| FORTY-FOUR |
A GROWING BITTERNESS

       When Eira parted from Eric, she felt a sense of relief. She could not explain it but she didn't give it much thought.

        After the business with the witch, Eric still had dealings with Bill to complete so she went with Sookie to the telepath's house. Lafayette and Tara came, too.

         "Sorry if I hurt you," she commented to Lafayette.

         "Nah, you did what needed to be done," Lafayette replied.

          Eira looked at him with careful eyes knowing that had lost Jesus. She knew that had to be a terrible loss just like how she lost her mother. Surprisingly, the thought of losing Eric did not once pop into her head. Her heart and mind was conspicuously absent of him despite just leaving him.

    At the house of the telepath, they all settled in. Both Lafayette and Tara took separate bedrooms upstairs. Sookie went to her bedroom while Eira took the couch.

But Eira did not sleep; she only thought of her mother. She wanted to see her mother again. If she lived a human life, she would. How could she have ever let Eric convince her to give that up? She clenched her jaw as she thought of him.

But then she heard rustling in the kitchen and she went to check it out. She found Sookie getting water from the fridge.

"Can't sleep?" Eira asked.

"No," Sookie said before she sighed sadly. "I let Bill go."

"I'm sorry," Eira rubbed her back. "But it's probably for the best."

Eira thought about all the chaos that had come into her life because of vampires, because of Eric. Just thinking of him made her blood boil in frustration. She did not want any of his chaos.

She wanted peace and she felt a thousand times more peaceful right now than she ever did in his presence. She started to wonder if his presence was like that of a leech that sucked away all tranquility.

She was interrupted from her thoughts when suddenly she was hit over the head. She fell to the ground as Sookie screamed.

"I got you now, bitch," Debbie pointed a shotgun at Sookie.

Eira touched the back of her head to feel stickiness. Her vision wavered as she watched the scene. She attempted to crawl, to do something.

"Sookie, no!" Tara shouted as she knocked the gun upwards while she went to tackle Sookie to safety. But the gun went off and the bullet ricocheted before hitting Tara in the head.

Eira finally managed to get up and she flicked her hand, making Debbie burn before she turned to ash. Then Eira slumped against the wall.

"Tara! Tara, no," Sookie cried. "Not Tara."

Eira moved before kneeling beside them with tears in her eyes and a few silent tears fell down her cheeks. Then Lafayette came barreling down the stairs before he took in the scene, "No! Fuck no!"

"Eira, you-you can help," Sookie pleaded. "Get Eric or Pam to turn her. Please!"

"Turn her?" Lafayette said. "Are you crazy? Tara would hate us."

"We have to do something," Sookie sobbed. "Eira, please!"

"Alright," Eira conceded.

Eira called Pam. She did not wish to call Eric; just thinking of him made her bitter. The beautiful vampire arrived shortly after.

"You called me here for this?" Pam crossed her arms.

"Pam, please," Eira pleaded.

"Where is Eric?" Pam asked, ignoring her plea.

"I don't know," Eira clenched her jaw. "I assume he was busy."

"Since when is he ever too busy not to come and rescue you?" Pam said.

Eira shrugged before speaking in frustration, "I didn't call you here to talk about Eric."

Pam crossed her arms as she analyzed Eira. Why wasn't she worried about Eric? Then she looked at the body of Tara and thought that perhaps Eira was just in shock. She started to actually think about what Eira wanted her to do.

"We are going to be sisters," Pam said before sighed. "Consider this my gesture of solidarity."

Pam moved forward and bit into her wrist before letting her blood drip into Tara's mouth. After, Pam drank a small amount of the blood Tara had. Then she looked at all three of them with a pointed look like she was waiting for something.

"Well...go on. Go dig a hole."

       _____

        They waited.

        The hole was dug and Pam slept in the ground with Tara. The next night Pam emerged but Tara did not. Pam wanted to scatter off but knew that if Tara woke, the first thing the new vampire would do is to try to bite Eira and Eric would be pissed over something as simple as a scratch on his precious human.

        So Pam stayed.

      And Tara did emerge as a vampire and tried immediately to eat Eira. But Pam stopped her by holding her by throat.

       "I command you not to ever feed from Eira nor ever harm her; it'll be your death sentence if you do," Pam said before looking at Sookie and Lafayette. "Also, don't feed on the two morons."

        "Alright," Pam released Tara. "I've done my part. You got what you wanted."

        Pam went to leave but Eira argued, "You can't just leave her. She has no idea how to be a vampire. You need to teach her."

        Pam gave her a withering look as she stared at the luminescent green eyes that Eira had. Then she sighed as she placed her hands on her hips, "Alright. Fine."

       "You," she looked at Tara. "You'll come with me."

        "I'm not going anywhere with you!" Tara argued.

         "I command you," Pam stated and she started to leave while Tara was forced to follow.

          ____

         Eira went home shortly after that. She was now dead tired. But when she got home and decided to drink a glass of water, there was a knock at the door.

         She went and answered it to find a familiar face. His hair was a bit longer but still its curly brown and he had grown stubble. He had his hands in his pockets and he looked like an apprehensive puppy. She couldn't help but smile as she immediately hugged him.

          "Ethan!"

AN: so I released this chapter but I'll have to write ALL the rest of the chapters for part 3 before I can release another one. I'll probably have them done by Friday or earlier. We'll see