Eric made the decision to stay home on Monday night since he wanted to be readily available if anything went wrong for Sookie at the pack meeting. The Herveaux house was close by, a fact which usually annoyed him, but for which he was grateful tonight. Appius and Alexei didn't seem to mind staying in; they had been in their room since nightfall, quiet and seemingly content. Bobby was scheduled to drop by with some paperwork, but until he arrived, Eric could enjoy the rare luxury of having nothing to do.
As it turned out, however, there was nothing to enjoy.
He began to feel ill, nauseated even. His vision clouded and blurred. He sat perfectly still for some minutes, waiting for it to pass, but it didn't. It only seemed to get worse. The room spun and spun and light shot from the bulbs and streetlamps like sparks. He fumbled nearby for his phone and called Pam.
"You all right?" she asked immediately. Could she feel it, too? Hear the whirling lights? He realized he hadn't said anything. "Eric?"
He wanted to answer her, but he dropped the phone. Fuck.
He lost track of time.
"Eric!" He blinked his eyes to see Pam hovering over him. "What's wrong with you?" she demanded.
"Does he need blood?" asked a voice from behind her. It sounded like Bobby. "I just heated some up for him."
Pam frowned, took the bottle of blood from Bobby, and set it aside on the coffee table. "He doesn't need blood. Felicia, check his kitchen to see what he's drunk tonight, if anything. He might have been poisoned." She took his face in one hand and lightly slapped his cheek with the other. "Eric, what have you had to drink tonight?" She lowered her voice. "Did Appius Livius give you something? Or that boy?"
Felicia appeared at Pam's side. "Nothing in the kitchen. Think it's fairy blood?"
"I have no idea." She slapped him harder. "Eric!"
"What is this commotion?"
The voice – Appius' voice – was behind him, and both Pam and Felicia looked up sharply. The room and the objects in it seemed to have settled into fixed places again, though the lights still shone overly bright.
"Eric seems unwell," Pam said. "Do you have any idea why that might be?" Her tone clearly said, Tell me why that is.
"I know why!"
It was Alexei's voice, cold and not sane. Eric struggled to sit up straighter. He was feeling somewhat more like himself, but still not quite right. "Bobby," he said, though he couldn't see his assistant past Pam and Felicia. "Tell Bobby to go."
"I won't leave you," Bobby answered from behind them. "We'll figure this thing out."
"I know what's wrong with my brother," Alexei said. "We have not seen enough of Sookie. He has gone too long without her blood. I know how much he needs it because I need it myself. When I remember her and Jason, I am desperate to taste them. Let us go there now."
Eric stood very steadily and turned to look at Alexei and Appius. "You will not leave this house," he told the boy. "You will never see Sookie again."
Alexei bared his fangs, and Eric felt his own extend.
Appius put a hand on each of Alexei's shoulders. "That's enough, dearest." There was a tense silence, and then Alexei's small body relaxed. "Good boy. Now, I want you to follow Eric's employees throughout the house and help them find whatever might have harmed Eric. Is that clear?"
"Yes, Master," Alexei said softly.
Eric sank onto the sofa as Appius switched off the lights and walked around to join him. Pam seemed to be waiting for some signal that she could leave him to search the house with the others, and he gave her a nod. When they were alone, Appius turned Eric's head and studied his eyes.
"You were not poisoned," he said. "The darkness helps?"
Eric nodded.
They sat quietly for some time before a loud shout from Pam jerked them both to their feet. Felicia screamed. Seconds later, Bobby and Felicia ran into the room, both of them splattered with blood.
"The little one-" Bobby gasped.
They were his last words. Alexei snapped his neck and tore out Felicia's throat in a blur of movement. Eric roared in anger and lunged at the boy, but Alexei fended him off with a brutal jab from his sharp, bony elbow. Eric heard, rather than felt, his bones crack, and in his weakened state, he crumpled at Alexei's feet. The boy kicked his face, laughed madly, and escaped the room with such speed that he seemed to vanish into thin air.
Appius, looking paler and more haggard than Eric had ever seen him, used his shirtsleeve to wipe some of the blood from his face. "This ends tonight," he said, his voice little more than a murmur. "Do not follow us, Eric. I will not have you further harmed." He took a few steps, then turned. "In staying here, you will prove to me that you value your own life more than Sookie's. In so doing, you will convince me to let your marriage with her stand, and I will arrange to release you from the obligation to Oklahoma." Then he, too, disappeared.
Groaning in agony, Eric managed to drag himself back towards the sofa and pull himself up. He could see the jagged points of his ribs protruding weirdly from under his shirt. He could smell Felicia's blood, and he wondered if Pam had survived. He tried to feel for her through his blood, but that was useless. Whatever had impaired him, it was still in his blood. But if she had lived, she would already be at his side. She would call out, at the very least. No, he had lost her.
Spots of blood fell from the gash in his head – and perhaps from his eyes; he could not tell – and stippled a pattern on the floor. He had one consolation: Sookie was not at home, and Alexei would not find her. Sookie, above all, was safe. He rested his head in his hands and closed his eyes.
He didn't know how many minutes had passed when he heard someone enter the house… heard Sookie's voice say his name. He felt light-headed from the blood loss, but he gathered his voice to answer her.
"Eric, where are you?" she called. He felt her presence blooming inside him.
"In here," he said. His voice was weak. Had she heard him?
"Thank you, God," he heard her say, and a moment later, he saw light in the kitchen.
He closed his eyes again and said his own prayer of thanks, not to her god but to a pantheon he had known and abandoned centuries earlier. He heard footsteps, and then a soft gasp, and then Sookie was crouching in front of him, her hand touching one of his.
"Honey? Look at me," she murmured.
Eric lifted his head and looked at her, almost not trusting the sight. Many men died in the desert with hands clenching sand that had promised to be an oasis. He read his condition in her frightened expression. Behind her, he could see Jason taking in the bloody surroundings. Alexei would find only disappointment in Bon Temps tonight, then.
Sookie's eyes fell from his face, and her face paled. "What's under the shirt?" she asked, sounding very much as if she didn't really want to know.
"My ribs are broken, and they've come through." He winced as he tried to sit up a little. "They'll heal, but it'll take time. You'll have to push them back into place."
She closed her eyes for a moment. Opened them again. "Tell me what's happened."
"Dead guy over here. Human," Jason said, and Sookie looked back at him over her shoulder.
She rested her chin on her shoulder briefly, perhaps gathering herself, perhaps not wanting to look at Eric again. Her voice was strained when she did turn back to him. "Who is it, Eric?" She stood up and guided him backwards to lie down, then helped him lift his feet up. That done, she perched next to him on the edge of the sofa, waiting for him to answer her.
"It's Bobby. I tried to get him out of here in time, but…" He shook his head. "He was so sure there was something he could do to help me."
"Who killed him?"
He could hear the strain in her voice, the immense effort to sound calm. He could see her determination not to look anywhere but at his face as he told her what had happened.
"Why was Felicia here?" she asked.
"She was dating Bobby." No doubt a "suggestion" from Victor. "He had some papers I needed to sign, and she'd just come over with him."
She bit her lip. "So Felicia…?" He could tell that she already knew the answer.
As if to confirm this, Jason said, "Part of a vampire left over here… looks like the rest has flaked away."
"She's gone to her final death," Eric said absently, and his thoughts went to Pam. He didn't think he could bear to hear Jason Stackhouse's matter-of-fact report that Pam had "flaked away." A wave of grief rolled through him, threatening to break the dam of control he had built up against it.
Sookie leaned forward and held him as closely as she could without touching his ribs. "Oh, I'm so sorry," she said. She sat up again, her eyes wide. "Where's Alexei now? Where's Appius? Is he still alive?"
"I don't know," he said.
Sookie gaped. "Why not? He's your maker, buddy!" She stood and paced to the end of the sofa. "You'd know if he died. If I've been feeling you three for a week, I know you've been feeling him even stronger. You need to get out of here and go find him!"
He looked away from her. "He asked me not to follow when he went after Alexei… He doesn't want us all to die."
"So you're just going to sit home because he said so?" she demanded, crossing her arms. "When you don't know where they are, or what they're doing, or who they're doing it to?"
"Ocella asked this of me," he told her firmly, choosing not to point out that he was hardly just sitting at home.
"So he asked? That doesn't sound like a direct order to me. It sounds like a request." She raised one defiant eyebrow. "Correct me if I'm wrong."
If she was trying to bait him to make him angry, it was working. "No, it was not a direct order."
Sookie turned and called over her shoulder, "Jason! Please push Eric's ribs back in." She stepped out of the way as her brother walked over and pressed his hands to each side of Eric's broken ribcage.
"Ready?" Jason asked.
He closed his eyes and pushed hard, and Eric cried out in pain, forcing himself to stay conscious. He shut himself off from Sookie as much as he could to prevent her from feeling it, and then he fell heavily back into the sofa, spent. He could already feel his body healing itself. Jason, looking queasy, left them alone again.
Sookie reclaimed her spot on the edge of the sofa and reached for the untouched bottle of blood that Bobby had brought out for him earlier. It was no longer warm. "Well, then?" she said, watching him as he drank. "What are you gonna do?"
He wiped his mouth and set the empty bottle on the floor beside him. "Later on, we'll have words about this." He looked at her in a way that would let anyone else know to leave it alone. Anyone else but Sookie.
"Fine with me," she said stubbornly. "And while you're listing the things you should be doing, where's the cleaning crew?"
He refrained from pointing out that she had been listing things she thought he should be doing, but he let it go. "Bobby-" He had almost reminded her that the cleaning crew was Bobby's job. He didn't know what to say.
"Okay," Sookie said with a touch of gentleness in her voice, "how's about I do that part?"
Eric turned his head and stared up at the ceiling. "He kept a list of important numbers in the right-hand desk drawer in my office," he told her.
She went to his office, and he listened as she ordered the service. He listened as she called to Jason, "Please, please, find Pam!" Nice of her to remember Pam at last, he thought bitterly.
When she came back to the living room, she raised the shades and hoisted up the windows. The fresh air from outside was, admittedly, a welcome relief. But the respite was to be short-lived; Sookie wasn't done with him yet.
"What's the plan?" she asked, looking very much like a scolding mother.
"There isn't one," he said.
Sookie shook her head. "What's the plan?" she insisted.
He felt weak; the single bottle of True Blood hadn't been enough. He was physically and mentally exhausted from the effort of keeping her shut off from Appius and Alexei as much as he could. And he felt utterly powerless for the first time in many centuries, as if the world were spinning out of control. Victor snapping at his heels like a rabid dog, Pam gone forever, Appius, Alexei, Freyda. He didn't realize that he was weeping until he felt the blood sliding down his face.
"I told you I haven't made a plan," he said brokenly. "I don't know what to do. Ocella may be dead by now if Alexei was clever enough to waylay him."
"Bzzzzzzt!" Sookie said, as if he had given the wrong answer on a television game show. "You'd know if Appius Livius was dead. He's your maker." No, he wanted to tell her, I wouldn't know. My blood is too full of you! "What's the plan?" she asked again.
Ignoring the pain, he leapt up from the sofa and rounded on her so abruptly that she took a few steps backwards. "I haven't got one! No matter what I do, someone will die!"
Sookie recovered her composure and stepped closer to him, her finger pointed at his chest. "With no plan, someone's going to die. And you know it." She waved her arms around. "Someone's probably dying right this second! Alexei is crazy! Let's have a plan!"
She was begging, not demanding, now, and he knew what she wanted – needed – from him. But he was momentarily distracted by the scent that had wafted from her flailing arms. "Why do you smell strange?" he frowned. "You smell of Were and of drugs… and you've been sick." Drugs. This explained what had happened to him earlier. Fucking Weres.
"I've already been through hell tonight," she said. He saw the exhaustion in her eyes and written on her face. "And now I get to go through it twice because someone's got to get your Viking butt on the road."
He successfully fought back a smile and said calmly, "What am I supposed to do?"
"So you're okay with Alexei killing Appius?" she asked. "I mean, I sure am, but I would've thought you would've objected. Guess I was wrong."
Before he could reply, they were interrupted by Jason, who leaned against the doorframe and looked almost deathly white. "I found Pam." He took a few steps forward to the nearest chair and practically fell into it. "She needed blood."
Eric felt that Jason had once again pushed the pieces of his chest back together. He sank slowly back onto the sofa, overcome.
"But she's moving?" Sookie asked.
"Only barely. She's cut, her ribs are kicked in, and her left arm and her right leg are broken."
"Oh, God!" Sookie gasped. Without another word, she dashed past both of them and disappeared.
Eric and Jason sat in silence, one from weakness, and one from the sudden and almost overpowering return of strength.
When Sookie returned, it was with Pam leaning heavily against her. Eric immediately went to help them, though he wasn't completely recovered himself.
"Who would have thought Alexei could do so much damage?" Sookie mused. "He's so puny, and you're a great fighter."
"Flattery is not effective at this point," Pam said hoarsely. "It was my fault. The little shit was following Bobby around, and I saw he'd gotten a knife from the kitchen. I tried to corner him while Bobby got out of the house… to give Ocella a chance to cool the boy down. But he went for me." She groaned as they helped her lie on the sofa. "He's fast as a snake."
"Do you need my blood?" He smoothed some matted hair back from her face. "I thank you for doing your best to stop him."
She leaned back and winced. "He's my kin, too. Through you, I'm related to that little murderer." They exchanged knowing smiles, and Eric motioned to his wrist. "No," Pam said, waving him away. "You need all your blood if you're going after him. I'm healing."
"Since you got a few pints of mine," Jason said good-naturedly from across the room.
Pam grinned at him. "It was good. Thank you, panther."
Then Jason's phone rang.