Things were getting a bit long, so I've left you a wee bit of a cliff-hanger with this installment of plot. There will be more soon, and some real Vampire intimacy.

Enjoy this run, promise, citrus next chapter.

Merick

Part 7

It was well after midnight when we arrived in Bon Temps, going first to Sookie's house. Our drive down had been quiet, I could see the tension growing in the way she held her body as every mile ticked away. She had asked about Papa B, and I had told her everything he had offered. She spoke a little about Diantha, that they had listened to some music and that Diantha had told her about her job, she worked for her uncle, doing whatever he needed. The idea of a conversation with a semi-demon didn't seem so frightening to her any longer, no more frightening than one with a vampire I guessed. But her silence for the last twenty miles spoke volumes about how terrified she still really was. I reached over and took her hand as I pulled the car into her long, graveled driveway. She held mine firmly as she stared forward into the darkness. The way her brows furrowed, I knew she was willing herself to recognize something in what she saw up ahead. Her motion sensor lights came on as I pulled my car around the back, and parked it beside her little hatchback.

Her car being there meant that she had likely been taken from home as opposed to having been kidnapped from work or somewhere else. It was another clue to add to the pile.

"Are you ready?" I asked her as she scanned the house from within the car. She nodded, biting her lip. I got out and opened her door for her. She stepped forth cautiously. I listened carefully around us, and heard nothing but the expected sounds of night, and forest life. The air provided nothing unexpected either. I followed her as she went up the porch steps, looking at the old wicker furniture, and at the blackened windows. She tried the doorknob, but as Diantha had reported, it was locked. She looked at me for a solution.

"Wait here." I asked, as I stepped back from the porch to survey the upper floor. "I may have to break a window frame?"

"Okay."

I leapt up and hovered just in front of a small dormer close to the roof. The wooden frame of the window had been latched in place, but the old brass housing was no match for me as I grabbed at the outside casing and pushed it upward. I ducked inside, having been granted permission by Sookie herself at my last visit, not that she remembered it. It seemed to have held. I let her in through the front door, and I turned on a number of lights for her.

Not that I had expected to see a smile cross her face as soon as she entered the large main sitting room, but I suppose I had expected something more than what she offered. Her expression remained quite neutral, at least initially, as she scanned the room. She walked over to the large mantle over the stone fireplace, and I followed her. She picked up a picture frame and looked at the people in the photo carefully. Sadly there was no instant glimmer of recognition, and I knew better than to ask her if she remembered anything. Her expression said it all as the neutrality collapsed into sadness.

"It's a photo of your Grandmother Sookie. Looking at the two children with her, I have to assume that they are yourself and your friend Tara." She put the frame back, and reached for another. I could see her lip quivering.

"That's your brother Jason." I recognized him, it was a much more recent photo.

"My mom and dad?" She pointed at another picture.

"I'm sorry, I don't know. That would be my guess."

"Nothing." She whispered to herself sadly, turning away from the gallery of smiling faces.

"Why don't you look around a bit? I'm just going to go and have a look in your utility room for some nails to fix the window casing I broke." I wanted her to have the time alone, I didn't want her to feel as if her lack of recollection was disappointing me as well. I went through the kitchen, noting no dishes in the sink or objects out of place. I was just pulling open the third drawer in a cabinet, finally seeing the nails I was looking for when I heard her call out to me.

"Eric?" Her voice sounded a little panicked and I rushed to her side, in the second bedroom on the main floor of her home. The sight I saw gave me pause.

"You said that my boss,"

"Sam."

"Yes, Sam said that I called to ask for time off because I had to go away?"

"He did."

Laid out on the bed was an old suitcase, half packed with Sookie's clothing, with other articles lying on the bed beside it, waiting to be placed inside. Her purse was beside the brown leather case.

"Have you found anything like a ticket for a plane or bus or train?"

"No, I haven't looked."

"Do you mind?" I motioned towards the suitcase.

"Please." I looked through everything in the case while she dumped out the contents of her purse and began unfolding all the pieces of paper.

We found nothing to indicate a destination, and I surmised that wherever she was headed, that she was likely going to be driving. She agreed with the assessment. She also noted that she'd only packed a couple of pairs of underwear, blushing as she did so. But it said to her that she must have only been planning on being gone a few days, perhaps a weekend.

In good news, her purse did contain her house and car keys, and her wallet. So we wouldn't have to break into her home again when we wanted to return. I left her again, as she was going through the contents of her wallet; the receipts of recent purchases and some photos, as well as her ID. I went to fix the window. It didn't take much effort to push the nails into the wood, sealing the break adequately enough. I thought then that I should have asked Papa B for something to help protect the house from any further intruders; assuming there had been intruders in the first place, and I thought that was a safe assumption. Of course I wasn't about to let Sookie stay there again, not until we had things sorted out, so I had time to rectify my omission. I took a few more minutes to prowl around the house, trying to see if I could smell anything out of place, anything that wasn't Sookie, especially anything supernatural.

I could definitely smell someone else's scent, but it was faint, having likely been two days old. I wasn't a were, as keen as my senses were, and I did wish for just a moment that I had a were-bloodhound at my disposal right then. I was also aware of the same smell as the ash mixture, despite the girls attempts to dispose of it, which left me wondering if something hadn't been burnt in the house. I began looking for ashtrays, and finally ended up at the fireplace, where there certainly did seem to be something foreign amidst the logs. I retrieved a plastic bag from the utility room, I'd found them while looking for the nails, and scooped some into it.

Sookie was in the master bedroom; I assumed it was her room, because I couldn't remember ever being invited in there. I have to admit a bit of a tremor stepping into it though; just wishful thinking I suppose. She was sitting on the edge of the bed; I don't know that she was looking at much of anything.

"I hate knowing that I should recognize everything here Eric, because I don't. I don't remember anything about who I was. Nothing." Her grip on the patchwork quilt under her was turning her knuckles white.

"I understand Sookie." I sat down beside her.

"How can you Eric?"

"Because the same thing happened to me Sookie."

"What?"

"I know all about what it feels like because I was cursed by a witch as well, on New Years Eve."

"But you know who you are?"

"We were able to remove the curse, but not immediately. I spent time just as you are now, not knowing who I was. And to this day I don't really know what happened to me during those weeks."

"Nothing?"

"Only what I have been told by others. Pam has told me that it was you who found me, and who took me in, keeping me safe while she searched for a way to restore me to myself."

"I took you in?"

"You did Sookie, I told you that you are a good person. You kept me safe in your home when you didn't have to."

"But I didn't tell you what happened?"

"No."

"Why?"

"I can only guess Sookie. I fear that something I did then has left you unwilling to talk of it. I only hope that I did not hurt you, or cause you embarrassment."

"Oh Eric. I'm sorry."

"You have no need to be sorry Sookie."

She leaned her head into my chest; I felt the tears begin again. I wrapped my arms around her.

"Is that why you are looking after me Eric? Because you feel obligated?"

"No, not at all Sookie. I admit that I feel guilt at you having been drawn into this because I believe, as I have said, that this was done to you to hurt me. But there is no obligation motivating me." Perhaps it wasn't completely true, I did feel obligated to her, and I wanted to know what had happened to her, and to me, and that kept me close to her, and maybe that was bad. I don't know. I knew it wasn't obligation the way she meant it. I wanted to be with her through this.

"Being with me, these last two nights, has it brought back anything to you Eric?" She sounded so desperate for an answer as she stood and began to pace, and I wanted to give her one.

"Just feelings Sookie, vague ideas at the edge of my consciousness that something is familiar."

"Like what?" She turned to focus on me again.

"Like when I kissed you last night, the taste of your skin, and the feel of it against my lips. I felt as if I recognized it, or something in it. Like I had been that close to you before, in that frame of mind." I'd been close to her in instances I remembered quite well. I remembered her scent, but as I have tried to describe earlier, there was something different in that simple kiss that hinted at an intimacy the other encounters had not embodied; not in the least. I knew I was taking a chance in telling her that, but I just felt I needed to give her something, and some kind of hope.

Fortunately she didn't ask what I meant by 'that frame of mind' because I think if I'd tried to explain it that I would have really risked offending or embarrassing her. Though the line of inquiry she did begin left me nearly as unsettled.

"When was the last time you fed Eric?"