A/N: This story takes place during Chapter 12 of Club Dead. Specifically, it begins on pg 225 of the paperback version of CD. I've always wanted to re-write this chapter. Hopefully I've done it justice here.


Carry Me Away

In the darkness, I saw nothing. Nothing for empty miles upon empty miles, and yet, there was a looming presence. It had no body, no shape, no form, but it was there, a haunting thing that clung to the edges of the gasping dark void. I stretched out my arms to try and reach for it, but he couldn't be reached. He scrambled heavily and the void shrank. Where once there had been space, all space, nothing but space, now there was only a cramped, humid box. Claustrophobia set in, though I'd never before been claustrophobic. I clawed at the box walls, searching for an exit, any way out. The presence still lingered, somewhere close, ready, waiting. All that was missing was his hot breath on my neck. I'd never feel it. He was too smart for that.

I couldn't breathe. The space closed in around me as the seconds ticked by. He was getting closer, hungrier, deadlier. My fingers were raw and bloody as I scrambled toward an unseen route of escape. I had to get out. If I didn't get out soon, I'd die in this tiny place. He'd get me. He'd hurt me. Please, please don't hurt me. It's me. It's Sookie. Please.

Bill.

"She's coming around," Alcide murmured. I felt a hand on my arm and instinctively drew back. The rough fingers fell away, and I was already safer.

"That may have been enough blood," Eric commented behind him. I opened my eyes to see them, three pairs of male eyes gathered around me, staring with mixed concern and wonderment. I looked to Alcide first. His dark hair had fallen into his eyes, and his irises seemed to tremble. Eric stood near him, his long blond hair pulled back into a braid. There was a look on his face that I couldn't quite describe. Bill stood further back, his hand on an empty bottle of True Blood. He looked sick and his cheeks were sunken and gray. His eyes seemed to pierce me, and I looked away immediately.

I seem to be having sex with you in a closet.

I shuddered.

"Sookie, are you alright?" Eric asked, bending down over me. As he moved closer, I pulled farther back. My shoulder hit a wall and I jumped. I didn't know you could jump while lying down, but it is definitely possible. Eric took a step back, just one. He studied me, his eyes aglow, his brows furrowed.

"I… what happened?" I asked, avoiding the question.

"Sookie," Bill murmured, sitting down on the bed beside me. He tried to take my hand, but I pulled away. The very nearness of him made me nervous, and at the same time, I wanted to be close to him. The two conflicting emotions of reuniting with my missing lover and having been… It was too much to comprehend and I wasn't up for the task of trying.

"Bill took a lot of blood from you when you were trapped in the car. We had to force some synthetic back into you." Eric said, answering my question.

"Right," I replied succinctly. "I remember."

"You did well, Sookie," Eric said, gently.

"They asked me if I would be returning for the crucifixion tonight," I murmured, trying to avoid the subject of Bill. Every time I blinked, I'd replay some part of it in my head. Maybe if I just stared straight ahead, I wouldn't envision it. Eric continued to watch me.

"Who is 'they'?" Bill asked, leaning toward me again. I scrambled out of the way. He was too close. Everything was too close. I needed air. I breathed in deeply, but it wasn't enough.

"Guards, as I was leaving the house." I panted, my words exhaling from me in beats. Blood seemed to echo in my head, and my neck ached. I reached up to touch it and felt only the scratchy square of bandage that covered it. "I think they have Bubba."

"How do you know?" Eric seethed. He kept his distance, but he focused so thoroughly on me that I was sure the room was actually shrinking. Bill tried to take my hand again but I yanked it away so fast that I may have hit him accidently. His eyes were like those of a smacked puppy.

"We'll have to go back for him." Bill got up. He went from hurt dog to stalwart captain, but his eyes raised to Eric, his general. For the first time, Eric drew his gaze away from mine and looked at Bill. I shut my own and instantly regretted it. Did you, ah, volunteer? I opened them again, like roller blinds on an apartment window.

"Yes, we will," the Viking thought aloud. "He is my charge."

"What about you?" Bill grunted, turning on the werewolf in whose bed I was lying. Alcide looked at the floor, kicking at something invisible. His thoughts invaded my head like a marching army and I couldn't find a wall to block them out. He'd spent the night with Debbie, his crazy ex-girlfriend, and now there were detailed pictures floating around in my brain.

"I can't. I do business with Russell. When they find out that Sookie took Bill, and that I helped her… This whole thing is going to be difficult to cover up."

"I killed Lorena too," I said quietly.

"Yes, you staked her." Bill said, somewhat distant. Alcide seemed to smile behind him, as though I had just earned major brownie points in his book.

"Well done," Eric half-smiled. He seemed to rearrange his thoughts, though I could hear none of them. Finally, he spoke again. "If they have not figured out that Sookie took Bill, she would be our best asset in getting back to the grounds. Of course, if I drop my disguise, I may be able to work out some sort of arrangement with Russell."

Alcide was already lost in his own thoughts, thinking about Debbie and how soon he could have her in the bed I was currently occupying. A foul-tasting bile rose up in the back of my throat as I thought about Debbie, the car trunk, and what Bill had just done. The thought of returning to the mansion of the King of Mississippi seemed like the worst idea I'd heard in a long time. My eyes popped open. Eric was trying to formulate a plan. Bill was staring at me, still sitting on the edge of the bed, still sitting in arm's reach. Alcide had poured a glass of water and was handing it to me. I touched his fingers as I took it from him. The glass dropped, spilling water all over me and Bill and the sheets. It rolled off the edge of the bed and bounced onto the carpeted floor.

"Your girlfriend pushed me into that car trunk and shut the lid. I was locked in a car trunk with a crazed, hungry vampire. I was… I can't…" I faltered, but collected myself quickly. I didn't care that there were tears in my eyes. "I can't believe you want her back here, in this room! She's insane! She's a psychopathic, super jealous, crazy nutso whackjob! And she almost killed me!"

Alcide stared at me for a minute, then turned on his heel and left the room, pulling the door shut. Eric blinked, but said nothing. As was often the case, his face was still and indiscernible. Bill reached out and touched my hand again, probably looking to console me, comfort me. I reeled and caught him across the cheek, the slap echoing in the small room.

"Don't touch me," I yelped, clearly in hysterics now. Bill stood up. He retrieved the fallen glass and went to stand in the corner. He looked…what was that? Helpless? Lost? Confused? Maybe all of those. I wanted to comfort him, to hold him, and at the same time, I wanted to scratch his eyes out with a barbeque fork.

"I'm not going back there." I squeaked at Eric, trying to regain a level of calmness. "Can we just call them?"

Because I was still pale and clearly losing it, Eric handed me a novelty mug filled with synthetic blood and apple juice, a strange combination that I can guarantee you is absolutely displeasing to the eye. I gulped it down in huge gasps so that I wouldn't have to spend too long nursing it. Eric dialed the number, out of the phone book, and pressed it to his ear. He spoke into the phone for awhile, suggesting that Russell ask Bubba to play a few numbers for them rather than sacrificing him or staking him or whatever they had had in mind. Bubba didn't usually like to be asked about his former life, but he did enjoy singing when the mood struck him.

Eric hung up the phone and sat down on a chair in the living room. Bill lingered near the kitchen, watching me like a hawk. I drifted into my own thoughts. In the space of a few days, I had killed a vampire and found a dead guy in a closet. I'd been pushed into a car trunk by a man's psycho ex, and I'd been… well, I'd had issues in that car trunk that I just couldn't think about right now. I opened my eyes when the phone rang beside me. Alcide retrieved it, stared at it, and then hung up.

"Out! Y'all need to get out! Now!" Alcide scooped us all up and shoved us toward the front door. Eric jimmied the lock on Alcide's neighboring apartment and smashed us all inside, shutting the door behind us. I knew what Alcide was thinking immediately. Debbie Pelt was on her way upstairs, headed right for us. Bill's arms were around me, as if it was right for him to hold me when we were in any kind of troubling situation. I wanted to just be okay, to just feel safe in those arms. I wanted to shrink into him and be happy, or at least comfortable. Gooseflesh crept up my arms and down my legs faster than you can say 'Bubba Gump Shrimp'. I squirmed out of his embrace, almost kicked him in the shin (but restrained myself, and stood to Eric's side, the side furthest from Bill.

Eric listened in on the conversation in the next apartment, Debbie screaming blue blazes at Alcide. I couldn't figure out what he saw in the cold-hearted bitch, but it had to be something good. Bill kept craning his neck around Eric to stare at me with dark, soulful eyes that seemed to physically ache.

"Bitch," Eric grunted, still staring at the wall but not really seeing it. He looked at me. "Debbie is very angry that you have been staying with Alcide. She says that his sister likes you a great deal, that his sister is an idiot. She is clearly a moron."

I could hear the sound of a slap echo through the wall, and I watched, shocked, as Bill's puppy dog eyes and scarred body began to contort with a violence that I'm sure was paralleled only by the actions in the dark car trunk. I felt sick looking at him, so I turned my eyes to Eric. He was blinking at me, clearly shocked.

"Bill," Eric said suddenly. "Leave the room."

Bill could do nothing but obey. He strode past me with an aura of hatred and disgust. I could feel it radiating off of him. Eric turned to address me. I'd gathered a blanket around myself, and I felt weak and cold. Though I'd choked down several bottles of True Blood and quite a lot of apple juice, it still wasn't enough. If I vomited right now, I'd have to drink more of that vile stuff. It was the only thing that kept me from puking all over the floor.

"He said what?" I almost screeched. I wanted to claw my way through the wall right now and slap Alcide so hard his head spun around backward. Bill seemed to get the same idea. As soon as Debbie had stalked back down the hallway, Bill emerged from the back room, out the front door, and around to Alcide's place. I stumbled behind him, and Eric followed. Alcide looked up, still touching his face where Debbie had smacked him. Bill came up and threw a fist, imbued with subdued vampire strength, right into Alcide's jaw. He fell backward and slumped into the sofa cushions.

"Stop it! Stop that this instant!" I squeaked, my voice breaking like the shards of a mirror. Bill turned to look at me. His face was lined with anger and sadness and not a hint of remorse. I wanted to kill him.

"I didn't sleep with Alcide! But if I had, I would have liked it! You left me for Lorena, without a word! I had to come and save your ass, and then, what…what do you do?!" I was clearly above the range of normal hearing now. Luckily, I was in a room of supernatural men.

"Sookie, please, you need to rest. You're hurt." Bill reached out for me. He touched my face.

"Of course I'm hurt! You hurt me! You did! You…you attacked me! You…!" I'd run out of words. I couldn't even form them. When I blinked, there he was, a looming ghost in a car trunk, pulling down my sweatpants and coming at me like a freight train. My insides screamed in terror and I was definitely crying now. "Don't you touch me, Bill Compton! I don't ever…ever…want to see you again! Do you hear me?!"

I turned at looked at Eric, standing behind me, possibly dumbstruck. He didn't move to touch me. He didn't move at all. He simply stared at me, studying me. I turned around. I'd forgotten one thing. Sure, I couldn't hurt him. He was weak, but I was weaker still. His blood was infused with my blood, but I only had a bit of synthetic in me. Still, it was worth the effort and I was more than ready to provide it. I dropped the blanket and smacked him, right across the face, as hard as I could. It was like hitting stone, but that didn't matter.

"Can you take me home?" I whispered, turning to Eric. He nodded, just briefly, and stepped back to let me walk through the front door. I didn't even turn around to look at Bill. I couldn't look at him. I couldn't see the hurt in his eyes and start to pity him, start to apologize. When I blinked, I knew why. I wrapped the blanket tighter around my shoulders and walked slowly down to Eric's car.