He had just risen two nights later when Rasul, a vampire he had seen around Sophie-Anne's headquarters and residence, knocked on his door.
"What?" he said shortly, stepping aside so that Rasul could enter.
"Your telepath called the queen's place this afternoon and left a message that she was in trouble. The message was--"
"Who took her?" Eric interrupted. "Where is she?"
"That's just it, Sheriff. We don't know. Is your bond with her strong enough to lead you to her?"
He would know soon enough. Without answering Rasul, he indicated that the vampire should join him. Rasul had brought a car, and Eric slid in with no words but the directions to the place on Chloe Street. When they arrived, he let himself in through an upstairs window while Rasul waited in the street below. Even though Sookie had been here only a short time, her familiar scent permeated the rooms – as did the stink of the tiger. Nothing was amiss in the bedroom; it was evident that she had been packing her cousins' things. He walked quietly into the kitchen and stopped short. He smelled animals other than the tiger. He smelled sex, too, but this he willfully ignored.
Letting himself out through the front door, he looked up and down the street. His phone buzzed in his pocket. He withdrew it, glanced at the screen, and opened it to answer Sophie-Anne's call. "Any word?" he asked immediately.
"The witch who owns the house, Amelia Broadway, called a moment ago and reported Sookie missing. She had no further information."
"Useless," he growled with frustration. He assumed the witch was searching elsewhere now, since she obviously wasn't at her home.
"Quite," she said, and he could hear her smirk. "Happy hunting."
Eric leaned back against the building and closed his eyes, willing himself to concentrate. The likelihood of being able to feel Sookie lessened with each mile that separated them; the chances were mediocre to begin with because they didn't have a full blood bond. He pushed every other thought and distraction from his mind and called Sookie to the fore.
Where are you? he asked her. He was calling out to his own blood inside her, searching for some very strong emotion that he could latch on to and follow. There was nothing at first, but gradually he felt her pull threading through his consciousness. He took a few paces down the sidewalk, experimenting, and the threads loosened. When he turned and went in the other direction, he felt them more strongly, twining through his veins. Now that he had found his connection to her, it became easier to hold onto it and sense it strengthening or weakening by the slightest of degrees.
"I have her," he said in a low voice. His eyes were fixed absently in the distance, almost as if a sense other than sight were guiding him now.
"Will you run or fly?" Rasul asked.
Eric had almost forgotten that he wasn't alone. He turned to the other vampire, then looked up at the cloudy night sky. The streets were wet with rain, and more was clearly on the way. "We'll take your car." He set his jaw. "We will be returning with passengers."
They returned to the spot where Rasul had left his car, and Rasul motioned for Eric to take the wheel. The drive was silent; Rasul was apparently wise enough to see that Eric had nothing to say. Eric flipped on the windshield wipers as the rain picked up. She was close now – quite close. If it weren't for the rain, he was sure he could have lowered the window and smelled the tiger in the air.
He parked the car near a beaten-down cabin. Quinn was in his human form, naked, single-handedly tearing into two thugs. The rain had subsided somewhat as Eric leapt from the car and ran to the shifter. Rasul took off after a man and woman who seemed to be trying to escape.
Quinn was one of the few men who was tall enough to look Eric directly in the eyes. "The Pelts are behind this," the tiger said, indicating the couple that Rasul had overtaken.
"Rasul will help you clean up whatever's left," he said quickly. "Where is Sookie?" Quinn nodded his head in the direction of the cabin, and Eric wasted no time. Worthless structure as it was, the cabin was still a private building. He heard a commotion inside and yelled, "Let me in!"
"Come on now, I need help!" Sookie shouted back. He swung the door open and couldn't help pausing for a moment to take in the scene: Sookie pinning another woman, a Were, to the ground. Sookie gritted her teeth as she struggled with the woman beneath her. "Listen, Sandra! Hold still, damn it!"
The female named Sandra hissed back, "Fuck you."
Enough of this, amusing as it was. "This is actually kind of exciting," he said cheerfully.
When Sookie looked up at him, his face hardened. She had been beaten, and now her face was bruised and swollen. If the tiger hadn't killed the two men outside, Eric decided that he might do it himself.
"I could use some help here!" she said, breathless and angry.
"Of course, Sookie," he said with a smile, "though I'm enjoying the wiggling around. Let go of the girl and stand up."
She stayed where she was. "Only if you're ready for action."
"I'm always ready for action." He tore his eyes unwillingly from her and focused his gaze on the other woman. "Sandra, look at me," he commanded.
This Sandra seemed to know better than to let a vampire glamour her; she only closed her eyes and continued fighting. He was impressed by the sight of Sookie fighting and holding her own with a Were – impressed and more than a little turned on. But when Sandra managed to free one arm, bringing it back to hit Sookie, he knelt beside them in a flash and stopped her. That he would not allow.
"That's enough," he said in a low, dangerous tone.
Sookie rolled to the side and lay there, panting, as Eric continued to struggle with Sandra. Finally, he adopted the simple solution of squeezing her fist in his. It never failed. She cried out and stilled beneath him.
"That's just not fair," Sookie muttered, looking up at him.
He was lost in his thoughts for a moment as he replied absently, "All's fair."
"What are you talking about?" she asked, looking confused. Eric blinked and shook his head, dismissing her question. "Where's Quinn?"
He smiled slightly. "The tiger has taken care of your two abductors. Would you like to go see?"
"Not particularly." She lay still on the floor and closed her eyes. "I guess they're dead?"
Eric raised himself off of Sandra, shooting her a warning look, and sat up to survey the room. His eyes fell on a smallish man, who was lying unconscious nearby. "I'm sure they wish they were. What did you do to the little man on the floor?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," she said.
He looked down at her and smiled, even though she couldn't see him. "Try me." Of Sookie he could believe almost anything.
"I scared him so bad, he spilled hot coffee on himself. Then I hit him with a stun gun that I got out of the van."
"Oh." He couldn't stop a breathy laugh from escaping, and Sookie opened her eyes to meet his.
"The Pelts?"
Eric shrugged. "Rasul has them covered. You have another fan, it seems."
"Oh, it's because of the fairy blood. You know, it's not fair. Human guys don't like me. I know about two hundred of them who wouldn't want--"
She had more to say on the subject, but Eric's mind was otherwise occupied. "You have fairy blood," he mused aloud when she stopped talking. "That explains a lot." Her strength, part of her magnetic appeal to his kind, perhaps even her gift…
"Oh, no, you couldn't just like me! Oh, no, gosh, there has to be a reason. And it's not gonna be my sparkling personality, oh, no!" He wanted to interrupt and ask her what the fuck she was on about, but she barely seemed to be taking time for breath. "It's gonna be my blood because it's special! Not me, I'm not special, I--"
"I don't give a damn about fairies myself." Quinn. Eric bit back a growl.
In a flash, Sookie was standing beside the naked shifter, looking up at him as if he were her knight in shining armor. "You okay?"
"Yes," he assured her with a smile full of white teeth.
"I left your clothes out there in the woods. I'll go get them."
He shook his head. "I can."
"No, I know where they are," she insisted, "and I couldn't get any wetter." She gave him a lopsided smile, indicating her soaked-through attire.
Just as Sookie opened the door, Sandra yelled, "Fuck you, bitch!"
Eric still had the Were's fist grasped in his own, and he squeezed it again, harder than he had before. Sandra cried out and then wisely became silent. Looking around the cramped room for a moment, Eric spotted a roll of duct tape and picked it up. He ignored Sandra's angry protests as he restrained her securely. That done, he satisfied himself by placing one last piece over her loud, irritating mouth.
He noted with approval that Quinn had bound the semi-conscious man that Sookie had shot with the stun gun. The tiger had also managed to find a towel to wrap around his waist. They stood in uncomfortable silence, arms crossed, waiting for Sookie to return. When she did come back, she handed Quinn's wet clothes to him, and the two of them disappeared together to use the cabin's dryer as Eric and Rasul brought all of the captives together into the building. Gordon and Barbara Pelt were much more subdued than their daughter.
Sookie rejoined them, wearing dry clothes that Eric assumed she or Quinn had found: a man's threadbare undershirt and khaki-colored shorts with lots of pockets. In spite of her sturdy, solid frame, the clothes were obviously too big. Bedraggled as she looked, he wanted her no less than he usually did – especially with her generous breasts, braless, testing the capabilities of the thin white shirt. He looked away quickly, giving one of the Pelts a fierce frown.
"Where's the little guy?" Rasul asked the group, looking around at each of them. His eyes fell on Sookie and took her in. "Sookie, I'm glad to see you looking so well, even though your ensemble falls below your usual standards." He grinned at her.
One corner of her mouth tipped up half-heartedly. "You really know how to make a girl feel beautiful, Rasul." If she wanted to feel beautiful, Eric could take her into one of the other rooms alone and show her how much he appreciated every inch of her. He felt the tips of his fangs on his tongue. Focus.
Sookie had taken a seat and was now addressing the Pelt woman. "What were you going to do with me?" she asked
"Work on you until you told us the truth and Sandra was satisfied," the woman answered with eyes that were both angry and pained. "Our family couldn't be at peace until we knew the truth. And the truth lies in you… I just know it."
Sookie stalled, looking away from Barbara Pelt and taking in all the captives, then the vampires. "Just the two of you?"
"Any time two vampires can't handle a handful of Weres is the day I become human again," Rasul scoffed.
Sookie nodded a little and turned to Eric. He felt her uncertainty and fear. "Eric, what should I do?" He could see in her eyes that she would do whatever he told her, and the feeling wasn't a good one. He didn't like Sookie this way. Of course, she was right to ask him, since the secret was his as well as hers. He nodded his permission, giving the decision back to her.
With a deep breath, she faced the Pelts again. "I'll tell you what happened to Debbie," she said. She spoke slowly, but her voice was steady and strong. "Debbie hated me because she thought I wanted Alcide. She had tried to kill me once before in Jackson. Then she blamed me because Alcide abjured her. After the fight with the witches in January – this was when Eric still didn't know who he was – I got back to my house with Eric, and when we walked in, Debbie was there waiting with a gun." Sookie swallowed and glanced at Eric. "She probably would have killed me if Eric hadn't jumped in front of me to take the bullet. He was lying there, bleeding, and I ran for my brother's gun. I shot her." Her voice was detached but not cold, not heartless as Eric knew his own would be if he were telling this story. "Eric took the – took Debbie's body away while I cleaned up. I have no idea where he buried her or where he hid her car. That's it. That's the whole truth."
After a long silence, Debbie's mother nodded and wiped the tears from her cheeks. "That sounds like our Debbie. This has the ring of truth."
Eric tightened his lips against a smirk. That's how you know you're a vindictive bitch. Your own mother believes that you would shoot another woman out of jealousy and spite.
"She did have a gun," the father added. "I gave it to her for Christmas two years ago."
"She was…" Barbara paused, searching for a word. "Proactive." She turned to her daughter, whose face was wet with tears. "Remember when we had to go to court when she was in high school because she put super glue in that cheerleader's hairbrush? The one that was dating her ex-boyfriend?" She shook her head sadly. "That does sound like Debbie, huh?"
Gordon Pelt looked up at Eric. "You still don't remember where you put her?"
"I would tell you if I did." And there are a hundred other things I would choose to remember from those days. Where your bitch of a daughter is rotting is the last of the memories I want back.
Now it was Quinn's turn to address the Weres. "You guys hired the two kids who attacked us in Shreveport," he said, not even bothering to make it a question. They all knew it.
The man nodded. "Sandra did," he replied, since his daughter's mouth was still duct-taped shut. He launched into a lengthy explanation that didn't interest Eric in the slightest. Only a Were would be stupid enough to turn people as part of a plot for revenge. Charming that the humans hated vampires, who were trying to mainstream for the most part, and knew nothing of the dangerous Weres and shifters living in their midst.
"We were both hurt, and those two kids are dead now, because of Sandra," Sookie said, and now there was ice in her voice.
"She's our daughter, and she believed she was avenging her murdered sister." If any mother truly had unconditional love, it must be this Barbara Pelt.
"And then you hired all the Weres that were in the second van and the two Weres lying out in the front yard," Sookie continued. "Are they going to die, Quinn?"
"If the Pelts don't take them to a Were doctor, they may," he said grimly. "And they sure can't go to any human hospital."
Sookie turned back to the Pelts. "Will you do that – take Clete and George to a Were doctor?" Eric couldn't believe that she cared to know their names, much less that she expected them to be given medical care.
"We figured you were going to kill us," said Debbie's father. "Are you going to let us walk away? With what assurances?"
Fucking nerve.
"With assurances that I never hear of this again, neither I nor Eric."
Eric hoped his expression made clear that he would happily kill them anytime, anywhere, including now. That was the only assurance they could count on from him.
"Sookie is a friend of the Shreveport pack," Quinn told them. "They are very upset she was attacked in their own city, and now we know you're responsible for that attack."
The Were bitch seemed nonplussed. "We heard she was no favorite of the new packleader."
"He may not be packleader for long. Even if he stays in office, he can't rescind the pack's protection since it was guaranteed by the previous packleader. The honor of the pack would be destroyed." As much as Eric disliked Quinn, he had to approve of the tiger's cool head.
Gordon Pelt sighed. "We'll make reparations to the Shreveport pack."
"Did you send Tanya to Bon Temps?" Sookie asked them.
Tanya? Eric didn't know anyone of that name.
"Yes," said Barbara, "I did that. You know our Debbie was adopted? She was a werefox. Tanya is a member of Debbie's birth family, and she wanted to do something to help. She thought if she went to Bon Temps and began working with you, you might let something spill. She said you were too suspicious to warm up to her offer of friendship. I think she might stay in Bon Temps. I understand finding the bar owner so attractive was an unexpected bonus."
Eric smirked.
"And the man who owns this house?" Sookie pressed.
"He's a former high school buddy of Debbie's," Gordon explained. "We asked him if we could borrow his house for the afternoon, and we paid him. He won't talk after we leave."
"What about Gladiola?"
Eric doubted these people had anything to do with the demon's death, and their confused expressions confirmed his suspicions.
"Gladiola?" the woman asked. "The flower? It's not even the right season for glads now."
Sookie wisely moved on without telling them what she had meant. "Do you agree we're square on this? I've hurt you, you've hurt me. Even?"
The duct tape on Sandra's mouth happily silenced whatever protests she herself had while Gordon and Barbara agreed to Sookie's deal.
"You killed Debbie, but we do believe that you killed her in self-defense," the man said. "And our living daughter took extreme and unlawful methods to attack you." He glanced at Sandra, who was turning red in her anger and frustration, then back at Sookie. "It goes against my grain to say this, but I think we have to agree to leave you alone after this day… with these stipulations." Sookie raised her eyebrows but waited in silence for him to continue. "You won't come after Sandra, and you stay out of Mississippi."
There was no hesitation on Sookie's part. "Done." She evidently cared as little for Mississippi as he himself did, he thought with amusement. "Can you control Sandra enough to make her keep to this agreement?" she asked, and everyone looked at the struggling young woman.
"Sandra," her father said sternly, "Sandra, this is law. We are giving our word to this woman, and our word is binding on you. If you defy me, I'll challenge you at the next full moon. I'll take you down in front of the pack."
"We are leaving now," Quinn said in a voice that dared anyone to argue. "I'll free Mrs. Pelt, and she can free the rest of you after we have left. Understood?"
The three Pelts nodded, and Quinn took care of Barbara Pelt while Sookie went to fetch their clothes from the dryer. After making sure they had everything, Quinn and Sookie joined the vampires in Rasul's car. The drive back to the city was quiet for the most part. In the back seat, Sookie had leaned her head on the tiger's shoulder, and Eric suspected that she had drifted off, if only briefly. Rasul parked along the curb in front of Amelia Broadway's house, and Quinn helped Sookie out of the car. Before they moved away, Eric opened his window and reached for Sookie's hand.
"The fairy blood," he said quietly, fixing his eyes on hers. "If it made such a great difference, I would have noticed it the first time I tasted your blood. But I didn't even know until you told me tonight. You understand what I'm saying to you?"
She gave him a tired nod and pulled her hand from his, though not roughly. "Thanks for finding me."
"Come on, babe," the tiger said, draping his arm around her.
Eric turned away and closed his window as Rasul pulled back out onto Chloe Street.