The vampire bar was tacky and sex-centric, but in Grace's experience that wasn't unusual. She'd been to a lot of vampire bars in the past year or so and they were all fairly samey. Full of leather and PVC and exotic dancing, fangbangers dressed like slaves in some sort of BDSM fantasy. Flashing her ID at the woman standing by the door, she ignored her look of interest and headed straight for the bar. Grace knew she stood out from the usual clientele in a place like this. She wore plain blue high waisted jeans, a white cropped vest top and grey sandals. Over the past year or so she had accumulated some clothes that would allow her to blend in more - but they were all in the wash. Or waiting to go in the wash, anyway. She hadn't been anywhere with the chance to wash her clothes in a while, considering she was sleeping in a tacky little box room in the sleaziest motel she'd had the misfortune to stay in. But a bed was a bed, and she supposed it was better than sleeping in her car - which she'd had to do in the past.

Fangtasia had only been open half an hour or so but was already heaving and so she struggled to push past vampires and humans alike to get to the bar for a much needed drink. She ordered a double vodka and orange juice and downed it almost in one as soon as the cool glass touched her lips.

"You look like you needed that"

Grace looked up to see the bartender pushing another glass over to her. She thanked and paid him and took her second drink over to the corner where she could observe the area, hopefully without drawing too much attention to herself. Her second drink she sipped this time, as she didn't want to be too drunk just in case this was night she'd finally find who she'd been looking for. But as the hours dragged by and there was no sign of him she was losing hope, if there even was any hope left after the past year. Godric had been so sure that she'd find what she was looking for in Shreveport, but there didn't seem to be any trace of him. She would have known if he had been there recently, like she just knew all sorts of things that she wasn't supposed to. He hadn't been here. Grace was just about to get up and leave, ready to give in and call it a night, when suddenly there was a tall blonde vampire sat opposite her.

"I don't take kindly to undercover police in my bar." It took Grace a second to collect her thoughts. Although she had been around them a lot the past few years, she sometimes still struggled to remember how fast they could be, how powerful. And the vampire in front of her certainly seemed to radiate power. She wasn't scared of him, it took a lot to scare her these days, but she supposed he had the potential to scare her if he put his mind to it.

"This is your bar, huh? Nice place, very...Uh, not tacky." A low growl echoed in his throat, and suddenly his fangs were down. He had shifted his chair so it was right next to her, and was leaning dangerously close to her neck.

"I am not in the mood to play games"

"Neither am I, so fuck off. I'm not an undercover cop," Grace subtly shifted so her neck was slightly further away from his fangs. She was in no mood to become a blood bag tonight, or any night for that matter. The vampire stared at her for a few seconds as if trying to work her out. When he next spoke his voice was dangerously low.

"So I'm expected to believe you coming here looking ridiculously out of place, having only two drinks, sitting by yourself in the corner and observing my customers is your idea of fun? You should learn to respect your elders, girl." His fangs now gently grazed the side of her neck. Angrily she grabbed two fistfuls of her black t-shirt, careful not to touch any skin, and shoved him away.

"Guess I'm just weird that way. Anyway, and this isn't because of your pathetic attempt to intimidate me, so you know, but I was just leaving." Hastily she stood up and started working her way around the table.

"Pathetic?" He asked, with barely concealed anger. Perhaps she shouldn't have said that; she'd always had an issue with holding her tongue. She ignored him, but clearly this didn't sit well with him as Grace had barely gotten round the table before he was standing in front of her. "I think you should come with me for a minute, Miss...?"

"It's Grace, and no fucking way. I'm going home."

"Well Grace, my name is Eric, and I would very much like to speak with you in my office." She moved away but not quick enough, and Eric reached out to grip her wrist with almost bone crushing force. But she wouldn't notice the pain until later, because right now the world was shifting around her.

She was still in Fangtasia, and Eric was beside her. They were standing in practically the same place they were before but something was off. The walls felt closer somehow. Dread filled her… Something awful was about to happen. Suddenly, a man with dark hair cropped closely to his head and bad teeth came crashing towards them with a pained look on his face. Tears filled his eyes, and his hand was reaching for his back pocket. Grace knew instinctively that he was reaching for a gun, and that it was loaded with wooden bullets.

"This is for my daughter, you fucking fanger cunt!" With that, and before anyone could react, the man had shot Eric. Straight in the heart. She was choking on his blood. Blind, gagging, she heard the gun go off again.

And then she was back into reality.

A wave of nausea hit Grace as it always did when she had just came out of a vision, but she resisted the urge to vomit as panic filled her and she realised how little time she had. Looking down, she saw her wrist was still locked in his vice like grip. The pain was almost blinding.

"Resisting me isn't going to make this any less unpleasant, Grace." Hastily she turned to the door and saw the man had just entered. There was no fucking time.

"Look Eric you have to trust me and I know I have no way of knowing this that has a reasonable logical explanation but that man that just came in has a gun, and the gun is loaded with wooden bullets. He's going to shoot you in the heart!" She tried to pull her arm out of his grip, or push him away in the direction of safety, but it was no use. He simply stared at her with an expression of mild amusement on his face.

"Now now, telling stories is for little children Grace. Let's act like adults now and go on over to my office shall we?" He began to tug her away. Out of the corner of her eye she saw he'd reached the edge of the crowd, was reaching behind him.

"This is for my daughter you-" was heard at the same time as Grace yelled "Fucking move, arsehole!" And with strength and speed she didn't know she owned, yanked her arm out of his grip, and shoved the vampire as hard as she could. It wasn't enough to move him far. A couple of stumbled steps, caused more by surprise than anything else. But it was enough. The bullet missed him completely.

Grace wasn't so lucky.

Pain exploded in her shoulder. In an instant, it felt as if all the life had been drained out of her and she collapsed to the floor in agony.

"Fucking fangers," she hissed through her teeth as she ripped her top off with her good arm and pressed it around her shoulder in an attempt to stop the blood flow. It started to soak through in seconds. "Nothing but fucking trouble." Her vision was starting to get hazy around the edges. Before she could react, Eric was in front of her

"You saved my life. Why did you do that?" His voice was filled with curiosity and something else she couldn't quite place.

"The guy with the …gun?"

"Taken care of. Why did you save my life? No, wait… How did you know?"

"This…This all sounds like a conversation we could have when I'm not fucking bleeding to death! Will you just do me a favour and call me a bloody ambulance?" She took the ragged remains of her top away from her shoulder for a second to inspect it. The cloth was bright red and dripping. Soaked through. Grace thought she might be sick. "That can't be fucking good." Grace vaguely heard someone yelling for everyone to go home.

"I don't need to call you an ambulance," he said and with more gentleness and speed than Grace could ever think possible picked her up and carried her into his office, laying her down on a dingy black sofa on the back wall. She cried out as the impact, slight as it was, caused lightning rods of pain to shoot up her shoulder.

"What do you mean you're not going to call me an ambulance? I save your life and this is how you fucking repay me? By letting me bleed to death? You're not going to fucking drain me are you? Shit, shit, shit.. I picked the wrong night to come to your fucking bar! How the fuck did I manage to get myself shot in a vampire bar?!" Her voice was weak and mumbling, not at all the powerful exclamation she wanted it to be, but Eric heard her nonetheless.

"No I am not going to drain you, though-" He paused to wipe up a drop of blood on her arm with his finger before licking it off," you do taste divine." Grace made a disgusted noise and turned away. "My blood will heal you completely. It will be as if you were never shot in the first place." She turned her eyes to him but a bloody wrist was facing her, dangerously close to her mouth. "Quick, before it heals, Grace"

"V? That's your fucking solution!? I'm not touching that shit. I'd rather bleed to death." She meant it too. Grace had seen what V had the power to do to people, to her brother. And she hadn't had a particularly strong will to live as of late. She scrunched up her face and turned away, ignoring the renewed agony in her shoulder that it had caused.

"Well usually your death would be of little consequence to me, but seeing as you did save my life and how you saved my life is incredibly intriguing to me, I am afraid that I cannot let you bleed to death." A firm hand gripped her chin and pulled it to his wrist. Grace did her best to keep her mouth shut but Eric easily overpowered her, prising her jaw open and then his blood was in her mouth. At first she planned to just hold it there and spit it out as soon as she had the chance but soon there was just too much blood, and she had to swallow otherwise she would choke.

The healing effect of his blood took place almost immediately. She could feel the fragments of bullet pushing their way out of her skin, and then her muscles knitting together again. The pain had intensified for maybe a few seconds, then was gone completely. When he was satisfied she was fully healed, he released her jaw. Angrily, she spat the rest of his blood onto the floor.

"Motherfucker"

"I have fucked a few mothers in my time, I suppose. But is that anyway to treat someone who just saved your life?" Grace pushed herself into a sitting position to get a better view of him. He was leaning against the wall across from her, his arms folded. She suddenly became very aware that she was only in her bra and covered in her own blood.

"Ugh you're disgusting. Can I go home now?" She knew as she was asking that it was probably futile. He hadn't forced his blood down her throat just to let her walk out of his life as soon as she felt like it.

"I'm pretty sure you already know the answer to that." He threw a t-shirt at her, bright red with the Fangtasia logo emblazoned across the front. Grace made a face. "Put this on. We need to talk and you're too distracting to me dressed like that. The girl's bathroom is just outside of here. Clean yourself up, it's not polite to stay covered in your own blood in the presence of vampires."

"Oh I am sorry I must have missed the vampire etiquette memo because I was too busy, y'know, getting shot!" Angrily she shoved the t-shirt on and got up to leave. He was regarding her with that look of mild amusement in his eyes again. It made her want to stake him herself.

"When you're done come out to the main bar area, you have some explaining to do." Grace ran a hand through her hair in frustration and found to some surprise that it was shaking. She clenched her fists.

"I'll be waiting, Grace."