Soooo, a lot of you were wondering about the Victor connection to the story. Patience will be required until that detail is revealed. What's more important is going after Eric. Picture taking a road trip with a pissed-off Pam and a love-struck Bill. Poor Sookie, hehehehe.

As always, props to Ms. Harris.

Chapter Four

"Knock, knock, cupcake."

Looking up at Pam, from my vantage on the floor, was like looking at a horror movie poster. Blood-streaked face, trench coat covered with dirt, hair wildly out of place, her nylons riddled with runs. She looked like she'd just been chased through the woods by a serial killer.

Bill, upon seeing my distress, let go of Pam and rushed to my side. As he kneeled down next to me, Elsa popped up behind us, her paws resting protectively on my waist. Had she been next to me the whole time? I hadn't even noticed. Bill leaned back quickly, as not to startle her.

"Hello, Elsa," he said in a calm and quiet voice. "You remember me."

Apparently, she didn't. Her ears folded back and she let out a throaty growl. Bill made a small cut on his palm with a fingernail and extended his hand out to her. She sniffed it, thought about it for a second, then rubbed her head against his palm.

"What the hell, Bill?" I asked, my voice tense with fear. What had I just witnessed? I thought Eric said she wasn't a vampire cat.

"I'll explain later." He put his head under my shoulder and gently hoisted me up to my feet, holding on to my waist as I felt my knees go weak. "Are you alright? Can you walk?"

"I'm fine," I replied. This was as close as I'd been to Bill in a very long time and I tried not to look that freaked out than I already was. "Just a little scared I think."

"I got to you as soon as I could." His words were apologetic, and he had that guilty Bill look on his face.

"Bill, I'm fine, really," I assured him. Then I looked to Pam, who was still standing in the doorway. "What happened to you?"

She glared at Bill, and he said in a humble voice, "Pam and I had a little disagreement outside."

"You attacked me!" she snapped. "I hope you can afford Burberry."

I noticed then that Bill was just as dusty and roughed up as Pam was. "You two were fighting?"

"Let's skip the preliminaries, shall we?" Pam asked, stepping closer to us. The second she moved over the threshold, Elsa got in front of her and let out a loud, nasty hiss. Pam's fangs clicked down and she hissed right back at her. "Fuck off, fur ball."

Elsa crouched low to the ground and snarled, but she let Pam pass. How could anyone forget Pam after all? She was like meeting a cross between Jackie Kennedy and a Venus fly trap. The cat circled a few times, sniffing the air around Pam, and then came back to rest by my side. She turned her chin up, miffed. The feeling was obviously mutual.

Pam and I stared each other down for a moment. She could see that I was in physical pain, and I could see from her dried blood tears that she had experienced something. Had it been physical pain, or where those tears of emotion? There was only one person in the world that she would shed tears over, and I knew it. Bill hung on to me tightly, even though I could stand on my own. I realized very quickly that he was protecting me.

"Where's Eric?" Her voice was like ice.

"I don't know."

"Liar. I know he was here last night."

"Yes, he was." Obviously. I gestured down to the cat. "He gave me Elsa."

She snorted. "Don't play stupid with me, Sookie. It's not one of your better skills."

"Well, using doorknobs isn't one of yours."

Pam looked over her shoulder and shrugged. "I slipped."

Where the hell was this coming from? Pam and I had always gotten along, especially after I saved her life from the flaming wreckage of a pyramid hotel. She was my friend, I thought. We went shopping together and teased Eric together. She tried to give me fashion tips and I introduced her to "General Hospital." Sure, she teased me a lot, especially when it came to my relationship with Eric. I was familiar with her surly side, but she had never used it against me before. I was confused by her anger, and it hurt my feelings, to be honest.

It was obvious that I knew more about Eric's whereabouts than she did, and that probably pissed her off real good.

"Why were you crying?" I asked. I could play games too, if need be, although it certainly wasn't the time or place. "You look like shit."

She almost went for it. One of her hands flashed up to smooth out her hair. She was a vein little thing after all, something about her that usually made me laugh. She stopped herself though, and one eyebrow cocked up high on her forehead. Taking a deep breath, she brushed off her coat a bit and walked closer to me, her shiny pumps clicking on the hardwood floor. She smiled wickedly, like she had just imagined killing a puppy. Or a cat.

"Sookie," she said, her voice velvety and showing not a hint of anger. "I may have enjoyed your company from time to time over the past several years. I may have even called you my friend, in some estrogen-induced relapse to my humanity. But let me make a few things clear to you, darlin'. I am not human. And if anything happens to Eric because of you, I will rip your pretty little throat out."

Bill bared his fangs, putting himself in front of me. Pam didn't spare him a glance. Her eyes were fixed on me like I was just some breather who was about to be glamoured. I felt like a coward hiding behind him, but I was still feeling weak. For the first time, I was actually afraid of her. My heart ached, even as it began to beat faster.

"Now, we both know that he's been seriously injured, right?"

I cleared my throat so my voice wouldn't crack. "Right."

"And the last person he saw was you?"

She didn't know about Alcide then, or the letter. I decided to answer carefully. "He was here all night and then left just before dawn."

"Alright, good. We have our facts straight." The smile faded from her face and she leaned closer to me. I could see the blood cracking and flaking off her porcelain skin. "Now, if you know where he is, I suggest you share that information with me before you color scheme goes from shabby chic to blood. Are you pickin' up what I'm puttin' down?"

I quickly weighed my options, standing between two sets of fangs and with Eric's letter burning a hole in my pocket. I seriously doubted Bill's ability to protect me if Pam went bat shit crazy. She was only a little older than him, but she had a more powerful maker, not to mention the constitution of an Iraqi executioner. I knew Bill would fight to the death to save my life, but he'd been pretty badly injured during the fairy melee and I wasn't sure if he was up for it. And why should he have to risk his life for mine anyway? My life wasn't any more important than his own. Darn Eric for putting him in this position in the first place, although I had a strong feeling that Bill would have been there whether Eric told him to be or not. Bill and I had had our many differences, but the fact remained that he'd saved my life more than once and he at least deserved that respect.

This Mexican vampire standoff was going nowhere, when I suddenly felt a strong pull in my stomach. I shivered and had to fight the urge to walk out the door.

Pam's eyes widened. She recognized that shiver.

Her fangs retracted and her shoulders fell. "He calls to you?" she asked, for the first time showing something other than anger.

"Um...well, I'm not real sure what it is," I said. "It's like there's something pulling on me, from the inside."

Bill interjected, "Sookie, that's not possible."

"But we're bonded."

"He's not your maker," he insisted.

I turned my head toward him and wiggled from his hold on me. "I'm not making this up, Bill. I felt it just before all of the pain, then after the pain was gone it was still there." I quickly looked to Pam. "He's still alive, Pam. I think he was-"

"Staked," she finished.

I nodded. "Yeah. He's weak, but he's alive. Maybe it was silver, not a wooden stake."

She nodded with me. "That's what I felt too." She moved past us and began to pace the living room rug. Elsa followed her back and forth a few times, until Pam stepped on her paw and she scurried away. "Why would he call to you?" she asked, more to herself than to me.

"I don't-"

"Why would he leave without a single word and then call to you?" she cried. Tears were brimming on the edge of her eyes.

"Pam-"

"Two hundred years and he's never left without saying good-bye. There's no one else that he would call to. Until you."

Bill and I just stood there. Bill looked like he was watching a car accident in progress. She was coming apart at the seams and I had no idea what to say to her. Pam had two settings, normally - snippy or sarcastic. This emotional disaster in front of us was a new one. She was jealous of me, and that set off the danger bulb in my brain. Even so, I couldn't help but feel at little sympathy for her. Sure, she was threatening my life, but she loved Eric just as much as I did. Maybe more.

"He made me promise not to tell." It's official. I was an idiot.

She stalked over to me in a blink. "Tell you what?"

"Sookie..." Bill's voice was a warning in my ear.

"Shut up, Bill." Pam stared at me intently, the steady deadpan tone returned to her voice. "Tell you what?"

I hesitated. "He's dying, Sookie," she demanded, and I jumped. Tears fell onto my own cheeks now and I couldn't look at her.

"If you ever loved him-"

"I love him," I said angrily. "You of all people should understand how much trust means to Eric."

"We don't have time to argue about the ethics of the situation." Pam said. "Are you gonna tell me where he is, or am I going to have to kill the both of you and then go look for him by myself? Either way, it's going to be a hell of a lot of work for me and I'm not wearing the right shoes for this sort of business."

I rolled my eyes and looked to Bill. He gave a slight shrug, as if he was confessing that I really had no choice. I had been in enough of these vampire messes to know that there was no way I would ever be able to march in and save Eric by myself. It was already a foregone conclusion in my head that I was going to do it. Having Pam with me would increase my chances of getting Eric out alive.

They both stared at me. If they had to breathe, they would've been holding it. Even Elsa was looking up at me impatiently, as they all waited for me to speak.

I sighed and looked down at my feet. "He's in Sweden." I felt like a traitor, like a deflated balloon.

"Sweden. Fabulous," Pam griped. "Of course he is. He couldn't have gone to the beer distributor and gotten kidnapped." She took out her cell phone and began furiously pushing buttons. "We'll leave within the hour. I'm texting the pilot."

"Eric has his own plane?" I asked incredulously.

"For emergencies, yes," she replied, still looking at her phone. "It costs a fortune, he's going to be livid."

"Pam, I don't have a passport."

"Of course you do. Eric had one made up for you months ago. And there's a bag packed for you on the plane as well. Do what you have to do, we're leaving. You can tell me the rest of your little story on the way to the airport."

I could only imagine the kinds of clothing Eric or Pam would have packed for me. Unless I was allowed to walk around Sweden in crotchless panties and school girl uniforms, I was going to have to grab a few things before we left.

"What's he going to Sweden for?" Bill asked.

"Uh..."I turned my head away, just like I always did when I was about to tell a whopper of a lie.

Pam, of course, was too quick for my little deception. "He's going to look for her again, isn't he?"

"You know?" My eyes were wide.

"Sookie, please," she said, rolling her eyes. "The world did not begin to spin the day he met you. Although my world certainly got a lot more difficult."

I let her insult bounce off me, because she usually doled them out like Tic Tacs at an AA meeting. Of course she knew, there was no reason why he wouldn't have told her at some point over the past two hundred years. I guess he trusted his secrets with Pam, while me on the other hand, he had to warn to keep my mouth shut.

"Did you ever go with him?" I asked.

"No, he never let me." She didn't like admitting that.

"Then you have no idea where we're going."

"I thought he told you," she said, her voice getting deep and slow. Have you ever seen a vampire lose their patience?

"I told you , I don't know where he is, Pam."

"Great," she frowned. "I'll just tell the pilot to circle until we see him from the air."

"Who is he looking for?" Bill asked.

"There's no time, Bill. I gotta go pack."

He grabbed me by the arm as I headed toward the stairs. "I'm coming with you."

"Oh, no you're not," I retorted.

"Sookie, I am not letting you just walk into unknown danger."

I looked down at his hand, then back up to him. "I am not yours anymore. This isn't your fight."

I watched the expression on his face change as I said the magic vampire words not yours. He let go of my arm and took a step back. "Still, the fact remains that Eric has entrusted me with your life," he went on, holding his head a bit higher. "He is my sheriff. If something happened to you and I wasn't there to prevent it-"

"He'd kill him." Pam finished. She looked at Bill and waved indifferently. "You might as well come. What would us ladies do without a man around?"

What she really meant was that we needed as much manpower as we could get. Three was better than two, especially when one of the three was just a telepathic barmaid.

I shook my head. An hour ago, I was on my way to the kitchen for a cup of hot cocoa, and now I was going to Sweden with Bill and Pam. "What about my front door?" I yelled after her. "We can't just leave it like this."

She waved her phone over her head as she walked out onto the porch. "Already taken care of. I'll be waiting in the car."

I looked to Bill, but he was no help. He just shrugged again, but with a lopsided smile on his face. A I-get-to-go-to-Sweden-with-Sookie smile. I didn't like that smile. What a perfect time for him to finally develop a sense of humor.

"Well, go pack," I cried, exasperated. "And be quick about it."

He zipped out the open door and I was left alone with the cat. She looked up at me with her placid green eyes and rubbed my leg. Who was going to take care of her now? "See," I said out loud. "I told him you were gonna have to fend for yourself around here."

After I had thrown some clothes and a few other necessities into a small suitcase I kept under my bed, I changed into a pair of jeans and a long sleeve cotton tee. I threw my pajamas on the bed and Eric's letter fell onto my quilt. Chewing on my bottom lip for a minute, I thought about what to do with it. It did contain my only clues to his whereabouts, I rationalized. And it wasn't safe to leave it in the house after I was gone. Decision made. I tucked it into my suitcase, under a Bon Temps football sweatshirt, and zipped it up.

I went around the house and turned off all the lights. I put out a can of tuna and a saucer of milk for the kitty - I hadn't even bought her food yet. The last thing I did, as I shoved my phone charger into my purse, was call Sam.

"Merlotte's," he answered.

"Sam?"

"Sookie?"

"Yeah, it's me."

There was a quick pause, and I could picture him looking at the clock hanging over the bar. "What's going on?"

I took a deep breath. "Remember when I said that you'd be the first one to know?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, you're the first one to know."

He let out along, irritated sigh. "Aww, Sookie-"

"I'm sorry, Sam. I gotta go away for a few days, maybe longer."

"You don't gotta do anything, Sookie. He can't make you do things on a whim like this."

Even if I had the time to explain, I couldn't tell him anything anyway. So I stuck with honest and simple. "He's in trouble, Sam. I'm the only one who knows where he is."

"And where is that?"

"Somewhere that I need a passport for," I replied.

"Goddamn it, Sookie."

"They're gonna kill him, Sam."

Another sigh. He was probably running his fingers through his hair. "Who is they?"

"I don't know." Wouldn't tell him even if I did.

"And he's worth it? Worth risking' your life for?"

"Yes."

Silence. I don't know what he expected me to say. He was still in denial about my feelings for Eric, I supposed. Maybe he was waiting for me to declare my love to him, when he'd just hid behind a bar for four years and stared at me.

"Look, I know it's crazy, but I just need you to not freak out right now and listen," I said, juggling my purse and suitcase. "I gotta ask you a favor."

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Can you call Alcide and ask him to come feed my cat?"

"When did you get a cat?" he cried.

"It's a long story."

"Well, I can come and take care of it if you want," he said, his voice glum.

I winced. I was hurting his feelings, I knew, but I didn't want Elsa to jump him like a leopard from the landing when he opened the door. "Just call Alcide, he'll explain, okay?"

"Okay."

"Sam, I gotta go."

"Yeah, alright." There was a long pause, and I could hear the noises of the bar in the background. "Sookie...just take care of yourself."

"I will. I'll be back soon, I promise. Bye, Sam."

"Bye, cher."

I sighed heavily and threw my phone into my purse. Worst employee ever. I'd have to get him a souvenir, once the rescue mission was complete that is. I wondered what came from Sweden, aside from Vikings and IKEA?