You don't pick bars, that's what my ma had told me on my thirteenth birthday along with a whole heap of other stuff, you don't pick bars and you don't do groups. She'd been right. I hadn't even registered the sign on the door on the way in, I couldn't even tell you if the guy who served me was black or white. So why was I here nursing the smallest beer on earth and Brooding in a way that deserved a captial B. I'll tell you why.
I was hungry.
I could've ordered anything off the menu but I didn't, the beer was more out of the need for window dressing than thirst. It was not that kinda hungry.
What I should've done the moment the pangs started earlier that day was wade out into the damn jungle that seems to infest this part of America and keep on walking until I hit some small out of the way place. Here would be some loney isolated old man with a shotgung that was too dumb to be scared. The gun would've made it fair, well, fairer anyway. I was all for fair it made the aftermarth easier to swallow. Here I was just aware enough to notice that the bar was packed, there were even couples that had bought their kids out for food.
This was going to be messy.
You don't pick bars my ma had told me on my thirteenth birthday, you don't pick bars and you don't do groups, especially when you're hungry.
Well shit.
I sipped the beer and forced myself to look up. My instincts were not going to let me get out of here without feeding may as well make the best of it. Isolation was my best policy, pick some horny jock without too many scrupels and suggest heading on over to his place as quickly as possible. Most of the bar was full of groups and couples, pickings were sparse. I guessed the good ole boys looking for a good time would come in later, I didn't have the time to wait for that. There were a few possibles but one stuck out. The blonde with a short beard and burnt skin looked like he'd come straight from work in some sort of construction site, road gang I guessed by the screwed up luminous jacket at his side. There was muscles poking out from the t shirt sleeves and the face beneath the stubble was a good one. He looked as if he would put up a fight. Yum. I didn't look too bad, I'd changed my clothes at the last truck stop so I didn't smell too bad either. Makeup would help, did I trust myself to go to the bathroom and put some on, past the rows of blood and flesh waiting to be spilt, if I went quickly perhaps.
Control is the key in these situations, you can take on quite a few humans before they become a problem but they have the advantage in the numbers game. Get twenty or so hanging off you and one of them is going to have the bright idea of going to fetch a chainsaw or a iron spike and then you're in trouble. You are not invincible, it's important to remember that. I worked hard not to touch anyone as I wiggled passed the chairs, that would be an irrisistable trigger, I smiled back at the blonde waitresses with the nervous grin holding a tray of food high, ignored her puzzled look and headed for the bathroom. It was a small mercy the toilets were empty. I worked from the small bag in my rucksack as fast as I could, a touch of body spray to mask the scent of a day's walking and I was as ready as I ever was.
Blonde waitress was buzzing round again as I got back into the bar, she nearly bumped into me as she waited her tables. It would have been skin on skin contact and oh so fatal for her if I hadn't darted back at the last moment, some people have no sense of personal space. The construction worker was still on his own, I noted what he was drinking and bought two bottles. When I sat across from him in the booth and put a drink in front of him he didn't seem too suprised, if he was local I guess he was cute enough to get a fair bit of the attention.
"Hey." he smiled. I liked it when he smiled. "I saw you sitting at the bar watching me."
"Hey yourself." I said drinking the beer, I hoped he'd do the same. "You must've been looking over pretty often yourself if you notice me."
"Maybe I was." He grinned, there was no sheepishness about this one. Good. "Name's Jason Stackhouse."
"Jenny Lewis." I said, not my real name, something my ma had taught me which I was following to the letter tonight.
"You're not from round these parts are you."
"No, I'm backpacking, seeing the world." I said. You always had to keep moving unless you wanted a mob at your door.
"Isn't that kinda dangerous all on your own." he said leaning in. I laughed.
"You'd be suprised" I teased and changed the subject. "You just got off." He grinned, good grief this wasn't going to take long. "Work I mean." I said nodded at the half hidden jacket.
"Yes mam, it's Friday thought I'd go out for dinner." He said taking a swig of the beer. Speaking of dinner it arrived with the same blonde waitress in tow, was I being paranoid or was she out of her section specifically to wait on this table. I hope Jason wasn't dating her or this was going to go downhill fast.
"Here's your burger Jason. Who's your friend?" said Blondie smiling again. There was something odd about her, I smiled back waiting for the axe to fall.
"Sookie this is Jenny Lewis. Jenny this here is my sister Sookie." said Jason nodding to blonde. That would explain the girl's sudden interest in me.
"Hey, pleased to meet you." said Sookie, she held out her hand. Great just when I didn't want to be all touchy feely. Brother dearest might take offence if I didn't shake hands nicely. I concentrated, I could do this without taking her throat out if I tried really hard. I shook very lightly and withdrew it as soon as I could even though Sookie seemed to want to hang on to my hand for a while. Her smile had dissappeared then came back like a flash even more strained than ever.
"Well you guys just hang on here and I'll get you something to eat Jenny. What would you like?" she reeled off the short menu her voice was higher than it had been, she seemed to want to get away, odd.
"Chicken strippers, lots of ketchup please." I said. I wiped my hand on my skirt and took a mouthful of beer as she bustled off to talk to the guy at the bar. He looked worried.
"She seemed nice." I muttered warily. My hunger was peaking, something was going on between the waitress and, oh great, some sort of male supe, that I didn't understand and felt wrong. I wanted to get out of here with my meal before things got ugly.
"You ok?" My meal looked concerned. "You look..."
"Fresh air." I muttered standing up. "Come with me."
He was enough of a gentleman to follow me out or maybe he just wanted to get in my pants I didn't really care anymore. I started to sing to him very softly the minute we got out the door, his eyes glazed, his expression softened, he followed docile as we wondered out into the woods. At least I had picked a bar in the middle of nowhere, we walked for a while as deep as I could stand before I called him closer. This was the bit I would have nightmares about later, the bit I hated and loved where every nerve would thrill and vibrate as I tore into him as my ancestors had done ever since their sweet songs called the anicient marineers to their deaths on the rocks.
The song I had been singing changed and grew as it's climax approached. Jason came closer, the same docile expression on his face but now he was weeping as he struggled against the flow of noise like a deer under an arrow. There was fear in his eyes. My claws came out, my mouth opened wide to recieve him, the seond layer of teeth sliding out with the action. The song pitched soon the be stifled by the act of killing itself, the hunger sated.
Something hit me in the back, something big. I had one final sensation of teeth as I felt them on my throat. There was choaking crushing pain and the world went black.
My last thought was of ma on my thirteenth birthday when she'd found the bits of the DJ I'd kept and told me how to survive with what I was. I wish I'd listened.
Sam changed back in the cover of some trees. When he came back into the open there was blood all over his face and chest, Jenny's death had been messy.
"What was she." I asked. She hadn't looked human as we'd rushed those last few trees, mouth as wide as a python and teeth like a shark. Jason sat hunched up in front of me staring straight into space.
"Siren." said Sam, he looked like he wanted to wash the blood out of his mouth . I didn't think it tasted good to him even a few minutes ago as a bear. "I've never seen one round here before."
"Is Jason going to be ok." I held my brother tight even though Jason barely responded. He had the same haunted look Terry had sometimes when they showed war stories on the news.
"By the end of the night he won't even remember being out here Sookie. Sirens mess with your brain, I don't even think he knew what he was doing." said Sam
"He never does. I felt the mess that was in her head. I told him to stay put."
"And she told him to leave. You can't say no to a Siren even Supes find it hard." Sam looked uncomfortable defending Jason for leaving with a strange woman. Jason had left Merlottes with for too many strange women over the years for Sam to pretend to night would've ended any other way.
"I guess." I replied halfhearted. Jason would follow a pretty girl anywhere, Siren or not. "What do we do with the body?"
"It's pretty deep in the woods, and surrounded by bear tracks. Leave it I guess." Sam said. We each grabbed Jason and began to walk him back through the woods to the bar. We'd figure out how to get him home when we got there.
"So what'd you find in Jenny's head anyway Sookie." Sam was being careful to avoid getting any blood on Jason as we walked. Events in my recent lovelife meant that walking along with a naked man covered in blood and a semi concious Jason didn't feel as odd as it should have. I wasn't at all sure how to feel about that.
"It was only for a second, she didn't want to stay touching me for long. I got the feeling that tonight wasn't going too well. Something about her mom told her not to pick up men in bars." I said shifting Jason on my shoulder. Sam smiled but not in a good way.
"Should've listened to mama." He said.