Sunlight and Ambrosia


Chapter 7 – Season 2 – Bull Human


Anne held onto her seat in a death grip as Bill sped down the road back to Bon Temps, Anne and Jessica climbed into the backseat and Sookie in the passenger seat. They only stopped when Bill jerked the car to a stop on the side of the road after listening to Sookie for five minutes straight about slowing down the car.

"I'm sorry," Sookie began as Anne continued to pet Jessica's leg to get her to calm down. "She promised she was just gonna look in the window. I know I made a mistake but they're her family,"

"She is a vampire," Bill roared without taking his eyes off the road. "She has no family,"

"I'm a monster and I'm gonna be alone forever because of you!" Jessica screamed, sitting up in her seat as she shoved Anne away from her. "I hate you so fucking much!"

"Be quiet,"

"Eat shit!"

"I said be quiet!" Bill roared, turning to look at her until she slumped back into her seat. Bill then turned on Sookie. "You undermined my authority as her maker. You risked those peoples' safety and your own. If I had not glamoured them within an inch of their sanity, all our lives would have been shattered,"

"I know. I'm sorry,"

"You keep saying that! And I am expected to what? Forget this ever happened?"

"What else would you like me to say?" Sookie asked desperately. "I knew when she asked me to take her I should have say no- Anne even told me- but all I could think about was Gran and what I'd give to see her again-"

"That does not give you license to behave like an irresponsible child!" Bill threw back. "She is a loaded gun, Sookie, not a doll for you to dress up and play with,"

With that, Sookie spun around, throwing open her door and getting out.

"What are you doing?"

"Walking!"

"Don't be ridiculous; Bon Temps is nearly twenty miles away,"

"I'd rather walk all night than spend another second in that car with you!" Sookie threw back before she walked off into the darkness angrily.

Anne was about to get out and follow the dumb blond before Bill got back into the car, blocking her exit without having to climb over a hungry, irritable, baby vampire. Bill slammed the door behind him as Anne groaned and sat back in her seat.

"She wants you to go after her," Jessica told Bill, sitting up in her seat with a sarcastic eye roll that said she was fed up with the stupid drama between the two love birds. "She wants you to go after her and kiss her and tell her that you love her,"

"She will come back… when she calms down," Bill told them though both girls knew that he was trying to convince himself more than anything. "She will come back,"

"You know very well that she will not," Anne told him, resting her head back against her seat as she closed her eyes. "She will walk all the way back to Bon Temps if it will make a statement,"

They'd been sitting in the car for nearly five minutes in silence waiting for Sookie to return. Anne was about ready to have Bill start driving to go and find her when a horrible shiver went down her spine, making her gasp loudly. Jessica jumped away from her, giving her an annoyed look until she saw the fear on the brunette's face. Anne practically jumped into the front seat, turning scared and completely serious eyes to Bill.

"Bill, get out of the car and get Sookie right now or let me do it,"

"Why?"

Cue scream.

"That's why,"

Bill and Anne got out of the car as fast as they could, Bill using his speed to get to Sookie first, finding her on the ground with deep wounds in her back. He picked her up into his arms and held her as she cried out, her eyes fluttering and trying to remain open.

"What did this to you?"

"Bull… human… I couldn't see," she told him. "Bill, I can't move,"

Bill quickly bit his wrist and held it to her mouth just as Anne appeared next to them.

"No! Bill! Do not!"

But it was already too late. Sookie began spitting up the blood Bill had given her and convulsing violently in his arms, rejecting the blood before she passed out. As Jessica arrived and Bill ordered her to get the car, Anne kneeled down beside Sookie, tying back the blonde's hair and wiping her face with a tissue from her purse.

"What is happening to her?" Bill growled at Anne, clutching Sookie close to his chest.

"I am not sure, Bill, but now is not the time. She needs help,"

Anne touched Sookie's face lightly, leaning down as if to kiss her but before their lips touched, Anne's mouth opened. A shimmering light exited her mouth in a stream, traveling between them until it entered Sookie's mouth, making the girl shimmer. When Anne was finished, she pulled away with a tired groan, wiping at her mouth as if there was something on it.

"What the hell did you just do?"

"I bought us some time,"

Bill stared at Anne with a frown. "What are you?"

Anne shook her head. "Not now,"

Twenty minutes later, Jessica brought the car to a stop in front of Fangtasia and they all got out, Bill commanding Jessica to go home. They walked in to find Eric, hair short- Anne finding him extremely attractive with it short before she mentally slapped herself- standing beside a very small and old woman in a doctor's outfit. "This is Doctor Ludwig. She may be able to help Sookie," Eric told them, his eyes flashing to Sookie's bleeding back before his eyes turned to Anne. "Why, hello, Miss Weston,"

"Take off her jacket," the doctor told them instantly, just as bored sounding as Pam. "Lay her down over here on her stomach,"

Bill and Anne did as they were told and the doctor went to work, Sookie slowly waking up only to scream in pain as the doctor touched the gashes in her back.

"Am I dying?" Sookie asked.

"Yes," Dr. Ludwig told her nonchalantly.

"No! She cannot die. You will save her,"

"Back off, vampire, let me do my job,"

"Forgive him," Eric murmured. "Bill is abnormally attached to this human,"

"If I could hiss at you without it being comical, I would," Anne growled at Eric as she pulled at Bill, patting him on the shoulder to try to calm him down despite the situation.

"Well, we don't have a lot of choices, she's been poisoned," the doctor told them matter-of-factly. "You ever heard of Komodo dragons? Their mouths are teeming with bacteria. After one had bitten you, it will track you for hours, days, just waiting for the toxins to slowly eat away at your nervous system till you're good and helpless, then it will devour you alive,"

"I was scratched by a dragon?"

"No, but the poison is similar, but way more efficient," Dr. Ludwig told her, picking up a bottle from her kit. "Don't think I've seen it before but it's hard to tell without further testing and we don't have that kind of time. Give us some privacy, gentlemen. I need to remove her clothing,"

Eric left immediately but Bill crouched down near Sookie and petted her shoulder. "I will be just outside,"

"I will stay with her, Bill," Anne assured him.

"She doesn't have time, Mr. Compton," Dr. Ludwig told him just before Sookie started foaming at the mouth and shaking.

Bill left with Eric to discuss what had happened as Anne began to assist the doctor.

"Head of a bull," Eric murmured, repeating what Anne had texted him.

"That's what Sookie said. It was dark. It all happened in seconds,"

"So you and Anne didn't see this… bull man?"

"No,"

"And you gave her your blood?"

"It didn't work," Bill told him after a moment, Eric's eyebrow arching toward his hair line. "Anne told me it wouldn't even before Sookie rejected my blood,"

"Really?"

"I think she knows something about this but she said she would not say anything until we got Sookie help. I'm glad I waited," Bill told him before glancing up at Eric. "Anne is not human,"

Eric laughed. "Anyone could tell you that,"

"No… it is more than how she smells or how she speaks…" Bill frowned. "She did something tonight… it was supernatural or otherworldly,"

"What did she do?"

"She… it was as if she was breathing into Sookie. As if she was breathing energy into her," Bill's frown deepened and he shook his head. "I don't think I could explain it. Have you ever heard of anything like this?"

Eric frowned as well, clasping his hands in front of him in thought. "Surprisingly, no… and I'd thought in over a thousand years I'd seen everything there was to see," Eric murmured as he sat down behind his desk, calling Pam and Chow to him. "Search the woods around Highway 71,"

"He can do it," Pam told Eric, glancing down at her shoes. "I'm wearing my favorite pumps,"

"Du hörde vad jag sa," (You heard what I said.) Eric bit out.

Pam groaned but left with Chow regardless.

Eric was grinning. "She is extremely lazy but loyal. How's yours? Jessica,"

"Petulant. Dangerous. Afraid,"

"I'm glad to see you two are bonding," Eric said sarcastically. "Being a good maker is very rewarding,"

"I have to get back to Sookie,"

"Oh, relax," Eric told him, reaching for one of the files on his desk. "Dr. Ludwig treated one of Pam's humans when he was mauled by a werewolf. He lost an eye but otherwise he's fine,"

Sookie's agonized screams put an end to their conversation as Bill ran out of Eric's office. He came out into the main room to see Sookie screaming and thrashing, begging for Dr. Ludwig to stop and for Anne to let her go as Dr. Ludwig poured something onto her back.

"What are you doing to her?!" Bill roared.

"Saving her life,"

Bill came over to Anne's side and took her place, holding Sookie more firmly as the two tried and failed to comfort her. An hour later Dr. Ludwig was done, just patting at the bloody gashes as Sookie lay on the ottoman passed out, Bill sitting beside her on the floor. Anne sat at a table, her face in her hands as she felt as if she was going to pass out, Eric sitting across from her, watching her.

"You can give her blood now," Dr. Ludwig informed them. "Her body should accept it,"

Bill went to bite his wrist but Eric suddenly stopped him, making Anne roll her eyes, tired and annoyed at the man who wanted nothing more than to make Sookie's life more complicated.

"Mine is much stronger. Allow me,"

"Never," Bill growled, pushing Eric off of him.

Anne watched tiredly as Bill gave Sookie blood as Dr. Ludwig looked over at Anne with the first smile anyone had seen on her face in a very long time. "It's been a long time since I've seen one of you traipsing around. You're almost all gone nowadays,"

"Not gone, just well hidden," Anne smiled with a bow of her head. "It is good to be seen, Dr. Ludwig. And I think it best if what I am and where I am remains a secret?"

"Of course," Dr. Ludwig nodded before she headed for the door.

Eric smiled at her as she passed. "It was pleasure doing business with you, as always,"

"Fuck off!"

Bill snorted in amusement. "It seems that the pleasure is one sided,"

"She's not a fan of the fang but she tolerates us because our blood is of such great value to healers," Eric told him, eyeing Anne's tired face before glancing down at Sookie again as she suckled on Bill's wrist. "Careful. You'll overcook her,"

As Bill pulled his wrist away and laid Sookie down, Pam walked in, looking in all kinds of disarray, informing Eric that whatever it was, it was filthy and long gone. Eric nodded and told them that he'd warn the right people before he stopped Pam.

"Those were great pumps,"

Bill got up from his position beside Sookie, glancing up at Eric. "I don't want to move her,"

"Of course not," Eric agreed too easily. "I'll make sure she's taken care of,"

"I'm not leaving her," Bill corrected.

"Longshadow kept a coffin in back," Eric sighed. "He liked to feed before resting so it might be a bit messy but you're welcome to it,"

"I want to thank you for your hospitality," Bill told him as Eric began to walk away. "And for saving Sookie's life,"

"I'm sure there's a way she can pay me," Eric smiled, glancing over his shoulder as he saw Anne look up, her eyes angry. "Or you, Anne,"

"Oh really?" Anne challenged as she stood. "What could you possibly want from me?"

Eric was suddenly in front of Anne, a smirk on his face, revealing his extended fangs. "There is always your sweet blood,"

"Eric," Bill warned.

Eric took a step back and put his hands in his pockets. "Don't tell me you haven't noticed, Billy-boy. She smells even better and more inviting than Sookie does,"

Anne eyed him, a bit of anger in her eyes as she leaned away from him in her seat.

"I would very much like to know what you are," Eric told him with a seductive tone.

She grinned. "I would very much like to keep that as my secret,"

"Pity,"

Eric moved around the table to sit in the seat across from her, stretching out like a cat. Anne watched him carefully until he was comfortably seated, giving him an uncomfortable look before turning to Bill. He didn't seem very happy with her.

"What do you know about the thing that attacked Sookie?" Bill asked.

Anne crossed her arms over her chest. "… I do not know what attacked her but I know I have felt it before. About three weeks ago, just after Sookie survived Rene's attack," Anne frowned. "I did not think to check on it and I have not felt it since this night,"

Anne looked over at Sookie, her gashes slowly healing in front of her eyes.

"But I might know a way to find out what attacked her,"

"How?" Bill asked, straightening.

"I might get a sense of what attacked Sookie if I touch her back, where the thing touched her,"

Eric snorted. "Are you saying that you can see the past by touching things?"

Anne smiled. "Yes,"

Both men stared.

Anne stood from her seat and walked over to Sookie, kneeling on the floor beside the unconscious girl. She took in a deep breath and closed her eyes, rubbing her hands together before touching them down on Sookie's back, trying to dodge the wounded places.

The second Anne touched Sookie's back she was in pain. Her hands burned as if she had laid them on a burner that had been turned on high for the past hour. She could sense the darkness easily, feeling the poison that had once clouded Sookie's body, but she couldn't tell what it was. The only beginnings of realization hit her when she felt the darkness creeping into her mind, the sting of the creature's influence hissing against her fingertips. Anne jerked back with a gasp, shocking Bill and Eric as she shook out her hands.

"I cannot-" Anne gasped, almost breathless with surprise. "I cannot tell. If I had held on for longer I would have- Ow," Anne shook out her hands again. "I do not know what it was exactly but whatever it was, it was as old and evil,"

Eric glanced up at Bill. "Interesting,"

"May I stay here tonight?" Anne asked, getting Eric's attention back. "I do not want to leave Sookie here alone either,"

Eric smiled. "If I get to taste you,"

"Eric," Bill warned again.

"No," Anne said, sounding as bored as Pam.

Eric sighed. "Fine. Sleep on the couch,"

"Thank you,"

Once everyone had left, Bill and Anne changed Sookie into a new pair of underwear and a very large Fangtasia t-shirt. Bill then went to sleep in his coffin before Anne easily fell asleep on the couch closest to Sookie, curled up into a ball with her jacket laid over her like a blanket.