Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Trublood.


I could practically cut the tension between Sookie and Mr. Compton with a knife in the car on the way back to Bon Temps. Mr. Compton looked over at Sookie about twice a minute, looking very much like he wanted to talk to her, but she was giving off a very distinct vibe that clearly stated that he was in the dog house and anything that came out of his mouth was just going to make it worse. I just leaned back and thought about the night.

Erik Northman was an enigma and so was his companion, Pam. Erik was obviously very old, his thoughts were in a language I don't know, though if I had to hazard a guess with the way that he looks and acts I would probably say its ancient Norse. He came off as a storybook vampire Viking with a superiority complex. The storybook vampire part was probably an act, the superiority complex likely wasn't.

His companion, who I would hazard a guess at being his childe, was an interesting specimen to say the very least. She seemed to completely accept her life as a vampire in a way that not many did until they had a couple hundred years under their belt. Either she was that old, or she was just made to be a vampire more than she was a human.

That's one of the reasons that Mr. Compton rubs me the wrong way. He has been a vampire for more than a hundred years but he's still caught up in the whole 'damned by God' thing. Most vampires move past that whole thing fairly quickly but he seems to be in the middle of a depressive self-depreciation kick. The last thing someone like Sookie needs is someone that can't even accept who he is, let alone everything that Sookie is. The very last thing that I want for Sookie is for her to get involved with someone that's going to make her feel like her gifts are something to be ashamed of, or something to be buried in the back of her mind and never used.

I was so far in my own thoughts that I didn't even notice the cop car that was following us until the sirens sounded and Mr. Compton was pulling over to the side of the road with rather unpleasant run of thoughts about stupid human cops. I had the feeling that he was going to do something that most certainly would not endear him to Sookie or me.

The cop that sauntered up to the window identified Mr. Compton as a vampire in short order and looked none too pleased to see him driving a car with Sookie and myself within it. Sookie seemed to fit the role of the innocent southern girl that didn't know any better and I apparently reminded him of his little brother. He was all set to make Mr. Compton's life difficult until he looked directly into his eyes.

The fury rolling off of Sookie could almost be physically felt and her glare was just short of lethal as Mr. Compton glamoured the poor man into giving up his gun, completely unnecessary in my opinion, and sent him on his merry way with a lot fewer memories. If I thought that the silence in the car up until this point had been bad I can about bet that I haven't seen anything yet.

(T)

"That was a complete waste of time." Sookie somehow managed to yell without getting loud enough to wake anyone up. Of course her mental yelling was more than loud enough. "None of those vampires knew anything and none of the people there could stop thinking about sex long enough to get anything else out of them."

"I doubt that vampires would be responsible for killing those girls." I threw the light jacket I had been wearing onto one of the dining room chairs and plopped down. "They weren't drained of blood and the vampires are trying to prove that they aren't a threat so if they had killed them they probably would have made very sure that no one would be able to connect them to the murders. My bet is on some lunatic that snapped after someone that they cared about died or left them because of a vampire. They probably act completely normal most of the time, probably even stand up for vampire rights and equality with the whole separate but equal part added in. Since it's the women being targeted then my guess is that the murderer is most likely a man, they're fairly young and in good shape so the killer has to be too. The best place to get the info you'll need to catch them is a place that both women had in common or someone that they had in common."

"The only person that they ever had in common is Jason, but then again so do more than three fourths of the women in town." Sookie sighed and sank into a chair after grabbing a beer out of the fridge. "The only place that they all have in common is Merlotte's but I've been trying to get something out of the people there for ages. All I can get to is what they're thinking about at the moment and that's normally food, sex, or how God is going to strike me down because I don't think that vampires are inherently evil like they do."

"I can try to pick at their minds while I'm at Merlotte's with you and see if I can get something more out of them but I can make no guarantees that I'll be any more successful than you. You need to be a bit more careful from now on though." Sookie looked up with wide eyes. "The whole town knows that Mr. Compton is spending a lot of time around you, the person responsible for all of this is probably watching everything too and if he thinks that you're going to end up the same way as Maudette or Dawn he'll put you on his hit list."

T

Eric wasn't terribly prone to deep thoughts and introspection, it just wasn't in his nature but there was plenty to analysis during his sleep this day. The young man that entered with Compton was at the forefront of those thoughts. His scent screamed that he wasn't human but there was something else there, something powerful that lured his inner beast out in ways that he hadn't felt since he wandered with Godric. The boy was a slim little thing that barely looked like he could stand up in a strong wind but also gave off the vibe that he would plant you in the ground if you looked at him funny.

Godric used to tell him stories about fairies and other magical creatures that used to roam the world but also that they had decided that none should risk exposure. Shapeshifters had the easiest time just blending in with werewolves and the like following right behind them. Vampires were always masters at escaping notice until they decided to come out of the coffin of course. The other creatures seemed to just disappear from one day to the next while fairies were supposed to be extinct as far as Godric knew. The boy had to be something other than human, there wasn't a human in the world that could entrap him in his thoughts like that little slip of a boy had done in a moment. Perhaps he would see if he could find anything useful for that Sookie girl's little investigation.