Grace looked like something out of a horror film. The blood had crusted around her arm, and over her face where she'd splashed herself; the ends of her dark brown locks were stiff with the stuff. In the end she decided that the best solution would be to take off her clothes so they wouldn't get wet and stick her head under the tap, holding it there until the water ran clear. Thankfully the bathroom was a lot cleaner than one would expect from a vampire bar. The water was cold and stung her face but she welcomed it, anything to distance herself from the haziness she'd felt earlier, the detached feeling towards her death.

In fact, she'd never felt so distant from that hazy feeling. Eric's blood flowed in her veins, and so did some of his power. She was strong. She could see better, hear better. She had never felt so good and suddenly the appeal of V didn't seem so strange to her. But, she reminded herself as she removed her head from the sink and set to scrubbing her shoulder, he was still a massive twat for giving it to her and V still ruined lives. Ruined her brother's life.

"Never again," she mumbled, even as she was staring at her shoulder and marvelling at how it was completely and totally healed. Not even a scar. Her skin almost seemed to be…Glowing.

Eventually it got to the point where she knew she couldn't put it off any later and so she tore her gaze away from her reflection. There was very little she could do about drying her hair so she just secured it into a loose bun at the back of her head and then pulled on her jeans and that ridiculous Fangtasia t-shirt. As soon as she got home she was determined to throw it straight into the bin. And then drive very far away from Shreveport.

It wasn't just Eric waiting for her when she exited the toilet into the main club room. The woman from the entrance was there too, perched on the edge of the throne in which Eric sat, the bartender was still working behind the bar – cleaning up, she supposed – and another vampire with dark brown hair who she didn't recognise was sat at the nearest tale to the throne, his arms crossed. He uncrossed them when he saw her come in though, and stood up to offer his hand to her.

"Grace isn't it? My name is Bill Compton, it's a pleasure to meet you." Grace ignored his outstretched hand, nodding in his direction instead, and sat down at the table nearest to her which put a comfortable distance between herself and the vampires. Everything was quiet for a moment; Eric was the first to break the silence.

"I suggest you start talking, Grace."

"I suggest you let me fucking leave before I call the police and report you for kidnapping, or forcing someone to take V against their will…Or something." Her voice had started out so determined, but had cracked and the last half was all mumbled. She knew as she was saying it that there was no way she was getting out of Fangtasia until Eric allowed her to.

"Miss, nobody here is going to hurt you. We'd just like you to tell us a bit about how you came to know what was going to happen. If what we suspect is true, you may be able to greatly help solving a situation we have right now." Bill offered her a friendly smile after he spoke, one she didn't return.

"Why the fuck would I want to help any of you?" Before Grace could continue her rant, Eric was in front of her.

"Because if you don't, fuck what Bill says, we will hurt you and the people that you love." His fangs were down and grazing her throat again. She tried to push him off her but he didn't budge, instead even coming closer so they were practically pressed up against each other.

"What happened to nobody here hurting me?" She mumbled. His hand reached up and snaked around her throat. The vampire bar was replaced with flashes of images. A girl with blonde hair; a bloody piece of wood discarded on the ground; a torn and bloody jacket. She couldn't make any sense of them. Eric tightened his hand, bringing her back to reality; the grip tight enough to convey that he wasn't messing around. Grace winced and tried to suppress the urge to vomit. She realised he was speaking to her.

"-too important for Bill's stupid concern for humans."

She knew the best thing to do in this situation, so close to death, would be to keep her mouth shut. Grace had never been very good at listening to her survival instincts.

"Well I don't particularly care if you hurt me to be honest. I'm not helping you fucking dickheads." His hand squeezed slightly and her vision was starting to go blurry around the edges. She vaguely heard Bill say something, but it was low, to the vampire woman near to him probably. The woman didn't make any sort of reply that Grace could hear.

"The people you love then." Despite the lack of oxygen flow, Grace still managed to cough out a laugh.

"You'd have to find him first. And it's not as easy as you'd think it would be, trust me." Her voice was ridiculously hoarse. Eric stared at her for a long second, seemingly forgetting that his hand was around her throat. She was starting to suffocate.

"Eric, this is no way to treat your guest." Out of the corner of her eye, Grace could make out Bill, a hand on Eric's shoulder. "As your King, I demand you to release this human." The hand on her throat was removed immediately. She gasped and spluttered for air, and for a scary second it seemed as if he'd done something to permanently damage her throat, that no air would come. When she could eventually breathe, it was extremely painful.

"I am so sorry about Mr. Northman here. He has no manners." Gently he pricked his wrist and held it out to her. "I can fix your throat." She shook her head, wincing at the sharp pain in her throat. When she spoke, her voice was hoarse and rasping.

"No, no more. I'm not having any more of that fucking shit." He retracted his hand with a small smile.

"That's fair enough. Please, Grace, we just want to talk. And afterwards you are under no obligation to help us if you don't want to. You're free to go – as soon as we've had a little talk. Does that sound okay?" It seemed like the best offer she was going to get in this shithole, so she nodded, albeit warily. Suddenly Bill's face was very close to her own.

"Now Grace, I want you to listen very carefully-" His eyes seemed to be pulling her in, and she knew somehow that if she just kept listening everything would be okay, Bill would keep her safe. But something at the back of her mind was screaming at her, the pull on her consciousness was weakening. And then she realised what was happening.

"Wait, shit, are you trying to glamour me!? Get the fuck away from me!" Bill stepped back immediately, shock evident on his face.

"Hm, it's like I thought," Eric murmured from behind Bill. "There's definitely something…Different about her."

"What happened to having a conversation? Mind fucking someone is not exactly a fair method of communication!" Grace's fists clenched as she tried to keep her anger in check. She was in a room full of vampires, none of whom could be trusted. One wrong move and she could end up dead. Whilst she didn't particularly care about herself anymore, she cared about her brother. She had to get to him.

"I am so sorry Grace. I won't be trying that again, I promise."

"I don't think your promises count for shit, Bill Compton." Her voice was still hoarse and so it was more comical than chastising, but the message seemed to get across. Bill looked positively contrite. "Anyway let's just get this fucking over with. But I want you two over there. " She pointed in the direction of the throne, and in seconds they were there. They watched her curiously. "What do you want to know?" Bill shared a glance with Eric, something unnameable passing between the two of them. It was Eric who spoke.

"Let's just start with why you were in my bar in the first place." The woman behind Eric coughed. "Our…Our bar in the first place." Grace smirked despite herself, and then realised what the question was. She supposed there was no way around it; she might as well tell them the truth. Perhaps they might even be able to help her.

"I'm looking for my brother. He went missing a while ago."

"And why would your missing brother be in Fangtasia?" Bill asked gently.

"The last time I saw him he was hanging around the local fangbangers and hooked on V. Vamp bars are the only places I can think of where he might be. I've been to a lot of places like Fangtasia." Grace had felt a pull that had taken her all over the south the past year, from vamp bar to vamp bar, but her connection with her brother was weakening and it had gotten to the point where she could barely feel him anymore. When she'd arrived in Dallas she was about ready to give up hope, but then she'd met Godric and he had been so kind, unlike any other vampire she'd ever met. She'd trusted him when he said he thought she might find what she was looking for in Shreveport, even though realistically he had no way of knowing. But Grace didn't want to talk about Godric. She'd felt his death a while ago, when she was still making up her mind whether or not to come to Shreveport. It still upset her, though she barely knew him.

"Seems like a bit of an erratic method to me, just going from vampire bar to vampire bar randomly," Eric pressed, leaning further forward so he was now at the very edge of that ridiculous throne. Grace struggled with herself, conflicted as to what and how much she should tell to these virtual strangers, one of whom having already displayed psychopathic tendencies. The safest option would be to tell them nothing but she already knew that wasn't really a possibility – they weren't stupid enough to fall for whatever half formed excuse she'd be able to pull together in the little time she had. "Grace?"

She was running out of time. The truth about her had always been a secret that she had closely guarded, no one but her immediate family – and she suspected somehow, Godric – had known about it up until this point. But she couldn't see a way out of telling them that didn't end with her death, and then what would happen to her brother? The past year had been one of the darkest of her life, and often she had felt her will to live slip away from her, had done something stupid. Always, it had been the thought of her brother out there, alone, which had brought her back to herself; often just in time. It was the thought of him now that gave her the courage she needed.

"It wasn't erratic. I can sort of just feel him, and where he is, though he's managed to stay three steps ahead of me for a year and I can barely feel him anymore," she trailed off with a sigh. Here goes nothing. "That's also how I knew about the man with the gun. I'm clairvoyant. When you grabbed me – quite fucking hard might I add – I had a vision of him shooting a wooden bullet through your heart."

Eric stood up so fast that Grace flinched.

"I knew it!" He turned to Bill. "Do you know what this could mean?"

Bill nodded excitedly. "We could finally find out if she's okay!"

"And owning a person like that could make me next to invincible… Always knowing about a threat before it could hurt you would be-"

"Owning me!? Are you fucking serious because as far as I was aware slavery has long been made illegal and there's no way I'd let you own me willingly you absolute psychopath! I told you what you wanted to know, now fuck off and let me leave." For a second, she forgot herself and stood up, knocking her chair over in the process, but she hadn't even taken a step towards the door before Bill was blocking her path. He held his hands, palms out, towards her.

"Now Grace, calm down. Eric didn't mean anything by that. No one is going to be trying to own you at all. Like I mentioned earlier we have a…Situation. Would you sit down and let me explain? And then helping us is your decision or not. Either way, at the end you are free to walk out those doors whenever you want."

She didn't really have a choice. Angrily, she picked the chair back up and sat down. Bill visibly relaxed.

"Thank you, Grace. Right so, basically –" Bill broke off and looked at Eric. She followed his gaze to see the vampire had managed to contain his excitement at the prospect of her slavery enough to sit back down. He almost looked sorry. Not quite.

"A very good friend of ours has gone missing, for nearly a year now. Bill has long since thought she was dead but I know -"

"I don't want to think she's dead it's just the both of us are blood bonded with her and neither of us has felt her presence in the time she's been missing, which in most cases would mean she was dead. Our friend is not entirely human so there are….Other possibilities. I suppose what we'd want from you is to maybe find some way of seeing what has become of her or if she comes back to us in the future. If you could do this I – we – would both be extremely grateful."

Grace stared at them both for a minute, unsure, as a million questions clouded her thoughts. Not entirely human? What the hell did that mean? Was she a vampire?...But if she was a vampire wouldn't they just say vampire, instead of 'not entirely human'? Were there other supernatural creatures out there? And what the fucking hell was blood bonding!?

Her pause had caused the two vampires to become visibly anxious. Eric had started to take a step towards her, but Bill had thrown a hand out to stop him. It was Bill who approached her instead, but gently like you might approach a wounded animal. His expression became pleading. He reached out to take her hands in his but she had the good sense to snatch them away before he got the chance.

"Grace. Please. She is very important to us both. She is… She's my everything. I love her. I need to know what's happened to her."

Grace found with mild surprise that his pleading was actually working, pulling on her heartstrings and distracting her from all her internal questioning. After all, Grace knew what it was like to struggle with being in the dark about the whereabouts of a loved one. One more look at Bill's face and she knew she had to help (only partly because she still wasn't sure she'd leave alive if she refused), though she was damn well going to get something out of it too.

"I have very little control over what I see, but I suppose I could try and help. There's no guarantee that I'll see anything of use, I'm warning you now. And I have one condition."

Eric growled from his throne, and started to complain about how she was in no position to be bargaining with them, but Bill quieted him with a wave of his hand.

"Anything. Name it."

"Find my brother."