A/N: I probably should have written this sooner but I would just like to thank everyone who reviews my story even the people who provide constructive criticism. I realise that Eric/Sookie stories that don't have them as a happy couple throughout the plot aren't that popular, so thank you for continuing to read and review. I wrote this quickly, which is quite a shocker for me so there are probably some spelling errors.

Eric's POV:

It has been over four long excruciating months since Sookie left and so far we have not found any sign of her. The weres and Sookie's bodyguards searched throughout Western Canada to no avail before I finally told them to call off the search. The weres returned, but Sookie's guards chose to continue looking out of loyalty. They have been searching the West coast slowly making their way down.

These past months I have thought through the worst possible scenarios that could have happened to her. She may have been raped and drained. She could have been kidnapped and is now being held against her will enduring severe torture. The worst scenario would be is that she is already dead but I know that it is not likely. If she was dead I would have felt it the second that it happened. Despite the fact that she has shut down our bond I would have felt the connection between us end. After a thorough probe of our bond I can also sense that she is not in danger. Wherever she is, she must feel content.

This relieves me but also at the same time worries me. Why would she feel content? Why was our separation not affecting her the way it was affecting me? Does she not miss me as much as I missed her? Was she just waiting for the right opportunity to leave me? I torture myself daily thinking about the answers to these questions and much more.

I have also been keeping an eye on Rosamund. I have no doubt in my mind that she had something to do with Sookie running away but I also don't believe that she has kidnapped Sookie. I hired some spies to keep track of her actions and so far they have not seen or found anything unusual other than the fact that Etienne had left some weeks before. They were not able to find out where he had gone. This sparked my curiosity. I put together the pieces and came to the realization that it was Etienne that somehow got to Sookie and convinced her to leave. I recalled the time at Rosamund's castle where I had left Sookie with him for several minutes. She was wearing a shawl that did not belong to her. He must have somehow given her a way to contact him. But why did she not tell me that she was secretly speaking to him? What did they talk about? All these kinds of unanswered questions continue to burn in my mind. I don't think that she is with him. He knows how dangerous and unforgiving I can be.

De Castro has also discovered that Sookie was gone. He had requested her services a month ago and although I tried to give him excuses, he was adamant about seeing her. I finally had to tell him the truth but left out the reason why she left. No doubt he would use that information against me. He sounded surprised and disappointed. He offered to help me find her but I told him no and asked him to keep it confidential. But other vamps were already beginning to suspect something was not right due to my irritable state, even though I tried to maintain a public facade that there was nothing wrong.

The supernatural rumour mill was spinning stories because no one has seen Sookie by my side for quite a long time. There were stories going around that I had killed her, that she was being chained up in my lair, or that she had gone crazy and was now in a mental institution. There was also a rumour that Rosamund and I were keeping her locked up, feeding from her daily and having sexual orgies. That particular rumour sickened me.

To get away from all that, I moved back to Shreveport three weeks ago and perform all my territory duties here. I work from my downtown office and at Fangtasia time to time. Another reason why I moved back was to be closer to Bon Temps just in case Sookie decided to come home. I have been watching her brother and friends closely, wiring their phones and keeping tabs on their mail to see if she has tried to contact them. They have also been calling me constantly to see if I have heard anything yet about Sookie. Appearing distressed, one night the brother came to my office demanding to see me. He threatened my secretary and security guards. Rather than taking physical action against him, I had them escort him out and glamoured to keep him from coming back.

Tonight I sit in my old office which is now Pam's at Fangtasia. I stare grimly at my work on the desk finding it hard to concentrate. Just then Pam walks in with a male blood donor.

"Master your meal for the evening," Pam says in her usual bored tone.

I rise from my chair and walk towards the young nervous man. Rather than wasting time offering him a seat I grab his wrist and sink my fangs into the artery. This man's blood tastes putrid like all the other donors that I have drunk from in the past months. The god awful artificial blood substitutes are preferable to human donor blood but I must keep up my strength. The essence that all vampires need in order to be strong is found only in the blood of humans. It is a missing element in the artificial substitutes. After reaching my fill I glamour the man and he leaves the office.

I go back to the desk and try again to concentrate on my work. Pam is still standing in the room staring at me.

"Just spit out what you have to say," I snarl.

"You can't go on like this," she says in a sorrowful tone.

"Don't you think I already know that? You know how hard I have tried to find her."

"Yes I know that," she replies. "But I think it's time that you accepted that she is not coming back. You need to get over her and move on."

My anger grows. "What did you just say?" I say in a low tone.

"You heard me. You need to get over her the way she has gotten over you. If she truly had deep feelings for you she would have returned by now despite of what you have done."

My fury rises and I toss the papers from the desk and break my pen.

Pam continues on, "Surely you know that she must be with Etienne. She is probably fucking him as we speak."

I lose my temper instantly. In a quick second I hold her by the throat against the wall, squeezing her neck and causing pain.

"Don't ever speak that way about your mistress again. She is not with him and she will return. If I hear another slur again about my wife that comes from your mouth, I will have you chained up in silver for the month," I say in an irate tone.

Feeling her physical and emotional pain I let her go and she falls to the floor. Bloody tears fall from her eyes.

"I am so sorry Master," she says crying still sitting on the floor on her knees. "I am just worried and afraid for you. You have not been yourself."

I close my eyes and fight my own urge to shed tears. "I accept your apology, leave now and don't bother me for the rest of the night."

I sit back down at the desk. Pam slowly walks out the door quietly closing it afterwards.

She is correct about one assertion; I have not been acting like anything closely resembling my previous self. Lately I have been easily losing my temper with others. A month ago I almost killed one of the donors that I was feeding from. He began to feel aroused and tried to caress my leg. In a rage I snapped his wrist bone and beat him to a bloody pulp. Pam and my guards had to intervene. He would have died if he wasn't given vampire blood afterwards. I need to control my temper or else it will destroy and consume me, more so than it already has.

I decide to call Marten to ask if he has found any new information.

He answers the phone after three rings. "Hello king of Louisiana. What can I do for you?"

"I just wanted to know if you have learned anything new."

I hear music and a female voice in the background asking him when he is coming back. He doesn't answer her and says, "No sorry Eric. I have no new information. I even went up there to see if I could find something but came up empty handed again. Are you sure that she is still... among the living?"

I let out a sigh, "I am positive that she is still alive. Please just call me right away when you have heard anything, even if the information is obscure."

"Of course Eric. Are you still coming to the summit?"

"Yes I will be there."

"That's great, we can talk more at that time. Listen I have to go now, have some business that I must attend to."

"See you there," and I hang up the phone.

I stare absentmindedly at a picture on the wall before I decide to go home for the night. I get into my car and drive towards the house that Sookie and I shared. As I get closer the thought of lying alone in the bed that we slept in is too much to bear. I reach the house and park my car in the garage. I shoot up into the sky and fly towards Bon Temps, Sookie's house. I get to her house and open the door using a spare key. I walk through the house trying to find traces of her scent. A half hour later I give up and head down the secret underground chamber that I had built years earlier for emergencies. It is a small room with just a cot, a tiny bathroom and dry food for Sookie.

It is nearing dawn and I can feel the sun rising. I lie back on the cot thinking. Wherever Sookie is she has managed to hide herself extremely well. It is entirely up to her to come back to me and I must be patient. I realize now how much hurt that I must have caused her. When she does come back I will spend the rest of eternity making up for what has occurred. I will find a way to nullify my marriage even if it costs me the Louisiana territory. I will make Rosamund pay dearly for her part. I continue to think as death takes a hold of me.

Etienne's POV:

I have been living in this small shitty town called Canmore for too long looking for Sookie Stackhouse. I have searched through every small town in the area and so far have not found any trace of her or even the bounty hunters. When I arrived here I talked to many people and by showing them a picture, I asked if any had seen her. I came across a couple of older women who had recognized her. Sookie had been living and working for an older woman called Anna Pember. After getting the necessary information, I glamoured the women into forgetting about Sookie. I also found and glamoured others that they said would remember seeing Sookie. I found the house and learned that the old woman had moved to the east coast. Before I could interrogate her, I learned that she died from natural causes just days earlier. So I was back to square one.

I have had a couple of close calls with running into Eric's weres and bodyguards who were searching this area as well. After a couple of days they left. Lucky fuckers. At least they get to go home while I'm stuck here until I find her. I thrust hard a few more times into the red haired woman underneath me. I am nearly there and I sink my fangs into neck. After taking more blood than I needed I pull out of her and sit up on the bed. She tries to hug me from behind but I push her away.

"You can go now, I no longer have any use for you," I say bluntly. She tries again to touch me. "Fuck off," I say crossly.

She gets up from the bed whimpering. Crying, she runs out of the room clutching her dress and shoes.

I start to put on my clothes and my cell phone rings.

"You better have some good news," Rosamund says angrily.

"Hello to you too. I don't have anything new to report. I have been to every town in this area. It's like she vanished into thin air. I can't even find any trace of the bounty hunters either. Even their rented car has disappeared. I think that there may be someone helping her and that whoever it is must be very powerful to have made two seven hundred year old vampires vanish."

"Well try harder!" she snaps. "Do I have to constantly remind you that we are running out of time? Felipe is has been extremely impatient lately and I have been doing everything I can to stall him from taking action."

I pause for a moment. "I am going to try searching deep into the forest. I doubt that she has returned to the U.S. She has to be somewhere in this area."

"You better be right. You find her or else I will take the liberty of cutting off your dick. You will have to go through a painful year of it growing back."

She hangs up and her words make me flinch. I definitely don't want to lose that part of my anatomy. I will begin to search through the woods maybe in a day or two. Right now I will stick around in the town consuming as blood as I can before I head into the forest where I will have to survive on synthetic blood.

Rosamund's POV:

I am in New York sitting in a living room waiting to talk to Marten. I am hoping to gain his support should my problem with Felipe continue to get serious. He has already threatened my existence. I know that Felipe fears and respects Marten so I am hoping that he will back off once he knows that I have Marten on my side. After waiting for over forty minutes he finally arrives.

"Rosamund to what do I owe this pleasure," he says as he sits down on the sofa across from me. His bodyguards stand on both sides of him.

"I was hoping you would mention pleasure," I say seductively running my hand down to my thigh. Marten is a rather handsome young looking vampire. I have slept with him a few times and he is a wonderful lover, but he is no Eric.

"You can leave us," he says to his guards. They walk out of the room and immediately I straddle him, rubbing myself against him. I try to kiss him but he moves his head to the side.

"Tell me why you are here first."

I rub my hands against his chest. "I need your help."

He grabs my wrists. "Go on."

"I need you to get Felipe to back away from me."

"Why would you need me to do that?" he says raising an eyebrow.

"I can't tell you that." I lean in to nip at his ear. He stands up and throws me on the sofa. He walks to the other side of the room and laughs.

"So you've gotten yourself into some trouble with him."

"It's not my fault. He wants to hurt me for something that I didn't do," I say.

"Then take your problem to the council," he replies.

I sigh feeling exasperated. "They can't help me. Only you can please, pretty please," I slowly make my way to him untying the back of my dress.

I try to caress his upper arm but he grabs my wrist. "Get your husband to help you. Besides I can't and won't interfere. I have started a new business with Felipe that you may have heard about. We are opening a club. I don't want to ruin my new business venture by interfering with a predicament that's not mine."

Marten walks away from me. "Guards," he says loudly and they come in. I quickly adjust my dress.

"I assume that you will be here in about a month and a half for the vampire council summit," he says. I nod in response.

"Good. The Bank, New York City, will have its grand opening during that time. I will send you an invitation. So until then, goodbye," he walks out of the room before I can say anything more.

Etienne, you better find her soon, I think to myself.