Chapter 1
Today was a good day. I have good days and bad days like anyone else, but today was definitely a good day. Lately, the good days have seemed to be few and far between, so I will take one when I can get it. I had taken off work, which is hard to get myself to do now that I own Merlotte's. It is just too easy for me to get absorbed in the bar, so I have to make sure I schedule myself off at least one day a week. I know, it's a bar. I'm not saving the world, but I enjoy it and I'm good at it.
It was a beautiful, sunny July day. I got to wear my yellow bikini with the black polka dots and sunbathe for a few hours late in the morning. I know, I'll get skin cancer, but you have to die of something, right? And I can think of far worse ways to go. Trust me, I know more about dying, and the different ways of doing it, than most. Then I had to tackle the garden. Ever since Niall zapped it with his fairy thinga-ma-bobby, it has been out of control. The flowers are constantly blooming, the garden is overflowing with tomatoes, and I can hardly keep up with mowing the grass. So, I did some much needed yard work and the place looked better for it. My Gran sure would be proud if she could see it now. I wondered if the yard would ever stop its crazy growth, but it had been more than a year now and there was no sign of it slowing down. In fact, Sam said I could probably become Melotte's full time produce supplier if it kept up.
Okay, there's the sadness creepin' in. Sam. I sure missed him. After we started seeing each other last July, things between us heated up pretty quickly. I know I said we were going to take it slow, but things don't always work out like you plan, and I should sure know that by now.
Sam and I went to spend the holidays with his mom, Bernadette, in Texas. She started dating a were-hawk and she was real eager for us to meet him. Heck, Sam and I were both so happy for her, what with her last husband shooting her and all. It wasn't like her ex-husband was normally a violent man—there were some extenuating circumstances. He shot her when he found out she was a shifter, and the way he found out was by her shifting right in front of him. So, I guess you could say it took him a little by surprise. Would it have happened if she had been up front with him and just told him about it first? Who's to say. But he couldn't get past it, and so we were happy she found someone who could accept her for who she was, and even share in their full moon runs. And they were happy, really happy. Bernie, who usually shifted into a dog, like Sam, had even started to shift into a hawk on the full moons. As a pure shifter, she can become any animal she wants, like Sam could. Sam….
We decided I would come back to Bon Temps right after Christmas, so that I could run the bar. Kennedy Keyes, our other bartender, was great at filling in for us when we were both out of the bar, but we didn't like leaving her in charge for too long. Running the bar can get pretty stressful, and as the owners, it just didn't seem right to leave the bar for too long without one of us there. We decided Sam should stay with his mom until after New Years as they didn't get to see each other too often. Sam would come back to Bon Temps just after the New Year. As he was driving back home early on the morning of January 2nd, he was killed by a drunk driver. A stupid drunk driver. Not a fairy, or Were, or vampire, or witch. A stupid drunk driver. What are the odds, at least for a supe?
It was as if no sooner had we found each other, really found each other, then I lost him. I was sad for a long time, still am, but one thing I have come to learn about myself is that I'm a survivor. I've experienced a lot of pain and loss in my life, and I'm sure I'll experience much more before my life is through. After allowing myself a couple of months of self pity, I had to put on my big girl panties and just get on with it. I have people who depend on me. The bar, my employees, my family and friends. I have Jason, Michelle, and their little boy, Aidan, to think of, and Hunter and Remy too. I can't wallow in self-pity for too long. I once wished for Sam to live, and now I was going to choose to live, for me.
And that's what I am doing. Living my life… and waiting to say goodbye to yet another friend. There I stood at my kitchen sink, drying the dishes from my dinner (one of Gran's delicious recipes… a chicken pot pie that I baked that afternoon), looking out my kitchen window as twilight set in. A beautiful reddish-purple color painted the sky and cast deep dark shades across the yard. It would be full dark soon, and I would have company shortly thereafter.
It had been one-year since Karin, Eric's oldest child, had been appointed as my nighttime guard, per Eric's agreement with Freyda and Felipe. In that time, Karin had also become my friend. Sure, she was no Pam, but we were friends, at least as much as a vampire and human can be. Tonight was her last night as my guard. She would be leaving, going back to wherever it was that she had come from when Eric first called her to Bon Temps last year. As I stood there staring out into the yard, I must have zoned out because the next thing I knew, it was full dark and there was a knock on my back door.
I immediately sent out my other sense. Two voids. I opened the door and there stood Bill and Karin. Since Karin had been guarding me this past year, she had been staying at Bill's house, presumably in his spare hidey-hole, or maybe in his hidey-hole for all I knew. They weren't exactly open with me about whatever their relationship was, and it would have been weird if they had, given my own history with Bill. And they weren't exactly affectionate with each other the times that I saw them together – they were vampires after all. But I had my suspicions all the same. I stepped aside and they entered the kitchen.