Thank you all so much for the kind reviews! I will try to keep Godric out of the sun. I adore him and wouldn't want him to get hurt..:) This will definitely be a Godric/Sookie/Eric story. Bill will show up sooner or later too..
I froze as my brain registered Godric's words. "What do you mean?" I managed to whisper, while staring intently at my hands in my lap. For the first time during this crazy roller-coaster of a night, I was truly terrified. Somewhere in the back of my mind I noted that this feeling probably should have kicked in much earlier. Come to think of it, ever since I walked into Fangtasia I had a feeling that something bad was going to happen. Well, that something bad was probably going to happen right now.
"Don't you know what I am, Sookie?" he said quietly. I turned my head real slow and careful towards Godric. I don't know why, maybe I figured if I didn't make any sudden moves neither would he? Stupid, I know, but I had never been in any life-threatening situations before, so you couldn't really blame me for not knowing what to do. I looked up into his face and saw two sharp fangs sticking out from under his lips. Oh my god! Godric was a vampire? I was shaking now and my heart was racing.
"Don't be afraid, Sookie, I won't hurt you." Right. All of a sudden his fangs snapped back and were gone. Godric turned his eyes back to the road, and said quietly: "I'm sorry I frightened you, Sookie. That was not my intention. Most of the humans I'm around these days are so enamored with vampires that I forget how frightening I must seem to you."
We were quiet for the rest of the ride and when we finally reached my house, I was so eager to get away that I jumped out the moment the car stopped. Godric got out too and was at my side in an instant.
"It was a pleasure to meet you, Sookie. Could I see you again some time?" See me again? Oh no, most certainly not! I had never been as terrified as I had been tonight in the car with him. All I could think of was to get the hell away from him and I really wasn't eager to see him again. Ever.
"I..., I don't think that would be such a good idea", I told him, my eyes on the front door of my house. I just really, really wanted to be inside.
"I understand I must have overwhelmed and frightened you, Sookie. I'm truly sorry about that. I won't impose myself on you any longer. But may I do one thing, in case you ever change your mind? You might want to call me some time and I could arrange for you to meet with other telepaths. So just in case, may I give you my phone number?"
Ok, if that would get him to leave he could give me his number. It's not like I would ever call him. And he knew where I lived, so having his number would even things out a little. I gave him my phone and he punched in the number in an instant. As he handed me my phone back, he looked at me and I felt the strangest sensation. It was as if tiny electrical currents were bombarding my skin, trying to get into my head. I blinked and took one big step back from Godric.
"Good night" I said "and thank you so much for driving me home." I might be scared, but I still had manners.
"Good night, Sookie", he said quietly and got back in his car. I let out the breath I had been holding and watched him disappear down my driveway.
I woke the next morning and felt good. Last night seemed like a bad dream that I had finally woken up from. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. What made it even better was that I wasn't working today! I was going to have to run some errands, but the rest of the day I was free to do whatever I liked. I planned to go outside to work on my tan and read one of the books I had gotten from the library a couple of days ago. I took a long shower and got dressed.
My good mood didn't last long. Gran told me the terrible news over breakfast. Maudette Pickens who I'd gone to high-school with had been found dead, strangled in her own home. Gran had it on good authority that Maudette had vampire bites on her body and the rumor that was spreading like wildfire was that she was killed by a vampire.
"But she was strangled, right? Not drained?" I asked Gran. "That makes no sense."
Not that my one night at Fangtasia had made me an expert on vampires, but they lived off human blood, right? So it wouldn't make sense for a vampire to strangle a human instead of draining them. It would be kind of... wasteful. I told Gran as much and she agreed with me.
After we spent the rest of the morning chatting and drinking coffee, Gran asked me to run to the store to pick up a few things for lunch. I had just pulled out of the driveway when Sam called me. He told me Dawn hadn't shown up for her shift, and asked me to go by her place and wake her up.
When I got to her house I saw that her car wasn't there. I rang the bell, but she didn't open, so I tried calling her cell. She didn't answer, so I went around her house and peeked into all the windows. Dawn was definitely not home. She had probably spent the night with that big scary vampire. I called Sam and let him know, though I left out the part about the vampire.
When I got home, Gran was talking loudly on the phone, looking mighty upset. When she hung up, she told me Sheriff Dearborn had called to let her know that Jason had been arrested. He was a suspect in Maudette's murder and Dawn's disappearance. Dawn's disappearance? She hadn't come home last night, but that had nothing to do with Jason and everything to do with that vampire.
I told Gran a toned down version of last night so that she would know that Dawn had just spent the night in Shreveport and would be home soon. Gran interrupted me before I could finish. "Sookie, Dawn called 911 last night. She was cut off before she could tell them where she was."
Oh god, something had happened to Dawn. I had forgotten all about her and left her at Fangtasia and now she was missing and something awful might have happened to her.
My brother is many things, but he's not a killer. I knew I had to do something to find Dawn and get Jason out of jail, but I also knew that confronting the vampire from Fangtasia wasn't a great idea. So Gran and I drove into town to talk to Sheriff Dearborn and I told him about Fangtasia and about Dawn leaving with the big vampire. He was obviously keeping her hostage and they needed to go arrest him. Sheriff Dearborn was polite about it, but he made it very clear that they already had a suspect and weren't about to go chasing some vampire in Shreveport. And seeing that I was said suspect's sister, I was apparently not a credible witness.
For the second night in a row, I was headed to Fangtasia. I still thought that confronting that big brute of a vampire was a terrible idea, but the way I saw it I had no other choice if I wanted to help Dawn and Jason. I parked my car and walked up to the door, where the same vampire who had carded me last time was standing.
"I need to speak to Eric" I demanded.
The pale, beautiful vampire let out a small snort. "Yes, many people need many things from Eric. It doesn't mean that they will get it," she said.
Ok, that wasn't very helpful. I left the bar, utterly dejected. That was the word of the day a couple of days ago and it really did sum up perfectly how I felt. Dawn had vanished and might be locked up in a basement or even worse, dead in some ditch somewhere. Jason was arrested on suspicion of abducting her and of killing Maudette. Things couldn't possibly be worse. The horrible vampire who was probably responsible was protected by a bunch of other vampires and there was nothing I could do about it. I sat in my car in the parking lot and tried to think of what I could do next.
After a couple of minutes I gave up and decided to drive home. But first I was going to call Gran to let her know I was on my way home so that she could go to bed without worrying about me. I got my phone out of my purse and opened the address book. I punched in G and several names showed up on the little screen. Godric, Gran, Hoyt. Oh. How could I have forgotten about Godric? He had said he knew Eric, right? Maybe he could arrange for me to talk to him? Sure, it was a long-shot. Godric might not want to help me at all. And even if he did, he might only barely know Eric and might be turned away like I was if he tried to talk to him. But it was the only option I had left, so I had to give it a try. I took a deep breath and dialed Godric's number. It rang once and then I heard him answer.
"Hi Godric. This is Sookie Stackhouse. I don't know if you remember me, but we met at Fangtasia last night." I was really hoping I didn't sound as nervous as I felt.
"Of course I remember you, Sookie. How are you this evening?" His voice was so relaxed and friendly that I quickly forgot about how nervous I was. I went on to tell him about everything that had happened, about Dawn disappearing, about my brother being arrested. Then I finally told him about Eric and that I really needed to talk to him. It was real quiet for a second before I heard Godric burst out laughing. I swear I heard others laughing in the background too.
"You want to meet Eric so you can confront him about kidnapping and possibly killing your friend?" Godric asked me. All right, when he put it that way it did sound a little crazy. Walking into a vampire bar and accusing the head vampire of murder was a pretty bad idea. I started to have second-thoughts about the whole thing. Still, I couldn't back down now, not if I wanted to find Dawn.
"I don't mean to accuse him of anything. But," In for a penny in for a pound, right? "I would like to talk to him. If he was the last person to see her before she disappeared he might know something that could help me find her." What was I getting myself into? I probably really was as crazy as people thought I was.
"All right, Sookie, if that is what you want, I can arrange for you to meet him. When can you be at Fangtasia?" I told him that I was already in the parking lot, but that I couldn't get past the intimidating vampire lady at the door. I heard people laughing in the background again, while Godric told me he would meet at the door in a minute.
True to his word, he was there when I got to the door and he walked me past the scary vampire woman effortlessly. She just smiled and nodded at me. We went into the bar where the throne where I had last seen Eric was standing all empty. We walked across the room, then through a narrow hallway until we reached a door that Godric opened for me.
"After you" he said and I stepped into the room.