"Welcome back, Sookie," said Arlene from her seat at the bar where she was working a newspaper crossword puzzle. She didn't turn around, and her tone hardly reflected the sentiment of her words. Already late on her first day back, Arlene was thinking. Didn't take long to pick up with them vampers again. Won't be long 'till she'll only be able to work after dark, and dammit if I'm givin' up any of my closing shifts. Arlene broadcasted like a cell phone tower.
"Why, thanks Arlene. That's awful sweet of you. I'll just make the tea."
"Oh It's already done. Like the lemons and the salad dressings and the silverware." Arlene didn't lift her head. Her bright red hair was half-pulled up into a hideous aqua fish clip.
Sookie sighed. "Arlene, I'm sorry I'm late on my first day back. I just overslept."
Arlene slid off the barstool. "You're gonna be sleeping permanently if you don't get them dead things outta your life. I mean it, Sookie. It's not like there ain't enough normal men around. It ain't natural." She grabbed her crossword and stalked into the back, hair swishing behind her.
She's one to talk about normal men, Sookie thought before she caught herself. That wasn't very Christian. She sighed again and went to check the setups on her tables.
Fortunately, the day was downhill from there. Everyone else seemed genuinely glad to have her back, and it was nice to be in a familiar place doing familiar things. She tried to put Eric Northman out of her head. She had no idea what she was going to say to him when she saw him again, and she didn't feel like ruining her day worrying about it.
"Can I get you another beer?" It was about halfway through the dinner shift, and the bar was busy. Sookie had her shields up, and pointedly ignored the leers of the seedy, potbellied men seated at the booth in front of her. She set the empty glass on her tray.
"Yeah, I want me one of them Kingfishers," said the man closest to her. It was everything she could do to block the nasty thoughts that were running like a leaky engine behind the greasy grin.
"Coming right up," and she spun on her heel to walk back to the bar.
"You!" Sookie turned and was shocked to see a disheveled woman standing by the door of the bar, staring and pointing at her like the ghost of Christmas Yet To Come. What was even more disconcerting was that it was the same woman who had done her reading at Moon Goddess Emporium, the one Gran had told her to get good and clear of. She looked like she'd been through a war: her feet were bare and muddy; the green dress she was wearing was shredded like she'd been walking though brambles, and worse, it was spattered with blood. Her auburn hair was wild and so were her eyes. Not good.
"Me," she said cautiously.
"You will come with me now," said the woman. Her voice was a disturbing monotone. Was she in a trance of some kind?
"Actually, I'm working right now," she said slowly. "Maybe I can go with you… later."
"You are of fairy blood."
Oh, shit.
All activity had stopped in the bar. Every set of eyes was moving back and forth between Sookie and the crazy Witch-Lady, as Sookie was thinking of her. The only noise was the jukebox, which was playing the opening guitar solo of "Free Bird."
"Uh, I think you got me mixed up with someone else," Sookie replied. Even to her, her voice didn't sound so steady. "Maybe is there someone we can call—"
"Marney?" Holly appeared from the back, setting a couple of plates of food on the bar. "Marney, what are you doing here?"
"Proin ac silentio!" The woman held up her hand and Holly drew up short, her mouth frozen open on a half-formed word. She turned back to Sookie.
"Reditusinhacpuella tibidico,et congregavero vosmihi. Reditusinhacpuellatibidico,et congregavero vosmihi!"
In alarm, Sookie felt her throat closing. Her muscles were locking up. Her tray tipped and the glass mug slid off and shattered on the floor. She could feel power radiating off the woman, a power that reached out and locked onto something deep inside her, and was pulling at it like a dog on a choker-chain. It was excruciating. She took a stiff step toward the woman, and another. She could not tear her eyes away.
To make the bizarre scene even less forgettable for Merlotte's clientele, two dogs then came barreling out of the back: a pit-bull and a collie, and both launched themselves at the woman in the green dress. She laughed, held up her hand, and to Sookie's horror, a familiar bright white flash shot out of the witch's hands and sent them flying back against the wall, into which they crashed with a sickening crunch, and fell and lay still. What was worse, however, was that Sookie could feel the power being torn from her. It was like she was a faucet someone had turned on. She could feel it being sucked out of her, and into the woman.
She struggled to speak, to tell the woman that she would go with her, not to hurt anyone else. But she couldn't say a word. Her heart was hammering.
"Veni mecum," the woman said, and turned and walked out the door. Sookie followed like a marionette.
