Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the books or True Blood. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Author's Note: Since we did not see inside the Anubis plane on the show, I am going with the description in the books that the coffins are in the same compartment as the human passengers, rather than in an inaccessible cargo hold. I'm also using the books since we have not had the pleasure of meeting Bobby Burnham or his True Blood counterpart as Eric's 'day man', or of knowing that Eric lives alone in a house in a planned, gated community in Shreveport.

Chapter 4

Bill had gotten into the Anubis shipping coffin at dawn, so Sookie was left with a few hours. She called Jason and met him downstairs for the continental breakfast. She was not hungry after what she went through last night but enjoyed some coffee, then added some toast and some grapefruit because her vitamins did not sit well on an empty stomach.

Jason talked about the Newlins. He knew there had been something rotten in their marriage. Sookie did not know if he was just pretending he knew, or if everyone that spent any amount of time in that church of theirs noticed it. A crumbling marriage between a pastor and his wife would have Sookie doubting other things. Pastors were supposed to keep people together once they were married, talk about love, and openness, honesty, and help them through the tough times. That was part of their profession. Maybe Steve Newlin spent too much time judging others that he couldn't be bothered with what was truly important. Thank goodness there were no children involved.

After heading back up, making sure she was completely packed, even her toothbrush, Sookie spent some time looking through the television channels then moping about the room. This was a really nice hotel. She had seen stuff like this in television shows, but the price of staying in a nice hotel was more than she could ever afford. Would Bill take her on fun trips in the future? Or would it be an occasional trip for Eric? Though now that Sookie had met Godric and knew more about what was going on, she did not think Eric sent her here just to be friendly with his neighbors in Texas, and planned to send her all over the country to read minds to find missing vampires.

At 11:20, the phone rang and Sookie confirmed that she needed Bill and their luggage moved downstairs for the Anubis people. She waited till they came, and watched them load Bill on the cart. It must be a tough job moving vampires because they weighed as much as a live person plus the box. They had a folding lift to help, but these fellows had to use their muscles.

Stepping out behind the cart, Sookie was surprised to see the double door directly across the hall open, and two more Anubis shipping containers being moved. She stopped in her tracks, then contemplated that Eric was heading to Shreveport too so there was no reason why he couldn't fly with them. He was paying for it.

Getting back into motion and getting on the elevator, Sookie wryly thought to herself that she had not negotiated a private plane for just her and Bill. She did not know much about how Anubis operated, or how much they charged for a vampire, but it would be cost effective to move more vampires going in the same direction on the same planes. Maybe she just lucked out that just Bill and her needed to get from Shreveport to Dallas on the way here.

Perhaps it was unlucky. Sookie would like to meet more human companions of vampires to compare what was going on between Bill and her. She had met Hugo, but he was a bad example. Sookie did not buy into that whole love forever, with the added clause that Isabel had to make Hugo a vampire to keep that love. Sookie did not want to be a vampire. She liked sun tanning way too much.

At least Jason was still Jason, even after going to a mind control camp for a radical church group and nearly getting blown up with her. Why should Sookie even be surprised? Jason rode out that tidal wave of murders with all those girls he slept with getting strangled. Sookie had no idea how he did it.

If Jason was not impressed enough with the clean, luxury van, and the separate hanger that kept them out of the airport rubbing elbows with everyone else, he did let out a whistle when they entered the plane.

"Wow," he said, which pretty much said it all.

"I know," Sookie agreed. "And there was two stewardesses on the flight out. Can you believe that?"

Jason's eyes were already focused on one heading to the back of the cabin. Her tailored skirt was a real, good fit. "That's nice," he said. Whether was in agreement to what Sookie said, or a comment on the young lady's anatomy was debatable.

Sookie shook her head ruefully and chose a chair. They swiveled all the way around and leaned back, and were really comfy. Not like the airline seats she saw in movies.

"Hey," Jason declared, "there's three of them."

"Yeah, Eric's coming back and ..." Sookie was recalling what Godric said about not talking about him, but then figured since Jason already met him, he already knew who he was so used his name, "Godric's going to stay with him for a bit."

"Oh … wait, is Eric that big blond, threatening one?"

"You know him?"

Jason looked confused, then asked, "Did you tell him about me?"

"What's there to tell?"

"You didn't say anything?"

"About what? I didn't tell Eric anything about you," Sookie complained. Why did Jason always have to think he was the most interesting thing in her life? Yeah, he played quarterback in high school, but those days were over, and now he was on the parish road crew. In a supervisory position, but still, not something to rave about when she first met people.

"Did he say something to you about me?"

"No," she snipped, but could clearly pick up that Jason was concerned about something. Sookie grew worried, thinking about how Eric treated Lafayette and had to ask, "What did you do?"

"Do you know him? I mean know what he's really like? Is he all talk, but no action?"

"Hardly, Jason. What did you do? Did he threaten you?"

"Well … he did … I don't know if he knows all of it yet, but he knew about me using V, if he finds out the rest … y'know I am sorry … real sorry …"

"Did he hurt you? If he touched you …"

"No. No, he didn't. Sook … I did something horrible, and I guess I should tell you, rather than you hearing it from him. It wasn't me, it just got out of control so quickly, and maybe it was my fault for not doing the right thing when I had the chance. It's been weighing on me heavily."

"What?" Sookie prompted. What could be so bad that it weighed on Jason 'heavily'? She did feel that he felt horrible, but was not getting a clear picture.

"You remember Amy?"

"Yes."

"Well, both of us were into V."

"Oh my God. Jason, you can't be taking that. It's wrong."

"I know, and didn't need a vampire telling me either. Anyway, we couldn't get any, and we wanted it bad, and I knew Lafayette had some way of getting it, but he wouldn't sell it to me."

"Jason ..."

"No listen. So I was stupid and followed Lafayette. He knew a vampire and would visit him. And I think they had a nice arrangement between the two of them."

Sookie knew Jason was trying to hint at something with the word 'arrangement' but did not want to jump to a conclusion about what he meant. Lafayette was her friend so maybe it was not something sordid.

"So uh … Amy and I had followed Lafayette."

"And …?"

"And well, I didn't realize how desperate Amy was. Really, you got to believe me. She showed me her necklace, but it was only one silver chain."

Sookie's eyes widened, she had admired Amy's necklace and they had talked about it.

"Yeah?"

Jason's eyes glanced about. They were taxiing on the runway so the crew was in their own seats and not near them.

"I knocked on the vampire's door and said I was a friend of Lafayette's when he asked. He opened it."

Sookie was growing impatient with Jason's pauses Usually Jason was not so bashful about his exploits, even when he was doing something real stupid.

"Amy threw a silver hood over his head and there was even more silver. She had it all in that big pocketbook of hers. He screamed. Real painful like. And she told me to put him in my truck."

"You didn't."

"I know. I was weak. I wanted V, and I wasn't thinking, and Amy was telling me what to do, and I kept thinking it couldn't get any worse, y'know?"

"You kidnapped a vampire?" Sookie hissed, afraid of anyone overhearing, even with the roar of the accelerating airplane engines about to lift them off the ground.

"Yeah."

"What did you do with him?"

"We uh … tied Eddie up in my basement."

"What?"

"Chained him on a folding lounge chair."

"Why did you do that? Couldn't ya just have filled up a couple vials at his house and ran?"

"I know."

"Well, why?"

"Uh, we … Amy said we couldn't let him go, and … I loved her, Sookie. I wanted V almost as much as her. But the bad part was Eddie was awake and could talk to me. He wasn't a bad guy at all."

"What does that mean, that he wasn't a bad guy?"

"Just that I got to talking to him. He wasn't a vampire for long. He had been married, I think one kid, we talked about what it was like being brought up without a father … you know, like he was normal."

"Why are you so surprised by that, Jason?"

"Well ..." Jason said looking confused.

Lowly, Sookie repeated while looking about, "So you kidnapped a vampire with Amy and chained him up in your basement? I guess you got all the V you needed?"

"Yeah."

"Did you start selling the rest?"

"Oh no. No. We only used it for … personal use."

"He's not still in your basement, is he?"

"No."

"What happened?"

"Well, I got feeling sorry for Eddie so I bought some Tru Blood and giving it to him ..."

"Wait, you were not planning on feeding him?"

"Not at first. Amy said he didn't need it, and it would look suspicious if I bought any."

"You were going to starve him?" Sookie thought of Jessica and added, "New vampires are always hungry."

"Oh yeah, Eddie said he was hurting."

"So you kept him fed, after he told you that?"

"Yeah, and I didn't let Amy know, but she found an empty bottle … but she was cool with it. She said we could make Eddie part of the family and no longer keep him locked up if we … um, what was it … Stocking Syndrome? We just had to make Eddie like us."

Sookie's lip curled up. What the hell was Jason talking about? Kidnap someone, starve him while draining his blood, and then get him to like you while keeping him chained in your basement?

"But I knew it was wrong. You got to believe me, Sookie. I knew it was wrong. Eddie was a decent guy, and I thought if I could apologize, we could let him go."

Sookie's eyes widened. Even a new vampire was too strong for Jason. Did Eddie get away and call Eric?

"So I told Amy it was over. I put my foot down. I threw all our V down the drain, and went downstairs to free Eddie and … I really thought Amy was with me on this. She said that we had something special, and agreed we didn't need the V."

She nodded.

"But when I went to free Eddie, Amy did not see it the same as me, and plunged a stake into him."

"You ..."

"Not me. I liked him. I could'a never done that to him."

Sookie sat in her seat with her mouth open for a moment, then asked, "Eric knows?"

"I don't think so, unless Lafayette told him."

"Lafayette? Do you know what Eric did to Lafayette? How … I can't believe you. I really can't, Jason."

"Is there anything you can do?"

"Like what? I went to Dallas in exchange for getting Lafayette out, and I'm not sure how he's doing. He was all messed up."

"What did he do to Lafayette?"

"Enough that I am really afraid, Jason. Eric is not nice."

"He only warned me. And I'm never going to do V again."

"Warned you? Warned you? Eric does not do warnings."

"May I get y'all anything?"

Jason's eyes zeroed in on two items of interest that were now bending over in front of him. "Why hello, darling. Would you have any cold bottles of Turbodog?"

"Sure do."

"I'll take one of those then."

"And you, miss?"

"A gin and tonic, please."

"Coming right up. One Turbodog and a gin and tonic."

"Jason, do you think humans that hang out with vampires drink too much?"

"What's wrong with a beer? It's lunchtime."

Once they had their drinks, a second round and lunch was served, Jason lowly suggested, "Hey, it's sunny in here. What would happen if we … y'know? Getting rid of Eric might take care of both our problems."

"What?" hissed Sookie in outrage. Jason said he felt bad about Eddie, and now he was suggesting killing someone else? "Are you kidding me? First off, those things lock from the inside so we can't get them open without power tools or some kind of crow bar. Secondly, he's paying for your flight to get home. And most importantly, they can take a little bit of sunlight and move damned fast."

"But they're sleeping."

"Older vampires can move during the day. Even Bill can in an emergency. Eric could pop out, grab ya by the throat, and be in the closet before your dead body even hit the floor."

Sookie hoped she was exaggerating, but Jason's idea was monstrous. If Eric only warned Jason, that meant he was not so murderous that he was about to kill Jason … yet. Jason could still walk around, doing stupid things that could change that. But for now, it looked like Jason was on probation. Maybe Eric had some deal in mind for Jason for the future, but Jason did not have much to offer so it was a losing proposition from Eric's side. Shreveport wasn't in Renard parish so Eric couldn't even get a road paved.

"Really?"

"Yes. And if ya did something to Eric, I think ya'd have to do it to Godric too."

"Why? He seems nice, but in a distant sort of way. Guess 'cause he's so old."

"Eric's pretty old too, but I'm not sure how they stay in the here and now mentally. Godric's depressed and suicidal."

"Then why's he a vampire?"

"Jason, I don't know, but it's because he's been alive so long, and I think he has too much time just to sit alone and think. He talks about God and forgiveness and he's … thinking it's his time to go."

"Maybe he was nice enough to be open-minded and listen to the Fellowship, and Steve talked him into that. I mean what vampire talks about God? Is he even talking about ours?"

"What?"

"Well, if he's as old as he said, before there was even Jesus, who knows what he worships."

"I think he meant ours with the capital 'G'."

"Huh. So he converted? How do they do that? I mean Vampire Bill says they don't sizzle when they're hit by holy water, but what priest would even take something like that seriously?"

"Jason, your bigotry's showin'." Sookie believed God loved everyone.

"What? No. I mean I'm just makin' conversation. They got a whole different value system. If anything, they shouldn't even believe in God."

Sookie was happy that the flight from Dallas to Shreveport was short. Jason philosophizing on what vampires believe in and religion in general was more than she could tolerate.

She had a brief flashback to her arrival in Dallas, but there was no man in a suit holding up a placard that said 'Compton party'. There was an Anubis van, some Anubis people in their uniforms, and a harried looking guy talking on his cell phone.

Sookie walked over to the van, and addressed the one that looked like the driver, "Hi."

He gave a nod, then asked, "You two going to Bon Temps?"

"Yes."

"You might as well get in the back seat. First stop's Shreveport."

Sookie caught a loud thought 'cause I can't stand the sound of that bastard's voice.

"Right. We are in Shreveport so 'course that'd be first."

"Hey! Load Compton first. The other two are for Shreveport."

Sookie did not care much for the sound of that voice either. He was thinking there were supposed to be two vans, not one for the whole group. Since they weren't introduced, Sookie was not sure if she should be letting Eric and Godric go off with him, but she had no idea where they were going.

"What's up?" Jason asked.

"They're dropping Eric and Godric in Shreveport first, then us in Bon Temps. The driver asked us to ride in the back seat."

"Okie doke."

Concerned about who this was, Sookie tried to listen. He was a focused thinker so whoever this was was concentrating on he had a conference call about some mutual fund that Eric had money in, but it was not making the appropriate amount of money, and was setting up his wireless headset so he could take notes for Eric to convince him to change to something else. Sookie could not tell how much of Eric's money was involved. Just that this fellow wanted to do a good job because when Eric made a sudden random monetary decision out of the blue, if he followed that strategy, he made money. It was like an insider tip at the track. He suspected some vampire network of investing.

He was looking at his schedule when his eyes lifted and passed over Sookie. Compton's fangbanger. White trash with her boobies hanging out. Sookie smiled and got no beauty pageant winner with those teeth.

Well.

She slid in next to Jason, as Mr. Rude barked into the air as he got in the passenger seat, "Pass code 795488." After a pause, he said, "Bobby Burnham representing Northman."

Even with mind-reading, Sookie had no clue what was going on on Bobby's call. There was money mentioned, but they talked in phrases like '720 mil'. She did not count money like that, and there was something about present value and interest and exchange rates and something dependent on the prime rate. She understood the concept of diversification, but there was rattling on about monthly, quarterly, annual, five year plan and a whole bunch of other nonsense. It wasn't nonsense to Bobby, but Sookie got the impression that he was not happy with what he was hearing. He was listening real well so his thoughts didn't stray to what exactly he was for Eric, or even what he was going to have for dinner.

From the airport, they were headed towards Fangtasia at first, but then turned away. Sookie was pretty sure they were still in Shreveport, but although local to Bon Temps, was not familiar with every neighborhood. When they made a turn, Bobby held out a square of paper to the driver.

The driver waited till he pulled up to an entry gate across the road to take the slip and hand it out the window to show the security guard. The guard looked past the driver at Bobby and then a glance through the rear window at Jason before nodding and opening the gate.

Sookie looked around. It was houses. Not some secret government or vampire facility. The houses looked pretty much alike. Even their lawns and bushes were cloned.

Bobby hung up, or whatever someone did with a headset, and put his notepad into the black shoulder bag he had. He took out something else, and Sookie didn't know what it was till they pulled into a driveway and he pointed it up to the house. The double garage door opened, and she saw a red Corvette parked in the second bay further from the house. There was an Impala parked outside the garage behind the Corvette.

"Pull inside. You can get closer to the door."

Bobby hopped out and was already jangling through a ring of keys to get the steel door to the house unlocked, after he entered a code into a keypad. While the driver turned the engine off then went to the back of the van to unload the cargo. There was another one of those lifts back there. Sookie knew Eric would be at least a two-person job without it, but Bobby did not offer to do anything to assist. He felt the driver was 'the help', not him.

They weren't parked so Sookie could see into the house without getting out of the van.

Jason commented, "Doesn't look like a vampire house."

"Yeah, Bill's has got character."

"I guess the neighbors know this is a vampire house if an Anubis van is pulling in."

"You're right," Sookie agreed.

After a minute of silence, as the driver took the second coffin out, "Nice ride," Jason commented with a thumb jerked at the Corvette.

"Yeah."

"Still prefer a truck. There's no room in that thing."

Sookie restrained herself from commenting on the quantity of discarded paper cups Jason's truck could hold in comparison to a sports car.

The driver slammed the back shut and got back in his seat. Before he turned the van back on, he called in and reported the time and the delivery of Eric Northman and Heimdall. Sookie committed the address to memory and once they pulled out, she fumbled in her purse to write it down.

Jason leaned over to look at what she was writing caused Sookie to lift a finger to her lips.

Jason whispered, "Who's Heimdall?"

"I think it's Godric. He might be using a different name here."

"They change their names whenever they want?"

"I don't know. Godric told me last night that he was in disgrace or something after that thing at the church."

"It wasn't his fault. He kept things from getting way out of hand. Heck, he might be just as much of a hero as me."

Sookie nodded her agreement and stuffed her pen and scrap of paper back in her bag.

When they passed into Bon Temps, it looked like the town was being used to film a movie and the apocalypse had occurred. The Stackhouses noticed that before the man and woman jumped in front of the van and rolled off laughing. Their driver was quite upset, and Sookie agreed that it was not his fault. They were acting like a couple of drug fiends on Cops, and their eyes were weird black orbs.

Eventually they got near Sookie's and passed her driveway before pulling off to go to Bill's house.

It just got weirder once they got into Bill's house. Jason got an answering machine at the sheriff's when he called to report the accident and find out what was going on. Hoyt and Maxime Fortenberry were upstairs, and Mrs. Foytenberry had them weird eyes and was talking about Sam Merlotte being some kind of sacrifice to god. Then Hoyt tells them that Maryann is over at Sookie's house, which is now Maryann's. Mrs. Foytenberry promising loudly that Sam will be served up like barbeque.

Well, it was too much for Jason to listen to so he hared off to Merlotte's to straighten things out, against the advice of both Bill and Sookie.

Then Sookie heard that Tara was over at her house, or as Hoyt said 'party over at Maryann's'. She couldn't leave her best friend over there, so Bill and her drove over. Her house was trashed and smelt really bad. The front door was wide open and all the lights were left on. There were even tree branches in the house. What the fuck?

When Sookie saw the photograph of Gran, Tara and her lying on the steps, with the frame smashed, she feared the worst. It was a stroke of good luck that Lafayette chose then to call. Tara was with him, but when he heard Sookie was standing in her living room, his concern became evident. He urged Sookie to get out of her house right away.

It was too late. Maryann was there. After a brief argument of whose house it was, Maryann's or Sookie's, Maryann slammed Sookie into the wall and she could tell Maryann was the thing that attacked her. Bill got her off, but when he bit Maryann, he was poisoned. He was foaming at the mouth and spitting some foul green stuff out while Maryann laughed. What was she?

Conversely, Maryann asked Sookie, "What are you?"

When Sookie tried to defend herself, claiming, "It is none of your business," a weird light came out of her hand that fended off Maryann temporarily so they could get away.

Sookie drove them to Lafayette's, while Bill hung his head out the window, still under the ill effects from Maryann's poisonous blood.

When Sookie suggested calling Eric, Bill vehemently replied, "I will not turn to Eric."

When Bill asked, Sookie confessed she did not know what she did to Maryann, but she knew Maryann was who attacked her in the woods. Bill swore to kill her, and Sookie agreed. They hoped Tara could give them some information on who Maryann was, and then Bill asked for Sookie's wrist so he could feed and heal.

After pulling Tara's mind back to her own body and self-control, Bill and Sookie stepped out to the porch where Sookie repeated the chant that had permeated Tara's afflicted mind. Bill remembered those names and thought to himself that he knew what Maryann was.

Sookie asked, "What is she? And more importantly how do we kill her?"

"I do not know how to defeat her. But I may know one vampire who might. Might. But if I'm gonna make it by daylight, I must leave now."

"Let's go," Sookie agreed.

"I must do this alone. But I'll be back by morning. Jason and Sam, Tara and Lafayette, you can do more good for them here."

"You're right. I left everybody before, and look what happened."

"Can you do whatever it was you did to Maryann, can you do that again?"

"I don't know. I don't even know what it was that I did."

"All right. You keep your friends safe. And by all means, keep away from your home."

Sookie nodded as Bill urged, "Promise me."

"Promise," she agreed, and leaned in to give Bill a good-bye kiss.

Hours later, when Bill reached the queen's residence, he obeyed her cardinal rule and turned off his cell phone before entering. The queen had a notorious temper, and Bill did not want to risk upsetting her. Hopefully, Sophie-Anne would see him quickly and he'd be on his way back to Bon Temps.