I ran as fast as my legs could carry me through the woods, I needed to put as much distance between me and whatever that was as fast as possible. I burst from the tree line onto the steaming black asphalt looking like a deranged wild woman. Or at least, that was what the man in the pick-up thought as he slammed on his breaks to avoid hitting me. I suppose it was a good thing there had been no one driving behind him and that he had his headlights on in the dimming light of the day.

I ran to his passenger side window that had been rolled down and clung to the side of the truck like a life line. "Please! help me!" He was hesitant, what with all the crazy people running around nowadays, I could be one of those crazy kids high on meth or cocaine. "Please, I-" The tears that had been threatening to spill since I woke up finally fell. "I think I need to go to the hospital."

I glanced over my shoulder to make sure that thing that had grabbed me wasn't close by. I was pretty sure I left it back in the woods but it didn't alleviate my terror.

The man caved. "Hop on in." I scrambled into the cab of his truck and hurriedly fastened my seat belt. I had just escaped death, there was no way I was going to die in a car crash. The man pulled away from his dime stop and glanced at me out of the corner of his eyes for several moments. I had begun to shake as the adrenalin wore off. "What happened to you, girl?"

Poor thing... how old is she... where are her parents... is that blood... look at all that dirt... I hope it doesn't stain the seat... just bought this truck...

I hiccuped and tried to stop my tears. "I don't remember." I said and looked down to my bloodied and dirt covered clothing. Had I been murdered? But that didn't make since, I was still alive and other than severe mental trauma, I felt fine. "But, I think someone tried to bury me." A fresh wave of sobs wracked my body and I hugged myself.

The man's thoughts weren't helping. He was thinking of serial killers and cannibals and wondering if I had been raped. I couldn't remember if I had, I didn't hurt down there, but I had never had sex before so I didn't know what to expect. He wanted to console me somehow, but didn't want to scare me so he made shushing sounds and promised that I was safe now. I didn't feel safe. It felt like something more powerful than I could imagine would be coming for me soon.

The man, Leonard Polk, pulled out a cell phone and called the police saying that he was driving me to the hospital in Tyler. It was then I realized I didn't know where I was and so I asked.

"Texas, just outside of Tyler." I wasn't familiar with Texas in any capacity.

"But, I live in Louisiana." My voice was small and sounded so lost that it caused Leonard a great swell of pity which only made me feel worse.

"Don't you worry none, sweetheart, the police'll find who did this to you."

I nodded absently but said nothing further as we drove. Instead I watched the rays of the sun disappear over the horizon out of my window and thought of the hand that had grabbed my ankle. Someone had been buried with me and didn't want me to leave our grave. Whoever, whatever, it was, had tried to pull me back in, but my kicking had dislodged the hand and I had run without a look back. I thumbed the hem of my once white tee shirt that was black with dirt and brown with dried blood. What had happened to me for someone to bury me out in the middle of nowhere like that? Whose blood was this if it wasn't mine? Was the one who did this to me in that grave with me?

The cab was almost completely dark now as the last rays of the sun disappeared over the horizon. I could see the twinkling lights of the small city ahead and hear the dull thump of Leonard's heartbeat. Wait, what? I glanced toward Leonard under my lashes so he wouldn't notice me staring at him. It would be rude to outright gawk and my Gran had raised a lady. My eyes immediately zeroed in on the thick blue vain in his neck as it throbbed in time with his heart. I licked my lips as I watched the hypnotizing thump...thump...thump...thump. My gums itched with hunger that needed sating. I was staring now, out right and rudely staring.

"Hey, girl, are you alright? You're looking a little vacant." He said. Two long pointed teeth I had never had before dropped with a soft click. "Oh, fuc-"

He never finished his sentence because I had launched myself into his lap and bit down over the beckoning artery in his neck right before the car crashed into a ditch on the side of the road. I moaned as the first wave of nectar filled my mouth. The apex where my legs joined together began to pulse painfully and I couldn't stop myself from grinding on Leonard. Had I been in my right mind, I never would have bit this man. Had I an inkling of what I was really doing, I would have jumped out of the truck while it was still moving. Had I been of sound thought, my face would have turned hell-gate red as I writhed along this forty-two year old man with a wife and son waiting at home for him. But I wasn't in my right mind and while one hand held his head in place, the other worked his belt off. I was gong to rape Leonard Polk.

Thankfully, a hand enclosed around my throat and ripped me away from the quickly fading Leonard. The same hand pinned me against the side of the truck as I clawed and snarled like a wild animal. I kicked out trying to hurt my attacker so I could go back to Leonard.

"As your maker, I command you to be silent and be still."

My whole body froze in place and clarity returned to me once more. I was still pinned to the truck facing the tailgate end and the strong hand held me in place without any indication of letting up. Every fiber of my being wanted to turn and see who it was that held me but everyone of those fibers refused to budge. Was I so afraid of the owner of the hand that I couldn't do anything but obey him? This whole experience was a nightmare, but I didn't think that was the reason my body refused to bend to my wishes. Whoever it was that had me felt inexplicably comforting. It reminded me of the hugs Gran would give me after my parents died, full of love and acceptance.

So wrapped up in my thoughts, I didn't realize whoever was the cause of my questions was talking. Not to me, but to Leonard. His slightly accented voice was calm but firm as he spoke. I didn't hear all of what he told Leonard, just the tail end where he was instructed to call the police. Then I was dragged away from the bleeding Leonard and his wrecked truck into the field we had crashed beside. It was my fault that he had suffered, he should have just swerved around me and kept on driving. He didn't deserve to meet a monster like me. What was wrong with me where I wanted to drink his blood and have sex with him at the same time?

I was spun around to face my captor. A teenager! He had to be about the same age as me. But where my skin was dark, baked by the sun, his was pale and glowed in the moonlight. Where I had blue eyes and long blonde hair, he had dark eyes and short chestnut-brown hair. He was my opposite in every way, down to his calm and slightly curious demeanor and my frantic and frightened actions. The boy pulled me flush against him and before I could ask who he was or what he thought he was doing, he lifted me up bridal style and ran.

I shrieked like a tea kettle and wrapped my arms around his neck for all I was worth. The wind whipped around us like we were in the middle of a tornado and then it stopped. I was reluctant to loosen my grip on the boy, whoever he was, but I did turn my head, that had been buried in his chest, to peek an eye open. We were in the woods and even though the sun had set and the tree cover should have made it difficult to see, I could see everything. The animals scurrying around in the trees and on the ground, the stars in the sky that had never looked so bright. And I could hear and smell everything around me so much clearer. I looked around, completely forgetting that I was in the arms of a stranger. It was all so amazing until my eyes landed on the patch of upheavaled earth.

It was my grave.

I screamed and tried to scramble out of the boys arms. Whether I did it on my own power or he allowed me to get down I don't know, but as soon as my feet touched the ground, his arm around my waist strengthened to steel. I wasn't going anywhere unless he wanted it.

"Calm yourself, my child."

I paused in my struggling only to look over my shoulder at the boy. My child? He had to be the same age as I was. Redoubling my efforts of escape, I tried to claw at his arms. I drew blood, but to my horror the flesh mended itself as though nothing had happened. I froze as a block of ice settled low in my stomach. I had never heard of something like this, whatever was holding me wasn't human, that's for sure.

"What are you?" I must be having some out of body experience, because to my ears it sounded as though someone else had spoken.

"I am vampire."

My entire being went numb with fear. Was he serious? A vampire! "Are you going to kill me?" Crazy or actual vampire, he had proved how easily he could overpower me calling in to question his already unstable sanity probably wouldn't be in my best interest.

"You're already dead." He said, and released me. "I made you vampire."

I stumbled forward but caught myself before falling to the ground. Turning around, I looked to the vampire boy who had turned me. What I had thought before as just his pallor, was an actual glow, like there was a light on under his skin. There were also the tale-tell fangs. I looked down to my hands, but they didn't glow like the vampire's did. Was I really a vampire? I had run around while the sun was still up without any ill effects vampires usually felt but I had drank Leonard's blood. Alright, so vampires really did exist, I could freak out about that later when I was alone.

"You were the one in the grave with me." I said, and looked to the grave. "You killed me." I turned back to him with tears welling up in my eyes. "Why?"

He stared back at me impassively. "You don't remember?"

I searched his face for something, anything, some kind of clue to what happened to me. No memory surfaced, I couldn't remember what happened before I woke up buried alive (well, undead). Wait! I had come with Sam to Dallas for a convention, and I could vaguely remember getting a little lamented badge when we reached the hotel where the event was. But after that, it was all black. I looked down to my ruined clothes, I was wearing the white boat-neck shirt that I wore to work and a pair of denim shorts that came to mid-thigh but I didn't see my badge. Was this what I had worn that day? How long ago had that been? Where was Sam, was he alive?

The vampire seemed to reach the conclusion that I didn't remember. "I did not kill you. When I came upon you, you were near death."

I hugged myself against a non-existent chill, and briefly wondered why I was neither hot nor cold when it was mid June in the south. Maybe it was a vampire thing. "What happened to me?"

The vampire stepped forward slowly, as though I was a frightened animal, and I suppose I was. Everything in me screamed to run away from him as fast and as far as I could, he was the most dangerous being I had ever met. But, there was something inside of me that said he was safe, he was home. It was my blood, I could feel it pulling me toward him as it swam under my skin.

He was standing in front of me now and I was torn between leaning into him and taking a step back. "Two human women beat you to death." My shock must have shown on my face because he lifted a hand up to cup my cheek. I could have kicked myself for leaning into his hand, but I couldn't seem to pull away.

"Why?" My voice cracked as the tears began to leak from my eyes. "Why would they do that to me? How could anyone do that to someone?"

"It is my understanding, that you outed some scheme of theirs. They were cruel women, my child, you won't have to worry about them any longer." He lifted his other hand to cup my free cheek and used his thumbs to brush away my tears.

I stumbled back out of his grasp in horror. "Did you kill them? Did I?" I had almost killed Leonard and he had been nothing but nice to me, I didn't want to think about what I could have done to a pair of women who had wronged me so.

The vampire's lips lifted upward and I could feel the love he had for me heat my blood. It was such a strange feeling. "They are still alive. Battered as you were, you asked me to spare their lives and so I did. For you. They will be paying for their crimes through the human justice system for your murder."

Relief swept over me like standing in front of the air conditioning on a hot summer day. I didn't think I could bear it if I was the reason for the suffering of someone else, let alone two people (even if by all markers, they deserved it). When I opened my eyes it was to see that the vampire was smiling softly at me. "Why didn't you just let me die? You don't know me form Adam." Besides my little disability, I was nothing special.

My blood surged with affection and wonder from the vampire. "The scent of your blood is what drew me to you, but it was your tender heart that ensnared me. You are like the sun when I've only seen dark skies for over two thousand years. I couldn't simply allow your light to fade."

Could vampires blush? I was pretty sure I was, it sure felt like it. That was the nicest compliment anyone had ever paid me, and he was so sincere. Mostly, people thought and sometimes even commented out loud, on my gracious helping in the chest area, men, women and children. My breasts were a major reason why I was tolerated in Bon Temps, the other two reasons being my horn dog of a brother and my saintly Gran. "What about my family," I looked to my right as though I was looking in their direction. There was nothing but forest for miles, but I felt that they lay that way.

The vampire's soft features melted into glass. "You cannot return. Your human life is over. I am your father, brother and son as you are my mother, sister and daughter. That is the relationship a maker and his child share."

I shook my head and backed up a step. "But I have a brother, Jason and a Grandmother. They'll be waiting for me. I have a job and friends and a life." Two more steps back. "I can't just leave that all behind." I turned and bolted for the road that I had stumbled upon earlier in the day.

I hadn't made it three steps before I slammed into a solid mass and fell down on my rear end. When I looked up, the vampire was standing before me. Known characteristics of vampires; blood drinkers, retractable fangs, glowing skin, severe sun and silver allergy and apparently super speed.

"That part of your life has passed, your new life has now begun. I am your family now, my other child, Eric, is now your brother." I wanted to run (a lot good that'd do me), but I also wanted to bury my head into his chest and cry. I fought against the latter impulse with every ounce of restraint I had.

I scuttled back away from him doing an awful impression of a crab. "You've done this to other people?" I looked around to see if this other vampire was lurking somewhere in the dark, waiting to jump out and scare the bejeezubs out of me, but the coast looked clear.

The vampire walked toward me and with every step he took, I crab walked backward until I was pressed against the trunk of a tree. He crouched down in front of me with patience you show to a frightened child, which, I guess that's what I was now. At least according to him. "I turned Eric a thousand years ago, the circumstances were different. You and he are the only vampires I've made."

This seemed to be some significant statement but it was lost on me, the only thing I caught from that was that my new 'brother' was old, really old. "A thousand years! How old are you? Who are you?" I couldn't very well call him vampire until the rapture.

The vampire reached out with one hand and took mine. Peace and contentment washed over me in a wave from the simple contact and against much inner protesting, I allowed him to pull me into a standing position. He pulled me close so that we weren't touching, but I still had to look up to him. "I am Godric and I was turned over two thousand years ago."

Two thousand years was a long time to wander around, would that happen to me? Would I still be walking around when there were people living on the moon and driving flying cars? "That's an awful long time."

Godric's lips twitched upward again. "Yes, you said that the night I turned you."

I paused, there was a bad feeling rising up through the peace from Godric. "You mean last night?" I tried to tug my hand out of his grasp but I wasn't having any luck.

"No, it takes three nights to complete the transformation to vampire." My stomach dropped right to the ground to lay at my feet.

My knees felt weak and I wondered if vampires could faint, probably not. I was shaping up to be a piss poor vampire so far. His free hand found my other and it seemed to help the dizzy feeling in my head pass. "I'm really a vampire?"

"Yes."

"And I can't ever see anyone from my old life again?"

"Correct."

"But, I never wanted to be a vampire." I tried to argue, as though that would change the past. I didn't want to drink blood and only walk around at night and sleep in a coffin. "Oh God, will I have to sleep in a coffin?" That thought held massive unappeal.

"In time, you may be able to get one last look at your family. Newborn vampires are dangerous and volatile, anything can trigger your bloodlust. I do not wish to see you go through the pain of hurting your human loved ones." He tucked one dirty lock of hair behind my ear. "In this age, you do not have to sleep in a coffin or crypt. I sleep in a bed with light tight shades on the windows of my room, but for many centuries I slept in the ground."

I wrinkled my nose at having to wake up like this every night. Then I got a good look at Godric. He looked a bit dusty but no where near as dirty as I did. "Did you take a shower before you came to find me?" Could I take one too?

He was smiling again. "Practice." I probably looked like a zombie in comparison to him. "Let us return to my home and you can get cleaned up."

I looked down at my ruined clothes, he probably didn't have anything for me to wear and I wanted to ask him. But a more pressing need arose. It almost felt like a menstrual cramp with the way it twisted and clenched, but it was higher and in my stomach. Following this train of thought lead to two conclusions and I wasn't sure which one caused me to burst into tears, but I cried all the same.

"What pains you so, Sookie?" Godric said, his hands tightening around my smaller ones. He must think me a fool, almost everyone did sooner or later.

"I'll never have babies and I'm hungry!" I wailed and buried my head into his chest with my eyes clenched shut. I was such a mess it would have been a miracle if I could have found a man to have babies with in the first place.

To his credit, Godric didn't stiffen and awkwardly pat my head as Jason would have done. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into his comforting embrace. "I'm afraid I can only help with the later."

That did actually help brighten my mood, I'd never been so hungry before. "It would be weird if you tried to help with the baby part." I mumbled into his sopping wet shirt. Pulling back, I wiped the tears from my face before finally opening them.

Godric's shirt was soaked in blood, looking down, I saw that my hands were just as red. Alarm rose in me like Lazarus from his grave and I wiped at my face furiously trying to find where I'd been hurt. Was this Leonard's blood or had I been covered in it the whole time.

"Calm yourself," Godric said, and took my hands in his again. Tranquility rolled through my blood at his words. "Now that you are vampire, you will cry tears of blood."

"That's really gross."

Another twitch of his lips. "Come, you are hungry." He tugged me closer to his body and I let him. I felt like a bad girl, being so close with a boy I had just met. What would Gran think?

"I don't want to hurt anyone else." Not that I saw anyone else around.

Godric reached up to his neck and in one swift movement sliced open an artery. His blood was darker and thicker than Leonard's. It trailed sluggishly down the pale column of his neck. It smelt different too, but what, I wasn't sure. "In time, you will learn how to leave the humans alive without draining them completely." He said, one of his hands sliding up my neck and into my rat's nest hair. "For now, you may drink from me."

This should be disgusting, repulsive. But I still found myself licking my lips as my eyes followed the blood. I stood on my tip toes and licked the wine red liquid up his throat until I reached the quickly closing slice. Godric's blood was rich and hearty and as I bit into his neck, I wondered if I could get by with only drinking from him. One of my hands fisted into his wet shirt while the other wrapped around his side to settle between his shoulder blades. A moan rumbled in my chest as I swallowed my first mouthful.

I didn't want blood to taste so good, like liquid life itself was flowing down my throat. But it was, I had never tasted anything so decadent to compare it to. I had also never been so aroused. It must be a vampire thing because despite my will, I still found my nipples pebbled and my hips grinding into Godric's. It probably would have been easier to resist if he wasn't recuperating my actions with equal fever. I needed to stop or I'd end up doing something I'd really regret. Also, Godric was my vampire dad now and while I wasn't sure on the etiquette concerning that relationship, I did know I'd be saddled with him for a very long time.

After my second mouthful, I pushed away from him with great reluctance. Godric had moved both hands down to my hips and while he allowed the distance, he didn't release me. I ended up staring at a damp, red splotch on his shirt with my hands on his chest. This night was wild enough without adding sex to the list.

"Let's get you cleaned up, Sookie."

I nodded without looking up at him, too embarrassed by my actions. He must think me a loose woman to rub myself all over him like that. Of course I wasn't, but he didn't know that. He didn't know that I had only ever kissed one boy and at the time Joey Daniels had been picturing his cousin, Luke. He didn't know that my first encounter with the sexual was when I heard the extremely inappropriate thoughts of my great-uncle and that as a result all prospective relationships had been tainted with 'what if's'. All he knew was that I was sweet, a vampire, and had writhed against him like a cat in heat.

These thoughts were interrupted when the hands on my hips pulled me flush against the cool and hard body of his once more. I forced myself to look up to meet his eyes. They were kind and full of love, it made all my negative emotions ebb away. "Hold on tight, my child."

Huh?

I shrieked like a tea kettle as he bent his knees and shot us into the sky like a rocket. Because my arms had clamped around him like an anaconda, I could feel him shaking with laughter.