Fangtasia was closed to the public on Sunday night, so it had been designated as the meeting place for the motley crew of supernaturals and humans who were going to face the necromancer. When Sookie arrived she could see the Harley Davidson motor-cycles and supersize pick-up trucks which were the characteristic transportation of the Were community, along with the top of the range cars favoured by vampires.

Her old Hyundai felt like a miniature car in comparison as she pulled into the car-park, closely followed by Hoyt, who'd borrowed Jason's truck. He had somehow persuaded Holly and Lafayette to come along and they were sitting alongside him, looking unhappy.

Pam greeted them at the door. Eric was deep in conversation with Alcide, while most of the Were stood at the bar, drinking beer or shorts. Sookie looked shocked but Pam just shrugged her shoulders, as if to ask what she expected from such creatures. "Okay everyone," she ordered, clapping her hands to get their attention, "listen up."

All the conversations in the bar stopped as Pam outlined the plans. They were sure Marnie must have backup. She wouldn't be crazy enough to threaten a vampire without a formidable power behind her. The problem was, they still had no clue who or what the back-up would be. It made it hard to know what sort of weapons would be needed.

"You two," Pam said regarding Hoyt and Holly with a look of disdain, "I want you out of harm's way."

"No!" Hoyt exclaimed, with a surprising degree of forcefulness. "I've come to help save Jessica, and that's what I'm gonna do."

"Have it your way," Pam shrugged, "Just don't expect me to watch your back. You can go with Sookie – she has a plan to try to break the spell." The vampire then turned her attention to Holly who was fidgeting in the way that only someone who feels totally out of place in their surroundings can do.

"Any you are?" Pam asked her.

"My name's Holly, ma'am," Holly answered, southern manners trumping her discomfort. "I'm a Wiccan, I might be able to recognise some of the spells."

"Okay," Pam looked doubtful, "you go with Sookie, and lover boy here."

"And you, sweetie," she purred, turning her attention to Lafayette, "you can stay with me."

The Were had finished their drinks and were starting to move towards the door.

"Hadley," Sookie exclaimed suddenly.

"What about her?" Pam sounded distinctly uninterested in the fate of Sookie's cousin.

"We have to warn Sophie-Anne. When the spell is broken the power which is keeping Hadley alive will be destroyed, do you think there is anything she can do to save her?"

Pam flipped open her cell. "Yes it is important," Sookie heard her say, followed by "I don't care if she loses the fucking game of Yahtzee, just get her on the phone." Her words obviously had the desired effect as a few seconds later she was explaining the situation to the Queen. "No, I don't know exactly what time the spell will be broken, you'll just have to watch her…" followed by "she's your fucking human, do what you want!" at which point she snapped her phone shut with a look of disgust. "Of all the selfish bitches, she really takes the cake," she said, more to herself than Sookie.

"You'all can ride with me," Pam ordered as they crossed the car park, motioning the humans over towards her eight-seater SUV.

An unseasonal mist began to settle as they approached the mall where Marnie's shop was situated. It grew thicker the nearer they got. Pam pulled over and got out, sniffing the air delicately. "Magic," she declared. "What do you think?" Lafayette and Holly looked at each other warily, and then descended from the back seat.

"There is some kind of spell, I can sense it, but I don't recognise it…I'm sorry." Holly looked quite downcast at her failure.

"What about you?" Pam's challenge was to Lafayette this time.

"She's put wards around the parking lot," he said confidently. "They'll stop us seeing what's going on, and when we get nearer, they'll stop us entering."

"Can you break these wards?" Pam addressed the question to both of them.

"I don't think so," Holly replied, but Lafayette overrode her. "I think I can. I've never done it before, but I think I can."

"Well you better go ahead, and make it quick." Pam ordered, earning herself a scowl. Lafayette stepped in close. "I am just about sick of you ordering me around, hookah. After tonight it ain't going to happen no more, are you reading me?"

"Loud and clear, sweetheart, loud and clear." Pam replied, rolling her eyes in disgust.

"I'll need some of your blood," he continued. Without a word Pam bit into her wrist and held it out to him. Lafayette took several long pulls then straightened up. He appeared to have gone into some kind of trance, as he focussed into the middle distance, and began chanting faintly to himself. The chanting became stronger. Not even Lafayette could understand the words; he was channelling the ancient language of his ancestors, brought over on the slave ships four hundred years ago.

He had felt his new powers when he and Jesus had tripped on 'V' but had never used them. He was filled with a kind of wonder as a new energy raced through his body. As his chant reached its peak a strange sight became visible to all of them – it was like the bubbles children blow with liquid soap, but gigantic. Then it fragmented into a thousand pieces.

The mist remained, but now they could hear the sound of people moving towards them. Holly gasped as she recognised the first of the figures to emerge from the mists. They looked no older than her little boy. As she uttered their names, Sookie recognised them as Cody's friends who had drowned in the Red River. Of course Marnie had known about that, she must have tracked down the bodies and used her magic on them. It was quite sick, and Sookie felt nauseous at the thought.

Behind them were adult figures. They were obviously dead. A group of young gangbangers had bullet wounds all over their bodies, one had half his face blown away. Two young women had horrible injuries to their arms as if they had been attacked with an axe. Marnie may have found the power to raise the dead, but she could not regenerate and renew them as vampires did.

A collective shiver went through the four humans, but Pam just shrieked with delight at the prospect of a good fight, running forward into the gruesome crowd waving a machete which she had produced from underneath the driver's seat of her car.

Sookie and Holly took advantage of the mist and the confusion to make their way to Marnie's shop. The door was locked, but Sookie quickly dealt with that, unleashing a stream of blue light from her right hand. Holly stared with a mixture of fascination and admiration.

"Come on," Sookie whispered, "you need to show me where she keeps this crystal ball."

"It's in a cupboard out back, this way," Holly led the way, "she may have warded it though."

"Fine, you alert me, I'm sure I can deal with it."

She didn't need Holly to alert her to anything; as they approached their goal a sound like a banshee wailing filled the shop.

"Don't you dare," Marnie yelled, "I'll kill you both." She was transformed from the frumpy woman Sookie and Holly both knew. Her hair was matted and looked like a giant wasps nest perched on top of her head. Her clothes were torn, and her face dirty. She looked like someone who had come from the middle of a battle, which of course she had.

"Hurry, just do it, I'll deal with her," Sookie urged Holly on. Turning to Marnie she channelled all the fairy energy she could manage. It streamed out of her outstretched hands. Marnie jumped back in shock and found herself pinned against the wall, unable to move. She opened her mouth to shout abuse but no sound would come.

"Holly, please do it, I can't hold her much longer," Sookie shouted desperately. Taking a deep breath, Marnie grabbed a bronze Buddha head and brought it down on the crystal ball. At first it made no impression, but with two or three mighty blows she finally smashed it into pieces. At that moment Marnie collapsed against the wall in a dead faint.

At exactly the same moment, in Queen Sophie-Anne's palace in New Orleans, her favourite human companion collapsed in her arms. Without hesitation Sophie-Anne sunk her fangs into Hadley's neck to drain her. The taste was more disgusting that anything she had ever experienced, even the time she foolishly tried to drain a Goblin. The blood was rancid beyond belief. Nevertheless she persisted in her task. Hadley may be a complete airhead, but she had been very lovely and very entertaining. It was worth a few moments discomfort to try to save her.

Eric had brought a broadsword from his collection of antique weapons and was enthusiastically laying into the attackers. He was grateful for his foresight in having the tempered steel sharpened regularly. Initially he'd followed Pam's instruction to guard Sookie, but when she had disappeared off into the fog he'd quickly been drawn into the fight and was now enjoying himself rather too much.

His collapse was as sudden and unexpected as a blow to the head. It was only the presence of Pam, who was fighting three of the zombie creatures with a machete, that saved him. Yelling to Chow to cover her, she ran over to her master. Disposing of his current attacker, she managed to drag him back to where the cars were parked.

"What have I done Pam?" he asked, his voice weak with doubt. He had the most uncharacteristic expression of complete confusion, as all the memories of the last few months came flooding back. "Where is Sookie?" he demanded, struggling to his feet.

"From what just happened to you, I would guess that she's just broken the spell." All around them their attackers were collapsing while the Were roared in triumph. One or two of the younger less experienced vampires went in for the kill but quickly pulled back, repulsed by the foul taste of blood that was long dead.

Eric winced, a look of pain crossing his features. For a moment Pam actually felt sorry for her maker. That was a first, she thought.

"I've upset her, haven't I?" he asked, ignoring the various vamps, Were and other supernaturals who were thronging around.

"That, Eric, is probably the understatement of the year. I have tried to explain to her that it was just the necromancer's spell, but I'm afraid she saw something of your true character and she didn't like it one bit."

"What am I going to do?" he asked, plaintively.

Pam regarded him pityingly. She'd felt his emotions when Godric met the sun; that had been a terrible shock to her, discovering that her maker was capable of emotion and even weakness. She hadn't expected to see it again, and certainly not on account of a human. "I don't know," she said, after some consideration. "You'll need to take it slowly. Don't rush anything, she's still hurting from that idiot Compton's betrayal after all."

"Fine," Eric said, although he wasn't really listening, "but I must see her." Before Pam could stop him, he had taken off.

Cold, dead hands had clawed at Hoyt as he struggled to cut his lover down from the makeshift cross to which she had been chained. Somehow he found a strength that he didn't know he possessed as he kicked them away, all the while tearing at the chains that bound her.

"Here, these might help," Jason had materialised beside him, holding a pair of bolt-cutters. "Sam told me where you'all were going – how could you leave without your old buddy?" he continued, in response to Hoyt's evident surprise.

As their attackers collapsed around them, the two men carefully guided Jessica down to the floor.

"What did you think you were doing, darling?" Hoyt struggled to keep the anger out of his voice. He was overjoyed to have Jessica back in his arms, but furious at what she had just put them all through.

"I did it for you," she whimpered, "I thought if maybe I could find a way, it would keep us together."

"A way to do what?" Hoyt asked, although he suspected that he already knew the answer.

"I thought maybe if I could have a child, your Mom wouldn't hate me so much." She was as plaintive as any teenager, caught out doing something foolish.

"Jessica, sweetheart, my Mom's gonna hate you whatever you do. You're a vampire after all, and you've got red hair – she's always hated girls with red hair, I have no idea why."

He put a comforting arm around her and escorted her back to Pam's SUV. Sookie and Holly had emerged from the shop and were waiting for them. Sookie ran forward to hug Jessica, who responded awkwardly, embarrassed at what her friend would think when she found out what had happened.

"Let's get out of here," Pam said, making them all jump with her sudden appearance. "Would anyone like a drink, I can open Fangtasia."

"I think we just want to get home, if that's alright with you," Sookie spoke for all of them as she watched her friends climb into the car, and set off across the car park.

She felt strangely calm as she walked away, stepping over the mutilated bodies of the once-again dead. She spotted a couple of Were and one Vampire amongst the dead, the vampire already shrivelling up into a bloody goo. Her thoughts were already somewhere else, wondering how she was going to deal with Eric, now that the spell had been broken. Would he expect to resume their relationship as if he had never been cursed? How could she do that, now she had seen the other side of his character.

She didn't know whether to scowl or laugh as she saw how Eric had crammed himself into the drivers' seat of her little car.

"I'm perfectly capable of driving myself home," she said firmly, arranging her features into her most determined expression.

"I will not allow it, you are not strong enough," he retorted, not moving from the spot.

"Eric, just get out of my car, now." Her determination was enough to convince him this time and he extracted himself from the car.

She ignored Eric's high handed attitude, turned the key in the ignition, put her foot on the gas and drove off without another word. It was only when she got past the city limits and out onto the dark highway that she realised just how shaken up she really was. She'd been beaten up before; she'd killed a man and staked a vampire. Perhaps it was the amount of Fae energy she had needed to use on Marnie, but she felt completely drained.

As she slowed down, breathing deeply to try to regain her calm, she caught a glimpse in her wing mirror of something moving. She couldn't see anything at first, the road ahead and behind was empty. She wound down the window and realised that she should have been looking above her. Eric was flying directly above the car.

She pulled over into a small clearing and hopped out, slamming the door angrily behind her.

"What do you think you're playing at?" she demanded.

"I want to make sure you get home safely. We think we have defeated all our enemies, but you can never be too careful." Eric concentrated on the practicalities. He had plenty of other reasons for wanting to be alone with her, but they would have to wait. He knew that it would take time to regain her trust

"Eric, I'm upset, I'm exhausted and I just want to get home and go to bed. Now will you quit and leave me alone." All of those things were true, but she also wanted to put off the time when she would have to talk to him and to acknowledge her feelings about everything that had happened in the last few days.

"Just let me see you home. I won't speak to you, won't enter your house, I only want to make sure you are safe."

"Okay, fine," Sookie huffed, trying hard to maintain her anger, even though it was difficult in the face of what seemed to be a genuine concern for her welfare. "Just don't get too close, right."

Eric acknowledged the request with a nod. As Sookie got back into her car and resumed the journey, he followed at a little distance behind.

Try as she might, thoughts of him, and of their relationship, dominated her mind for the remainder of the drive. She must be crazy to even be thinking this way; she'd seen the other side of him, perhaps his true nature. But then she did know he was capable of kindness, and of love, at least for her. Wasn't this how women justified domestic abuse? That underneath it all their man really loved them.

She was still turning these ideas over in her head as she pulled up in front of her house and mounted the steps, so it wasn't until it was too late that she picked up two very strange brain signatures.

At almost the same moment she heard Eric's mighty roar in the distance: "Sookie!"

He had spotted the two creatures waiting for her, their sharp teeth fixed into evil grins and claw-like hands ready to pounce. He recognised them immediately for what they were, even though he hadn't seen their like for many centuries; an evil branch of the Fae race, loyal only to Queen Mab, their protector.

With a mighty spurt of energy he raced through the air towards the porch, but too late. The creatures had grabbed Sookie and, without so much as a puff of smoke, had disappeared back to their own realm. As he landed, her last words still echoed in the air: "nooo….Eric….."

This is the end of the story for now – as a series end, it's traditional to end with a cliff-hanger after all. Also I have written myself into a corner, especially by making Eric so unpopular – which I didn't intend to do.

Now we just have a few months to wait and see what Mr Ball really does with Book 4.

I've got another story ready to post –it's called 'The Blood Donor' and will be up on the Sookie Stackhouse/SVM pages very soon - and its almost all written so no long waits this time!

Also, check out TheIndieFicContest, you can find a link to it as a favourite author on my profile page. Deadline is 30th April, and the challenge is to write a one-shot with an original plot but featuring our SVM favourites. They need to be in character though (vampires are vampires, humans are humans, shifters are shifters etc)