Someday You'll Find Me (Eric Northman/ True Blood)

Hunt and Gather

The next night, I abruptly enter the doors of Moon Goddess Emporium a woman hastily approached me as if she was expecting me.

"Where the fuck is she?" She squealed, her dusky colored eyes boldly, foolishly locked onto mine. "You better tell me...vampire!"

She balled her fist and shook it at me as if that would somehow intimidate me. These witches are certainly a brave bunch; if her presence was not so irritating, I'd be amused.

Instead, I gave her no response, I had become distracted by the traces of Tara's sweet aroma lingering in the air. She has not been at the shop since last night.

"Sookie," I hear a calm voice call out from the back room of the store and then an 'older' woman emerged from behind the black curtain, "If he knew where Tara was he wouldn't be here looking for her." She places a comforting hand on the shoulder of the scrawny, bottled-blonde in the silly sun-dress; but it does little to calm her and she continues to hiss at me.

"Oh this pasty motherfucker knows something," She continues to try me, stepping too close to me and I pick up the smell of her bad breath and nauseating bargain perfume, "we all know he's a goddamn stalker."

I warn her with a menacing growl, her eyes buck and she steps back in her place. I battle with the urge to toss her further back into the trailer-park from which she came. The older woman senses my annoyance and dismisses the dim-witted woman to the break room and finally, the annoying human dismissed herself.

"Hello Eric, I'm Holly Cleary, if you don't know where Tara is then," she takes a long despairing sigh, "Well, we really need your help."

My heart had stopped beating a thousand years before, but hearing this was like dying all over again.

"Holly, please explain."

Where else could Tara be in this bumpkin-town if not here or at home? I'd done my research on Holly Cleary after Tara mentioned her as the seller of the Moon Goddess. Holly was an Elder of the Franconia Circle. She chose to remain neutral when the Coven divided and moved back to her hometown of Bon Temps. At some point, Tara got word of this and convinced Holly to join her. Tara then bought her shop, rented two of Holly's houses, a small 2 bedroom home for herself and a grand, 6 bedroom home for her dozen followers. Funded by Tara, The Onyx Moon Coven is currently being built from the ground up. It seems my wayward lover has more revenue than she's led me to believe. I'll need to to do more research and investigate Stan's reports to know more.

"Normally I wouldn't worry, Tara is always late to work, but last night when she called me...she sounded very intoxicated and she was crying. I couldn't really understand what she was talking about, but she mentioned seeing you. So when she didn't show by noon I figured she was sleeping off a hangover." she said reaching for a tissue on the counter, her eyes had begun to pool with tears as she recounted the events.

"So I went to her house with some coffee, only to find the front door ripped apart and the place completely trashed. Odd thing is, nothing seemed to be missing, the bank-bag with several hundreds of dollars was on the vanity, her purse, with her ID, credit cards, everything was there...everything but Tara." Her display of profound concern made it evident to me, that she cared deeply for Tara.

"I see," is all I said in response, it was all I could offer as comfort to her. At that moment, my mind was bombarded with turmoil, my blood fucking boiled with anger. If something happens to Tara, I don't know what I'd...

"Tara has known all these years that you've kept an eye on her." She said, interrupting my thoughts, this was astonishing, I had no idea... "I knew it would not be long before you showed up." She continued, and a wary smile emerged from her. "And I'm glad you did."

"You must contact me if you hear from her," I ask and hand her my card, she takes it and nods her agreement.

And I speed off, fuck the car, I fly to her house. When I get there, the scene was just as Holly described and I'm immediately taken aback by the scent of a vampire, I could not tell if there had been one or many.

I also caught the stench of a wolf.

I didn't understand. What would vampires and wolves want with Tara?