Pam wanted to grit her teeth, but it seemed such a human failing she refrained. Everything was spiraling and becoming harder than it had to be and there seemed to be nothing she could do to change the fallout even with her knowledge of the future. For everything she changed something else popped up to take its place with similar if not worse results.

Finally though she had found the witch that had taken her Maker’s mind from him and this she would fix. She had gathered many of the vampires that called Area five their home, at least the ones that would be worth a damn in a fight, this would end tonight. She sent a call to her Maker through their bond and felt his response reaching back for her, he would be here soon and once he was restored they would find a way to truly fix this mess. 

At her signal her vampires attacked, it was a bloody brawl fists, fur, and fangs and no one came out of it without some of their blood mixed among the mess on the ground. It was days like this when she really understood her Maker and his preference for a good fight, the bloodlust rising in her veins made her feel alive. Usually only a good shoe sale could do that for her or a good fuck. This was so much more, this was carnage on a level few ever see, this was what she was made for. 

Her fangs found the throat of the were-witch Hollow and tore it out with glee. The witch was dead and her Maker was restored, she had done what she was meant to do and reaped the rewards or a satisfying kill. 

Now all that was left was the clean up, both literally and metaphorically. She and Eric had a lot to talk about and many plans to make. He had missed a lot.

---

Bill didn’t understand why Nan wasn’t doing what she was supposed to do. She had argued with him for hours while he tried to push her towards action and the need to seize control she was busy wringing her hands and wondering if she should do anything at all. He was handing her an easy victory and she simply refused to take it. She didn’t want to tip her hand too early. Well he didn’t have that problem, if she and her precious elites were too scared to act he would move on without them.

Tracking Eric he found him at Fangtasia of all places, a place he hadn’t been in over a week. He would find that trying to backtrack now wouldn’t save him. His life was over now, his reign was coming to an end. 

Slipping his hand behind him he gripped the stake he was keeping just out of sight. He had a reason on hand to explain away his presence, after all he had yet to find the time to announce his new place in the hierarchy. Being out maneuvered would make the older man lose his temper and help him gain the upper hand. When Eric attacked he would have the perfect opening to take him out, and then even if he was questioned about it he would not have to lie about what happened.

Stepping into the office he found Eric alone, his Childe was probably somewhere else in the building doing some menial task or another that she was ordered to do. The amount of times he came here to find her at the door admitting the vermin was enough to tell him where she really stood in her Makers esteem no matter what she had to say about it or how loudly she bragged about being a favored Childe. He would have to deal with her too, once she felt him die she would come running to avenge him as any good Childe would. 

He had his mouth open prepared to give his victory speech when a sharp pain drove him to his knees gasping for air he didn’t need.

Jessica!

His Childe was dead.

He heard a clatter as something solid and narrow rattled against the tile of the hallway behind him but he didn’t have the presence of mind to work out what it was before he felt a hand push through his back and into his chest gripping his heart. Looking up he saw Pam standing over him with a vicious smile on her face, his previously hidden stake at her feet. 

As he felt himself begin to come apart he wondered how it had all gone so wrong. He had lost everything for a future he couldn’t seem to change.

---

Eric thought about everything that Pam told him. Everything happened the same way but all of it was a little twist from what they had learned before. The witches still came and he was still cursed even though they knew it was coming and should have been able to avoid it. He remembered when the witches showed up in his office, the sexual interest in the lead female’s gaze had set him at ease when it shouldn’t have. 

He thought he had the upper hand when he didn’t and that seemed to describe everything that had happened since. Bill tried to kill him thinking he had the advantage over him and didn’t realise until too late that he was overestimating the hand he had to play. Pam thought the initial attack on Sookie from the were-bitch being thwarted meant that she was fine so she didn’t set up any additional protection to keep her safe from other forces like Jessica. This entire mess of seeing the future had just set them all on paths of pain and ignorance born of their certainty that they understood what was coming when they really didn’t. 

He needed to stop trying to stick to the script laid out for him and instead do what he should have done in the first place. He needed to play this his own way.

Getting out of his corvette in front of Sookies house he grabbed his bag out of the trunk and climbed the stairs to the door. If he’d been human he was sure his heart would have been pounding hard enough to hurt, but as a vampire all he felt was a slight stiffness in his joints as his body locked in place. This was a gamble that would either pay off or it wouldn’t, but at least he would know and he could stop hoping from something that might not ever happen.

When she opened the door she looked surprised to see him and he remembered how in the original story he heard they had avoided one another for a time. Not this time lover, this time we’re going to deal with each other head on. She clocked him and the bag by his feet and he watched as her eyes widened with realization at what he was doing there. 

“Sookie-” He had everything prepared, what he would say and what she would do. The argument he would use to acquit himself of whatever accusations she made or whatever obstacles she proffered. They could be happy together if they just let themselves and he was going to help her see that. They deserved this.

“Don’t. No grand speeches or promises we might not be able to keep. Just come in.” He was stunned as he watched her walk away leaving the door open for him to follow behind her. He had expected her to fight him on this or for her to have all manner of human concerns for why their being together wouldn’t work. He hadn’t expected her to accept it, to accept him, so easily.

Yet she had. He should have learned by now Sookie Stackhouse was always full of surprises. Grabbing his bag he stepped in closing the door behind him. 

It was better this way.

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