Part 27

As she slept I looked through information on my computer and made phone calls; my associates were used to hearing from me at all hours of the human night, and the ones who objected were removed from my payroll. Mr. Cataliades had the girls out searching last known addresses for Marie Stonebrook, and he was trying to obtain information on her banking and credit cards, still not an easy task in the middle of the night, but not impossible. It was such a different type of pursuit than I was used to. It was normally me, and Pam, or Godric, or another convenient ally, on the ground, using our senses to track our prey, or just me alone. Sitting back, as I was doing in this case was unnerving, I was not a king, not part of the Authority, not one to assign tasks this important to others. This was not like going to the airport to pick up a case of liquor; this was a threat against my life, or at the very least my wellbeing, and Sookie's as well. But what choice did I have? Or rather, what choice was I giving myself? I had made myself into her protector to the exclusion of all other things because I had allowed myself to fall in love with her. Not that I was berating myself for that decision. But since I had not even had the courage to tell her that yet, I wondered at my fortitude to deal with a great many things. It was a cascade of self-doubt as I sat in my silent rooms. And it was driving me close to the edge. I wanted to break something, preferably something consequential.

I heard Pam come in upstairs and decided to go and speak with her; I was not in a state to retire as much as the thought of wrapping myself around Sookie's body was appealing; she did still carry the scent of our lovemaking on her skin, and that was nearly as enticing as her blood, perhaps more. I do not know exactly what I expected from Pam as I climbed the stairs and quietly shut the door behind myself, but I knew that she would see the logical side of things, and likely offer me some valuable insight, likely some I could not see for myself just then.

"Oh, so you are home then." She greeted me as I came around into the formal living room of the house. She was hanging up her wrap in the front hall closet. "Did you two have fun after I left?" her raised eyebrows were humorous, as was her smirk, but I was not quite in the mood for that. I felt like sparring with someone.

"What Sookie and I may or may not have done is none of your concern."

"Sure it is." She flopped herself down in a chair to continue grinning at me. I noted that her skin had a healthy pink sheen to it, which meant that she had fed on someone before coming home, her bartender friend perhaps? "You're always so much easier to get along with when you're getting some regularly."

"So that would apparently be your problem then Pam?" I shot back, collapsing in the matching chair.

"You love me and you know it Eric."

"Yes I do." I huffed at her, not perhaps the most dignified thing I could have done.

"So what is going on Eric? I would have thought you'd be all doey eyed and gooey after having your alone time with Sookie. You certainly were fun to watch behind the bar with your cocktail shaker."

I objected to her characterization of me, and dropped my fangs with a growl that she did not take seriously enough for my liking.

"Eric, I know you are frustrated." But she did understand me like no other person on the planet.

"That is an understatement Pam."

"And you want to kill something." That was closer to the truth. "You just have to figure out who."

"I already know that Pam, her name is Marie Stonebrook, the mother to those two brat witches that tried to oust me earlier this year." I had not had the opportunity to tell Pam about my discovery, or perhaps I had not made the opportunity.

"I see." I could tell that something was running around behind those eyes, eyes that had suddenly lost their sheen.

"I just have to find her so I can wring the life out of her and end this uncertainty."

"And what about Sookie's memories?"

"She doesn't want them back." Perhaps I was speaking out of turn on her behalf, but it seemed to me that she had dropped enough clues in her comments to me that I could infer the truth, or the truth as I wanted it.

"She will hate you if you take away her only chance at restoring them Eric."

I knew it, not that I had wanted to acknowledge it to myself, it was just easier to think about killing Marie Stonebrook than the ramifications of what would happen when Sookie recaptured her life. Despite her beautiful words to me I still harbored the doubt that she would stay.

"She is happy right now Pam." I said it for myself not her.

"I know she is Eric. You'd have to be blind not to see how much she loves you." Just to hear Pam say it made my chest quake, as if my long dead heart was trying to skip a beat. "You've bonded with her haven't you?"

"I have. How does that knowledge make you feel Pam?"

"As I said before, you are much easier to get along with when Sookie is with you. And you are my maker Eric." She leaned forward and put her hand on my knee. "I want you to be happy. Tell me what I can do to help you out of this mood?"

"Nothing. I need answers and I need them yesterday." My frustration was palpable. "I want to go hunting."

"Then go. I'll say here and keep an ear open for Sookie if she needs anything."

"You would do that?"

"She's growing on me."

I took Pam up on her offer and went out hunting, not with a direction in mind, but just opening myself up to the evil that was always present on the streets of Shreveport. Not that I am particularly sensitive to that kind of thing, but like often recognizes like. I found two people dealing V, and since I was not in the business any longer, and had not been by choice in the first place, I dealt with them. It made me feel a little better, more like my old self again. Shreveport was my city, my area, and I was charged with keeping the supernatural population of it under control and also under law. Perhaps my frustration was born on not being able to do that? Introspection is something I am good at, especially when I am well fed and in my element. I thought I would take a walk around and ended up back at the club just to see if anything caught my attention. Something did.

Arthur's car was still in the back lot, I knew it was his, and not just from the crumpled rear bumper. Perhaps he had finally given up his reliance on the thing, and decided to run home? I walked around it; it smelled odd. My memory being what it was it only took a moment to place the smell; the ash I had found in Sookie's fireplace. I knew there was no way that could be a coincidence and I felt the anger rise in my chest. The next time I saw Arthur I was going to chain him up in the basement with silver till his skin crackled. He had been the one to find her on my car, at least that was the story he had told everyone. The possibilities spiraled in my mind, too many to make sense of properly and I lashed out against the car, slamming my fist through the trunk lid.

I set out for home immediately.

Pam was curled around a book in the living room still, looking as content as a cat after a saucer of cream. I looked substantially different, and but for the fact that the outburst I was holding inside me would have startled Sookie into waking, and seeing my rage finally, I would have roared and torn the walls down around me.

"What do you know about Arthur?" I hissed through clenched teeth. Pam could not have failed to understand my fury, even if her mind was not connected to mine.

"What has happened?" She put down her book calmly, and rose. The action was designed to soothe the beast that had risen in me, but I was having none of it just then.

"What do you know about Arthur, Pam? Where did he come from? Where does he live?"

"Eric, what has happened?" She reached out for me, and I allowed her to rest her hand on my arm, she must have been able to feel the way my body was vibrating, like a cobra waiting to strike.

"He is involved in this."

"How do you know?" Her even tone of voice was working into my brain, as I had known it would. I had chosen and changed Pam for the very reason of her logical mind and the effect it had on me. Not that we had not had of screaming matches in the past.

"His car, it smelled like the poison they used to steal Sookie's memories."

At least she had the grace not to question my assumption on that part. She knew me just as well as I knew her.

"He is a young vampire Eric, turned only forty years back. He came to us by way of the Authority, his maker had deserted him and he needed guidance. They asked me to hire him, to give him some grounding in our world. But everything about him checked out."

"Is he weak minded?"

"I have never explored his mind Eric, he takes orders well, and respects his elders. He has been efficient at his job and has drawn no complaints. If anything, the women like him because he is polite to them at the club, and ensures their drinks are safe, and that they have rides home at the end of the evening."

I had noticed that behavior around Sookie and Diantha, as well as the increase in taxicabs around Fangtasia of late. Whether he was glamouring those ladies into taking the taxis or not I did not know, and it was beside the point. I really just wanted to rip off his head.

"I need to see him!" I roared.

"It's nearly dawn Eric, there isn't time right now, and if you go storming out to his place you are likely to be caught without shelter, and I will not permit that."

"You will not permit that?" I looked at her, wide eyed at her impertinence.

"No, I will not." She stood up to her full height, still much shorter than I, and glared at me. "Now go downstairs, ready yourself to sleep, take your comfort in Sookie's arms or her blood, whatever you need, and calm down. Rushing off, half cocked will only bring disaster."

I was not prepared to admit that she was right until she uttered her final line.

"Don't be like Bill. Your strength is in your planning and your intelligence."

I hated her just then, hated the comparison, hated the words, and hated that she was correct.

"Damn you." I hissed.

"You already have my darling, and I like it. Now get to bed so I can do the same." I loved that pink smile and lipstick that went with it.

"Fine." I stomped off down the stairs, fuming, angry, ready to kill, until I caught Sookie's scent, well, our scent, and I forced myself to calm down, if only for her sake. It would do no good to let her see my rage, it would frighten her, and worse, it might cause her to do something reckless, like chasing after Arthur and his witch friend Amy on her own, or simply running away from me.

I could have fought the fatigue that tried to claim me, after a full night, but there was no benefit to it that I could see. Arthur was young, he would have to sleep and so he would be going nowhere. As far as he knew everything was the same as it had been when he left work, there was no reason to suspect that he would not show up at Fangtasia just as he always did, the next night, and I could bide my time, I needed to bide my time so that I could get the answers I required, and not just the satisfaction of driving my fist through his chest to tear out his shriveled dead heart.