You Just Had to Ask

by Demon Flame

To please her lover, Hadley invites Sookie down to New Orleans to meet and impress the Queen.

1. The First Exchange

I was a freshly turned vampire and it ate at that freaky little albino to no end that I was still a favorite of Sophie-Anne. When he wasn't making snide remarks, he was doing his damnedest to discredit me. His latest campaign to cause me to lose favor with the Queen, was to spread rumors about me lying to the Queen (an incredibly grave offense). What was worse, was that people were starting to believe him.

"So you really believe him!" I shrieked, bloody red tears streaking down my face.

Sophie-Anne frowned, she had never put up with my tantrums when I was alive, and she had been less inclined to do so after she had turned me. "That isn't what I said," She said, her beautiful face as smooth as glass. "I simply said that these rumors needed to be dispelled."

Behind her, Andre fixed me with a hard frown. He had never liked me all that much, but he loved Sophie-Anne enough to tolerate me. At least he had more of an intellectual and emotional range than the Berts and even they were better than that nasty little Albino.

I wiped the blood away with the back of my hand which only made it smear across my face in horrid red streaks. This was the one aspect I hated of being a vampire. I had always hated how I looked when I cried, but now it was just a mess. Sophie-Anne snapped her fingers and one of the servants rushed over to me with a pristine white towel to clean my face with. By the time I was done, it looked like someone had used it to clean up a crime scene.

I took a deep, unnecessary, breath to calm myself before I took a seat at Sophie-Anne's feet, and laid my head in her lap. She ran her fingers lazily through my hair as I thought about the situation. Really, the only way to dispel the rumors was to prove it.

I didn't regret a lot of things. I didn't regret marrying Remy or having Hunter, they were both wonderful parts of my life. I didn't regret leaving Bon Temps for the big city of New Orleans. I didn't regret cutting off all contact with my family and friends from that dinky little town.

I did regret not telling Gran about Uncle Bartlett. I regretted being too weak to visit my mother before she passed. I regretted that I had just packed up in the middle of the night and left without a word when I left both Bon Temps and Remy and Hunter. And more than ever, I regretted telling Sophie-Anne about Sookie, my telepathic cousin.

Contrary to what Waldo told everyone, I didn't just tell stories to stay in Sophie-Anne's favor. It had been an accident. In the early days of our relationship, we would talk after sex. She'd tell me about the places she'd been and the people she'd met (or ate), and I'd tell her about my home town where everyone was too nosy and my family. At the time, I had been telling her about how my cousin, Jason, and I would refuse to play with his sister, Sookie, because she always won in our games. And that was when it slipped out that my silly little cousin could hear others thoughts.

Of course Sophie-Anne was interested. It was an interesting talent if not a little creepy, especially when you were thinking of something that was very private and she was commenting on it to the whole room. I'd never forgive her for letting it slip that I smoked when we were just barely teenagers. My mamma had nearly beat me blind when we got home that day.

I had put off talking about her for as long as I could and tried to avoid the subject when anyone brought it up. But sometimes, I just couldn't help talking about her to Sophie-Anne. I did my best to try and minimize her 'disability' though. It was the least I could for her, after bringing her to the attention of the Queen of Louisiana. I tried to highlight how crazy we all thought she was and how sheltered she was. But it looked like that wasn't going to cut it anymore.

"I was going to name Sookie as the beneficiary to my will so she needs to sign some papers." I said with a heavy filling deep in the pit of my stomach. "I guess I could invite her down for the weekend instead of mailing them to her." There were no papers to be signed, it had all already been taken care of with my lawyer and Sophie-Anne knew this.

"Oh, Hadley!" Sophie-Anne said. "That sounds wonderful! I'd love to meet this cousin you talk about so much."

Her words sounded practiced and I was wondering if maybe she had orchestrated all of this just so she could force me to introduce Sookie to her. It sounded like something she'd do, she didn't like to order people around, she'd much rather have them do whatever she wanted done on their own, even if it meant twisting their arm a little bit.

"It's too late to call her now, I'll call her first thing when I rise tomorrow." I promised. I hoped Sookie had enough mind to keep her mouth shut while she was here.

I pulled to a stop in front of the Valet of the W New Orleans – French Quarter, the most expensive hotel in New Orleans. The man in the neatly pressed red vest and black slacks unloaded my weekend bag and traded me the keys to my car with fading yellow paint for a ticket. I took my bag and walked into the lobby, if I hadn't had years of practice to hold in my emotions, my jaw would have hit the floor. This was probably the most fancy and expensive place I'd ever be. I wondered how Hadley could afford it.

It had been nearly four years since we had heard anything from my only cousin. She had gotten pretty heavily into drugs to the point where Gran had paid to send her to rehab. She skipped out on rehab and we hadn't heard from her since. Until two weeks ago when she had called the house.

Gran had answered the phone and nearly fainted when she heard Hadley's voice on the other end. I hadn't seen Gran smile like that since before Aunt Linda had died, she even shed a few tears in relief. It didn't take a mind reader to know that she thought what we had all thought, that Hadley had died. After a quick catch up, Gran had passed the phone off to me before dinner burned, but really, I think she just wanted a minute to herself.

I was shocked when the first words Hadley spoke to me where to invite me down for the weekend at her expense. The furthest I had been had been was going to the mall in Monroe, I hadn't even gone on my senior trip to New Orleans in high school. At first I was resistant, but she had insisted that she missed me and had some things to tell me in person. She had just sounded so earnest that I eventually caved in and told her I'd need to talk to my boss first to take time off.

"Sookie!" I spun to my left to see my cousin Hadley in the waiting area of the front lobby. I blinked a couple times, surely she wasn't really glowing? Maybe all that big city pollution I had learned about in school was causing me to hallucinate.

"Hadley! You look great!" And I meant every word of it. Other than the strange glow, she looked healthy if a bit skinny, but maybe that was my jealousy at her slim waist talking.

I met her in the lobby and leaned over to hug her when I paused. I don't know why the thought even occurred to me, but it spilled from my mouth before I could stop myself. "Hadley, are you a vampire?" Vampires had come out of the coffin only three years ago and they were all the rage, though we still hadn't had one come visit our sleepy little town of Bon Temps yet.

Her entire being stilled to the point where I thought she did a pretty good job of imitating a marble statue. "I forgot that you do that." She was alluding to my 'disability' that everyone knew of, but no one spoke of.

The thing was, I hadn't heard this from her thoughts, it was just this feeling I had in the back of my brain that my moody cousin had been turned to a vampire. In fact, now that I tried, I couldn't hear her at all and told her as much.

A look of panic crossed her face but it was gone just as soon as it came. "Let's not talk here." She said. "I've already got your key so lets get you settled first." She passed me a little plastic card that I assumed was the key to my room.

My room was huge! Nearly double the size of the living room in Gran's house. I had no idea what Hadley or the hotel expected me to do with so much space. Host a party maybe?

I set my rolling suitcase by the dresser and joined Hadley in the sitting area. She looked nervous and didn't exactly meet my eyes. I placed my hand on her knee in the way Gran had done to me so many times when I was growing up. "Are you happy?"

A spark of the old Hadley I had known as a child shown through. "For the first time in a long time."

I leaned over and pulled her into a hug. She was a bit frigid on returning the hug but she eventually wrapped her arms around my shoulders loosely and returned my affection.

"Are you hungry? We could order room service?"

"I stopped for a bite to eat a little earlier."

"Okay." She nodded. It had occurred to me that there was something she wanted from me and that's why she had been so insistent on me coming down to New Orleans. Alone. "As you know I'm a vampire, the one who turned me is the Queen of Louisiana -"

"The Queen of Louisiana? The Vampire Queen of Louisiana?" I laughed. Why would anyone want to be Queen of Louisiana?

"Its not funny." She snapped at me and I bit my lip to keep the rest of my giggles to myself.

"Sorry."

"She's also, my lover."

Oh. Oh.

"Oh." I tried to sound aloof but I don't think I was very successful.

Hadley smirked knowing full well that I had been caught off guard. "She wants to meet you. I mentioned that I invited you down for the weekend and she wanted you to come to the palace tomorrow and maybe even to the party the next night?"

That was all a bit much to take in, the best thing to do would be to address it all one at a time. "I didn't bring any party clothes." Honestly, I didn't often get invited, so I didn't really have any anyway.

"We'll go shopping tonight for some dresses. Its on me."

I felt like a cad for asking. "She's... not going to eat me, is she?"

Hadley snorted. "No, there are plenty of donors falling over themselves to get a chance to be bitten by Sophie-Anne." These donors must be the fangbangers I hear about in the news from time to time.

I'd never met a Queen before. I'm an American, we didn't do royalty. "What if I offend her?"

Hadley spent the next two hours giving me a crash course of what I should expect to find while in the palace. The mention of werewolves launched a whole other conversation. By that time Hadley had ordered me a couple of espresso's to give me an energy boost before we went to some of the all night boutiques in the French Quarter. New Orleans had really embraced the vampires and done their best to by the premier vampire city in the world. Anne Rice probably had a lot to do with that.

By Four in the morning, I had a pretty white dress that stopped just below my knees and wrapped around my bust as I imagined a toga might. Hadley even made an appointment for me at a salon the next afternoon to get my hair and nails done. According to Hadley, she lived in the palace, and I had to wonder if it was just humans who had to dress up to hold an audience with the Queen or if everyone did. Hadley had only been wearing jeans and a tee.

It wasn't thirty minutes past sun down the next night when a black town car pulled up in front of the hotel and the door opened to show Hadley sitting in the back. Her outfit was a bright red dress that was missing the back entirely and a pair of shiny black heels that would have killed me if I had tried to wear them. Maybe it was a vampire perk to wear such uncomfortable looking shoes. I'd have to ask Hadley later.

I slid into the seat next to her as elegantly as I could and she shoved a glass half full of amber liquid into my hand. I was a barmaid at Merlotte's Bar and Grill in Bon Temps and had been for a while. I knew this was some kind of whiskey, what I didn't know is why it was in my hand.

"Drink it, trust me you'll need it."

Hadley was the expert here. But I had never been much of a drinker, still, this wasn't a lot. Only a finger, it couldn't hurt. I downed it one gulp and made a face at the taste. When I did drink it was of the silly and fruity variety.

"I thought you worked at a bar now?" Hadley said with an amused smile.

"I serve the beer, I don't drink it." I hoped the taste of the whiskey would fade, I did not need my face to still be twisted when I met the Queen.

"Remember, just be polite." Hadley said. "You can't over do it, too little and she'll see it as an insult."

I nodded, relieved that the taste was finally fading. "I got it." I said. "And no ones going to bite me, right?"

Hadley had always had a wicked smirk. When she had progressed into a teenager and I was still a child, I had thought she looked like a witch and had once called her such. That was the first spanking I ever received from Gran. "Are you afraid? It feels a lot better than you'd think."

I could feel my cheeks heat up a bit. "Its not that I'm adverse to it," I said slowly. "Its just, if someone's going to bite me, I'd like to at least get to know the one doing it. It's kinda like kissing?"

Hadley used to chuckle at my nativity in high school just the same as she was now. It seemed to me that Hadley may have changed in some ways, but in others; she was still the same. "It's different from kissing, and if a vampire bites you it'll be a lot different from when Brock Simmons cornered you at the football game."

Brock Simmons had been two grades above me in the same graduating class as Hadley and Jason. He had cornered me under the bleachers at one Friday night game and gave me my first kiss. It had been unwanted and there had been a lot of tongue. Jason had beat him like a drum and Brock avoided being within eyesight of me until the day he graduated.

We reached a gate and were waved through without fanfare. I looked out my window in time to see a golden animal emerge from between a couple of well manicured bushes. "Is that a lion?" I asked, watching the large feline stretch out on the lawn.

"Sookie," Hadley said, and there was something in her voice that put the pet lion on the back burner. Sometimes I liked being able to hear what people were thinking before they sprung it on me, I wish I could hear Hadley now. "I mentioned to Sophie-Anne about you, before I invited you down here."

I paused, pushing the sense of betrayal away. "Like, that I'm your cousin?"

"Yes," She was nodding slowly and trying to convey something to me earnestly with her eyes. "And... other stuff."

Betrayal washed over me like a tidal wave. "Oh." She had sounded so good over the phone that I had hoped she may have gone back to the happy little girl I had known as a child.

"I'm sorry." She said and scooted closer to me on the bench seat. "I know you don't like to talk about it and I didn't mean to tell her, it just kinda slipped out one day when I was telling her about how I used to play with you and Jason as kids." She was talking a lot faster now. "Listen, she may ask you about it or for a demonstration, and I'm so sorry I told anyone about it, but please, can you do this for me? I really love her."

Hadley had never asked me for anything, not even to keep a secret. Looking at her now, she looked all kinds of tore up over the guilt that had been eating at her.

"Is that why you invited me down here?"

The guilt in her face increased and bloody red tears welled up in her eyes. She yanked out a couple tissues from her pocket sized purse and quickly dabbed them away. "Well, that and I need you to sign some papers for my will. If I die before you do" (unlikely given her vampire status) "you get it all."

I was touched but it was overshadowed by her lies and treachery. "What about Gran and Jason?"

"Jason turned me away when I asked him for money, so he gets nothing from me. And I figured Gran doesn't have that long left anyway." It was to painful to acknowledge that last part but the first part was Jason and Hadley's relationship to a tee.

I heaved a deep sigh. "Alright," I said. "But if you had just asked me instead of tricking me, I would have done it."

"I'm sorry, Sookie." She said.

The car pulled to a stop in front of a pair of massive open doors. It was too late to back out now and I was pretty sure if I tried to run at the last minute, even the slowest, clumsiest vampire could catch me. I followed Hadley through the grand halls until we reached a chamber guarded by two of the biggest men I had ever seen.

"Bert." Hadley said and nodded to each of the men. Were they both Bert? I was pretty sure they would have been more at home in animal skins with massive battle axes on their backs and a horned helmet.

"Hadley." The one on the left said, and I didn't think he knew many more English words with his thick accent. The one on the right was eyeing me suspiciously before he opened one half of the double doors. Hadley slipped through and I followed, but not before giving both Bert's a friendly wave with my Crazy (nervous) Sookie smile. They both looked at me as if I were touched in the head and maybe I was for agreeing to this.

Sophie-Anne Leclerq, Queen of Louisiana, was draped over a golden chaise lounge in a silk, floor length, purple dress. She had a classic breath taking beauty to her and it took me a moment of studying her to realize she must have had been only about fifteen when she was turned. The white-haired blonde man behind her couldn't have been more than sixteen or seventeen when he was turned, but like the Queen, it took me a good minute to determine it. They could have been turned when they were ten, and I still would have been bowled over by the power they exuded.

Both of their eyes were on me the instant I stood before her majesty. Hadley had told me to curtsy first thing, I was awkward and lucky I didn't trip over myself and land flat on my face. The Queen was quiet for a long moment, her face as smooth as glass. I had to wonder where Hadley plucked up the courage to have any type of relationship with this woman.

"Sophie-Anne, this is my cousin Sookie Stackhouse, the one I told you about." I glanced to Hadley to see that a light had been lit in her eyes. I had been so nervous about my curtsy I hadn't noticed before. If I had had any reservations about Hadley's homosexual relationship with a Vampire Queen, they were put to rest when I saw the love they visibly shared for each other.

"Its a pleasure to meet you," I said, and just for good measure I tacked on, "Your Majesty."

"Hadley's told me quiet a bit about you." Her lips had tilted up the tiniest bit. Maybe. "I'm surprised you don't look more like Hadley."

I didn't know what to say to that. Hadley was long and thin, I was short and curvy with plenty of natural bounty. She had dark hair and eyes, I had blonde hair and blue eyes. Though mine weren't as bright as the man standing behind Sophie-Anne. Maybe, this meant I wasn't her type. A boon for me, because she wasn't mine. Hadley had explained, Vampires weren't as modest about sex as humans.

"She also tells me, that you can hear the thoughts of others." Her clear eyes had sharpened. Her male companion (I had decided he was a body guard), didn't look like he cared one way or the other.

I suddenly realized that she was testing me and I opened my mind. Nothing. I heard nothing. It had occurred to me last night that maybe I couldn't hear the thoughts of vampires and it seemed to hold true tonight as well.

"I can't hear your thoughts." I told her as respectfully as I could. She was terrifying, and also I didn't want to embarrass Hadley. "I think it's because your vampires." I didn't think I wanted to hear the thoughts of vampires.

The Queen looked thoughtful for a moment before turning to Hadley. "Hadley, dear, go fetch a couple of non-vampires and send them in one at a time."

I didn't want Hadley to leave me alone with the two vampires but I forced myself to remain still. A moment later, a tall man with a full, auburn beard walked into the room. He came to stand beside me and I opened my mind to him. His mind was red and snarly, like I had to weed through a tangle to get to the thoughts.

"You may leave." The Queen said after a good long moment of silence.

Once he shut the door behind me, the Queen and her bodyguard focused their attention on me.

I could manage to conceal my reactions to thoughts like a pro, but then, I'd never had to repeat them aloud to others before. Especially the ones involving me. My face flooded with heat and I looked down to the legs of the Queen's seating. "He-," I took a deep breath and forced myself to finish the sentence. I'd probably have to repeat worse later. "He would like to suck on my toes and has been trying to get a hold of one of your bras to sell on Ebay."

When I looked up again, the guards faced flashed with annoyance, but the Queen looked entertained.

"Also, I don't think he was all human. His brain felt different."

"You'd be right, Mr. Joss is a werewolf."

I expected more snarling out of a werewolf, not toe sucking.

A woman came in next. She was shorter than me and if she had looked down for too long she might have suffocated in her bosom. She gave me a weary once over before standing beside me, in front of the Queen. And just like before, we all stood there a good long moment before she was dismissed.

"She's been trying to poison another donor with a potion." I shifted uncomfortably. Hadley had told me about witches last night. "She also wants to be turned to a vampire so she can eat her ex-husband and his new wife."

The Queen didn't looked one iota perturbed, she clapped her hands, and the next one walked in. It went on like this for another hour until finally Hadley walked back into the room. My face must have been beat red, the last man had wanted me to sit on his face.

"My, what an interesting little gem stone you are." She looked over her shoulder to the guard. "Don't you think so Andre?"

Andre spared me a glance before he smiled indulgently down at the Queen. "I believe you are right." His tone was so neutral that I didn't think he cared one way or the other if I was a gem stone or dryer lint.

"Hadley says you went shopping last night. So you have a dress for tomorrow?"

"Yes ma'am." I was glad to stop announcing the private, and often perverse thoughts of her servants.

"Very good, I'll send a car over tomorrow to pick you up. Don't be late, I hate tardiness." Hadley fixed me with a severe look to highlight the Queen's dislikes. "Andre, see Miss Stackhouse out." She said and turned her attention to Hadley, who had sat down on the edge of the Queen's seating. The Queen had lifted one pale hand to cup Hadley's cheek like I would expect a lover to do.

Andre moved around the Queen and came to stop beside me with his arm held out. He may have been younger when he was turned, but he was still taller than me by almost half a foot. I shot another glance to Hadley, but she didn't seem worried so maybe I wasn't being lead to my death. I looped my arm in the crook of his elbow and allowed him to lead me out of the room. Like Hadley, no warmth seeped through his clothes and even though it was a the middle of July, I had goosebumps on every inch of exposed flesh.

The two colossal guards outside nodded their heads, to me or Andre I didn't know. My Crazy Sookie smile was firmly in place and the Bert on the right offered me a smile with every tooth missing but his fangs. I must have paused in my steps, because a moment later Andre had gently tugged me forward again. I looked to him but his face was just as placid as the Queen's had been with his eyes set forward. If our arms hadn't been connected, I doubt he would have noticed me at all.

I saw more vampires roaming the halls on our way out, but no humans or Weres (I shouldn't expect to find that word on my daily calendar). I couldn't remember a time in my life there had been such quiet while surrounded by so many people. It was nice, but at the same time terrifying. This must be what normal people felt like.

We finally made it back to the front door where the town car was still waiting for me. I had never seen the driver, and I couldn't see him or her now, because of the dark tinted windows and the opaque glass that had separated the back seat from the front. Judging by the black hole like feeling I had come to associate with the Queen and Andre, I thought the driver must be a vampire.

Andre opened the door for me and turned to me with his bright blue eyes. However frightening these vampires might be, their manners were impeccable. "Hadley will be escorting Queen Sophie-Anne to the ball tomorrow, so I will pick you up. Wait for me in your hotel room." I must have looked alarmed, because he explained. "The Fellowship of the Sun often likes to protest our events and have been known to douse human guests in pigs blood."

"Eww." Hadley had bought me a beautiful navy blue dress that I didn't want to see dripping in blood of any kind. "Will I be safe in the hotel?"

"Yes, W New Orleans employs Weres and vampire security to ensure the safety of their guests."

"Alright then, thank you." I said and moved to get into the car.

A cool hand on top of my arm that was still looped with Andre's, stopped my progress. I turned back to look at my vampire escort, who scared me just a little bit, to find him leaning into press a quick kiss on my cheek. "Oh." At least it wasn't Brock Simmons. Maybe Andre was European, they did things like that, right?

"If you have any trouble with protesters during the daylight hours, call the palace. Hadley gave you the number?"

"Yes."

"Goodnight, Miss Stackhouse." He gently pushed me toward the car and closed the door once I was seated inside.

I sat there in stillness as the driver took off and Andre presumably returned to the Queen's side. I wonder if he guarded her while she and Hadley were together. I had been warned about a lack of personal boundaries and the lax attitude toward sex. I hoped I wasn't expected to participate in an orgy tomorrow night. What would Gran think?

I leaned into Sophie-Anne's touch while we waited for Andre to return. I hadn't been in the room during Sookie's test, but judging by Sophie-Anne's words of praise after I reentered the room, I was pretty sure it went well. Sookie had that insane smile she wore when she was nervous or scared on, I had told her a hundred times it made her look retarded but it was her default expression.

"Its probably for the best that she can't read vampire minds." Sophie-Anne said. I whole heatedly agreed with this, my cousin was in enough danger as it was and it was all my fault. "But still, she did bring to light, quiet a few discrepancies that would have otherwise gone unnoticed."

Sophie-Anne had mentioned that four of the staff were actively trying to steal her undergarments to sell online to the highest bidder. I had hoped Sookie wouldn't have done so well so that Sophie-Anne wouldn't be interested, now I could see that wasn't the case. I could feel my lover leading up to something I knew I wouldn't like. Once Sophie-Anne's interest was peeked, there was no use trying to deter her. I'd have to tread carefully if I wanted to protect my cousin. I owed her that much at least.

"You could hire her to listen in on people." I said. "I'm sure she'd like a chance to use her telepathy for something other than listening into the drunk humans at the bar she works at now."

I slipped my shoes off and curled up next to Sophie-Anne.

"She's afraid of me." Sophie-Anne was pouting now, but I knew she preferred her humans with a healthy dose of fear. And if they weren't afraid of her, then they would certainly think twice when confronted with the Berts or Andre, especially Andre.

"That's my fault." I said as I smoothed an imaginary wrinkle in the purple silk of Sophie-Anne's dress. "I wanted to make sure she didn't show any disrespect toward you, but I think I may have scared her a little."

Sophie-Anne chuckled and pulled both my hands into her grasp. "How would you feel if she were to work for me."

Sookie would end up working for Sophie-Anne whether or not Sookie or I wanted it or not. "I don't think she'd want to move to New Orleans." I said very carefully. "She likes living with Gran in Bon Temps. But, if presented correctly, I may be able to convince her to work for you on occasion."

Sophie-Anne leaned back against the high armrest of her chaise lounge in thought just as Andre entered the room. Now that we were alone, he took a seat on an adjacent love seat. "Andre, what do you think of Sookie and her talents?"

"A telepath would be a smart addition to your retinue." He said. "At the most, she could save you a fortune if she were to sit in on meetings held with humans present. And at the least, she could interview the human and Were staff and weed out the ones who seek to steal from you or destroy you."

"Very true." Sophie-Anne said. "Hadley says that she wouldn't want to move to New Orleans, that Sookie likes her backwater town."

Andre had always scared me, even though I was reasonably certain he liked me enough to not actively discourage my presence or kill me. But when Sophie-Anne wanted something, nothing would stand in Andre's way. "A bonding could take care of that." Sophie-Anne wouldn't bond with a human, no matter how useful they were to her. That meant Andre would be the one who bonded to Sookie and that idea didn't sit well with me at all.

Sophie-Anne man a noise with her mouth that someone as elegant as her hand no business making. "I can't imagine she'd agree to that very readily."

"Glamour?"

"No, no, that won't do. If we start glamouring her, we'll have to keep at it and you know how humans are when they've been glamoured too much."

Zombies who couldn't remember shit.

"Maybe we could offer her a contract for her services," I said. "Like an outside contractor?"

Andre was watching me intently but Sophie-Anne made a thoughtful noise. "That idea has merit. Over time, she might prefer to move to New Orleans." I didn't think Sookie would want to move down here without a bit of supernatural nudging. "Hadley, dear, go give Mr. Cataliades a call and ask him to stop by sometime next week."

I glanced between Sophie-Anne and Andre before I left. I knew they could talk to each other telepathically just like Sophie-Anne could with all her children, but I also knew they were planning something to keep Sookie close by. It made me uneasy, as much as I loved Sophie-Anne, I still didn't want her to hurt Sookie.

I was doing a final twirl in the mirror when there was a knock at my door, and rushed to answer it. No easy feat in my measly inch high heels (I was a sandals and sneakers kinda girl), and opened the door. Andre looked like he'd just stepped off the cover of GQ, and he certainly didn't look like a teenager. Not that he looked like much of one to start with, and even if you did notice, it took a while with how well he carried himself.

"Miss Stackhouse." He said.

"Mister Andre." I said with a nod and a pleasant smile.

Hadley had called and given me a chewing out about my Crazy Sookie smile last night after I'd gotten back to my room. I was reminded, rather harshly I might add, to be respectful tonight and to try and show a brave front. She had said something about not bleeding where sharks swim but I figured you could easily substitute the vampires for the sharks and it would still apply.

"You look mouthwatering, this evening." He said and held out his elbow for me to take.

I took it just the same as I had last night and made a nervous giggling sound. "Thank you?" It must be some sort of vampire compliment. "You look great, too." I must seem like a bumbling idiot to them. So no different from Bon Temps. I was sure I saw a tiny flicker of a smile. Better they thought I was amusing, than annoying.

He lead me down the stairs to where another black town car was waiting for us. Well, I assumed it was a different car, it could have been the same for all I knew. Hell, this could be the car assigned to me while I was staying here. Hadley didn't have it too bad off if every night was exciting as the past few had been for me. We sat in silence once we were in the car, Vampires didn't seem to be overly chatty with humans. Unfortunately for Andre, I was the chatty type.

"This isn't the same way Hadley and I went to the palace yesterday."

"Queen Sophie-Anne bought the old monastery in the Garden District years ago and holds large events there."

That seemed about right, the neighborhood looked pretty old. "Is there anything I should know before hand?"

For the first time since he had come to my door, he looked at me. "Such as?" Those crystal blue eyes of his were really show stopping.

"Well, I don't want to offend anyone." Like the King of Missouri or the Duchess of New York City.

He nodded in understanding. "This is just a small party with no visiting monarchs. Most of the guests will be politicians, Were's and such." He said. "So long as you remain polite to Her Majesty, you shouldn't encounter any trouble."

"Gotcha." I said.

The car pulled up to a high wall that extended for a whole block. This was the monastery that the queen used for entertaining. There might be other gates at the back of the property, but tonight all the traffic was moving through the main front entrance. It was heavily protected with the most efficient guards of all: vampires.

"While we are at the party, you need to stay near either Queen Sophie-Anne, Hadley or myself. Do not wonder off alone."

"Why?" I didn't like the sound of that.

He smiled in what I can only describe as refined. "Its your scent." He said. "Its sweet. I'd wager you had a grandparent who was half-fairy." I couldn't imagine my Granddaddy and Gran being half fairy and I had never met my mothers parents, so maybe it came from that side.

"Like Tinker Bell?" Fairies hadn't been included in Hadley's run down of supernatural creatures.

"No." He didn't elaborate. "Fairies have very sweet tasting blood and it is hard to resist. I have a gift for identifying blood types so I could tell quiet easily. Other vampires will be attracted to the scent of your blood but won't know why, and may try to lure you away so that they may drink from you."

I pulled the curls I had ironed into my hair earlier over my shoulder to hide my neck from view. I didn't think it'd stop a vampire who was bound and determined to drink my blood, but it couldn't hurt. Andre looked a shade amused at my actions.

We parked in front of the former monastery, which was a very large two-story building. It hadn't been built for beauty, but for utility, so it was a largely featureless structure. There was one small door in the middle of the facade, and small windows placed regularly. Outside the door stood two vampires I hadn't seen while I was at the palace.

As though they had rehearsed the act, they opened both back doors to allow us out. The vampire who helped me out of the car was dressed to the nines in a tux and had the most striking green eyes I had ever seen. Maybe all vampires were beautiful.

Andre walked around the car and joined arms with me once more, before leading us inside. I didn't think about Andre escorting me to the party until I saw the salacious grin one of the vampire's shot to the other. Was this a date? He certainly wasn't acting like any of the other men I had tried to date in the past. But they had been humans and Andre was a vampire. I'd have to ask Hadley to be sure, I didn't want there to be any confusion later.

We walked into a long hall that seemed to run nearly the entire length of the building. A werewolf (I could tell by the snarly red brain) was standing at the door to a room that seemed to serve as a reception area. I noticed Other guests were being subjected to a quick search with a hand held metal detector and purses were being searched. But when it was our turn, we were waved on through. Perks of being escorted by the Queen's bodyguard.

The door at the end of the corridor led into the very large room that had been the monks' refectory. Though the room was still walled with stone and large pillars supported the roof, three on the left and three on the right, the rest of the decor was considerably different now. The middle of the room was cleared for dancing, and the floor was wooden. There was a dais for musicians close to the refreshments table, and another dais at the opposite end of the room for the royalty. I could see Sophie-Anne was seated in the only chair, a throne really, with Hadley standing to her left.

Around the sides of the room were chairs in conversational groupings. The whole room was decorated in white and blue, the colors of Louisiana. One of the walls had murals depicting scenes from around the state: a swamp scene, which made me shudder; a Bourbon Street montage; a field being plowed and lumber being cut; and a fisherman hoisting up a net in the Gulf Coast. These were all scenes featuring humans, I thought, and wondered what the thinking was behind that. Then I turned to look at the wall surrounding the doorway I'd just entered, and I saw the vampire side of Louisiana life: a group of happy vampires with fiddles under their chins, playing away; a vampire police officer patrolling the French Quarter; a vampire guide leading tourists through one of the Cities of the Dead. It was kinda nice.

We cut a straight path through the crowd to where my cousin and her lover, the Queen, were. Andre took his spot to her right and I curtsied, I was pleased to note that it was a lot smoother than last nights disaster. "Your Majesty." I nodded to Hadley who smirked back at me.

The queen was wearing an ivory silk dress that made her look more angelic than any vampire should. Hadley's dress was black and the collar was cut so low I could see her belly button, only a thin crystal belt under her bust kept her bosom covered. I didn't have the confidence to pull that kind of dress off, not now, not in a hundred years.

"It was good of you to come Sookie." Sophie-Anne said graciously.

"Thank you for inviting me." I inclined my head toward her. Better too much than too little, right?

Hadley stepped down and took my hand in hers. "Let's walk around and I'll introduce you to some of the Queen's court." My cousin had never been considered a social butterfly and I didn't think turning into a vampire had changed that. She was up to something again.

"What is it?" That sounded rude, but I couldn't think of a way to correct myself.

Hadley lead me over to one of the pillars at the other end of the hall. "The Queen wants to offer you a job."

I wasn't expecting that. "But I already have a job."

Hadley rolled her eyes. "You serve beer to a bunch of nasty rednecks who think you're crazy and treat you like trash because of it."

I shifted in my heels. "Not all of them are that bad, and I like working at Merlotte's."

"Listen, you'd probably only be expected to work a couple of nights out of the month and she would pay you a lot to do it." She said, fixing me with a look that said I was being stupid. "We both know being a barmaid isn't going to cut it and Gran isn't bringing any money in."

"I don't know, Hadley." I said, pulling my hand from her cool grip. "This is all a little much for me. I'm glad you're happy here, but I don't think its for me."

Hadley snatched both of my hands back up and held them firmly but not to the point where it was painful. "Others will find out about you, Sookie. And when they do they won't ask you." Her voice was low and her eyes pleading. "You're still my cousin, and I love you. That's why I'm telling you to really consider the Queen's offer."

The only reason others would find out about me is because Hadley had told them about me. I felt a little resentful of that fact but let it go. "What exactly would I be doing?"

"Sophie-Anne is going to have one of her lawyers draw up a contract, you can look it over then and take away or add anything to it." She looked relieved and I didn't know if it was for my benefit or her own.

Hey, Hadley," I said. "I'm not here with Andre, right?" I felt so stupid for asking, but it had been bothering me since we stepped out of the car.

"What? No." She waved off my concern. "He was just picking you up. Sometimes protesters throw pig blood at 'vampire supporters'." She looked annoyed at the very thought of it.

Hadley pulled me out on the dance floor after that and we spent the next hour dancing. It kinda reminded me of the dances at school when Hadley was Ms. Popularity and I was her crazy cousin who no one would touch with a ten foot pole. But this time around, I did have offers from some very handsome men. One I recognized as the Governor of the state. His wife was at home sick and he was thinking he'd like to play nookie with Sookie in his limo before he went home to her. I avoided him after that.

The next was a vampire named Bill. I didn't think he liked it when I giggled at his common and very un-vampire-like name. As it turns out, he was from Bon Temps and had was the ancestor to old Jesse Compton who lived across the cemetery from me and Gran.

After my dance with Bill, a woman vampire who looked like Alice in Wonderland asked me for a dance. Her name was Pam and she told me flat out, that she'd very much like to sleep with me later. I respectfully declined and told her I preferred men. She responded by saying that's how she started out too.

My last dance partner for the evening was another vampire and everything in me screamed to run in the opposite direction. He was tall and pale with dark eyes. He was of course handsome like all the other vampires (excluding the wrinkled albino Hadley had pointed out earlier), but his entire being exuded danger. I really didn't want to dance with him, but he didn't give me much choice before he swept me out onto the dance floor.

"I surely hope you haven't been claimed by anyone yet," He trailed off, and waited for me to fill in the blank. His voice had a slight accent to it that I couldn't place.

"Sookie." I said, trying hard not to show how uncomfortable I was. I wasn't supposed to be swimming where the vampires bled. Wait, what?

"Carmine." He said and I turned my head away to see if I could spot Hadley or even she-vampire, Pam. No one in sight. "I haven't seen you before, are you here with someone?"

"No." I said, I wanted to avoid looking him in the eye. Hadley had warned me about glamouring. "I'm just visiting the city and Her Majesty asked me to come to the party tonight."

I wasn't in any position to see if Sophie-Anne was still sitting on her thrown, Carmine was effectively blocking my sight. I was pretty sure he was doing it on purpose. I thought I caught a flash of white-blonde hair in the crowd of dancers around us but I couldn't be sure because I didn't see it again.

"Your lover allowed someone so beautiful to come unaccompanied?" Old vampires had old values as I was starting to figure out.

"I don't have a lover." Usually, this was where the drunk sleazeball in Merlotte's would ask if I wanted one.

Instead, Carmine removed his hand from my waist and used a finger to tilt my chin up until my eyes met with his. He was staring at me so intently I started to fidget. "After our dance, you will excuse yourself to the ladies room and then meet me outside behind the monastery. You will not remember me asking this of you."

He was glamouring me and I felt nothing. Not a damn thing. "Okay." I sounded dazed, but that was because he was freaking me out and I didn't want him to sink his fangs into me right here, right now.

Carmine smirked and released my chin as the song ended. "It was lovely to have met you, Sookie. Perhaps we can share one more dance before the end of the night."

I nodded silently. "Excuse me, I need to use the ladies room." The words sounded robotic to my ears, and I turned and left. But I didn't go to the ladies room, and I didn't go outside. Instead, I slipped through the crowd to the buffet table. I needed a glass of water. Or maybe a shot of whiskey.

A cool hand gripped my upper arm, and for one awful moment I thought it was Carmine. I turned around to see Andre was the one who had a hold of me. "What did Carmine want with you?"

"He wanted me to meet him behind the monastery." I said, and his loose grip fell away as he turned his head in the direction I had come form.

"He's an out of state vampire whose petitioning the Queen for residence. He was banished from Colorado for draining women and leaving their bodies for the humans to find."

I opened my mouth but closed it just as quickly. It seemed to me, Andre was more disgusted that Carmine had potentially damaged the vampire/human relations rather than be upset over the murder of an unknown number of women. I didn't understand the politics so I'd just keep my opinions to myself.

"Are you ready to retire for the night? I understand you are returning home tomorrow." He had turned back to look at me.

"That would be nice." I said, and looked around. "Have you seen Hadley, I wanted to say goodbye to her before I left?"

"She and the Queen have retired to her chambers." He nodded his head to a pair of double doors behind me. The large and imposing Bert's were standing on either side looking as menacing as if they had been wearing the blood of their enemies, rather than tuxedos.

"I better not disturb them then."

"That would be for the best." As had become our custom, he held out his arm and I looped it with mine before he lead me out of the hall. We passed Pam on the way out and I puzzled over the startled look she directed toward Andre and me. In my past two days of experience, I didn't think vampires could be that expressive. It made me wonder about Andre, exactly who was he to warrant that kind of look?

Andre lead me out of the reception hall and into the corridor we had entered through. But instead of exciting through the doors we had entered, Andre lead me through a side door to the outside. A single vampire was stationed at this door and he didn't so much as glance our way. I half thought he might be a wax statue with how still he was being.

We followed a stone path to a gate manned by two more vampires in full S.W.A.T. Gear. Outside the gate, a crowd of maybe thirty or forty people stood picketing with their homemade signs and angry words. As soon as they saw us the volume on their hate rose until they were screaming themselves horse. I had never met people who would say such things aloud in front of other people.

The town car pulled up and Andre made to allow me to enter first, but a surge in the group set me on high alert and I froze with one foot in the car. A flash of something glinting in the lamp light caught my attention and I turned just in time to see a man to my right pull out a gun and aim. I don't know how many shots he fired off, but at some point between Andre tackling me into the backseat of the car and my head hitting the opposite window, I realized I'd been shot. Of course, after that, the world faded to black.

I woke up to pain in my shoulder and leg, and as much as it hurt, I don't think it was what woke me. It felt like someone was licking my shoulder. I tried to open my eyes, but sleep was still heavy in my head along with a dull throbbing that promised pain should there be light. I moaned and lifted the arm I could feel to try determine what was licking me. My first thought was that it was Dean, the collie that sometimes wondered around the parking lot of Merlotte's.

"Sookie, can you hear me?" That voice didn't belong to Dean, as far as I knew he could only bark. The voice was still familiar, but I couldn't identify it right off the bat.

"Yes?" I said with a whimper.

"You were shot." That explained the pain, but not the licking. I tried to open my eyes again, but it was an uphill battle.

"Was I?"

"Twice."

Finally my eyes blinked open, and I was relived to note that it was dark. I blinked a couple more times until I could hold them open. The voice belonged to Andre, the Queen's bodyguard. "Did you bite your tongue?"

One corner of his lips lifted into a crooked smirk that would have been more charming if there wasn't blood on his fangs, mouth and chin. As it was, it was quiet frightening in the dark. "No." Andre was sitting on the bed next to me and had discarded his tie and jacket, the pristine white shirt he had been wearing before was smeared with blood.

I looked around in the dark and realized it was my hotel room we were in and that I had been laid out on my gigantic bed. "Shouldn't I go to the hospital?"

I shifted around and realized I had been covered with a blanket. When I sat up, with Andre's help, I realized I had been stripped to my skivvies. With an embarrassing yelp, I grabbed at the blanket and tugged it up to my neck. I felt around under the blanket to make sure that along with my bra, my panties were still on.

"Where's my dress? Why did you take it off?" I didn't see anyone else around to remove it, so Andre must have done it.

"I needed to tend to your wounds, and it was in the way." He said it as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. I suppose he did have a point, but that still didn't mean I wanted him to see me in my delicates.

My shoulder didn't actually hurt all that much anymore, It just throbbed. When I looked down I found open wound, but no bleeding. There was just a hole and it made my stomach turn in revulsion. My thigh hurt a lot more and when I lifted the blanket to look at it, I saw what looked to be a strip of my navy blue dress tied around it and soaked in blood. Well, I suppose the dress was ruined anyway with bullet holes in it.

"There's coagulant in vampire saliva that speeds up the healing process." He answered my unasked question. "If you'll allow me to continue, I'll clean the bullet wound on your leg."

I might have been low on a pint of blood or two, but what was left still managed to rush to my cheeks. I'd been shot in the shoulder and in the thigh. If Andre were to do what I was thinking he did to the wound on my shoulder, then his head would be very close to a very private part of me.

"I-" Didn't know how to answer that.

"Allow me to help you." He helped maneuver me until I was leaning against the head rest of the bed. I only managed to whimper twice from the pain in my leg while in transit. But over all, he was gentle with me.

Once I was in a more comfortable position, he lifted the blanket away only enough to bare the part he needed access to, but still maintained most of my modesty. With delicate fingers, he untied the band of fabric. I kept my eyes on him, I didn't want to see the bloody hole in my body.

"I'd rather not dig the bullet out." Andre said and knelt down on the floor beside the bed. "If you'll allow me to bite you, I can suck it out before I start to clean the wound."

I chewed on my bottom lip. My first reaction was to say no, but it sounded like digging the bullet out would hurt more. "Will it hurt?"

"No." That wasn't much of a reassurance, but I nodded my head all the same.

I closed my eyes and he sank his teeth into the flesh just above the hole. He was right, it didn't hurt, it was more of an oddly pleasant pressure. A moan caught in my throat when he started to suck, it was the most erotic thing I had ever felt and the urge to clamp my legs together was maddening. After a moment, he pulled back and spit out a bullet into the palm of his hand. Andre deposited the little hunk of metal on the nightstand before he descended on me once more.

He didn't bite me this time, but I could tell it was a struggle from how tightly he gripped my hip and calf in his hands. Instead, he licked me and began to clean the blood up. The flicks of his tongue were causing desire to pool low in my stomach. I soon realized, I wasn't the only one feeling this way when my foot brushed against something hard between Andre's legs. As discreetly as I could manage under the circumstances, I attempted to pull my foot back. Either Andre didn't notice, or was controlling his urges a lot better than I would have expected of a man, in any case, he didn't move one muscle. Other than his tongue that is.

After several minutes of frustrating bliss, Andre pulled back and released his hold on me. I took several deep breaths to calm myself before looking down at my leg. There was a ghastly, but clean, hole in my leg, just as with my shoulder. At least it wasn't bleeding. When I looked back up, Andre was using a handkerchief to clean up the blood on his face.

"Thank you." I said.

"Oh, we aren't done yet." There was no inflection in his voice that I could detect. "You still need to drink some of my blood, to finish healing. If allowed, the injury to your leg and shoulder could grow an infection, which could lead to amputation." He said all of this as though he were discussing the best kind of fertilizer to use in his garden.

"Maybe I should call Hadley." I hadn't been too keen on him drinking my blood, especially after he had told me earlier in the evening how attractive my blood would taste. I was even more opposed to the idea of me drinking his blood, even if it was to heal me. I'd heard the horror stories on the new of the kind of things that happened to bloodheads.

"After you were shot, the monastery was locked down until the police could be called to the scene. I imagine they are still there," he said, and looked to the bed side clock. It was just after three-thirty. "And I need to return to the Queen's side soon."

I was really uncomfortable with the idea of drinking his blood. "What'll happen if I do?"

Andre took a seat next to me and I tried not to stare at his crotch, it didn't seem to bother him in the least that his arousal was very much obvious even in the dark. "Your injuries will heal, you'll seem more beautiful to humans for a time, gain strength, also for a short time, and have lucid dreams for a month or so." He unclasped one of his cuff links and rolled up the sleeve to his elbow. Andre looked to me in question and I nodded my head with heavy knots in my stomach.

One hand found its way to the back of my neck and guided it toward him, while he bite into the wrist on his other arm and then held it out for me. The blood was darker than mine had been and thicker as it sluggishly moved down his arm. I'm sure my face showed the revulsion I felt but Andre didn't look insulted and gently guided my head to his wrist.

I gagged at the first taste of his blood and tried to pull back, but his grip on my neck was firm. "You need to swallow." And so I forced myself to swallow. And swallow again.

Suddenly the blood tasted good, salty, like life itself. My hands rose to enclose around Andre's arm so that he wouldn't move away. The pain melted to nothingness with every swallow and then I drifted out of consciousness, slumping in Andre's arms.

When I awoke again, it was to the sound of my room phone ringing. The thought to answer it didn't quiet register before a hand picked the phone up off the receiver. I followed the phone's path to the face of Andre. He was dressed in his jacket once more, but had kept his tie off. I figured he had tucked the little piece of cloth into his pocket.

"Miss Stackhouse's Room." I could here the voice of a woman on the other end, but I couldn't discern any of the words. Andre glanced to me. "Yes, yes, here she is." He passed the phone to me and left to the seating area of my room to give me some privacy.

"Hello?"

"Sookie?" It was Hadley. "Are you okay? I'm sorry I didn't call sooner, we just got back to the palace and Sophie-Anne didn't want anyone to make any calls until after we were away from the police."

I smiled into the mouth piece and sat up, completely forgetting about my state of undress. Andre, who had chosen at the moment to look in my direction got an eyeful of my lacy bra (not that he hadn't seen it before). I quickly covered myself and bowed my head in shame. He probably couldn't wait to get back to his normal duties when I left.

"I'm fine, Hadley. Andre cleaned me up." I said and lifted the blanket up to see that both my shoulder and leg were in the same condition as they had been at the beginning of the night. "Oh, wow. There isn't even a scar."

"...You drank his blood?"

The hesitation in her voice made the heavy feeling in my stomach return and I peered at Andre out of the corner of my eyes. He had seated himself in one of the chairs and was inspecting his cuticles. "Should I not have?"

"No! Its fine, really." It didn't sound fine. "Its just, with the way you were talking earlier... I just didn't expect it." Hadley said. "Did you let him drink your blood?"

I dropped my voice lower, but I was sure he could hear every word I said. "Well, he might have got a little, he sucked a bullet out of my leg. Is that bad?"

"No, it fine, Sookie." I didn't believe her. "Listen, if you're feeling up to it, you should go on and head home. Some of the Fellowship protesters escaped before the police got there and they might come looking for you."

I nodded, even though she couldn't see it. "I should be up for that." I said. "You should come for a visit, Gran would love to see you again."

"I'll try to soon, try and stay out of trouble." I felt myself smile. "Sophie-Anne wants to speak to Andre, can you hand him the phone?"

"Sure, goodbye, Hadley."

"Goodbye, Sookie."

I pulled the phone away and held it out to Andre. "The Queen wants to speak to you." Before I knew it, he was standing in front of me and taking the phone out of my hand. I knew my jaw had dropped open, because with one elegant finger, he closed it for me.

"My lady?"

Could all vampires move that fast? What other kind of things could they do? I knew they could glamour someone to bend to their will (I was pretty sure it didn't work on me) and Hadley had told me that there was nothing stronger than a vampire. Tugging the blanket tighter around my chest, I wondered if Andre had x-ray vision, or was that superman? Could he turn in to a bat? Would it be tacky to ask? I decided to keep my questions to myself unless I offend him. When I got home, I'd go to the library and check some books out to see what else they could do.

"Miss Stackhouse,"

I looked up to see that Andre had hung the phone up and was smoothing out his bloodstained jacket. I felt bad for ruining his nice outfit, He'd looked so great at the beginning of the night. I wondered if he could see his reflection in the mirror or if someone else combed his hair.

"Mister Andre."

"I trust you are feeling better now?" He asked, straightening up.

"I am, thank you. I wish I hadn't caused you so much trouble this evening." I was eyeing the blood stains that were more visible on his once pristine white button up and feeling horrible to be the cause of its ruin. Though, it certainly wasn't like I asked to get shot.

"It was not you who was the root of the trouble, banish such thoughts from your mind." His eyes were on my shoulder, he looked satisfied that it had healed so well. "The Queen extends her most sincere apologies for the events of this evening. She hopes it won't color your view of her or the city and that you will find time to visit again."

He just said it so officially, I couldn't help but smile just a little, even if I was mostly naked underneath the blanket and he had been the one to undress me. "Thank you, I'll try to return soon."

Just like last night, Andre leaned in and placed a chaste kiss on my cheek. And just like before, I turned several shades of red and devolved into an embarrassing imitation of a tomato.

"Good night, Miss Stackhouse."

"Good night, Mister Andre."

Boy, was I ever going to have a story to tell Gran when I got home tomorrow. I'd leave out the part about getting shot, and the handsome vampire sucking a bullet out of my leg. As nice as a city as New Orleans was, it was too exciting for me. Next time I saw Hadley, I hope she came to Bon Temps.

A/N

This will be a three chapter story, but as you can see the chapters are pretty long. Over 11000 words in the first chapter! Leave a review and let me know what you think.