The text message that cuts his conversation with Sookie short is from Mitchell, the vampire Pam took north with her as backup. It says, simply, Lorena has Pam.

Eric cannot use his cell phone while flying-the wind resistance makes too much static-so he heads for the highway, dialing the number of the vampire who messaged him before he's out of the jailhouse parking lot.

"Tell me," he says, when Mitchell picks up.

"We're in Jackson," he says, familiar enough with the tone Eric is using to know that a brief, thorough precis of the situation is all he wants to hear right now. Excuses and pleading will come later. "Lorena's nest is here. We got a tip in Seattle. Pam went to the house last night to look around and she didn't come back when she said she would."

Eric shuts his eyes. Lorena is older than Pam, he'd known the danger that lay in that fact when he sent Pam to investigate. But she's not dead, and she isn't in any pain; if she were, he would feel it. He forces himself to rememer that and control the icy dread that crawls under his skin.

"How many in the nest?" he says.

"Just the three of them," says Mitchell. "Lorena, Pam, and Bill Compton."

He isn't really surprised that Bill is, in fact, alive, but the news still sends a surge of anticipation through him. "Is he being held against his will?" he asks.

"By silver," says Mitchell.

"What of Pam?"

"Can't tell."

"I'm on my way," he says. "Keep watching the house, call me if anything changes."

"Now, this is nice," says Pam. She reaches into the closet and draws out a floor length evening gown in baby blue satin. "I had something like this once."

"Oh, yes, I'm very fond of that one." Lorena pauses in arranging her hair to give the dress an approving glance in the mirror. "The color doesn't really suit me."

"I love blue," says Pam. She lays the dress carefully over the end of the bed-it's a vintage piece from 1939 or thereaouts, and requires delicate handling. She begins unbuttoning her blouse to change.

"Ladies." A voice issues from the corner of the room, somewhat muffled because the speaker's head is currently draped in a cast-off gown that Pam had changed into earlier and discarded. "Is my presence really necessary for this?"

"But of course, darling," says Lorena, before Pam can speak. "You have to give us your opinion.

"You're lovely whatever you wear," says Bill, in tones of mute despair.

Lorena pats the last strands of her coiffure into place, then turns and strides across the room. Pam, wriggling into her gown, watches surreptitiously as Lorena plucks the discarded dress off his head, reducing his resemblance a hatstand. She cups the side of his face tenderly, and he gives a weak smile. Then her face hardens, and she slaps him.

"Don't think flattery is going to win you any points," she tells him. "You're going to spend the next hundred years making up for humiliating me with that little blonde bloodbag."

Pam turns casually to the mirror and reaches for a brush. While Lorena's back is turned, she measures the proximity of anything wooden in the room that could be converted for use as a stake in a fight. She doesn't think that Lorena is going to kill Bill, at least not right this moment, but Pam's job is to keep Bill alive until Eric decides what to do with him, and he won't be amused if she has to tell him that she let Lorena stake his new human pet's ticket to freedom because she was distracted playing dress-up.

Eric will be here soon enough. Mitchell will have called him when he woke this evening and found she hadn't returned. Pam would have called Eric herself, but there hasn't really been a moment. She hadn't precisely planned to infiltrate Lorena's nest; it had been a spur of the moment thing, knocking on the door and introducing herself. Lorena's an old vampire, and she didn't get that way by trusting people. But Pam told her that Eric had sent her with a warning that the Queen was suspicious that Bill was still alive, and that he, Eric, wanted Pam to help ensure that Bill stayed safely out of sight until after the trial was over. Lorena had seemed to find this story plausible enough, especially after Bill had snarled at Pam, and after that a few well chosen compliments for Lorena's house and wardrobe had been sufficient to earn her an invitation to shelter there for the day.

It's not that Pam isn't enjoying herself-Bill Compton is an annoying little man, and it's a pleasure to see him put in his place-but it's still a relief when, a moment later, she feels the frisson up her spine that means Eric is near, and calling her.

"I'll just step into the kitchen and get myself a blood," she says, though Lorena and Bill are too busy making out to hear her.

Pam runs top speed to the front door and opens it to find Eric, staring at her (and, she thinks smugly, her decolletage) with an expression of consternation.

"Pam," he says warily. "Are you alright?"

"Eric, thank God." She tugs on his arm and pulls him into the house. "Come and kill this tiresome bitch so we can get out of here."

A half-hour later, Eric and Pam haul Bill into the trunk of the Corvette. He's still bound, snarling, and soaking wet (Pam had dumped him in the shower to rinse off Lorena's blood, as Eric had staked her while she was still straddling him) but once the lid is down and they're on the road they can barely hear him.

"I commend your ingenuity," Eric told Pam, in a quiet voice. She can hear the pride and satisfaction in his word, and she preens.

"At least I got this dress out of the bargain," she says. "I thought about cleaning out her closet, but that might make it too obvious I was there."

"You can buy a whole new wardrobe on the Fangtasia card," he says.

Pam brightens. "Can I wear it to work?"

Eric smirks over the wheel. "As long as it's black."

They arrive at Eric's house a few hours later, with an hour or so left until dawn. Eric has Pam help him bring Bill inside, then he sends her to her own home with instructions to appear at the courthouse for the trial tomorrow evening.

"How's the girl holding up?" she asks, in a voice of casual unconcern, as she's headed out the door.

"She'll be better tomorrow," says Eric.

When Pam is safely on her way, Eric turns to Bill, who is seated on the couch with his hands bound in front of him. Bill glares up.

"I heard that," says Bill. "What is your interest in Sookie?"

"Yes," says Eric. "We are going to talk about Sookie. About what you've done to her. And how you're going to fix it."

He smiles. Bill blanches.