Okay, I know I said I was done this, but it haunted me. I'm starting to get some ideas together to go further, but they are few and far between.

The sounds of Merlotte's filtered through the back door, slightly ajar, but muted enough to suit Lafayette. It was pretty busy tonight, but he was now on a 15 minute break and nothin was keeping him from enjoying a smoke. Sitting back on the folding lawn chair he took a minute to take a deep long puff before turning his head up to stare at the moon and blow his smoke in her direction. What the fuck is you doin' here still? he asked himself.

He was clearing the ash off the end of his cig when the creeping sense of foreboding tingled up his spine. Like he was a little ole mouse in the middle of a field, with no hole closeby to hide in and a hawk had started to circle overhead. Straightening his spine, he called out to the darkness.

"What do you want, Eric?"

The shadows in his left peripheral vision shimmered and solidified as the Viking vampire stepped forward. The neon lights only washed out his pale, dead skin even further, but did nothing to deter from the mouth-watering figure he presented. Lafayette cursed himself a thousand times over, as he did every morning when he woke up with the most painful hard-on imaginable because of the dreams Eric starred in. Hatred and lust raced neck and neck through his veins as Eric slowly sauntered over to stand only feet from him. A bead of sweat trickled from his hairline down the dark man's spine.

"We have matters to discuss, Lafayette" Eric wasn't even close to Lafayette, but he still felt the violating tickle in his ear. "How are sales going?" he asked casually, like they were talking about Tupperware or something, not a highly illegal and dangerous substance like vampire blood.

"Slow" Lafayette was proud at how calm and reserved his sounded. "Some freaky shit's been happenin' here. Interferes with business"

"The Maenad" Eric shrugged, somehow making that movement sexy and dangerous at the same time. "She's been taken care of, from what I've just been told. I expect you to be fully productive from here forward". Menace laced the last sentence, making Lafayette cringe in fright. A throwback to the trauma, he knew, but he was still ashamed. Bolstering on his shame he shot Eric a nasty sideways look. The vamp was studying something far off he couldn't see, his stance natural, but far from relaxed.

"Shit, you can get any woman, man or vampire in Louisiana, why the fuck is you after her? She's one of the only good things about this whole goddamned place" he lamented, but his statement lingered in the air between them for a moment, because they both knew which her he was talking about. The hunger in Eric's eyes at Sookie's house was unmistakeable and his reasons for giving his blood away had been about her, too. Lafayette wondered if he'd gone too far when vampire didn't speak for a moment. Had he pushed Eric too much by asking... would he answer? or strike?.. The moment was rife with tension and fear.

"You answered your own question" Eric replied cryptically. "What has she said about me?"

"That she was working for you" he paused then, unsure if he should keep talking. Sookie had shown no love for the Viking, but survival said he should keep going. "She said you made her drink your blood after I told her about my leg". He shifted his gaze then, unable to stifle the smirk in his voice. "Asked me if I'd had any dreams..."

He was surprised to see the corner's of Eric's mouth twitch, threatening to smile. "Go on".

"She asked what kind of dreams, so I told her. Then she told me she slapped your cocky ass" he laughed softly, unable to help himself. The vampire didn't seem that bothered, in fact, he seemed downright gleeful, for a vampire.

"Sadly, not my ass" Eric admitted with a quirk of his eyebrows. Internally he was picturing her doing just that to him. "Dreams" he mused. The vampire Sheriff had a sense of humour, Lafayette noticed. Twisted, but still present.

"What kind of dreams do you have, Lafayette?"

Eric's gaze pinned him to the folding lawn chair and for once in a very, very long time, Lafayette felt his face getting flushed with blood. Not that you could see him blush, but it was still happening. He was also speechless, another first.

Eric smiled, his fangs popping out over his lower lip and approached him. Moving slowly, the vampire placed his hands on the arms of the chair and leaned over Lafayette's prone body. Being this close to his physical, mental and emotional torturer was too much and tears sprung into the corners of Lafayette's eyes, but Eric continued to smile down at him, as his face loomed dangerously close. Lafayette shuddered and fidgeted, his mind terrified, but his body very responsive, including his cock, which seemed close to bursting for some reason he could not fathom.

"As you probably know by now, fear and lust combined are a very potent ambrosia" Eric crooned, his lips just an inch away from Lafayette's. The sounds of the bar continued in the background, but Lafayette felt like the world stood still. His worst fears and greatest fantasies were taking over his mind. "Your body is telling me what kind of dreams you've had, Lafayette" he said with a lusty glint in his eye. Eric's eyes focused on the pulse beating in the human's temple... so tempting and so close... he reigned it in and looked back in Lafayette's eyes.

"I doubt Miss Stackhouse has had the same though, although I am more than intrigued to find out" he added, letting his powerful gaze bore into the human's retinas, scorching the outlines of his mind, just for fun. "She doesn't fear me as you do" he added as an afterthought. He let go of the glamour in his eyes, letting the human 'wake up', so to speak. Lafayette blinked a couple times before he was able to speak.

"That's why you want her, isn't it?" he asked, as if discovering the big secret. Eric suddenly stood up straight and looked at him. "Sookie's always been like that. Now, I don't say this about many people, but she is good. It ain't right that a sweet thing like that to be all up in vampire shit, but I guess since she can't read all y'alls minds, she couldn't help it" Lafayette wondered at himself for a second, why was he telling Eric all about Sookie, he almost felt compelled to. He shook his head and drew the last puff from his cigarette, tossing it and pretended to ignore the large man still standing right in front of him.

"I was under the impression most humans are... disturbed by her gift" Eric's head tilted to the side, like he was looking at Lafayette a little differently. Lafayette glanced up at him quickly and wished he hadn't said anything.

"It's who she is" he said simply. He would never fully understand Sookie's gift, no one but Sookie ever really would, he estimated. But in the past couple days she had explained how she'd found out where he was in Fangtasia and the deal she had made to get him out. Lafayette was many things immoral, but he never forgot compassion like that. "If it wasn't for that 'gift' of hers, I'd still be rotting in your dungeon right now. Or dead"

"You did make an excellent bargaining chip, in the end. What is that expression you humans use? A 'Plan B'?" Eric smirked, letting his words sink in. "Enjoy the rest of your shift, Lafayette. I'll be in touch" Lafayette surged out of his chair to demand answers, but Eric was already gone. Sam burst through the back door and opened his mouth to yell when he saw his line cook just standing there, but he stopped and inhaled through his nose thoughtfully. He whipped his head back and forth, looking for something, but all he saw was Lafayette.

"Get inside, Lafayette. Terry's swamped" he said casually. Lafayette cocked a sassy eyebrow, wondering what Sam was all about before sashaying his way back inside. Sam let him pass, before looking around the back of Merlotte's again, swearing that he had smelled vampire, more specifically a vampire he recognized, but decided not to give himself away to Lafayette. Taking one more look around suspiciously, he went back in and closed the door behind him.