He shut the office door behind him and leant back against it, his arms folded and his legs crossed at the ankles. I felt a frisson of fear which, from the lascivious expression on his face, I strongly suspect he recognised. I tried to remain calm as I looked around the office. It reminded me a lot of Sam's back office but right at that moment the familiarity didn't provide a great deal of comfort.

His manner was politeness itself. "Please, Miss Stackhouse, take a seat; I'm not going to bite you." He raised his eyebrows in acknowledgment of the weak joke.

The couch he indicated was leather, but had most certainly seen better days. I wondered briefly about the activities which might have taken place on it to cause the damage, but before I could worry too much about that, he was sitting on the arm, looking down at me.

"I confess I find myself mystified. You must have noticed that you are not like the other volunteers for this job?" His tone was hostile, making me feel even more uncomfortable.

"I'm not a spy or anything, if that's what you're thinking," I blurted out, mentally slapping myself for not considering how I might appear to the vampires. "If I was from the Government, or the Fellowship, I would have made more effort to blend in."

The vampire laughed, "That is true, although they usually fail. Their shoes always give them away."

"The truth is, I need the money, and the advert said this job would pay well. My gran died you see, and I've got so many bills to pay…." I was babbling now, even though I'm sure that my financial predicament was of no interest at all to him.

"You're an attractive woman," he said, using the advantage of his elevated position to look down my cleavage, "there are plenty of opportunities for someone with your assets."

"There may well be, but they're not the kind of opportunities I want to take," I snapped back.

"That's a shame, I do have a vacancy for a dancer here at the club," he offered, looking hopeful.

"No," I responded, as firmly as I could, but immediately regretted sounding so rude, "it's really not the kind of thing I'm interested in. Besides, I have a regular job as a waitress; I just need to earn a little extra to pay some bills."

"Are you sure you're willing to go through with it, you know what the job entails?"

"Well…I guess so," I was hesitant; I had been just about to walk away after all. Now I was in the room with him though I didn't want to seem cowardly – we Stackhouses are made of sterner stuff. I'd seen vampires drinking from humans in reconstructions on reality TV; and besides, growing up in the country develops a high pain threshold. When you've been thrown off a horse a few times you learn to suck it up. I'm not sure that the vampire was convinced; he certainly looked doubtful.

"Well, as my colleague, Miss Ravenscroft explained, we do need to audition all the volunteers. The event we are organising is high profile and it would not do to have anyone cause a scene." He stared at me meaningfully, but I didn't flinch and retuned his gaze as evenly as I could.

"She said we could leave at any time, right?" I asked, trying to sound firm.

"Of course, you just have to ask me to stop and I will." He'd moved from his position on the arm of the chair and was kneeling in front of me now. He took my hands in his and stared deeply into my eyes.

I'd read that vampires had the power to hypnotise humans, and I guess that's what he was trying to do from the way he had fixed his gaze on mine. I know you'll be thinking that if this was a movie, the sinister music would be starting right about now, and that a sensible girl would be up and out of there, but I was curious. I'd tried hypnosis once, as a gag when my friend Tara and I went to the County Fair. It hadn't worked then, and strangely it didn't seem to work now.

"Are you comfortable?" he asked in a low, dark voice. His eyes widened and his gaze became more intense.

"Yes I'm fine," I replied, cheerfully, although I could feel an odd prickle of discomfort all over my scalp.

"You'll be more comfortable if you take your blouse off," he continued, his scrutiny unwavering.

I was tempted to slap him but decided that would be a bad idea; instead I confined my outrage to a verbal response, telling him that I wouldn't put up with him talking dirty like that.

It was obviously not what he expected, as he rocked back on his heels almost as if he had been slapped. "What do you feel?" he asked suspiciously.

"Well it's a little chilly in here but apart from that I feel fine," I risked a little smile, hoping it wouldn't piss him off.

"You don't…." his voice tailed off, and he looked at me thoughtfully. "Most humans do as I tell them," he continued after a long pause.

"Look Mr…"

"Northman, Eric Northman."

"Mr Northman, I need this job, as I've explained. I know that I'll have to let a vampire feed on me, and I'm used to being nice to people even if I don't like them very much, but if what you're really looking for are hookers, you should have advertised in a different newspaper." I was almost shouting by the time I'd finished my little rant.

He pulled himself up to his full height and crossed his arms as he looked down at me. I didn't flinch, I wasn't about to back down. Gradually a smile began to tug at his lips, until after a few moments he was laughing out loud.

"Well you are a feisty one," he said, "I like that. Don't worry, you won't be forced to do anything that makes you uncomfortable, you have my word on that. I do need to audition you though, if you've no objection."

I nodded my acceptance, and he took up a place beside me on the couch. Slipping an arm around my waist he pulled me against him.

"I don't like to do this cold, but I have no choice," he said, softly stroking his fingers over the exposed patch of skin above the waistband of my jeans. It was a strangely soothing action, but all the same it set off a wave of most unexpected sensations.

He lowered his head and kissed my neck several times, then whispered in my ear, "just relax, everything is going to be fine." He may not have been able to hypnotise me, but his dark sexy voice had the effect of turning my insides to jelly.

For a brief moment I regretted not giving in to his earlier instruction to take off my blouse, then mentally slapped myself for even considering letting a complete stranger get intimate with me, however handsome he was. He manoeuvred me effortlessly until I was sitting on his lap and he had both arms around me. I think he was getting quite excited himself, from what I could tell, and that thought just made me heat up all over.

Then, without further warning his fangs clicked into place and he bit into my neck. It hurt like hell at first, but gradually the pain gave way to something strangely pleasurable. His hand moved away from my waist, it trailed down over my stomach, and then lower, until he was stroking me intimately through the fabric of my jeans. I didn't have the strength to push him away and to be honest, I didn't want to. Waves of warmth travelled up my body, turning to shivers as they reached my breasts.

Right at this moment I became fully aware of the power which vampires could have over humans. He may not have been able to use his hypnotic influence on me, but if he'd tried to take my clothes off now I would have done nothing to stop him. Who was I kidding; I would have helped. I think I probably moaned just a little.

I was gone, completely overtaken by lust, when without warning he pushed me away so roughly that I fell against the other end of the couch. For several moments he just stared at me as if he were the one who was hypnotised, his fangs still extended and my blood dripping down his chin.

"What's wrong," I stammered, totally confused by the signals I was getting from him. "Did I do something bad?"

He snapped out of his reverie, shaking his head. Taking my hand he pulled me back towards him, gently this time, and leant down to lick the wounds on my neck.

"Nothing…nothing," he replied, hurriedly, leaving me in no doubt that something was wrong but that he had no intention of telling me what it was.

"You'll do very well," he continued, "that is, if you haven't changed your mind."

"No, I'll be fine, that wasn't too bad," I sounded as if I'd just been to the dentist.

Before I'd even finished my sentence he was over by the door and ushering me out. I'd realised by now that Vamps can move real fast if they want to.

A full-scale orgy was going on when we re-entered the main bar. Most of the other humans hadn't exactly been overdressed to start with so I guessed it hadn't taken them long to get naked.

Eric steered me towards the middle of the room, where table was laid out with food and drink. It was quite a spread, fried chicken, ribs, cold cuts, macaroni pie and other southern delicacies. No-one was showing much interest though; they were too busy eating one another. I hated to see good food go to waste and I said as much to Eric. He reassured me that any leftovers would be taken to a shelter for the homeless. I wasn't sure if I believed him, or if he was just humouring me but I decided to take him at face value.

"You should eat something though," Eric said, sounding uncannily like a nurse at a regular blood donor centre, "you may feel a little weak after donating."

I helped myself to a plateful, passed on the bottles of Bud, but took a glass of sweet tea. Then I looked for a booth that wasn't occupied by people having noisy sex. I managed to find a quiet corner, glad that the piped music dulled the sounds of passion all around.

Much as I didn't want to look, there were a couple of things which caught my eye. A woman with a very familiar looking brunette pony-tail was on her knees in front of a tall dark haired vampire. He had the distinctive features of a Native American. I was more interested in the girl though, from behind she looked awfully like Dawn, one of my fellow waitresses at Merlotte's.

It wouldn't have surprised me. I knew that Dawn liked to be adventurous in the bedroom department. She would hang out with my brother when neither of them had a better offer, and I'm sorry to say that Jason is not the most discreet of boyfriends. I hoped that she wouldn't see me. I hadn't told anyone that I was planning to do this.

The other person who was right in my line of sight was Miss 'No-Panties' as I had dubbed her after her earlier exhibitions. She was draped across the bar, her legs wrapped around the shoulders of a blonde female vamp; while a darker female was sucking at her neck and fondling her breasts. The girl was trying to look enthusiastic, but something about her expression struck me as false. I know a fake smile when I see one; I'm pretty expert in them myself after all.

As I watched, Eric called the blonde vamp away and they disappeared out back. The girl sat up, and a shock of recognition hit me. I've got a very good memory for faces – a useful skill if you're a waitress – and hers was distinctive. A few weeks back, a group from one of the Baptist Churches in Renard Parish had come into Merlotte's for lunch. They were on their way to picket a 'Planned Parenthood' clinic in Shreveport. I was as certain as I could be that she had been in the group.

Abandoned by her lovers, she struggled down off the bar, and walked slowly towards the food table. Hiding my half-eaten plate, I went back for seconds.

"Hi!" I said, cheerfully, as she and I both reached for ribs at the same time.

She returned my greeting awkwardly. I knew I had to drop my shields; there was definitely something odd about her.

'I can't believe I just did that' she was thinking, 'it was disgusting, they never said I'd have to do things like that, what will Tommy think?' An image of a shiny suited young man with a short haircut popped into her mind. She was such a clear broadcaster that I could even see his little lapel badge: 'Jesus Saves'.

Now I had a real dilemma. If I told the vampires what I knew, I'd have to reveal my gift and that was something I really didn't want to do. But if I didn't people might get hurt and I'd have to live with the guilt.

Eric materialised next to me as I was turning over the options in my mind.

"Are you alright?" he asked, you look worried."

"It's just that girl over there. I'm sure I must be wrong, but she reminds me of someone I used to go to Sunday school with. Her parents are real religious, so I'm just shocked to see her here."

Eric looked thoughtful. "That's very interesting; I will have Pamela check her out."

I almost sighed with relief; I'd done my duty without giving myself away. "I really should get going." I was keen to get out of there before I discovered any more awkward secrets, and hopefully before Dawn spotted me. Luckily she seemed far too engrossed in the amorous attentions of her long haired warrior.

Pamela Ravenscroft was back on door duty, checking people out as they left. I wondered if it was some kind of scoring as she made tiny scribble against the list of names on her clipboard.

"Would you like me to …..say goodbye to her," she said to Eric as we passed, sounding all mysterious.

"That won't be necessary; I will see her to her car."

I gave him a puzzled look, wondering what she had meant, but he ignored me.

"Would you like me to drive you home?" he asked as we crossed the car-park.

The offer was tempting. I was feeling quite shaken up by what I'd seen and experienced in the last few hours. Then I thought of him trying to cram his enormous frame into my tiny, beat up old Hyundai, and of the effect that being crammed in with him for at least half an hour would have on me. "I'm good, thank you, I'll be fine."

"If you're sure? Please drive carefully; I look forward to seeing you at our reception. I do hope you won't change your mind." He bent down and brushed a cool kiss on my cheek.

I can't deny that thoughts of the handsome vampire dominated my mind as I drove back home. Of course I was glad he hadn't tried to force himself on me, but I suppressed the tiniest pang of disappointment that he'd pulled away just in time. Perhaps I just wasn't his type, not one of the normal fang-bangers…..anyway, it didn't matter. I would take the job, take the money and that would be the end of it.

Living out in such an isolated spot as Hummingbird Road had never worried me before, but tonight I felt unaccountably nervous. I hurried across the yard to the front door and locked it quickly behind me. I had the strangest feeling that I was being followed, but as I peeked out from behind a curtain to survey the yard there was no sign of anyone, or anything. Dismissing my fears, I hurried up to bed.

I unfastened my blouse and bra, and peeled off my jeans and panties. To my surprise, the bite marks on my neck had totally healed. That was something of a relief as I'd been worrying about how to explain them away at work tomorrow night.

Standing naked in front of the full length mirror in my bedroom, I gave myself an appraising look. I may not flaunt myself like some of the girls at that club tonight, but no-one could say I wasn't attractive. My breasts are full and firm, my waist slim, I know I look good with a tan and I've been told enough times that I've got a cute ass.

I had to face the fact that if I was going to go through with this, I would probably have to do some flaunting. Vampires certainly liked their humans as underdressed as possible. I closed my eyes and struck a pose, imagining I was a dancer on the little stage in Fangtasia. Could I really do it, I wondered.

What the hell, how different was it from working in Merlotte's in those figure hugging shorts and t-shirts that the patrons liked. I knew only too well that half of them spent their evenings imagining what I would look like naked.

As I opened my eyes I thought I saw a flash of movement in the mirror but, walking over to the window, I could see nothing outside. The moon was full, illuminating the lawn but there was no sign of anyone out there. Pulling an old T-shirt out of the drawer I settled down into bed. Within minutes I was asleep.