Author's Note: This is my first story I've ever published on because I have a nasty habit of not finishing the ones I start. I'm posting this because I believe if I share what I'm writing then won't give up on it, the thoughts of others will hold me to it. I don't own anything except my own plot ideas. Thanks for checking this out, I hope you enjoy it! Please review.

Introduction :: Adieu

The only thing I was certain of was my need to get away. A desire to escape from the politics of the supernatural world that I had entered without fully knowing the consequences. In less than two years my life had train wreaked out of control. I didn't even like to think of the number of times I'd been beaten, held captive and nearly killed. Especially after the most recent catastrophe throwing me right in the middle of a war among the fairies.

I had very nearly been killed because my heritage, something well out of my own control. My close friend and distant cousin Claudine was dead, killed while protecting me one last time. Tray Dawson was another person added to the list of people who had died because of me. Amelia told me plenty of times that she didn't blame me for his death but how could she not, I certainly felt guilt. Her looks of sadness was another thing I wanted to escape from.

Finally there was Eric and Bill, both who had protected me at the risk of their own lives. I couldn't help forgiving Bill, especially after thinking he might have died. That still didn't mean our dead relationship could be revived, but a friendship – who knew? As for Eric, my head was too confused to even start figuring out my feelings for my blood bonded, but those feeling were present and becoming hard to push aside.

So I was escaping, only instead of calling it an escape I decided to call it a vacation. I needed a vacation, I was long over due for one. I had rarely been out of Louisiana, and typically when I was it was for some job. No this time I pictured myself laying out in the sun on a beach, far from vampires, weres and any other big nasty that my want to come my way.

Tickets were purchased and hotel reservations were made, with a great deal of help from Amelia. She had offered to accompany me but I could tell without reading her thoughts that she really didn't want to. I had stood my ground, I was going alone. This vacation I was going to Sookie Stackhouse, normal human girl and no one was going to know otherwise. Oh what a fool I'd been...

I didn't even say goodbye to Eric in person. Instead I confessed my plans to him in the middle of the day to his voicemail right before boarding the plane.

"Eric, I'm heading out of town for a while. I guess I'll see you when I get back, and then we'll have a big long talk." Even at that point I was dreading what was bound to come from that talk. "Erm – I'll be thinking of you. See you then – bye."

How was I to know that I wouldn't be having that conversation until a very long ten years later?

Chapter One :: Maker

He was incredibly attractive, perhaps if he hadn't killed me I would have been interested in him. With dark chocolate brown hair and large hazel eyes it was easy to understand why fangbangers would throw themselves at him, sometimes literally. There was nothing sexual about our relationship, thankfully for me he had tired of woman a decade before I was turned. I would have hated him if he had forced me, it was unbelievable enough that I didn't hate him for ending my life in the daylight.

When I questioned Roman about why he turned me I never managed to get a honest answer, he replied differently each time. He was lonely, he was drawn in by my charming personality, he wanted a companion simply for friendship. I was once told a seemingly heartfelt story about how I resembled his younger sister who had died many decades ago. I had believed him, at least until I learned that he had been turned only twelve years before turning me. Roman would have excelled as an actor.

His entrance into my life happened right after exiting the plane on a warm night in Virgina. My mind was occupied with thoughts of catching a taxi and sunbathing on beaches when I attacked from behind. He knocked me out cold before I could even scream for help. People might have came to my rescue or Roman might have taken me to a secluded area before others noticed, I don't recall anything after the pain. When I awoke I was buried in the ground, the weight of dirt constricting my chest. I couldn't breathe, luckily I didn't need to. Taken over by a need to escape my fingers started digging at the earth above me. When I finally escaped Roman was standing at the end of my grave watching, a smile on his face.

From that moment I resented him for stealing from me what was not his to take. As frustrating and complicated my life was I loved every minute of it. He took my life away from me, the job I was good at and enjoyed, the sun that brightened my days literally and metaphorically. Jason, the only family I had left and the friends I had collected over the years. Even the vampire who I had feelings for that were too complicated for me to examine. Yet somehow I didn't hate Roman, perhaps because he was my maker.

Never did I forget about the life that was taken from me but I did think about it less often as the days, then weeks and years passed by. Roman never allowed me to contact them, to explain that I wasn't dead, not really. Instead he found ways to distract me when he saw the look of loss come over my face. We spent barely a week in Florida before I was whisked away to places that I'd only seen pictures of before. It would have all been very romantic in an adventurous sort of way if I didn't miss home so much, we spent years playing different identities, living lives that weren't our own.

It would be a lie if I said I didn't enjoy myself, it was an extended vacation the normal. Sometimes we stayed at a place long enough for me to get a job, after all there were plenty of bars that would be happy to have an attractive vampire on the payroll. The tourists had something fascinating to look at while the bar had the extra protection of having a vampire to keep fights to a minimum. It reminded me of Merlotte's, sure the atmosphere was different and I hadn't known the patrons my whole life but the job was the same. The tips increased though, perhaps they thought less than 15 percent was enough to drive me to kill. Sure Sam wasn't at the bar in charge but the small familiarity helped when I missed Bon Temps.

Roman would laugh when I made jokes about being a child with a curfew. I missed the sunlight but from my experience with vampires I wasn't unfamiliar with the nighttime hours. What took some getting used to was drinking blood, especially from humans. Sure there was an inner need that made it easier to get over some reservations but it took months before I was comfortable feeding off humans. I needed so much blood during the first few years that I didn't fully trust my control, thankfully I had Roman to stop me from going too far. Still part of me wished I was learning this from Eric or even Bill, not some stranger who stole my life. Despite all the jokes and experiences we shared Roman was still a stranger to me, never willing to open up about his life before I entered it.

After ten years it struck me, I had been dead a whole decade. I started pleading with Roman to let me go home, we'd had fun together but it was time that I return to the life I had unwillingly abandoned. After a persistent argument on my part I finally got the truth, he finally told me why I was turned and at that point I managed to hate Roman. Ten years ago he had been hired by a vampire much older than himself named Hot Rain to kill me. While the vampire was a stranger to him, the name certainly rang a bell for me. Long Shadow's sire who had tried to kill me unsuccessfully in the past had succeed finally. I had thought my death was a unrelated to my identity because I was out of Louisiana but I had been followed. Roman had been on the flight with me and waited until he could sneak me away from witnesses. I was supposed to be rotting in a grave but at the last minute I was turned instead, and it was very important that Hot Rain never learn that I was still alive.

I couldn't kill him physically, Roman was my maker but I imagined staking him many times during the following weeks. I finally hated him but I never delivered him the final death. Instead we were on a crowded dance floor in Chicago when a member of the Fellowship of the Sun picked that moment to stake him. I only heard the thought before the man attacked, my change hadn't destroyed my 'gift' but only made it easier to control. I distracted Roman long enough for the stake to pierce through his skin, after that I knew it was over for him. The attacker was taken down quickly afterward and I played the role of grieving friend. I could have saved him but one decade was enough to be stuck with him, I couldn't handle eternity. Especially if Roman found out about my gift, then he would surely exploit me like vampires had in my other life.

When I returned to our hotel room I collected all the money that we had acquired over the years, thankfully Roman had little trust in banks. A flight was booked to Louisiana on Abubis Airlines, after far too long I was coming home. I might not be the same Sookie Stackhouse who died ten years ago but there was too much unfinished buisness to keep me from returning. There was no one stoping me.