It was three days since that night Eric and I had almost made love in my bed. Three days since it had been interrupted by Sophie-Anne the Queen. And I was one bitter woman. I didn't show it however, I strolled right through the day with a Sookie mega-walt smile. I hadn't seen Eric since then or heard from him but I didn't let that get to me either. We weren't together, he wasn't my boyfriend.

I made my way back around my house to the lawn, I had flowers to revive. I settled into the dirt, sifted, cut, and sifted again at what used to be a pretty little patch of flowers. I wanted to get them up and living once Gran came back home. Gardening took my mind off of my life and how it was currently in peril for a while before Eric's voice came storming into head.

"You're going to be mine." He had promised me. "Do you hear me?"

My body shivered at the memory of his touch, his lips, his everything. Oh darn it!

I got up from what I was doing and gathered my tools up and restored them in the shed and then went to wash up. I needed to find something else to do with my time because Gardening wasn't cutting it and it was the middle of the day.

I was just thinking about sunbathing when I got a call from Lafayette. "Hey, Sookie here."

"Tara's missing!" Lafayette shouted.

I stilled, and leaned against my dresser. "No...Tara? When was the last time you saw her?"

"Last night, she and that fuckhead vampire got into an argument. She said she was going home but she didn't. She's gone, Sookie, gooone!" Lafayette was shouting, I even heard a few things being thrown around. "And her house is a fucking mess, and I found blood. He has her I know it."

"What time does the sun set?" I asked.

I heard a deep inhale and then, "Hookah, do you think I give a fuck when the sun sets!"

"Yeah I think you do, because I know a Vampire who can help us. And he won't be any help until the sun has set Lafayette. " I told him, a bit miffed at the anger he was putting towards me. Like I was the one who had kidnapped Tara.

I heard something else being thrown and then a puff of air through the speaker. "That vamp bitch who came to the bar?" Lafayette remembered Pam.

"Yeah, her, but it's her Master who's really going to help. This is his Area so it's kinda his duty to deal with these situations. It has to be against one of their...er...laws." I sort of lied. I didn't know what Eric duties were but I'm pretty sure they didn't want unwanted trouble with the government for kidnapping a human.

"You sure Sookie? This is my best...shit basically my only cousin we're talking about right now. I don't need to be fucking around with a damn vamp." He was right, Tara was practically the only family he had.

I nodded my head although he couldn't see me. "I'll drive there tonight, talk to him face to face. He'll help."

"I'm trusting you Sooks." Lafayette told me before he hung up.

Fangtasia wasn't opened when I arrived, the sun had just set. The club wouldn't be open for another hour or two but I knew Eric and Pam would be here. I knocked hard on the entrance door and waited. The door didn't open until two minutes later, right when I had raised my hand to knock again when it opened up. Ginger; short and petite stood in the doorway smiling cheerfully at me.

"Hey, girl, can I help ya?" She asked me helpfully.

I smiled back. "Yeah, I need to talk to Eric."

She gave me a knowing smile, "Yeah, sorry sweet cheeks but the only way you're going to be able to speak to him is if you come back during business hours."

I shook my head. "I'm Sookie, Sookie Stackhouse." I told her hoping it may ring a bell. "Eric will want to speak to me." Maybe I was a bit over confident but I didn't think he would turn me away.

She looked doubtful but she smiled at me again. "Sure, I'll go ask him. You wait here." She shut the door without another word and went to looking for Eric. I read her mind before she left and she was sure I was a fangbanger looking to be bitten but she was going to ask him anyway.

When the door opened again it wasn't Ginger doing the opening. Eric appeared at the entrance looking slightly confused on why I was standing on the other side. "Come in." And it didn't sound like an offer, more like a demand.

I came in and he shut the door behind me. "My friend has gone missing." I blurted out. And Ginger, who had lingered in the room gave Eric a terrified look and then shuffled out of the room. "Her name is Tara Thorton-"

"Why should I care?" Eric interrupted me coldly.

That stopped me, making my entire body still as a statue. "Because she's a really good friend of mine, and she's missing."

"Go to the police." Eric said so detached I wasn't even sure if he was in the room with me.

"Are you kidding me?" I hollered.

"No, I'm not. Go to the police, that's what you humans do when people go missing." He stated.

My breast rose up and down as I heaved. I was pissed, and I didn't even realize how much. "I came to you because I trust you, and I thought you would help me. Especially since the person who took her is a vampire and is in your territory. But I guess not, huh?" I snarled at him. I was angry, confused, and scared. It was hitting me hard that my friend was missing.

His face immediately softened when he saw how upset I was. I guess vampires weren't used to emotions like empathy. "Your friend is missing?" Eric asked like he hadn't heard me the first time.

I nodded my head, looking, up, up, and up at him searching for the lost emotion from before. "She's been missing since last night, her boyfriend..uh...Franklin Mott got into an argument and now she's gone. Her place is all messed up too."

Eric looked at me like he was puzzled about something, he closed the distance between us. His eyes roaming over my place, looking for something there. "And you came straight to me" He said softly, his breath cool on my forehead as he combed his fingers through the loose waves of my hair. It wasn't a question more like a statement.

I answered anyway soft like he did. "Straight to you."

He sighed heavily, although he didn't need to breathe. "I'll help you, Sookie. I need to make some calls first." And before I could process it and say something he kissed me on the forehead and it was the best sweetest kiss I ever received and then he vanished into his office.

"You are one interesting human." Pam said as she entered the room. She crossed the room to the bar and poured herself a cup of blood. She downed the cup, sucked her teeth and then grinned at me with white teeth. "What is it this time?"

I walked to the bar and slid onto a stool, placing my purse on the stool next to me. "My friend is missing."

She blinked, twice, and said nothing. Just looked into the inside of her empty cup. "I'm not good with petty emotions, Eric isn't either. I suppose you don't feel...great with your friend missing?" She didn't look up from that empty cup.

I shook my head, "Not great at all."

She nodded her head, still not looking at me. "I lost a friend once..."

"Did you find them?"

She looked back to me, and her eyes were filled with blood. "There were killed before I got the chance to." And then with lightning speed she had left the room and I was all alone with multiple shelves of liquor.

I reached over to pour myself a shot of something dark when a cool pale hand grabbed mine. That hand was connected to Eric. He pulled my hand gently, and I took the hint, sliding off of the stool and grabbing my purse. He pulled me beside him and without protest I walked with him.

"Franklin Mott doesn't belong to my Area, but I had given him permission to be here. And now he is missing." Eric said and with the grip he had on my hand he wasn't too happy about that. "I'm talking with the King of Mississippi about his absence right now."

"Oh...thank you." I said squeezing his hand with my own.

He looked straight ahead saying now, just nodding curtly. That made me stop right in my tracks. He was doing it again, the hot-cold thing. He was doing it and it was putting distance between us. Just three days ago he was going to be in my bed and now...he may as well be three thousand miles away. I wasn't the one to start this but I sure did want to see where it led.

I jerked my hand away and he let me. "Are you scared of me?"

He looked down at me and snorted, his eyes sparkling with laughter. "No, why would I be scared you little one?"

"I'm talking about you! Acting the way you're acting and what you said in the car. You're scared of being in a relationship, aren't you? The big bad Sheriff is scared of falling in love with a human!" I taunted him.

Oh, I shouldn't have done that.

In one fine swoop he had me off of my feet and in his arms, Eric's lips were on mine and my hands had circled his neck. His hands were in my hair pressing me firmly to his mouth. His other arm wound around my waist and kept me on his body. The kiss was divine, sensational, heart stopping, and hot. I wanted more him, I wanted it all. It scared the living daylights out of me.

"What happened?" I whispered into his neck as he held me, my breath coming hard and heavy.

He squeezed me until I could barely breathe. "I can't allow myself to have you..."

"You can! I want you...I've never wanted anyone my entire life. I've never-"

"Sookie" He said as a warning.

I continued anyway. "wanted, thought about, or needed someone so much. It's frightening, I barely even know...I don't know you at all. But I have these feelings, and I can't ignore them. I won't." I felt safe in my vikings arms, like no one could harm me as long as he held me. False hope I know but ignorance is bliss.

"Sookie, damn you." He hissed, but he didn't let me go. He pulled me away from his neck and kissed me hard on the lips, his eyes burning with emotions I couldn't decipher.

"You don't feel the same?" I said, as his fore head connected with mine. I looked at him alhtough his eyes had shuttered closed.

"Your very name can distract me from my duties, just the thought of you makes wherever my heart used to be yearn. Give me time, Sookie. Time." He pleaded.

I needed more, "Honey-"

He gave me a squeeze. "Just know you are mine, no one else's."

When I didn't reply he squeezed me again. "Do you hear me?"

"I hear you." I replied, nodding against his cool forehead. He placed me back on my feet and sighed.

"I'm going to make a few other calls and I'll call you." He informed me, and that sounded like a dismissal.

I asked, "Are you telling me to go home?"

He nodded, raking a hand through his thick mane of blonde hair. He kissed me on the lips and turned me around towards the door. "There is nothing more you can do right now, but go home. Talk to the locals, ask them when was the last time they heard from Tara. Do your part." And with that he opened the door pushed me out and closed it behind him.

Lafayette was going to have a fit.