I do not own any characters from the series True Blood or the Sookie Stackhouse collection of books – everyone else are mine. Nor do I own the title of the story – it is from a song by The Vagrants. Also, I do not make any profit from this story – it is simply for my, and hopefully your, pleasure.

Chapter eight

"Hmm? Ooooh!"

Gingerly, Mary opened one eye and then the other, wincing as her head pounded with pain.

"You never learn, do you?" came Bill's voice somewhere above her.

"W-where am I?" Mary groaned, holding her head in her hands to try and stop the pain.

"At my house, where you will be staying. You should not antagonise Eric; he is a very powerful vampire."

"He's a jackass, vampire or not!" she spat. "If he wants my respect, he has to earn it."

"Hi..."

Mary managed to raise her vision to take in a young, red haired woman, smiling down at her. "Jessica, right?"

"Yeah!" she beamed, happy that her maker's friend knew who she was. "I can't believe you stood up to Eric!"

"That's enough!" Bill snapped sharply. "Do not encourage her, for God's sake!"

"You talking to me or Jessica?" Mary enquired as she slowly sat up with the young vampire's help.

"Both of you, I fear," he frowned, sighing heavily and shaking his head. "We are going to have to go soon. There is some food in the kitchen, that Sookie cooks when she's over. Please, Mary, don't do anything stupid..."

"It's all I can do to sit up," she snorted, "so don't worry, I shan't be going over to stake Eric."

"Mary..." he warned, coming from behind the settee to face her. "Stay here and don't go anywhere!"

"And just what are you going to do to stop me? I won't," she added, seeing the look of alarm on his face. "I'll stay here like a good little girl. Does Sookie know I'm here?"

"Yes," came the curt reply, and Mary exchanged a quick glance with Jessica who pulled a face.

"She's not happy, huh?"

"We have to go; it is almost dawn."

"Okay, see you both later, huh?"

Mary sank back on the settee once she was alone again, and closed her eyes; the motel, her friends, Eric Northman, and Fangtasia all merging into one jumbled mess in her mind. 'Dammit all,' she thought as tears welled up in her eyes, 'Stu... Walt... Ann-Marie...' Mary rammed her fist in her mouth as a sob escaped her lips, but the sense of loss overwhelmed her and she buried her face in the cushions, sobbing as if her heart was breaking.

A couple of weeks later

"What can I get ya?"

"Ah... a beer, thanks," Mary replied as she stood at the bar or Merlotte's, only being here because she was in desperate need of company that day.

"You're new around here, huh? Sam Merlotte," the man behind the bar introduced himself as he handed over a bottle.

"Ah, the owner? I'm Mary Coombes; I'm a friend of Bill Compton."

"Oh. Right. I wondered why Sookie had been a little... off for the past coupla weeks... you're staying with him?"

"Yeah. Although not for long, I hope. It's kinda... well."

"So, how'd you know Bill?"

"We met a while back, and he's helping me out after I became homeless."

"Oh, sorry to hear that. Look, I don't suppose you're after a job, are you? I'm a little short-staffed, and maybe you could use the money?"

"Do you pounce on every customer who walks through the door?" Mary grinned.

"No, only the good-lookin' ones," Sam winked. "How about it?"

"I have no experience in waiting," she warned.

"You cannot be any worse than some who have worked here!"

"You got yourself a waitress, Mr. Merlotte! When do I start?"

"Now?" Sam enquired hopefully, looking what he hoped was pitifully at her.

"Jeez! And here was me only after a beer!" Mary laughed as she picked up her bottle and carried it around to the other side of the bar. "So, show me the ropes.

A few hours later

Mary glanced around as a slight hush descended over the bar, her heart sinking slightly as Bill strode over to her, his face a mask of displeasure. "O neg?"

"What are you doing here?" he demanded crossly. "I have been worried about you!"

"Bill, I'm a grown woman, I do not need you to hold my hand every time I go out. Sam offered me a job, and I accepted. Let's face it, the sooner I'm out of your place, the happier everyone'll be, okay?"

"I will not be happy!" he hissed.

"Look, I no longer fantasise about staking Eric, so you have nothing to worry about."

"Mary!"

"Bill," she sighed, taking his arm and leading him to a quieter spot, well aware of flapping ears. "I have felt more normal today than I have in the last couple of weeks. I need to do this, not just to get some money so I can get a place of my own, but for the company, Bill. I have nearly gone insane this last few days with just my own company."

"There is Sookie..."

"Who hates my guts! Come on, Bill. You cannot seriously think that we're going to be bosum buddies? She is your lover, I am a former lover, however briefly we were involved for... how would you feel, huh?"

"Murderous," he growled softly.

"Exactly. I am fine here, I am safe here, so please stop worrying! Now, O neg?"

"Yes please," he sighed, shaking his head as Mary went behind the bar to get his bottle of Tru Blood. "Do you mean it?" he enquired when she returned and placed the bottle in front of him at the bar.

"What?"

"About Eric? Do you still believe he had something to do with the fire?"

"No... I guess deep down, I never did. I just wanted someone to blame and he was the easiest and most obvious target."

"I am not sure about easiest," Bill frowned as he sipped his drink.

"If you hadn't been at Fangtasia, I would have killed him."

"And you would have been torn limb from limb."

"I was that numb, I don't think I'd have felt a thing," Mary sighed with a rueful shrug. "Do you think he will investigate?"

"Oh yes, of that I have little doubt. He does take his duties seriously."

"Bill! What're you doing here?" Sookie put in, all but barging Mary out of the way. "I didn't think you'd be coming in tonight."

"I wanted to know where Mary was," he explained. "I did not know that she was working here now."

"No. Neither did I."

"Catch you later, huh?" Mary smiled as she moved away, trying not to let her heart sink. 'I have to move out ASAP!'

"Everything okay?" Sam enquired, having spied the scene.

"Yeah... I guess," Mary sighed, shrugging at him. "I can't blame Sookie for being angry, and not trusting me, but..."

"It ain't easy?" he finished.

"No, it bloody well isn't! I don't suppose you've got a room, huh?" she asked, half jokingly.

"'Fraid not," he shrugged. "I could find out if someone has a room to let, if you like?"

"No... most people wouldn't take too kindly on my having vampires, even one so nice as Bill, around to visit. Thanks anyway."

"No problem. I'll do anything to keep a good waitress!" he teased, grinning as Mary bobbed her tongue out to him on her way to take an order from one of her tables.

A few nights later

Mary frowned as a deathly hush spread over the bar, her heart hammering as she turned and watched Eric Northman casually stroll across the floor and sit at one of Arlene's tables. 'Thank fuck for that!' she thought, and concentrated on taking her order, writing things down a couple of times before she finally got it right. 'How the fuck did he know I work here? Sookie?' She took a deep breath and deliberately walked over to the serving hatch, pinning her order up and taking a couple of seconds to compose herself before turning again, feeling Eric's eyes boring into her the whole time.

"Mary? Can we have 'nother pitcher?" one of her customers called from the table behind Eric's.

"Sure thing," she replied, licking her dry lips as she waited for the pitcher to be filled. 'Do not drop it... do not trip up... do not look at him... smile, for fucks sake!'

"Mary."

"Ah, this is not my table," she replied, mentally cheering as she managed to sound normal; causal even.

Eric stood, turned to the table behind him and gestured, before sitting down on the one the hastily vacated chairs. "This is your table, yes?"

'Fuck you!' "What can I get you?" shedemanded, knowing she sounded anything but calm now.

"Nothing."

"Then I'm sorry, but we operate a policy of not allowing anyone to sit at one of the tables unless they order something."

"Then I guess I will have a Tru Blood, but don't bother warming it up, I never touch the stuff."

"Of course you don't," Mary muttered beneath her breath. 'Calm... normal... don't let him wind you up...'

"Sit," Eric commanded when she returned and slammed the bottle down on the table.

"I'm working," she snapped, already turning to walk away from him.

"Does the name Mark Schneider mean anything to you?"

Mary stopped dead and felt the colour drain from her face as she turned slowly back round to face the blond vampire, still seated and regarding her intently "Never heard of him," she managed to reply.

"You are a terrible liar," Eric pondered dryly. "Sit down."

Mary glanced around then sat heavily in a chair opposite Eric, watching him guardedly. "Why do you want to know?" she demanded.

"So you do know him?"

"Oh, for fuck's sake! I don't have time for your games, Eric!" she spat, leaping to her feet again.

"His print was found on a barrel fragment," he called as she stormed away, and he beckoned her with his hand when she stopped dead and turned around once more, her eyes wide with shock and horror.

"You're lying!" she hissed, her mind refusing to acknowledge what she had just been told.

"And what would I have to gain by lying?" he reasoned, spreading his hands wide in a gesture of innocence.

"It's a helluva coincidence, him bombing the very same motel his wife works at, that happens to be miles away from where we lived!" she argued, going back to the table and sitting down once more, glaring at him.

"So, did he have a thing against vampires?"

"He used to go off if something came on the telly about you, creating about how un-natural it all was, but I guess so did a good deal many other people. Doesn't make them terrorists." Mary blanched as Eric fished out a photograph from an inside pocket of his jacket and pushed it across the table, Mark clearly visible on it, talking to another man.

"The other man is a known member of the American Moral League, possibly the leader, and this was taken last night..."

"And you now think I had something to do with it? That I'm in cahoots with Mark?"

"As you say, a helluva coincidence."

"Oh, I don't believe this!" Mary snorted, throwing her hands up. "You saw the state I was in, Eric! You know I would never do anything like that!"

"Is everything okay?" Sam enquired as he hesitantly approached the table.

"Yeah, sorry Sam," Mary sighed. "Look, I gotta work and you're scaring off the customers. Come over to Bill's after my shift and we'll talk then, okay?" she added, barely looking at the vampire as she addressed him.

"I'll see you later," Eric agreed, inclining his head slightly, before getting up and throwing some money on the table. "Put the change in the charity tin."

"What was that all about?" Sam enquired once Eric had left.

"Yeah, what?" Sookie added as she joined them.

"Nothing... sorry about that, Sam. It won't happen again." 'I hope.'

"You can't dictate who comes in," Sam reasoned. "And so long as they don't cause trouble, I have no problem with other vampires."

"Yeah, but he isn't just another vampire, is he?" Mary sighed as she hurried over to one of her tables on seeing that their pitcher was nearly empty, hoping to keep their custom and not have them scared off by Eric's presence.

A while later

"Oh, thank God tonight's over with!" Arlene breathed. "I'll see you tomorrow, Mary; night Sookie."

"Yeah, night, Arlene," Mary replied as she headed for the door, eager to get away from the bar, but at the same time not looking forward to what was to come. 'Is Mark behind all this?' she wondered for the umpteenth time that evening. She savoured the reasonably fresh air as she stood outside the bar for a moment then went to walk to her car, pausing in her step as she noticed Eric sitting on the bonnet. 'Great...' "I thought I was meeting you at Bills?"

"I though I would make sure you got there safely," he replied with a cold smile, his eyes flickering along her legs, exposed by the pair of shorts that was part of her uniform at Merlotte's.

"You didn't trust me not to do a runner, you mean?" she accused, shooting him a dark look.

"I did not want to wait for three hours at Bills house," he admitted, making the corners of Mary's lips twitch in the ghost of a smile, in spite of herself.

"So why didn't you go to Fangtasia and come back?"

"It's nice here; peaceful."

"Oh, that is bad for your image," Mary taunted. "The great, cool Eric Norseman likes the peaceful countryside!"

"Norseman?" he enquired with a raised eyebrow.

"Northman is a bastardisation of it, right? So yeah, Norseman."

"I suppose it is," he agreed with a smile, the first genuine one Mary had seen from him. "So, do I get a ride?"

"You're a vampire; you don't need one, but I suppose you'd better get in. So... you think Mark set the barrels?"

"How else would his print get on the underside of the one that fragmented?" Eric replied as he got into the car.

"Could have been a barrel that the forestry had once used?" Mary suggested, trying to think of anything that would distance her estranged husband from the atrocity that had broken her heart.

"Then how do you explain him knowing a member of the AML, and pretty well by the look of things?

"It is too coincidental, him having anything to do with the motel" she argued as she pulled out of the parking lot at Merlotte's bar.

"You haven't even considered it, have you?"

"What?"

"That it might have been you that he was after; killing the the vampires being a bonus."

"M-me?" Mary spluttered, braking hard and staring at Eric. "You think he targeted me?"

"Yes, I do. As you say, it is too coincidental otherwise."

"But... how the hell would he know where I was?"

"Someone who knew you and stayed at the motel?"

"Nearly a hundred miles away?"

"Maybe they had a vampire fetish and were prepared to travel?"

"Shreveport and Fangtasia are nearer."

"Bank details? Card details?"

"Bank...?" Mary frowned, looking thoughtfully at Eric. "The bitch he left me for worked in a bank in Cahors."

"The bank you still use?"

"Yes," she sighed, shaking her head. "The bastard!"

"I need to find him, Mary. Do you know where he'd be? Where this woman lives?"

Mary jumped as a horn sounded behind her, and she put the car in gear again, somehow managing to pull away once more. "I haven't seen him since the night he kicked me and Bill out. Why? What do you plan to do with him? Turn him over to the police?"

"The police?" Eric repeated incredulously. "Why would I turn him over to the police so that they can slap him on the wrist, tell him not to be a naughty boy again, and send him on his way?"

"I don't think that would happen. The American Vampire League have been kicking up a fuss about it, and there is disgust that humans were killed by the fire as well; I don't think they would dare let whoever was behind it, go, not without acerbating the situation."

"You credit your species with far too much intelligence," he retorted.

"So, what? You reckon that by finding Mark or whoever and dealing with them yourselves, is the best way, huh? Never mind that in the human world it will seem as if it's an unresolved crime; that the perpetrators got away with murder!"

"They would get away with it in your world!" Eric argued.

"If it was Mark, and he did get away with it, I'd hunt him down and put a bullet in his brain myself!"

"I might hold you to that..."

"You do that, Eric Norseman, because I fucking well mean it!" Mary yelled, pulling over before she lost control of herself and the car, and jumped out, storming away from the vehicle.

"So you won't help me?" Eric queried as he followed her. "I could glamour you..."

"Then why don't you?"

He sighed. "Even if he was found guilty, and faced the death sentence for what he did, they would make him a martyr."

"And by thinking that he got away with it, they would make him a hero. At least martyrs are dead!"

"And so we reach and impasse," he mused, looking at her from beneath his brows. "What do you suggest we do?"

"You don't even know that it's Mark!" Mary defended.

"Even if all Mark did was load the barrels onto the truck, he will know who was behind it. That is why I have to find him; his is the only concrete identity I have, Mare, and who is accessible."

"Mare? I only allow close friends to all me Mare."

"Mary," he corrected with a crooked smile. "I will question him, with you present if you like, and if I think he is just a foot soldier rather than a general, then I shall hand him over to the police, okay?"

"And if he's a general?"

"Then I am obliged to hand him over to the vampire council to decide his punishment."

"Which won't be pleasant..."

"Neither is the electric chair. Have you even seen someone die by that method? It is not pleasant, even for me. And yet if they just give him life imprisonment, he will be thought of as a hero."

"So it's screwed whichever way," Mary sighed heavily.

"Yes. Help me, Mary; you owe me one, after all..."

"Bastard!" she muttered, closing her eyes as thoughts raced through her mind in a jumble, but she knew she had little choice. "Okay... let's head to Bill's, I'll show you the best possible locations on Google Maps. I dunno where the woman lives, only that her name is Emmy-Sue and she works at the United Bank."

"Thank you. Come on, let's go," he jerked his head towards the car, then lead the way back to the vehicle, getting in to the drivers seat.

"Hi Bill, Jess. Is it okay if I use the computer a while," Mary enquired wearily as she entered the gloomy house, followed closely by Eric.

"Of course... what is going on?" Bill demanded, giving Eric a look over his shoulder as he followed Mary to the computer desk.

"Mark's print was found on a barrel at the motel, and he was seen having a cosy chit chat with an AML member last night. Eric wants to find him."

"You do not sound happy about that?" Bill frowned, trying to keep his voice low enough so that Eric could not hear.

"Doesn't matter how I feel," she sighed as she opened up Google Maps and started searching. "This is our old house," she told Eric who leaned over her shoulder, a little too closely for either hers or Bill's liking, but Eric ignored them both.

"Would he be there?"

"I have no idea. Possibly. This..." she continued, scrolling out then heading for a spot deep inside Kisatchie National Forest, "is his favourite hunting and fishing spot. There is a log cabin that he'd stay in; it's a good half hour hike from the road, but then that's a long way to have to keep travelling to and from."

"Are there other cabins?" the blond pressed.

"Yes, but as they are nearer to the roads, they are more frequently used by members of the public. Only dedicated ones tend to go for the Pine Wood Pond cabin; this is Mark," Mary added, calling up an official forestry photograph of her husband, and having conflicting feelings well up inside of her at the sight of him, mostly fear for his life if Eric ever did find him, but then Mary thought of the motel and the pain her friends must have suffered, and she hardened her heart. "I dunno when you plan to travel, but there is a windowless cellar in my old house, or failing that, a large outbuilding where you could shelter. Bill stayed there until I discovered him. Or rather, he discovered me... All of the log cabins in the forest have windows and no cellars, so they are unsuitable, and I don't know of any vampires in Cahors or Alexandria, I'm afraid."

"I know a few in Alexandria, but thank you," Eric replied, not taking his eyes off the monitor as he memorised the layout. "I'll go tomorrow night."

"I should go, instead," Bill offered. "I have met him, I know better what he looks like than you do."

"And you'll hand him straight over to the police," Eric argued, pulling a chiding face at the smaller, dark haired vampire. "Mary and I have an agreement."

"Which is?" Bill pressed.

"Thank you for your help, Mary," Eric acknowledged, totally ignoring Bill. "I will let you know if I find him or not."

"Okay; I'm not sure whether I want you to find him, but good luck," Mary nodded, closing her eyes as Eric strode from the kitchen. "Oh, dammit," she sighed, covering her face with her hands.

"I'm sorry," Jessica offered, hovering in the doorway, unsure as to whether to go and comfort the human woman or not.

"Dammit! Eric!" Mary called, leaping to her feet and running through the house, stopping on the verandah. "I forgot to tell you... Mark was in the army... he worked with explosives."

Eric held her gaze for several moments before nodding. "Then you know what I must do if I find him."

"Yeah," she sighed, leaning against the door frame for support as Eric floated up in the air, grinning at her look of utter astonishment, before flying away. "Fuck..."

"Do you really believe that Mark is behind the bombing?" Bill frowned.

"I... don't know," Mary sighed, leaning against his shoulder as he stood behind her. "I hope not, but it's looking more and more likely."

"You have not made any deals with Eric have you? You do not want to associate with him; he is dangerous."

"I know that, she shrugged, appearing unconcerned. "I'm heading to bed; night, Bill, Jessica."

Mary lay down on her bed, unable to stop the tears that flowed down her cheeks. 'Oh Mark, what happened to you? Did I ever even know the real you?' She tried to hide her tears as Bill entered her room and sat on the bed, but instead Mary sat up, buried her face in his chest and sobbed as he rocked her back and forth.