"Hey, I wonder what you two were doing." Raven said with wide, knowing eyes. She was also chuckling under her breath, something Sookie had noticed not many vampires do. Not even Bill chuckles, well around Sookie anyway.

Bill snorted, "How old are you?"

"225. But I have the emotional age of a teenager, so I can make comments like that." Raven said, Sookie decided that she liked Raven. She was so laid back, even as a vampire.

"Why are you here?" Bill asked.

"I have news."

Without Bill's consent she walked through the hallway and into the living room, where she sat on the chair. Bill and Sookie sat on the sofa and looked at Raven.

"I have asked Sam if you can work with me at Merlotte's, and he said yeah." Raven said to Bill, then looked at Sookie and smiled.

Raven brought up one hand and put up one finger, two fingers and when she got to three Bill started,

"How could you do this? You had no right to do that! I haven't even been in this town for very long! How could I sing in front of everyone? I don't even know half the people here!"

"Well, you are doing it. Anyway, you need the money, you can't just use old Jessie Compton's money. It will run out. Anyway if you are going to mainstream you need a job."

"Fine. I'll do it."

"Great, and you won't have to sing all of the time, you can play the piano or I could teach you the guitar."

"We will see."

Just then Jessica burst through the door, blood tears streaming down her face.

"Don't talk to me!" She said and ran into the hole under the floor.

"What's wrong with her?" Bill asked, clueless.

"Boy problems." Sookie and Raven said at the same time.

"I will go and talk to her." Bill said.

"Woah woah woah, no. The last thing she wants, is another man." Sookie said, "I will go."

"No, I will go. I know how to handle vampires. She might turn on you." Raven said.

"Jessica is a nice girl, she won't hurt me." Sookie said reassuringly.

"Vampire's can't always control themselves, let me go."

"Okay." Sookie said, letting Raven go and see Jessica.

Raven walked over to the hole in the floor and opened the door to it.

"Jessica, I'm coming in." Raven said.

"No!" Jessica replied, but it was too late, Raven was already inside with her.

The hole was just big enough for both of them to sit in. Jessica tried to hit Raven, but before she her hand could come into contact with Raven's face, Raven grabbed Jessica's hand and twisted.

Jessica gasped in pain, "Don't ever provoke me." Raven said with vicious eyes.

Raven sat up against the wall while Jessica sat with her legs crossed.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't even know you. Why should I tell you?"

"I will give you a choice, you can either tell me, or tell Bill. It's up to you."

"Okay, I'll tell you. But don't laugh at me."

"I promise, on my death."

"You know that I went out with that guy last night. His name is Hoyt. We started to have, you know, and I couldn't. It really hurt, and there was blood. I don't know what it was, it just..." Jessica tried to explain what it was, but couldn't.

"I know what you're talking about. I had the same thing."

"You had? How did you get rid of it?" Jessica asked desperately.

"It was very painful and takes about 3 nights."

"How did you figure out how to fix it?"

"I will tell you the story. You have to listen carefully and don't interrupt me. Deal?"

"Deal."

"Before I was brought over, I lived in a village in England. I was with Marcus, the witch, then. We had never had sex because it wasn't proper then to do so before marriage. We used to all eat together around a fire in the evening and an old woman would tell us stories about another woman that lived in the village with us. She said the woman was a vampire but none of us really believed the old woman and the woman in question never admitted it. Our village was full of the supernatural, Marcus is a witch, the woman was a vampire and our blacksmith was a werewolf. The vampire was called Rose and she was a prostitute, which wasn't strange in those times. She belonged to a woman who sold her body for money. It wasn't out of the ordinary. One night Lorena changed me, I didn't want it but she wanted a friend to pal around with. For once she actually meant no harm, but when her maker, Itsvan, found out she had changed me, he made me sell my body for money. I had never done this before, in fact I had never even had sex before. I went to Rose to ask for help, she said she never gave the man sex, she kissed him, then glamoured him into thinking that he had had the best sex ever. He would pay her with generous tips, then when he left, he would tell his friends that he had just had the best sex ever, so his friends would hire Rose and she would do the same thing, and the cycle would continue. She was a very wealthy woman. I asked her why she did this and she told me something was blocking her from having sex and she bled every time she did, her maker a woman called Maya fixed it for her, but Maya made her promise that she would only have sex with people that she really loved, never whilst selling her body. She agreed and glamoured them instead, she told me to do what she did, kiss them then glamour them. So I did. It worked for about a month, until the blacksmith came to me. He knew what I was and heard from others that sex with me was great, so he hired me. I didn't know what he was, so I went along with it. I tried to glamour him, but he wouldn't look at me. He knew what I was going to do. He said if I didn't have sex with him he would rape me. And he did. After, he was asleep and I ran out to find Rose. It told her I needed help, I told her what happened to me and she fixed me. I went to Marcus afterwards, looking for support. He knew what I was as soon as I walked in. He cursed me, then raped me, then left. I went to Rose to tell her that her treatment had worked that it wasn't half as painful as it was before with the werewolf. But Rose wasn't there, just a pile of bones and there was a note. It said 'You earned this.' And it was from Marcus. He thought that Rose had changed me. I buried her bones and ran. I knew that Maya would come looking for Rose, then for me. Itsvan had no sympathy for me, and why would he? I might as well have been just another human to him. He tried to kill me, but he couldn't. Lorena and I joined forces for that fight, and we won. Itsvan fled. I have only seen him again once. And he ran from me like before. For years I thought that Lorena was my friend, but I started to notice that when she asked me to do something didn't want to do. She would remind me that she 'saved' me and she would make me do it. Also, the fact that she is my maker made her commands more effective. After some time she got bored of me and decided she needed a male companion, so she made me hide whenever someone came over. Then Bill arrived. And I won't say anything more about how Bill was changed because it is his business to tell you and I know he is listening. But I will say this, if you ever meet her, don't trust a word she says. She has no power over you and she will twist your words and try and turn everyone against you. So if she comes here, don't even acknowledge her being here."

"Okay. How do I get fixed? Can you do it?"

"The fix has what you would call stages, the first thing I have to do it dig a huge hole in between two thick, strong trees. You then get inside the hole and you are bound by silver to the trees. This is one of the most important things to do, the treatment would be so painful you would kill me to stop me. You have to really want it, to have it done. Should I proceed, or do you want to live with it and forget there is a cure?"

"No, go on."

"Okay. Before you are secured to the tree, your clothes below your waist would have been stripped. I won't get too graphic, because one, you don't want to know all the technical things, and two, I don't know all of the technical words that would be used. I would cut away the thing blocking you with a silver knife, then apply silver plates to the wound, making it try to heal itself like normal but find it's restricted because of the silver. You will not have blood for this time, as this would strengthen you and you might break free or you might heal too well. Also you would have to have been starved of blood a night before so your body doesn't heal the wound instantly. After two nights of lying in the ground the silver plates would be removed and blood would be applied to the wounds. They would heal in the shape of the silver plates, and your problems would be gone. Your wrists would be sore for about a night, and your lower wound would be sore for at least a week, maybe longer, maybe shorter."

Jessica took in all that Raven had said and finally said,

"I want to do it. As soon as possible. Please, help me."

"I will. When was the last time you had blood?"

"Umm...the last time I had a true..."Raven cut her off.

"Honestly, any blood. I won't judge you."

"Last night. I had some of Hoyt's." Jessica replied, with an embarrassed smile on her face.

"Don't drink blood tonight or tomorrow night, we will do it the following night."

"Thank you."

Raven nodded and stepped out from the hidey hole. Bill knew what they were talking about, but Sookie didn't so Raven told her exactly what she had said. Sookie did the thing any normal human would. She said she was sorry and that she didn't deserve it. She even tried to hug Raven. Raven didn't freak out, like any other vampire would have, but she hugged her back. She was glad that someone other than Bill had real sympathy for her.

"I have to go, I am going to see Sam. He asked me out on a date, can you believe that?" Raven said, smiling excitedly.

"Have fun." Bill said as a goodbye.

Sookie gave Raven another hug and said goodbye. Raven started towards the door and shouted to Jessica Good bye. She got the same reply and stepped out the door. She was happy with what had already happened tonight. She hoped the rest of the night would be just as good. But just as she went to run, she heard a painful groan come from somewhere in the forest. Then she smelt blood, though it wasn't human blood.

It was shifters blood.

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