Chapter 1

Annabelle

I hated little towns. Too much gossip, and I always managed to piss off the wrong person, right away. Moving somewhere new was anything but for me. My mom married an active Marine when I was 13. When that happened, being the new kid in town became like second nature. Except this time, I wasn't a kid. I was 24 and on the road to a small town in Northern Louisiana. I'd gotten a job at the local elementary school as their new 2nd grade teacher. I'd only gotten the job because their salaried teacher had taken off after a scandalous affair with a vampire.

"Bughhh" I said, suppressing a shudder. Don't get me wrong, I was raised proper and I have nothing against anyone unless they give me reason. I was taught not to hold one person's mistakes against an entire race, as well. I held no ill will against vampires, just not my cup of tea. I had no more issue with supernaturals than I do gays. And my kid brother is gay and I couldn't be more proud of him. Some of my stepfather's buddies were werewolves and shifters. Although, I'm not supposed to know that last bit. It's just the idea of sex with someone that's technically dead that makes my skin crawl.

"Only warm bodies for me, I'm afraid." I laughed to myself. I soon saw a city limit sign reading Bon Temps city limit, population: 2,000. At that point, my anxiety started settling in.

"This was easier when I was a kid," I said to myself. "At least this place won't be crawling with vampires and the like, like Dallas was. And Marie will be here this weekend. I can manage a week without her." Finishing my pep talk to myself, I pulled up to the duplex with the address I was given. I glanced back at my little girls asleep in the back seat and whispered, "This will be good for us. Just wait and see." I took a deep breath, and got out of the car to talk to the mildly attractive man standing on the porch. Who, I can only assume, must be the owner, Sam Merlotte.

Alcide

The work day was almost over, thank God. One day closer to the weekend. I had to stop putting off this talk that I needed to have with Sookie. I had to make myself go to Bon Temps this weekend.

"Mr. Herveaux, Jones wants to know when his plans will be ready." my assistant squawked into my intercom. She was more than efficient, but since I started stressing about Sookie so much her voice had started grating on my nerves. "Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday morning at the latest, Louann."

Work was tedious for the next two hours. The longer the day dragged on, the more anxious I got. This day had to end soon before I shifted in the office and gave my secretary a heart attack. Five-thirty finally came and I gathered my things and went straight to my truck. I had to get home, get changed and get out to my dad's before the sun when down. The full moon started tonight and I was so glad because I really needed to run. That, and I'd been doing a pretty good job of avoiding the Shreveport vampires.

Sam

"Ah. No, Sammy. You know the house rules. Don't mess with my music." said Dean as he knocked my hand away from the radio of the Impala. And thereby condemning me to another round of the same 5 eighties cassettes. That's right, 2008 and we're listening to cassettes of Led Zepplin and Queen. That's life with Dean.

"Where are we headed today, Sammy?" Dean asked, stuffing the last of a fried apple pie in his mouth.

"How do you eat that crap, Dean?" I asked, incredulously. "Because it's pie, Sam. Pie, in any form, is delicious." Dean replied biting into a cherry flavored one. I just shook my head and looked down at the map in my lap. "Well, the closest thing to us is in Butte, Montana, but the one in Oklahoma City seems more our scene." I said. Dean looked over to me and asked, mouth full "Why's that one not our scene, but the one in OKC is?"

"Well, because we usually try to avoid any jobs involving aliens and anal probes-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Dude, do not talk to me about that kind of stuff, okay?" I chuckled. I figured that would send Dean high-tailing it to the south. "Anyway, in Oklahoma City, there have been mysterious fires, burglaries, and murders." I finished. "Not that I don't prefer this case to... other stuff," Dean stuttered. "but these all sound like normal occurrences, not really 'supernatural'."

"Well, because the murder victims were drained of blood, the only thing that's missing from the were personal items like hairbrushes, toothbrushes, heirloom jewelry and stuff like that. And every house fire's point of origin left symbols burned in the floor of the living room at every crime scene. No fingerprints, no sign of forced entry, nothing."

Dean sat in silence for a moment. Then he slammed his hands down on the steering wheel. "Son of a bitch! Fucking vampires!"

"We don't know it's vampires, Dean." I said calmly, knowing full well it probably was.

"Bodies drained of blood, Sam? It's vampires."

"There's nothing we can do if it is, Dean."

"You don't think I know that, Sam? Only in America would we give rights to dead guys. Oklahoma it is, I guess."

* * * * *

A day later, we were hitting Oklahoma City city limits. We weren't in town an hour and came across a crime scene on the way to the hotel. We changed into our FBI suits in the gas station across the street, grabbed some coffee and made our way through to the crime scene. A florist building had been burned to the ground with the owner inside. We asked basic questions, finding no clues at the scene. We left and went to check into the hotel. "Well, that was a bust." Dean said, flopping down on the bed. "Yeah." I said, absentmindedly. "I'm gonna see if I can't get into their files." Dean fell asleep, so I kept on working. By the time he woke back up I had traced four other occurrences of three sets of crimes at three different scenes. Other than the crimes, I couldn't find anything connecting the victims. Dean finally came to and I said, "Hey. I found another incident two weeks ago in Texas, and three others. All in sets of three."

"What? English, please?" Dean said, groggily.

"In Houston, two weeks ago, three people were robbed of personal items, their house set on fire after they'd been drained of blood. It happened before in Little Rock, again in Mobile, Alabama, and again in Jackson, Mississippi. Three crimes done to each of the three victims in three different states. These were a year ago last month-"

"When the attacks started." Dean finished.

"Exactly. I've been looking through personal files and can't find any connection between them." I said, throwing papers down in frustration. Dean walked over and picked up a pile of newspaper printouts and said, "Where are they from?"

I looked up, a little confused and said, "What?"

"Where are they all from? The attacks seem to spread across the deep south but skip Louisiana completely."

"I don't know. Let me look," I clicked through a few things, shuffled through some papers, and finally found it."Bon Temps, Louisiana."

"Which ones?" Dean asked. I looked at my tired older brother and said, "All of them. They all from Bon Temps."

Dean chuckled and said, "Do you think they celebrate Mardi Gras in Bon Temps?"