Eternal Flame

Author's Note: Thanks to all who have added this story to their alerts and reviewed…it means a lot. Now you know not ALL the Cullens are going to stay gone, they show their presence in little ways…like in a way Bella is about to find out. I apologize for this taking so long to get out there but due to Hurricane Irene, I was without power for several days and clean up is taking a lot out of me. Please pray for the families here in North Carolina who have lost their homes and for the families of the 39 people who died during this horrible storm. No one expected it to be this bad…we were all wrong.

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or True Blood but I wish I could own Carlisle Cullen, Eric Northman and Alcide Herveaux because they are all just yummy.

Chapter 3

Bella's POV

Before I left Forks, I stopped at the ATM to withdraw what little cash I had in there only to get the shock of my life to see that my balance was about $100,000 MORE than what I had earlier in the week. The first thought that popped into my head was that it was some kind of mistake so I called the bank.

"Forks Credit Union, how may I help you?" the voice on the line said.

"My name is Isabella Swan and I was just checking my balance at the ATM there must be some mistake." I said.

"Hold on one moment and I will check with you. What does the ATM say?" she asked.

"It says I have 100,360...I only had like 360 in there the other day from my paycheck." I said.

"No there is no mistake, there was a deposit made into your account from an account in Alaska…an Alice Cullen." she said and my jaw dropped. Damn you, Alice.

"I can't accept this money, can you transfer it back to her account?" I asked.

"I'm sorry Ma'am but I'm afraid she closed that account and left word not to send the money back." she said and if I weren't so hurt she left me I would hunt the little pixie down and strangle her after hearing this.

"Um Thank you." I said.

"You are very welcome, Miss Swan. Have a nice day." she said and we hung up. I took advantage of my newfound wealth and filled my tank up before heading out. I had to stop 3 times on the way to New Orleans to sleep but by day 3 I was calling Sookie to let her know I was an hour away from New Orleans. We met at the stadium where the Saint played. Sookie, and to my surprise Jason…in uniform, got out of the car and ran to me wrapping their arms around me.

"BELLS!" Sookie squealed "I'm so glad you came."

"Thank you for letting me stay." I said.

"Bells, you are family…why wouldn't we let you stay? I would've let you stay at my place but it's so small." Jason said.

"Thanks Jay, that means a lot." I said.

"Come on, Bells…Ride with me, Jay can drive you truck. I have a lot to tell you on the way to Bon Temps." Sookie said and I threw Jason my keys and got in the car with Sookie.

"So, what's up?" I asked.

"I wanted to tell you that things are…different down here. I mean supernaturally different." she said.

"OK…meaning?" I asked generally intrigued.

"Well we have vampires, fairies, witches, werewolves, were panthers and shifters." she said. "And when I say fairies, I don't just mean my friend Lafayette…I mean actual freaking fairies…I'm part fairy, that's why I can read minds and Jay is irresistible to women."

"OH!" I said. "But how do you know about…vampires without fear of death?"

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I-I knew a family of vampires once…the son is the reason I am here to begin with. They have…laws about humans knowing about them that can be punishable by death." I said.

"Really?" Sookie said with a laugh "OK I obviously have to explain further…your vampires are ruled by different people than ours are…the Volturi right?"

"H-How did you know?" I asked.

"My ex, Bill, is a vampire…well he's the King of Louisiana now as far as vampires go…but he served with two vampires that broke away from Volturi rule during the Southern Vampire Wars….Peter and Charlotte Whitlock. They were tired of hiding so they moved to New Orleans and are now ruled by The Authority and Bill." she said.

"Did you say Whitlock?" I stammered and the hole in my chest that Edward and the Cullens left started to throb a bit as I thought of Jasper, the man I once considered a brother.

"Yes, do you know them?" she asked.

"No…I knew their maker, Jasper. He was part of the family I mentioned." I said.

"Ah yes, the Major…Peter and Char have talked highly of him." Sookie said.

"He was something…quiet but very sweet." I said and the throbbing grew a bit, time to change the subject. "You said you have werewolves?" I asked.

"Yes, Weres is what we call them around here." she said "My friend Alcide is a werewolf…not to be mistaken with a shifter, like my boss Sam, who can shift into any animal…or a were panther like unfortunately Jay has become thanks to his psycho ex girlfriend biting him."

"Jay's a panther?" I asked.

"Not by choice, unfortunately…that's his story to tell." Sookie replied. "Did they have werewolves up there?"

"Well my best friend, Jake, is a shape shifter but he can only shift into a wolf…I don't think he could be considered a werewolf though because he can do it on command…he doesn't need a full moon." I said.

"That's so cool." she said.

"Now, what's up with the witches?" I asked.

"Well there are only a few left now after one witch named Marnie was inhabited by the spirit of a witch dead set on killing all vampire but Lafayette and his boyfriend, Jesus, are witches…Well Lafayette is more of a medium, he can channel spirits and stuff like that. It's kind of crazy really." Sookie said.

"So tell me more about this fairy thing…does it affect my side of the family?" I asked.

"Yes, actually it does…have you ever noticed you have a quirk or something?" Sookie asked "I notice one right now…I can't hear your thoughts."

"That's the only thing I have noticed…my ex was a mind reader and he couldn't read my thoughts but his brother could feel my emotions and his sister could see my future. The Volturi's powers don't work on me either." I said.

"Oh? You must be a shield then." Sookie said.

"Maybe…I dunno." I said. "So, tell me more about the vampires down here. How are they different?"

"Well The Authority passed the Mainstreaming Act that allowed all Southern Vampires to 'come out of the coffin' so to speak. Unlike your vampires up north, which some believe may be part fairy, our vampires can't go into the sunlight or they will burn, silver burns them, wood stakes kill them and they live off of three things: human blood, True Blood, which is kind of synthetic blood engineered in Japan, and on some rare occasions animal blood." she said "Also, unlike Peter and Charlotte and some of the others you may have come in contact with in the past, they do not sparkle…they have fangs…and their eyes only turn colors when they are hungry then they turn a black color…they are normal color before then."

"What red? Gold?" I asked having only seen two different kinds of vampires.

"No, normal colors like brown, green, blue, hazel…like my man, Eric, he's got blue eyes unless he's hungry or horny." she said with a laugh and I had to laugh at that as well. We drove for a while longer and pulled into Bon Temps where a sign read "God Hates Fangs" as we entered town. That was weird. "You want to meet some people or just go settle in first?" Sookie asked.

"I'm up for meeting people." I said and she waved out the window for Jason to go on to the house and we pulled into a parking lot in front of a restaurant with the name "Merlotte's" written in big letters across the front. "Where are we?" I asked.

"This is where I work, I could get Sam to hire you as well if you would like." she said.

"Maybe later." I said "So are we going in?"

"Are you hungry?" she asked and my stomach chose that time to growl. We both laughed and got out of the car heading into the restaurant. We took a seat at the bar and a pretty black girl walked up to us.

"Hey Sook…who's your friend?" the girl asked.

"Tara, this is my cousin Bella Swan…she's moving in with me today. Bells, this is my best friend Tara Thornton." Sookie said.

"Pleased to meet you, Bella. Sookie has talked nonstop about you." Tara said taking my hand.

"I hope all good." I said with a laugh "Pleased to meet you."

"Oh yeah, nothing but good." she said. "So, what can I get you two?"

"I'll have my usual." Sookie said and I skimmed the menu before choosing something.

"Um, I guess I will just have a veggie burger and fries." I said.

"Oh yeah, I forgot you were a vegetarian." Sookie said.

"It's ok, it's easy to forget." I said.

"So, what to drink?" Tara asked.

"I'll have a sweet tea." Sookie said.

"I'll have the same." I replied and Tara turned around and put our meal ticket in the window and rang the bell.

"Tara, is your cousin working today?" Sookie asked.

"Yeah, both he and Terry are." Tara said "Hold on, I'll get him to come out if he's not too busy making out on the back porch with his boy toy." Sookie laughed at that as Tara disappeared to the back.

"Boy toy?" I asked.

"Yeah, Lafayette's gay…VERY gay…well, you'll see." Sookie said with a laugh as Tara walked back in with two men, one of which had what resembled a scarf on his head with big hoop earrings, eye shadow and a tight wife beater with loose fit pants. The other guy was Hispanic wearing a set of blue hospital scrubs.

"Lafayette." Sookie said hugging him across the counter.

"Hookah get off me…you know I don't do the hugging shit." Lafayette laughed and the Hispanic laughed as well. "Who's this?" he asked looking at me.

"Lafayette, Jesus, this is my cousin Bella, Bella this is Lafayette and hi boy toy, Jesus." Sookie said and I waved at them both.

"Bella, girl…we gon' have FUN wit' you." Lafayette said and Jesus just laughed.

"Um…thanks?" I said a bit overwhelmed at his openness.

"He means well, Sweetie" Jesus said.

"Come on, baby, we can mess with her some other time." Lafayette said and they disappeared in the back again.

"Wow, that was…strange." I said.

"That's just Lafayette…you'll get used to it." Sookie said. "Come on, let's go meet Sam."

I followed Sookie to the back portion of the bar after we were done eating and stopped at a door marked "Manager". Sookie knocked and heard a man yell "Come in." before she opened the door.

"Well hey, Cherie." a good looking man with shaggy brown hair, a pretty smile and eyes, and a bit of facial hair said. Man, he was kind of cute.

"Hey Sam, this is my cousin Bella…she just moved here for a fresh start from Washington." Sookie said.

"Ah yes, Bella. Sookie has talked about you quite a bit." Sam said "It's a pleasure to meet you." he added taking my hand.

"It's nice to meet you as well." I said with a small blush. Why the hell was a blushing? Hell, maybe it was my horny teenage hormones…but what would I know about that? I was a virgin!

"So, how do you like it here in Bon Temps?" he asked with that pretty smile again, making small talk.

"Well, I've been here a couple of times as a kid…I liked it then to visit. As far as living here? The verdicts still out." I said.

"Well if you would like someone to show you around, I would be more than happy to." Sam said.

"Thank you, that would be nice." I said.

"Well we have to get going, it's almost sundown and we want to catch Eric before he goes to the club." Sookie said.

"It was nice to meet you, Sam." I said.

"It was nice to meet you as well, Bella." he said, that damn smile sparkling again.

Sookie and I made our way to her little Rabbit and we headed to her house. She gave me a warning on the way though.

"Sam Merlotte is a great guy…but don't let that pretty smile and those sparkling eyes fool you." she said.

"Why's that?" I asked.

"Well he's been seeing another shifter named Luna for a while now…a school teacher over at the local grade school. Don't let him try to get you to do anything you don't want to do." Sookie said.

"Um…ok?" I said.

"Just so we are clear…be careful." Sookie said as we were pulling into her driveway.

"OK!" I said getting a bit agitated…I WAS a grown woman after all, able to make my own mistakes and learn from them. "Come on, let's meet this mystery man of yours."

We walked inside and I met Eric, who was just as beautiful as Sookie had described him…if not more so. We chatted for a while and I learned that he was of Scandinavian decent and a Viking to boot. Sookie let me in on the secret that he tended to speak Swedish randomly from time to time…mostly in the time of panic, agitation, anger or just in the heat of passion. Like I really needed to know that…unless she was willing to share that is. I really needed to stop having dirty thoughts about every hot guy I saw or I would ended up turning into the ho of the Bon Temps and Shreveport area…the neighbor town where Eric's club was. I told him I would visit his club sometime and Sookie went with him to Fangtasia…cool name…while I unpacked and then crashed. It was an eventful day to say the least.