Disclaimer: I do not own Southern Vampire Mysteries or True Blood. Though, if I did…. Well… you know how that shit works out.

Pre-Taste

"We Know when we've been wronged… do not believe everything the pretty blonde vampire on the T.V. says. We will have justice." The blonde vampire's voice struck a chord in my mind whenever I had recalled his words

Honestly if it hadn't been for the fact that my friends were all into some drug in their lives I wouldn't have worried about it. Particularly because I myself, that I recall, haven't really ever wronged a vampire. Not that I know of anyways, but the cold blue eyes of the vamp as they went through my mind definitely brought a fear to me of them. There was no doubt in my mind what so ever, vampires were definitely scary. It was only till just a few hours ago, when we had been in some bumpkin backwater bar that I had noticed this for the first time.

Fiddling lightly with the small necklace around my neck, I took a glance at the charm on it, the symbol of the god Anubis and slowly looked back at the ceiling placing it in my mouth. Sucking on the marble piece for a moment I ponder exactly why Shreveport in Louisiana appealed to my friends and college dorm roommate so much. I myself was never one for the country, my parents owned a farm back in Ohio, but living on a military base for the majority of my life, I had become accustomed to having close neighbors and being able to get anywhere with in five minutes. Instead of the country process of 'going into town' taking five hours.

So Shreveport and which seemed closer to an even smaller town, Bon Temps, were killing me. If my companions for the 'road trip ' I was on hadn't all ran off to some bar, I might not have been so perturbed at being left alone in the only motel that was for miles. But the motel itself was creepy, seeming to have that 'walk outside your room at night and the boogey man will get you' feeling. Popping the charm out of my mouth I sit up and grumble lightly. There had been a bed and breakfast in Bon Temps, and at least there I wasn't getting nearly as many creepy vibes as 'being surrounded by the crazies' vibes, but my friends had all insisted that we stay at the motel in Shreveport…

And then they all ditched me at the creepy rapist motel for a bar. All because I was 19 and not 21 like themselves.

Losers… leaving me like this. I'm gonna chew them out so bad that instead of me bitching their ears off, they'll be attempting to practically sell them. It could be that I was unfamiliar with my surroundings, that I was upset, lonely, bored, and only had my i-pod, which was charging, the T.V. which only had four channels, and the silence of the room to distract me. I had some left over food from the restaurant called 'Merlotte's' that I could eat, but I wasn't feeling to hungry. I wasn't tired either, despite being on the road all day so sleep was out of the question.

Sitting up I stared at the JVC T.V. that sat on the drawers in front of the room and shut my eyes as I let my fingers dig into the edge of the bed. Personally I had already had plans for summer break before returning to the University for my sophomore year, I was gonna go on a hiking trip with my parents in the Rockies, but when this road trip came up, my parents insisted I go on it instead. They urged me to 'see the sights' and get an appreciation for the beauty of the country….

Some beauty, I think the nicest thing in this damn room is the window and shower curtain in the bathroom. They both had a floral design that stuck out horribly and completely contrasted the one-night-stand feeling of the room itself. Attempting to keep my mind away from the place I was in though, I turned on the T.V. and blinked as I managed to get the news right off the bat. Blinking for a few moments I set the remote down and leaned forward with my elbows on my thighs and my hands clasped between my legs as they hung over the bed, leaning forward to give my full attention.

It seemed the Fellowship of the Sun, a vampire hating group of extremist bigots, as my friend Jack, who was also on this venture would so put it, was in another argument with the head of vampire-human relations, Miss blondie whats-her-face. Honestly when it came to this type of stuff, I didn't pay much attention except for the main point, their names were irrelevant to me. But the fact was what ever the Newlins did, that was their names I think, heads of the Fellowship of the Sun, seemed to affect the human race in general. Maybe it was just I, but for people like that I think a bit of population control just might be in order. I believed completely in freedom of speech, just not getting us into genocide in the process of using that right.

I could agree with the Fellowship, vampires were unnatural, they were scary, but as I had not dealt with them personally, I had no say on the matter of whether or not they were horrible and cruel. I knew the vampire that was in Merlotte's… the three of them, they were scary as hell, even the woman vampire, and all of them had really cold feelings about them. They were much to suave and felt way to sophisticated, almost like their forms commanded respect, obedience, and attention. But none of them I felt had been cruel on the spot. It was as though an elder of the family was walking amongst newborns to me… just if you pissed this elder off, you were drained. They were leagues ahead of us, and there was no way in hell for us to ever get up to their level.

Turning the T.V. up as I got up from the bed I headed quietly towards the bathroom and paused to stare at the 'young woman' looking back at me in the mirror. I had sterling gray eyes and a relatively tan complexion. My chin was a little firm and my nose was small and pixyish, and my long dark brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail so my bangs covered my forehead slightly. I had straight teeth, due to those painful inventions called braces, and though it never bugged me, slightly sharper than usual canines. On occasion I had cut my tongue on them and it was never fun to wait for that muscle to stop bleeding. Covering my teeth though were two light pink lips and a slight beauty mark I inherited from my Great grandmother right above the right corner. All blessed to be clear of any acne, it took years to get it like that.

My ears picked up the debate in the background.

"Your religious organization is simply continuing to fan the hate for vampires everywhere! We are trying to coexist with you and all you are doing is being confrontational and irate towards that which you are afraid of."

"I am NOT afraid of a vampire, I simply do not understand why God would allow such creatures like you who feed on blood to wander the earth…"

"Maybe cause we're the ones fuckin' up the Earth." I found myself mumbling as I let my mind wander to their argument. It was always a debate amongst my group of friends, someone would say that humans were here first, then another would say that vampires were and made humans cause they knew they needed food. Getting side tracked for a moment I wondered if it always had to be human blood to feed them. Refocusing I sighed lightly running my finger through my bangs, the argument would always continue that the human became the vampire and then the humans were its food. Which took out the logic of how the vampire began all together because humans don't simply pop up as vampires with out any sort of catalyst.

I thought the set up of their food was absolutely genius as well, humans pollute and destroy the Earth, and vampires feed from humans. Now that Tru Blood was made, in all actuality, the vampires had no need for humans to be around. It was a cold, dark, realization. But it was one of the few that made a complete sense to me. Which made me curious as to why the human race was still surviving as it was? That answer was almost obvious, not everyone was going to conform and get with the program of drinking artificial blood; just like not everyone was gong to jump on the fang banger or Fellowship of the Sun bandwagon. There were plenty of people like me that had nothing against vampires except for the fact that they were scary, and thus we held back from association. Afraid to coexist, no, afraid to get to know them, perhaps. Vampire human relations was never my debate, but I was always up to listening to someone talk about an encounter. Afraid or not I was interested all the time, because really, could a vampire see a human as an equal or nothing more than food like we did with our cows or deer? As I used the facilities and had no answer in the silence I sighed pulling up my underwear and pants while getting to my full height of 5' 4" and washing my hands in the sink. The chinking of the bracelet around my wrist made me look at the cat that hung off of it. Bastet was another Egyptian symbol I wore on my person the majority of the time, this one from my grandmother who tried to play as a priestess in the cat goddess's teachings. The two pieces of jewelry I was so used to having on my person I would only notice it if it were removed from me.

Turning I headed for the room again and sat back down as the argument between the Fellowship of the Sun and the blonde vampire was over and my eyes slowly narrowed as I heard Jack's ringtone on my cell phone in the background.

"Now I'm gonna make you dance, get yo' chance yeah boy shake that ass, oops I mean girl, girl girl girl, now you know you're my world."

Fumbling in one of my jacket pockets that I had laying on the bed once my arrival I let out a soft groan and opened the phone immediately putting it to my ear. I didn't wait for a reply; I simply narrowed my gaze and snapped, "Jack you better have a damn good reason for calling me after you've ditched me at the motel! It's nearly two in the morning!"

There was soft breathing on the other line and I stilled for a moment before there was a shuddering breath, "Ky." I paused for a moment at the low voice, and how he only used the beginning of my first name when something bad was about to come up in the conversation. I slowly gulped and stared ahead silently.

After a few moments I finally asked back, "What is it Jack?" There was a soft inhale before it was let out.

"Well you see-" He was cut off for a moment and there was a brief pause before it sounded like the phone was shuffled and there was a crack before a scream was in the background. My blood ran cold and my body went hot, I felt my mind stop for a moment before rapidly picking up again as I heard someone put the phone close to their ear. A male voice came on that was cool and almost casual.

"Your friends are in a very bad position right now. So I'll make this simple for you to comprehend." I felt my mind stutter at this comment and clenched my hand tighter on my phone with a frown coming across my face. "Bring every bit of V that they have in their motel room and van, and bring it to the vampire bar called Fangtasia if you wish for them to leave the state alive."

I found my mouth moving before I could stop it, "How do I get into their room? They're the only ones with the keys." There was a pause on the other line.

"Not my problem." The line went silent on his end and soon I saw the blinking letters on my phone that read 'call ended.' My hand slowly lowered as I continued to stare at the electronic device as though it was the most amazing and horrifying thing in the world.

V – Fangtasia – Leave the state alive?

What in the world had my friends gotten themselves into?