AN: I own nothing! Not my first rodeo but I appreciate every little bit of support that a reader can lend. Please review and let me know what you think. This should be updated fairly regularly (I'm shooting for once a week) and I don't expect it to exceed 10 chapters. I'm not writing a lot of exposition because I figure most of you have read DUD or at least get the general gist of how a vampire works so the plot will move quickly. Feel free to ask questions!
The blue, red and white lights of Bud Dearborn's police car were bouncing off Sam's doublewide and the faces peering out Merlotte's window. I put a hand up over my eyes as if to shield them from the flashing lights while I grimaced.
...Fucking vampire deserved it...
...Had it comin'...
...Don't see what all the fuss is about, he was already dead...
...I'm buying more silver jewelry...
...If I'd known it was that easy to kill one I'd have...
It was times like these when I really was ashamed to be one of the living. How anyone could take some poor vampire's death, well his second one, so lightly was just beyond me. I for one felt near to tears and I couldn't help but scold myself knowing my reason for feeling so sad was a little selfish. But this was the first vampire I had ever met! And he just strolled right into Merlotte's tonight and sat in my section as if he was this perfect surprise meant just for me. And he seemed real nice, a little lonely that was all.
I felt almost guilty that I hadn't just sat down and stayed with him all night, instead of giving those dirty hick no-goods the Rattrays the opportunity to get their vampire-draining paws on him.
I wondered what his name had been.
"Sookie? Sookie."
I pulled my hand away from my eyes and snapped my mental ears shut to focus on Andy Bellefleur standing in front of me.
...Get Bud back for this, sticking me with Crazy Sookie...
I opened my eyes real wide - to keep from narrowing them - and grinned real big - to keep from snapping at Andy.
"Sorry Andy, didn't mean to check out on you. I'm just a little shook up, I guess," I said and our eyes both flickered to my right where the drained and staked body of the only vampire I'd ever gotten to meet was slowly beginning to flake to bits.
"Right. Well, Sam here says the vamp sat in your section so you just go ahead and tell me what went on and then you'll be done here."
So I told Andy the entire thing, down to every silly mundane word exchanged between that vampire and I, and everything I saw go on with him and the Rattrays. I made sure to talk about the way Denise seemed to be trying to seduce the poor man with her neck.
"But you didn't seem him leave the premises with the Rattrays, is that right?"
I tried to remind myself that this was not my fault, that I might not have been able to do anything to help if I had caught the three in time, but I couldn't help but feel a little sick with guilt again.
"No," I said, and even to my ears I sounded like I was apologizing. "I was busy breaking up a fight between Jason and DeeAnn's date. We all were."
I would like to say that Bon Temps really pulled together after that. Tried to be real sorry 'bout what had happen, even made a formal apology. But that would be an awfully big lie to tell. In truth, very little was mentioned about the vampire after that night. It was discovered that the Rattrays had been sent to jail for vampire draining in the past, and that they took off out of Bon Temps the night we found the vampire in Merlotte's parking lot. I was hoping that maybe Bud or Andy or just plain anybody from the Sheriff's department was doing something more to catching Mack and Denise on the run, but I knew straight from their own heads that they weren't.
Gran was real torn up about the whole thing though. They ended up identifying the vampire from his wallet. He was Bill Compton and he'd been from our parts. Just across the cemetery from Gran and me as a matter of fact. But the worst of it for her was that Bill Compton had fought in the Civil War and if he had still been Undead or whatever they called it, I was sure she'd have wasted no time in picking his brain for her Descendants of the Glorious Dead friends. And while I'm sorry to admit it, it was only a few days before even I had to put Bon Temps Vampire Minute out of my mind.
The same night the Rats had drained Bill Compton at Merlottes, Maudette Pickens went and got herself strangled during what seemed to be some pretty rough sex. Sheriff's department was ready to blame it on vampires, turned out Maudette had been a fangbanger and had two little bitey holes on the inside of her thigh. And just a few days later Sam called me to check on my coworker Dawn after she didn't show up for work and I was the one to find her, gone the same way as poor Maudette.
No one in Renard Parish wasted any time waiting for an official news report or interview from the Sheriff's office. They just all showed up at Merlotte's the day Dawn was discovered and I had to take a double shift to cover her. Every single one of us working that night felt the strain of the crowd and their curiosity, even Lafayette who I had never seen shaken up before. I had tried checking on him throughout the night, during second long pauses in the dinner rush, but it wasn't until the bar was really closing and he was washing up in the kitchen that I had the opportunity to let my mental blocks down and pay attention to him.
...What if they find out I was at her place that night...She kicked me out after buying the weed but maybe they won't believe...Don't know what kind of sick fucker does that shit...Sure as hell, wasn't no vampire though. Like they'd let the blood go to waste...Oh shit, Sookie's got that look on her face like she's listenin'...
"Sookie, bitch-" Lafayette grabbed my arm just tight enough to hold me still.
"Lafayette. I'm so sorry! I really didn't mean-"
He looked around to make sure no one was listening or nearby and then focused his attention me, shaking me a little. Not hard or mean, just enough to keep me from rambling off on a useless apology. "Whatever you heard you'd better just say right now."
I winced but summarized in a whisper. "You were at Dawn's the night she was killed to sell her weed but she kicked you out. You didn't kill her. And...and you don't think a vampire did it like all the rest of town does because you know they would have drained her of blood."
Lafayette sighed and relaxed his grip on my arm. "I will say this, you may be a nosy little bitch for listening in," his voice was sharp but then the corner of his mouth snuck up and he gave me a reassuring smile. "But at least you listen good. Just don't let me catch you sneaking in on my privacy again, hear?"
"I know! I'm sorry, Laf really," I held my hands up at my sides. I waited until he looked more relaxed to continue. "How do you know so much about vampires anyways?"
He raised one glittering eyebrow at me before going back to loading dishes in the washer, I went ahead and helped by passing more to him.
"They're vampires, Sookie. Why would they waste the blood?"
"But they don't need it now, right? Cause of all the fake blood?"
He laughed at me. "Just cause yous don't need some don't mean yous not gonna try and get some." He emphasized the last two words with two thrusts of his hips and then laughed harder at my blush.
"What's Fangtasia?" I plucked the name out of his brain.
"Hooker!" Lafayette yelled at me.
"Lafayette it's late and I'm tired and it's not my fault!" I argued back. I gave him an impish smile. "You're brain is just as loud as your mouth at this point."
Lafayette sighed and rolled his eyes at me.
"It's a bar for fangbangers," Lafayette grumbled.
I got the rest from his mind. He had gone there with Dawn a week ago. It made him nervous but Dawn seemed to get a kick out if it. There was a tall, deliciously hot man sitting on a black platform with a red backdrop behind him and the image was vivid and stark in my friends thoughts. Then Dawn was walking down a dark hallway, grinning over her shoulder, her arm in the hand of a tall, blonde, masculine body. I jumped as Lafayette snapped his fingers in front of my eyes.
"Hooker!"
"Who was that blonde guy? Do you think he'd know anything?"
Lafayette turned green and took a step back. "You stay away from that vamp, Sookie. He'd eat you alive and he wouldn't leave anything behind like he did with Dawn which is all you need to know about what happened with them."
Well I've just never taken direction very well, I guess, 'cause shortly after Bud arrested my stupid ass brother for sticking his dick into two murdered girls – before not after, ew - I'd freshened my tan, shaved my legs, and put on my best sundress. Bright white covered in red poppies. Maybe I wouldn't talk to the big blonde vampire, but I thought I looked good enough to get answers out of somebody, a guess confirmed by the petite lady vamp at the door with hair as pale and soft as cottonweed. She licked her lips as I approached.
"If you have identification proving you are of legal drinking age you are most definitely welcome here tonight," she crooned at me.
"Aw, well that sure is kind of you," I trilled nervously, digging in my handbag and retrieving my license which I handed her.
"A Sookie?" She asked, scanning the card. "Well that is a new flavor."
I wasn't quite sure what to say to that so I took my i.d. back and scooted around her, barely missing her as she leaned in to whisper in my ear. "Be careful, some of the patrons bite."
I tried to pretend that it was the cool night that made me shiver.
I almost turned and walked right back out.
Everything was sex, blood, and pain. I could almost feel the stings of skin being hit by skin, leather, chain. Thoughts were flavored by the copper taste of blood. I felt sick, or near swooning at least and I stumbled and dodged away from others as I hurried over to a less crowded corner of the bar. I definitely did not fit in, surrounded by torn, sheer, dark fabrics and gleaming skintight leather. But I hadn't really expected to blend in, I just hadn't expected the brains around me to be so different, so much darker, easier to read and harder to get untangled from.
"Serving you will be a pleasure," a husky voice announced in front of me. The bartender looked like his Native American skin tone was being washed out under bad fluorescents, except there weren't any and he was flashing some pale fang my way. "And then later you may serve me."
His gaze was on my stunned face as I realized that I wasn't getting any thoughts from him, just a steady pressure. It felt like he was laying weights down just behind my eyeballs.
"Oh no," I said without really thinking it through. "I was just here to ask some questions." I was actually sort of thirsty but I didn't really want to ask this guy for any favors.
The bartender narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth to speak when we were interrupted. I jumped, not having heard any one approach, out loud or in my head.
"I believe a drink will be all she needs from you tonight Longshadow." The voice was smooth and deep but with a sharpness, like something sinking to the bottom of the dark part of the ocean. I turned to find the exact vampire I had been hoping to avoid tonight, and he was even more stunning in person than he had been in Lafayette's fear stained memory. I had to crane my neck to look into his face, which was focused in hard lines across the bar. After a silent pause he looked down, a wrinkle of amusement at the corner of his mouth and in his frozen blue stare.
"Um, just a water please," I said, realizing they were waiting for me. What I really needed was a shot of bourbon for some liquid courage but I didn't drink much and I still needed to make it back home.
"Nonsense," the blonde statue said with a mild frown. "It's on the house."
"Well that's real sweet of ya'll, but I'm not staying long."
"I insist," he said, and the pressure in my head returned, but much stronger now.
"Thank you, really. But just water."
The vampires both frowned at me, the bartender with irritation and suspicion, and the gorgeous blonde with something fierce and guarded that made me want to retreat and also hold still like a rabbit and hope he might just forget that I was standing there at all.
"If it is not the refreshments," he said in a clipped and careful accent that was most definitely not local and probably not even native to the English language, "Then what is it that brings you to Fangtasia, Ms. Stackhouse?"
"How'd you know my name?"
"Pamela," he nodded in the direction of the doorway where the little blonde was watching us over her shoulder. "She keeps me apprised of any visitors who might… interest me."
I swallowed. Well he really was the reason I came here, I realized, so I might as well talk with him. "I actually just came cause I had some questions."
I hadn't realized he'd been moving closer, leaning down towards me, until he suddenly pulled away with a roll of his eyes.
"Of course," he said dryly. "You may tell your university paper that we are not allergic to garlic and we do not need to invest in dentistry to keep our teeth clean, and any other little mundane fact you might want to throw in there."
"That's very charming," I snapped back. "But I never went to college and that's not why I came. Have you ever seen these two women?" I asked, pulling the pictures of Maudette and Dawn out of my purse.
I don't know if he even glanced down but his beautiful face was smirking while his eyes cooled several degrees. "I tasted the one with the dark hair –"
"Dawn," I said.
He ignored me. "-She enjoyed pain. It is not a personal preference of mine but she left satisfied." Ugh. I didn't even know what to think of that. He leaned back in to my space. "I can be very accommodating Miss Stackhouse. Why don't you join me in my office to finish your questions so I can show you exactly how much."
I won't lie, he was attractive enough, his voice stirring enough, and even his head silent enough that I considered the possibility for a moment. But all the other moments made it pretty clear that would be a bad idea.
"I'd rather stay out here if you don't mind," I said softly.
He took a step closer and I realized he had me pinned against the bar. I actually made myself search beyond the silence of his mind and realized how envious the rest of the humans in the building were of me in this moment… all except-
"Maybe I do mind," he purred over me.
"Maybe I don't mind if you mind," I said, my head distracted. His face lit up for a moment and his smile went from predatory to genuinely amused. He laughed, and it rumbled around us. He was so transformed that for a second I thought it might not be so bad going to a private room to talk with him, maybe I could make him laugh again and act a little more… human. But there was something more important.
"Excuse me, Mr…"
"Eric," he said, his smile only cooling a fraction. "Northman."
"Mr. Northman," I whispered. "You've got an undercover cop over at that table. He's a little concerned about your proximity to me but he's more concerned about the two girls waiting at the door. Rightly so, they've got fake i.d.s."
His eyes narrowed and focused tightly on my face. There wasn't any pressure in my head, which I was starting to guess meant he was trying to mess with my thoughts, but I could tell he was focusing on me more than I was comfortable with.
"Mr. Northman?" I prompted.
"Eric," He corrected. He stepped back. "Pamela will ensure the girls are not admitted."
I glanced over and the back of Pamela's head nodded once.
"Oh. Okay. I think I better go now," I said. He had moved away but somehow I still didn't have much room to scoot around him.
"You parked in the back?" he asked, which was oddly mundane. I nodded. He slipped his arm under mine and gripped my wrist gently. "Allow me to escort you out the back."
I had to follow him - even if there wasn't much pressure I could tell there was no way I was wiggling my way out of his grasp. He chuckled at my resistant steps and tense arm as we stepped into a dim hallway and the noise of the bar dulled.
"Rest assured Miss Stackhouse you will make it into your car safely." He leaned down, his nose brushing against my hair. He smelled like dust and cedar, reminding me of an old library I had visited in Shreveport once as a kid. "I am a very good bodyguard."
"I think you're the most dangerous thing in this place," I said, wincing and chastising my tongue that spoke faster than I could discipline it.
He only laughed and it warmed the air around us. "Very observant. Now tell me, the women in your pictures. They are dead?"
"Yes." I bit my lip and then continued. "They were strangled. They had bite marks and… the police think my brother killed them."
"Did he?"
"No."
He opened a door at the end of the hallway, the red exit light making him look sunburned, but I suppose I looked worse. We stepped out to an empty parking lot, and I could see my little yellow car at the end of the row under a street lamp.
"I assume you are certain of this for the same reason you knew about the policeman and the underage girls?" His voice was light but I tensed, realizing how badly I had given myself away.
"Yes."
"Where is your car?" I pointed and he grimaced before walking us slowly over. "It was not a vampire that killed the woman. They would have been drained and no one would ever have found them. You need a new car."
I sagged and ignored his dig about my car. "I sort of knew that."
"I am glad to know that you were not planning on accusing a vampire of murder to his face," he said with a wry smile. "That would have made you very stupid, crowded bar or not."
"Did Dawn say anything to you? Any clue?" I asked.
He grinned as we stopped at my car, and it was boyish and hungry at the same time. "We did very little talking." I blushed and his pupils dilated. "I will see you again soon, Miss Stackhouse."
"I don't think I'll be back Mr. Northman," I said and reached out my hand. "But it was nice meeting you. Thank you for talking to me." And not biting me, I added mentally.
He stared at my hand just long enough that I thought maybe I should give up, but then he snatched it up from the air so fast I didn't even see the movement. He raised my wrist to his face and breathed in deeply, closing his eyes and purring as he sighed out. His lips brushed my sensitive skin and I shivered as my body temperature rose. He released my hand and it fell between us, heavier than before.
"What did that tell you?" I asked.
"That you are very rare," he said, a gentle growl at the back of his throat. "In many ways."
I pasted on a grin and grabbed onto my door handle to keep me upright. "Back home we just call it 'crazy.' Goodnight Mr. Northman."
Maybe it was silly of me to turn my back on a vampire, but he didn't do anything. Just whispered, "Goodnight Sookie."
When I lowered myself into my seat and closed the door behind me, he was gone from the parking lot.
