The Moon, Ch. 25

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As Eric reluctantly made his way down to Pamela’s cell, he couldn’t help but wonder how in the hell Sevrin had been able to come up with the things he’d said.

How would he know if Pamela lied to him? Pamela was a highly skilled liar; he was the only one who could usually tell the difference and even then sometimes only because of the bond they had once shared.

How would he know if she was supposedly “extremely loyal”?   There had been a time when Eric would have agreed, but that time was long passed.

Also, if she really was so loyal, then why had she almost literally stabbed him in the back? Why had she chased off Sookie, the one person she knew Eric loved more than anyone on the planet?

Jealousy? Of course she had been jealous, but if she’d been that “loyal”, wouldn’t that have overridden the jealous bitch that lived inside her?

Eric shook his head.

What was she hiding from him, and for how long?

Why was that secret obviously worth severing all ties with her own Maker? Why was that secret worth enduring her Maker’s considerable wrath?

Nothing was making sense.

It tore at him how his heart had momentarily lightened upon hearing of Pamela’s loyalty. For a second he had come nearly to rejoicing over that salve to his pain, but then common sense had reared its soothing head and quashed the temptation.

Pamela was loyal to Pamela first and primarily; all others were secondary at best. There had been a time when he’d have said with assurance that she was a loyal progeny, but that time ended when his time with Sookie had begun so long ago.

Now…now he…

Now he cursed Sevrin for giving him what would surely be false hope.

A loyal Pamela.

Right.

But then again, how did Sevrin know these things?

•~•0•~•

Sookie and Willa watched as Eric blurred from the room, both concerned about him and the situation he was soon to face. Neither of them thought things would end well.

“Sookie?”

Willa’s voice interrupted her worried thoughts.

“Yeah?”

“How did Sevrin know the things he said?”

“I have a theory,” she said slowly as she contemplated what she’d seen on the screen. “But it’s so off the wall that it can’t be right,” she warned.

“What is it?”

Sookie looked over at the younger vampire.

“From what I saw on the screen just now, from the way he looked…the way he talked, the things he said… Well, I wouldn’t be surprised if Sevrin was maybe a telepath like me.”

Willa stared at Sookie in less shock than Sookie was expecting.

“Yeah. That thought had crossed my mind, too,” she finally said. “Just the way he, you know. Like, the way he interrupted her and told he not to lie to him, that he would know. How else would he know if not by being able to somehow read it in her thoughts, right?”

“And he knew about some sort of threats before he’d even talked to her,” Sookie added.

Willa nodded, her expression revealing deeper thoughts.

A minute later she asked, “Can you imagine being a telepathic vampire? He…it would be so dangerous… He couldn’t let anyone know, ever. But he did just now.”

Sookie, feeling the weight of the decision Sevrin had made on her behalf, looked down at her abdomen.

“Yeah.”

Refusing to give her friend a chance to become emotionally overwrought over the issue, Willa blurred over to the small bar in Eric’s office and grabbed Sookie a cold water from the fridge, then helped ease her pregnant friend into the slightly lower desk chair she’d wheeled over earlier. She then sat down in Eric’s taller chair to wait for the upcoming scene.

Knowing Pam, it was bound to be good.

•~•0•~•

Eric rounded the corner near Pamela’s cell, and instead of pausing or even slowing his step, he boldly entered the open doorway and took his position beside Sevrin’s imposing figure.

The other vampire gave him an indecipherable look but suddenly Eric knew.

He just…knew.

The look in the dark-haired vampire’s eyes when he was talking to Pamela…the way he spoke with her…the phrases he used with her…the way his eyes looked like Sookie’s when she was…

Eric just knew.

Sevrin was a fucking telepath.

Somehow, someway…a fucking telepath.

And Pamela did not need to know this.

Eric knew far better than most the danger inherent in being a telepath in the vampire world, and the risk his old acquaintance was taking by allowing this closest of all secrets out was astronomical.

Yeah, fuck Pam, she didn’t need to know this.

Pam, for once using her common sense, was kneeling on the floor with her head bowed, and thankfully saw nothing.

•~•0•~•

As Sookie and Willa watched, Eric entered the room and barely glanced at Pam. He did exchange an odd look with Sevrin, and Sookie, at least, could tell that he suddenly realized the truth about the tall dark-haired mountain.

Knowing her Eric as she did, she doubted he’d reveal this secret to Pam or anyone else for that matter. Pam, no matter how loyal Sevrin had said she was, simply wasn’t trustworthy enough to take that risk and nobody else needed to know.

Willa, she considered, wasn’t quite as familiar with Eric’s expressions and reactions and so she probably wouldn’t realize yet that Eric had caught on, but she’d tell her later if she had to. Right now the show was about to begin and she didn’t want to miss a thing.

She tried to ignore her sudden craving for hot buttered popcorn, something not usually found in a vampire bar.

•~•0•~•

With a barely detectable nod, Eric assured the slightly younger vampire of both his knowledge and his discretion.

He looked down at Pamela with almost palpable distaste.

“Speak.”

His voice was cold and distant, and it shook Pam to her core.

How could she explain this without making things between them any worse? Well, they really couldn’t get any worse unless he ended her himself, and in a way that would be a blessing in disguise considering how bad things were.

And, she mentally caught hold of herself, considering how things really were now that somehow Sevrin had figured it out, and judging by the smell of things the fact that the fucking fairy was right back in her Maker’s life, she could at least give Eric the ammunition of knowledge to hopefully help him keep himself safe.

It might be too late for herself, but maybe her Maker could survive this.

That fucking fairy…none of this shit would be going on if it wasn’t for that fucking fairy…

Staunching her seething hatred and keeping her head bowed, Pam spoke.

“Pantelides himself from the Pantelides Clan in Maryland contacted me the night after Sookie called the bar.”

At the mention of that name, Sookie and Willa heard both Eric and Sevrin inhale sharply.

Pam continued.

“I don’t know how they knew she’d called the bar, but somehow they did. They informed me quite strongly that if you resumed contact with her, they would end you and me both. They would wrap us in silver netting, pull out our fingernails and toenails, drive silver pins through our bones, flay the skin from our bodies, and then soak us in salt water for 50 years. After that they would leave us out for the sun to kiss.”

Pam shivered and paused to gather her thoughts, and Eric glanced at Sevrin to see if she was lying or preparing to lie. He quirked his brow and Sevrin simply shook his head once in negation.

“Every week after that someone would call either my phone or the bar and demand any information I had about her. Usually it was a Dae named Kazilieris, but sometimes one named Tokatlidis would call. Then when Sookie had the gall to show up at the bar, I had to do something to make sure she didn’t come back. After that, for two months straight I would get four calls a week. They finally stopped calling eight months ago.”

Sookie gasped then trembled. She was almost nine months along…

Without saying a word, Willa moved her chair closer to Sookie’s and held her hand.

Eric and Sevrin exchanged looks, then Sevrin frowned heavily at Pam.

“Continue,” he ordered in a voice no one would dare defy.

“I…they…” Pam struggled to find a better way to state what she had to say next, but couldn’t.

She truly had fucked up royally and it was time to pay.

“Tokatlidis wasn’t the one who usually called me, but when he did, he liked to chat. Kazilieris was all business and nasty threats, but Tokatlidis saw himself as an interesting conservationist and let a lot of information drop. The Dae…fuck…,” she paused, and the expression on her face warned all who saw it that she knew her life would be in danger with her upcoming revelation.

“Once King Compton was dead, he said that the Pantelides Clan decided that they wanted Sookie. They think that because she’s a telepathic fairy that she would be a strong addition to their Clan, something about her genetics. Tokatlidis said that they were afraid that if you had time to get your 1,000-year-old blood into her, she might be able to better resist some sort of Dae glamour. I never did understand that part,” she added with an involuntary flick of her wrist, which indicated to Eric that she didn’t understand it solely because she didn’t give a shit about Sookie.

“They also knew that if she’d had your blood and they kidnapped her, you’d be able to locate her, and they couldn’t risk that. He said they wanted her to be added to their Clan peacefully but in the end they didn’t really care how they got their hands on her just so long as it was without your blood in her.”

With visible effort Eric controlled his fury. He knew Pamela and her tells, and realized that there was more to this sordid story. He could rend her to pieces afterward.

As stiffly as Sevrin was holding himself, Eric knew he was close to exploding as well.

“And?”

His voice held as little warmth as Sevrin’s had earlier.

“He said that they…they had what they called ‘bait’ supposed to be in place to meet Sookie after Compton’s death, but something happened to him and he died. They had to scramble to find someone else to lure her into popping out little telepathic Fae-Dae babies before she could worm her way back into your life and that is why they threatened me with torture and death for both of us. They…they also told me that if I told you anything about it, they would end us both anyway. They were just as desperate that you not find out what they were doing as they were to get their claws on her,” she cried.

She raised fearful eyes to gaze upon her Maker.

“And somehow they knew what was going on, Eric. Somehow they knew everything that happened in the bar, in our offices, everything. If I had told you anything, they would have found out, so I couldn’t risk it. I couldn’t risk you.”

That she didn’t mind risking Sookie was left loudly unsaid.

Eric turned and walked out of the room.

•~•0•~•

Willa watched with tearful eyes as Sookie placed her hands on her abdomen and bowed her head low, and was ever so grateful when barely a moment later Eric came bursting  through the door.  With a nod to her Maker she gave them their privacy, and went in search of some dinner.

Eric scooped the demoralized, softly-weeping Sookie into his arms and quietly carried her down to the safe-room behind his office.  Right then the rest of the world could go hang for all he cared.

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**A/N:  So…what did you think?  Can you see where Pam was coming from in her own twisted, strange, anti-Sookie way?  What do you think Eric should do now?  How should he handle this?   I hope y’all liked it – lemme know!**

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