I may have been worried about what Cataliades might have to tell me, but there was no way I would miss his phone call. Any information, even if it was information that I did not want to hear, would be better than what I had.

Even with all Amelia had told me, I still had little to no information to go on. That was not something that I was used to, nor was it something I liked.

I was about to set Sookie down and simply go inside to take the phone call. In fact, I started to do just that, but those little hands around my neck would not let me go that easily. I remained crouched down where I had lowered myself to put her safely on the ground and could not able to rise unless I brought her back up with me.

"Do you have to go?" she asked with a little quiver in her voice. I hated to hear her voice like that, even worse was realizing that I did not have to hear her voice with that quiver to it for her to feel this way. Every time I had to cancel plans, there was a good chance that adult Sookie felt that same way. Part of me even knew that, especially given the voicemail she had left me. I had already made the decision to do whatever I could to make things right between us. That involved making sure she had understood the reasons for my having stayed away as well as making sure it did not continue in the future. I would always protect her; that was never a question. I would just do whatever I could to ensure that it was safe for me to see her; that it was safe for her to be with her husband.

I was even willing, perhaps even looking forward to detaching some heads from some shoulders to get there.

"I have to go inside and take this phone call, but I will not go anywhere tonight unless you are with me," I told her.

"No work?"

I shook my head. "No work," Moreover, anything less than another takeover, I meant it, although if we did have another takeover, I could not say with any certainty for which side I would be fighting.

"You'll stay and play with me all night?" she asked. She did not even try to mask the excitement in her voice. It was then that I realized that I wished for the chance to make adult Sookie that excited about something as well.

"After this phone call, I will be all yours," I told her before asking if she had eaten dinner yet. She nodded and told me that Amelia had fixed her chicken nuggets. I was not exactly sure which part of the chicken was the nugget, but Sookie seemed to think they were delicious. "Would you like Pam to get you a snack while I talk on the phone?"

I traded Pam a phone for a Sookie. My child had made the much better deal. "Thank you for returning my call," I said to Cataliades instead of a proper hello. I was both eager to hear what the demon had to say and to get back to Sookie.

"It sounded urgent," was his response.

"It is," I told him before I described to him what had happened, leaving out the most important detail of just to whom it had happened. I was not sure how closely connected the lawyer remained with the Fae, and I thought it best if Sookie's family was unaware, at least until I had more knowledge as to how the events had taken place. Niall would not do anything to purposely hurt Sookie, but that still left a significant amount of room where things could go wrong.

He listened and stayed silent throughout my entire explanation. In fact, the only reason I knew he was still on the line was due to his breathing. Only after I finished explaining the situation did he say anything. By the tone of his voice, I knew I was not going to like what came out of his mouth. "It was not a vampire who was cursed," he stated.

"I am attempting to determine what happened."

"You will have to be forthright if you wish to find that out," he told me. I stayed silent, trying to decide what I could share with him. "There would only be one other with whom you would be so concerned over."

I grit my teeth at his words though, unfortunately, they were not completely unexpected. "For whom are you currently working?" I asked him, needing to know. From working with him under Sophie-Anne, I knew he could be trusted. However, if he had been passed to de Castro or Madden in the takeover, there was a chance that was no longer the truth.

"Currently, only you," he said. It was the first bit of positive news in this entire debacle.

"Why did you say it could not be a vampire?" I asked curiously. I may have also been trying to delay the inevitable, allowing him to know his thoughts were correct.

He sighed, and then began to explain. "The magic that gives a vampire their second life essentially protects them from the more complicated curses that a demon might perform." I did not miss either time he had used the word 'curse'. The thought of someone, or something, having placed a curse upon Sookie made my blood boil.

"Just how would a human or a part-Fae fare against the magic of a demon?" I asked him, all but confirming his suspicions.

"Demon and Fae are actually quite similar creatures; their magic is virtually the same. To be able to block the magic would also mean they have to block what makes them who they are."

"So the two species would be able to place curses on each other?"

"Yes, no matter how much the blood or the magic was diluted," He paused before he asked, "How long has she been cursed?"

"A few days," I responded.

"Do you know where she was cursed?"

"I do not know for certain," I told him, and then I explained to him my suspicions. "Although I believe the curse occurred and took form at Merlotte's where she works. I found her in the woods not far from her house wearing her work shirt that was suddenly much too large for her."

He was quiet for a second, and while I might not have known why exactly, I knew that the information had told him something. I gave him a few more seconds of his quiet reflection before I asked, "What is it?"

"Merlotte's is quite public. Even on a slow night, she would not be the only one there. Knowing that, and if any others were affected, could help us learn which curse had been cast. What have you learned from the bar?"

Was that not the question? That had been the one place I had been physically avoiding ever since this happened for a variety of reasons. One was that between Sookie, Madden, and de Castro, I did not exactly have the time to go down to the bar and start poking around. Merlotte would have just loved that, which was another one of my reasons for not having gone there just yet. I knew I would and probably would have to even question the Shifter, but, for the time being, I had sent several of my vampires, both to the bar and to Bon Temps, to see if anything could be learned, to see if anyone else had been affected, or seemed to have knowledge of the curse.

They struck out on everything I had asked of them. I could not put it off any longer. That night Sookie would be given all of my attention, but tomorrow night I would be heading to Merlotte's to search out anything worth finding. I explained my plans to the demon and was surprised by his response that I should not go to the bar, not yet anyway.

"I will stop by before I come to you and see what I can find," he told me.

"Any reason in particular I should not go there just yet?" I asked him.

"Many," was his response. I waited for him to elaborate, but he did not. He simply said he would fill me in once he had learned more.

I was about to disagree with the lawyer in a very loud and, most likely, violent way when, out of the corner of my eye, something caught my attention. I turned toward the house and saw that Sookie was making funny faces at me through the window. Her fingers were pulling tight at the corners of her mouth. As soon as she saw me looking at her, she crossed her eyes and puffed out her cheeks before she dissolved into giggles at her own ridiculousness. I did not want her catching me losing my temper. I stuck my tongue out, and that made her dissolve into another fit of giggles. Pam was behind her with a smile of her own.

I put up one finger letting her know I would be another minute before I turned and said to Cataliades, "You are positive it would be best that I not go to Merlotte's on my own yet?"

"I am. Until I know more of what happened, it would be for the best."

"You will explain these reasons when you get here?"

"I would feel much better if we were to discuss those things in person and not over the phone." That was something that I not only understood, but something for which I could even commend the demon. If it was safer for Sookie, then it was to him I would be listening.

At least for the time being.

I thanked the lawyer after I asked him if he would be here tomorrow. His answer of, "If I am able," was not as reassuring as I would have preferred, however, I needed to remember that I was among many who suffered from the numerous and ridiculous effects brought on by the new regime. I needed to accept that even as much as it made me want to grind my phone into dust. Nevertheless, Cataliades' offer of assistance was all I had available at that time.

I walked into my kitchen after I hung up the phone. I may not have liked what Cataliades had said, but at least I had a starting point, well, perhaps a few points from where I could start. With any luck, once Cataliades arrived, he would have delivered far more to go on. I knew I would start my search at Merlotte's seeing as it was the last place Sookie seemed to recall being, and it was something that should have been done earlier. Sookie had left her post at the window and was back to eating at the table, though playing with her food was probably a more apt description.

"I saved you some carrots," Sookie told me when I joined her at the table.

"More like you avoided the carrots while you ate everything else," Pam said, and Sookie shot her a dirty look. Unfortunately, that look was one I had become accustomed to seeing on Sookie's face.

"I saved them for Eric," she said angrily stating saying every word. I fought hard to keep the smile off my face, and hoped I succeeded by the time she looked back to me. I did not get an angry face from her, so I took that to mean I succeeded. I was worried though that I would see that angry face after I told her that I could not eat the carrots she had saved for me, no matter her reasons behind it.

I looked to Pam who seemed to have grasped the conversation I was going to attempt to have with Sookie. Part of me was surprised when she showed no move to leave the kitchen, but I knew she wanted to see Sookie's response as much as me. It was something that I could not hide from her; I did not want to hide anything from her, even in this form.

"You know how we talked about the cost of magic?" I asked her, starting there. I received a nod in response to the question.

"Yes. The sun hurts you."

"That is correct. I also cannot eat food," I said to her.

"Not even ice cream?" she yelled, clearly appalled by this new bit of information.

"Not even ice cream."

She narrowed her eyes, and her nose scrunched up as if she was putting a great deal of thought into something. "So, even if I had made the pancakes and they didn't 'ploded, you wouldn't have been able to eat them?" I shook my head at her. "You don't eat anything?" she asked, which had been one of the questions I was dreading.

It was one that I was going to answer; I had no intentions of not answering, but it was also something I wanted to gain a little more information on in order gauge how to best approach it. The last thing I wanted was to go back to having Sookie hiding from me in bushes.

"When you heard Amelia's thoughts, what was she thinking?"

"I'm not supposed to tell," she said, looking down.

I placed my finger under her chin, and gently moved her face back up to where she was looking at me once more. "It is okay," I told her. "You should not hide your magic, Sookie. It is an important part of who you are. You never have to hide who you are with me. Never," I reiterated to her.

"Or me," my child added.

Sookie looked at us both very carefully, very appraisingly. That was an extremely important point in our conversation; her reaction would control the rest of the way the conversation would happen, or if it would continue to occur at all. I had not lied when I told Sookie I would be here the whole night with her and my want; my need to be honest with her was one of those reasons.

Sookie seemed to take my words to heart, "She actually thought my name a lot and an old lady with blond hair." If she thought she was old before she was cursed, I hated to think what she would believe regarding my age. "She thought about other things too," she said her voice returning to what she thought was a whisper. It still was not.

"What other things?" I asked. I had a feeling I knew what had gone through Amelia's head considering what had happened and why I called her here. She would have most likely thought about Supernatural creatures, and chances were that Sookie would have heard those thoughts before Amelia had been able to shield them though the shielding had not go over well either.

"Things Jason told me in scary stories. Things my Daddy told me weren't real," I stayed silent while Sookie moved closer and, in the whisper that was almost as loud as her usual voice, she added, "Monsters."

I thought that might be a word she associated with me after I explained the many things she might find concerning me. I had known it, but it still hurt to know that could be what she believed I was. I was aware that she was still thinking as a little girl at this point, and I even knew that adult Sookie, while I was at times not always her favorite creature, probably never thought of me in that way; or at least I hoped she had not. Somehow, that did not take the sting out of her use of the simple word. Judging from what I felt from Pam, her feelings were very similar to mine.

"Not all monsters are scary," I told her. "They just have some magic powers that people do not always understand." The words sounded reasonable enough in my head, yet I regretted them the instant they came out of my mouth. The question Sookie asked was why I did.

"I have magic. I hear the inside voices. Does that mean I'm a monster?" Sookie asked. She did not seem scared or worried about her question although I thought it might have been easier if she was. She believed herself to be a monster already and that was almost worse. No, it actually was worse.

"Does my magic make me a monster, Sookie?" I asked her.

"I don't think you're a monster," I only hoped she would continue with that particular thought process.

"I do not believe you are one either," I told her.

She started playing with the carrots on her plate again. I knew the question was coming once more. "What do you have to eat?"

I took a deep, unnecessary, breath, and then another. The conversation had gone well so far. This was when I could lose her. As much as I hated to admit it, I was also close to losing Sookie in her adult form. I did not want that nor did I want to lose her in this form. I hoped that both relationships could be saved; that was my ultimate goal.

I looked to Pam, and I imagined the desperation I saw on her face matched the one on mine. We had come this far though and it was not time to back down.

"I have to drink blood, Sookie," I told her as gently as I possibly could. Her eyes filled with understanding, and suddenly it felt as if I was the one who could read minds when I saw the word on her face, in those eyes, before she said it.

"Vampire. Like a vampire."

I did not know if it was a memory she had somehow pulled from her adult life. I did not know if it was something she knew from Jason's scary stories. I did not think it mattered how she knew, only that she knew.

Most importantly, did it now put me in the monster category?

I nodded, and then the room was filled with silence. Pam and I could do silence like professionals, and as it turned out, so could Sookie. The only sounds were the humming of the lights, her heartbeat, and her breathing.

At least they were the only sounds until she asked another question.

"Do you want to drink my blood?" she asked. Her voice was stronger than I thought it might be at this question, but upon thinking on it, I was not really that surprised. Sookie was brave; she would not hesitate to dive into dangerous situations when she felt it was necessary. That was a character trait that she most likely always had. It was not her fault that she had been introduced to such a dangerous world.

The question was also two-fold. With adult Sookie, I would not hesitate to take her blood if she offered it as long as it was not hazardous to her health. However, the answer to her question as she currently was, absolutely not. "No," I told her.

"Does Pam?" she asked, obviously not wanting my child to hear the question. Her intuition was astounding in that she realized not only was I a vampire, but Pam was one too.

I shook my head while Pam took that as her cue to step toward us. She knelt down so she was level with Sookie and told her, "I don't. You don't have to be frightened of me, of us," my child told her. "That's the last thing we want."

"You don't scare me," she told me. "Well, 'cept for in the woods. That was scary. You've been a good boy ever since." That may have been the only time in my existence that I would be called a good boy, but I would take it.

"You even made my boo-boo disappear with your magic!" Sookie said excitedly. "You wouldn't have done that if you wanted to hurt me." She took in the look on my face and asked, "Why do you look so scared?"

"I thought you would not want to be my friend anymore," I told her honestly.

"Do you not want to be friend because I hear inside voices?" I shook my head no.

"There are good people and bad people, Eric," she told me, sounding much older than the figure in front of me appeared. "I think you're one of the good people."

That was the second time in our conversation that Sookie referred to me as 'good.' She seemed to see something in me, something that I could not even see in myself half the time. I vowed to do whatever I could to prove her right, no matter in what form or age she appeared to me.

Still, I had one more question to ask, one more thing of which I needed to be absolutely certain.

"Will you still stay with us, Sookie?" I asked. The conversation appeared to go well, but I still worried about her answer. I did not know what I would do if she said no. Well, I would know what to do for her safety, but for everything else, I did not know what I would do if she told me no.

Hello dear readers. I do hope that you have enjoyed this chapter. Two very important conversations happened and Eric is looking for a little reassurance here after one of them. Many thanks to MsBuffy for her editing and her little additions!

Other positive note - I was able to get the next 5 uploaded here so as long as I don't have trouble posting, I should be able to have regular updates here for awhile at least. I thank everyone reading here for their patience as my computer and FF seem to not be getting along too often.