A/N: Howdy. Writing is going. I am working on things. Back in therapy, which is likely good. I might be gaining a diagnosis or two, but the more the merrier, I suppose. Or the more you know with a shooting star? Or maybe knowing is half the battle. It's ok. I am making pop-cultural sense in my brain, if nowhere else.

*Ahem*

(I really should not ever write these things sober.)

Chapter 14

Sookie's breath was still hitching a little in her chest. She didn't want Eric to let her go. She hadn't realized how much she'd been starved for comfort. She'd had creature comforts when she was with Sophie-Anne, but those were just nice things. And sometimes she'd even gotten a hug from her cousin, Hadley, but they'd always been shallow and superficial. Kind of like Hadley herself, although Sookie didn't like to speak ill of the finally dead.

Really, she hadn't had anything like this, ever. Someone who really cared for her, who could hold her tight while she cried without blasting and bombarding her with his thoughts. She looked up for a kiss and he obliged. He squeezed her a little harder before he let her go and went to look at the hatch.

The trap door had nothing to grab hold of. There was a spattering of holes far too small to get his fingers in. No tool on the wall looked like it could help, either; everything that looked narrow enough to get inside was too weak to lift the thick steel door without breaking or bending. The holes were just the right size, however, to let some air inside. Or smoke.

Eric scowled. "There is no way to open it from the outside."

Sookie grabbed a crowbar and hammer off the wall and handed them to him.

"Pry up some boards. Maybe you'll get lucky and it won't be lined with lead. And if it is, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a plasma cutter around here somewhere. He's got just about everything else."

She was exhausted. She was well acquainted with an adrenaline hangover, and this one was a doozy. She sat down on the floor and one of the dogs got up and lay down beside her. The other sniffed his former maker's ashes and sneezed. Soon, she had a big square head on each thigh and two ears that were perfectly positioned for scratches. It had been a long time since she'd had the opportunity to pet a dog. It felt so normal and comforting and… free. Just having them with her made her feel so much better.

The dungeon wasn't lined with lead, but there was concrete. Eric pulled up the boards and chiseled out a good-sized hole in the masonry and then jumped inside. It was dark and dank and cold. In one corner, there were three bare mattresses on the ground next to three shackles. The vampire had been planning to put Sookie down there. To keep her. To make her his. Nobody would have ever found her. Eric was very glad that the vampire was dead.

Sookie found a flashlight and tried to see what she could lying on her stomach on the barn floor. It was enough. She had gone from Sophie-Anne's gilded cage to Felipe's little cube, at least when she wasn't getting fucked six ways to Sunday. Next stop, chained up like a dog inside the creepy vampire's hole in the ground. At least she likely would have had company.

She chuckled. She sat up and started to giggle and just couldn't stop. She wasn't able to get a handle on it. She was laughing so hard she was crying. They turned into sobs a couple of minutes later. Eric jumped back out of the dungeon and scooped her up. There was a chair pushed up to a computer desk in back and he sat down and held her. It took quite a while for the tears to stop. She sniffled a little.

"He was a meth head and a doomsday prepper, I think. Before he got turned, I mean. That's someone sure the apocalypse is gonna come soon, so they want to be prepared. He was off the grid, in the middle of nowhere, with everything he needed to survive. As a human, anyway. Those mattresses down there... I think he was planning to do the same thing with me. With us. Me and the other girls. We were going to be… provisions, I guess. Just in case. I don't think he was planning on waiting for the end of the world to start fucking and feeding, though."

Eric was sure she was right. And he hoped she hadn't seen the bloodstains on the mattresses. She would not have been the first victim.

He kissed her head.

"Sookie, I must call the casino. They will have to have someone deal with this mess. It will all need to be investigated. The area searched. They will have to work something out with California."

He started to reach for his cell phone and she grabbed his hand. Her heart started to race. She was out. Away from the casino. In a whole other state! Far enough away that she could disappear.

"No! Don't take me back there, Eric. Let me go. Please. Drop me off in Barstow or Needles or I don't give a shit. Just… somewhere. Anywhere outside Nevada. I'm sure I can hitch a ride."

She had done a whole lot worse than giving a trucker a blow job or two for a ride across the country.

"Sookie, you know I can't. Felipe would end me for losing you. And he wouldn't just let you go. Eventually, he would find you."

She shook her head.

"No! Just say you never found me. Forget you ever saw this place. You were silvered, I was grabbed, you tried to find me but I was long gone. Which is the truth! None of it was your fault. You couldn't have helped it. You won't get blamed. I will."

He was surprised how much it hurt, seeing her like this.

"I must call Felipe. I don't have a choice, Sookie. I am already going to be punished harshly for getting you taken in the first place. Being distracted because I was too busy having sex with you to notice someone behind me with a silver net isn't much of an excuse."

"Please, come with me, then. We could go wherever you want. We could be together! I could be yours. Only yours."

She was crying again and pleading and he hated that they couldn't run away together and that she couldn't only be his.

"I am sorry, Sookie."

She just shut down after that. He went outside to make the phone calls. She sat back down with the dogs, and they helped a little, but not nearly enough. She knew he was right. At least that she had to go back. Felipe would have been convinced it had been an escape and probably would have hurt Jason or Gran. Or worse. And Felipe really might have been angry enough to punish Eric.

But now? If Eric got punished at all, it would only be because Victor interfered. Even then, it wouldn't be much. But she knew she was going to pay. She didn't know how steep the cost was going to be yet, but she was pretty sure it was going to be way out of her price range.

It was an hour and a half before dawn when Eric finished on the phone. He walked over to where she still sat on the floor and held out his hand.

"We must leave now to get to Vegas before dawn. We must fly quickly as it is."

He obviously couldn't leave her alone while he went to his rest there. Not when she was suicidal and ready to run. There was absolutely no way he could make himself use the shackles. And he had already torn apart the only light tight place available, anyway.

She sniffed and looked up at him but didn't reach for his hand yet.

*What about the dogs?"

"Weres are coming to secure the scene. I told the palace about the dogs. The shifters will take good care of them."

She just looked at him for a long time before she swallowed and took his hand. He pulled her up and into his arms and kissed her before walking outside and taking off for Vegas. He could smell her tears the whole way back to the Transylvanian. She seemed to get smaller the closer they got, shrinking into herself. He barely made it back in time to beat the sun.

He carried her all the way to the VIV Club. He was surprised to see Felipe there, waiting for them. He wanted to just ignore him and walk straight past to Sookie's room, but he knew he couldn't. The King clapped him on the back.

"Good job on catching our little runaway. She just can't seem to learn that she needs to stay put."

Sookie hadn't seen Felipe look like this in a long time. Cold and gleeful. Ready and willing to cause her pain. He looked like a happy sadist which, really, was an accurate description at the moment. She felt like she was being covered by a sea of dread.

Eric was quick to jump in.

"No, your Highness. She didn't run. It was not an escape attempt. I thought the same at first, but I can assure you, it isn't true. She had some of my blood earlier when I was wounded in the attack. It was how I found her. I know for a fact she was taken through no fault of her own. I can feel it."

Felipe looked at her and smiled. It was one of the ones that made her really uncomfortable. He used it when he was about to get really nice or really mean. She didn't think he was going to be nice.

"So, she's taken your blood… And someone very clearly has had some of hers. What else have you done, Sookie?"

She'd appreciated the comfort and safety of Eric's arms before, but she felt so vulnerable and exposed right then. He was holding her bridal style and she felt trapped and defenseless with all of her soft parts vulnerable. She wanted to get on her own two feet or get the hell out of there. Felipe liked her most of the time, but he was a predator and she was very clearly prey. She needed to protect herself as much as she could. He liked to toy with his victims, too. She should know; she was his favourite plaything. Lucky for her, he didn't often take time to play.

"I just tried not to get killed or raped, is all. I told him I belonged to you. I fought him. I kept him talking. I tried to get away so I could come back. And when Eric came to rescue me, I didn't fight him and did what I was told."

For the most part, at least.

Eric nodded. "She was instrumental in killing the vampire. She figured out his weakness, threw me a stake, and held him still long enough for me to end him."

Sookie closed her eyes and tried to make herself disappear. Eric wanted to vouch for her, and she appreciated the thought behind it, but he was making everything so much worse. He just didn't understand. She wished she'd thought to say something, but she'd kind of felt shell-shocked after the past few days.

Unfortunately, those bullets and mortars were just going to keep on coming.

Felipe rocked back on his heels. His cape billowed a bit, showing the red silk liner. Sookie wished she could strangle him with the ties but, unfortunately, vampires couldn't be strangled.

"Interesting… Well, Sookie, you had quite the adventure, didn't you?"

She knew when to be mouthy and when not to be. This was one of those not to times, no matter how much she hated it when he patronized her. She swallowed around the lump in her throat and shrugged one shoulder.

"Yes, Your Highness, but it wasn't a good one. I was really frightened. I'm glad to be back."

And she was. But, compared to a mouldy mattress on the floor in a dungeon underground, it wasn't much of a choice. Especially when she threw Eric into the mix.

Felipe sighed, as if he were disappointed in her and upset about the situation, but resigned to deal with it.

"Well, what's done is done. It's past time for our rest, Eric. Let's you and I meet just past sunset tomorrow so we can discuss the matter. Get to the bottom of things. We will deal with you at nine, Sookie. Victor should be back by then and he will want to be here for this, I'm sure. There will be much to get through before sunrise."

Sookie swallowed again. Eric looked confused, but nodded deeply. "Yes, Your Majesty."

Felipe left the VIV Club and Eric carried her the rest of the way to her room. She had started to shake a little. He set her on the bed and she looked up at him. She was anxious for him to go so she could cleanse away her demons in the hot water, hiding in the corner of the shower behind a towel.

"Sookie, what…?"

She shook her head. "Eric, just do what you're told tomorrow, ok? Whatever Felipe asks of you, do it. If you fight, it's gonna make it worse for both of us. Tomorrow is going to really really suck, but I will get through it and then, hopefully, things can go back to whatever the hell normal is, ok?"

"No, Sookie. I will tell The King everything that happened. I'm sure he will believe me. It was my job to protect you and you were taken because of my carelessness. I will be the one receiving punishment tomorrow. You will be fine."

She smiled, and there was more than a hint of irony in it.

"Just remember what I said, ok?"

She stood up and wrapped her arms around his waist. She hated that everything was being recorded, but he needed to be told, and she needed the comfort.

He held her and leaned down and kissed the top of her head. She looked up at him and he kissed her lips. He didn't like how sad and lonely and afraid she felt, but he liked that he could feel her. He closed his eyes and reveled a little in the blood tie. He kissed the top of her head again.

"I must go."

She nodded. "I know."

"Everything will be alright, Sookie."

Her smile was just mostly sad now.

"Please, just remember. Good rest, Eric."

"Good night, my lover."

He kissed her again before he left. She made sure the water was extra hot, to wash away that day's horrors and to make room for the next's.