two vampires. She and Pam took seats in the living room, while Eric went to stand by the fireplace. Sookie watched him as he stared intently into the dead embers of the grate, as if he were expecting something to emerge from them.
"Marnie is definitely possessed by someone, or something. I could hear the voice, but I've no idea who it is…..Eric will you stop that," she snapped at her former lover who was prowling round the room, picking up items, sniffing them and putting them down again.
"I think she might be a black woman though. I wondered about asking Lafayette if he might have any contacts in Shreveport…"
"Lafayette?" Eric interrupted, with a strangely puzzled expression.
"Oh you know, he's the one who…" Pam began in an exasperated tone, then stopped suddenly, remembering that Sookie knew nothing about the V-dealing, "…who had your blood."
Eric opened his mouth to say something, but took one look at Pam's fierce expression and thought better of it.
"Listen guys, I don't mean to be rude, but I have to get to work, I'm hungry and I'm running late, so if you wouldn't mind."
Neither Pam, nor Eric moved. Sookie ignored them and stomped upstairs to change.
They were still there, in the same positions as she had left them, when she came back down. She'd decided it was still warm enough to wear her summer shorts and T-shirt uniform. Eric gave her an appraising look. It was blatantly carnal of course, but for a moment Sookie wondered if there wasn't just a hint of something softer and kinder. She dismissed the thought. She'd heard it too often before; women making excuses for their men's violence, infidelity or just plain thoughtlessness. It was not a place she intended to go.
"We have one more night to prepare." Pam said, emerging from her downtime. "Eric and I will summon as many vampire as we can.
"You're not thinking of taking them head-on surely," Sookie replied.
"Can you suggest a better way?" Pam snapped back.
Sookie had to admit that she couldn't. "I think we need to find out as much as possible about the threat we face," she suggested tentatively. "Bill Compton is Jessica's maker, he needs to know what's happening."
Eric scowled at the mention of the name. He wasn't even sure why, but just the sound of it made him feel irrationally angry.
Pam shrugged. "We will need to meet again tomorrow night to make our plan of action. Will you come to Fangtasia? I will close the club early. Bring anyone who you are sure will help us."
Sookie looked uncertain, a stray glance in the direction of the Viking giving away her feelings.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure he behaves himself." Pam said as she turned to leave.
Eric gave Sookie a look that was almost wistful as he turned to follow his child. Sookie ignored him, she wasn't going to fall for that again. Turning off the lights she followed the two vampire out of her house and locked the door behind her.
Author's note: I didn't quite know how to handle some of the reaction to the last chapter, and it's taken a while to decide how to respond. On one hand I'm pleased to have readers expressing their opinions about the story, but I do feel bad about upsetting people with my portrayal of Eric. I felt it was necessary for the story, as I'm doing the amnesia plot the opposite way round. Bearing in mind this is entirely a True Blood story, set in the world of Alan Ball's show and not CH's books, I didn't think I was taking the character much further than we saw in Season 1 where he emphasised his lack of emotions, and complete lack of concerns for any human, for example when he witnessed Jessica's turning, or kicked the fangbanger in the head. There was also some quite nasty Eric in S2 when he had Lafayette and the others chained up in the Fangtasia cellar.
I know people enjoyed the sex scene in S3E01 because we got to see plenty of Alexander S, but really it was quite sordid with Yvetta in that bondage-style position (it certainly didn't look very comfortable!). The fangbanger in my story did willingly choose to dance for him and have sex with him, and as he's forgotten that he ever had feelings for Sookie, it wouldn't occur to him that she might be upset. I can see though that for some readers I did go too far, and I can only apologise to those people who really hated it.
Of course, having read the reviews, it's very tempting to try to justify myself retrospectively in the subsequent chapters. I've tried to avoid doing that, but I think it's inevitable for me to need to add some points of explanation – I hope it's not too heavy handed.
PS – as I explained in the last chapter, the Cody/Coby thing is confusing, but those are the two boy's names (Holly and Arlene's sons) so I've gone with them.
Also, if you know anything about Tarot readings, you'll probably be cringing at my description – I freely confess to having taken it all from the internet so I'm bound to have made mistakes!