Rachel—POV

For a while, I didn't know where I was. After I left Bill's I started hearing Pam's voice in my mind, ordering me to come back. I kept going and discovered that each step sent what felt like an ocean of fire through my nervous system. One step. Two steps. Left foot. Right foot. I couldn't think once the pain started. I just tried to stay in a straight line.

I ran south out of Bon Temps, knowing where I was going but struggling not to let any picture of it enter my mind. I knew they would follow me—I was expecting that—but the thing was to not let them find me. Or anyone find me. I had stuffed my backpack with True-Blood, money I had gotten from an ATM in town, my favorite book, a flashlight, and my old girl-scout pocket knife and compass and slipped out of the back door when I heard Bill rise. I ran across the yard and onto the street and kept going as fast as I could. Let me tell you, I was blessing my vampire speed! Humans couldn't see me, and until Bill raised the alarm, vampires wouldn't be looking for me.

It was a nasty thing to do to Bill, me leaving like that. I figured Eric would probably blame him. I hoped he would forgive me one day.

"RACHEL…!"

It slowed me down. Every time I heard it and resisted a spasm of nausea nearly did me in.

"RACHEL…!"

I found out it helped if I dug my nails into the flesh of my arms. And bit my tongue really hard. And hummed really loudly through my nose.

"RACHEL…GET BACK HERE NOW!"

I doubled over with dry heaves. I had slowed to a walk. In another minute, I would be crawling, but at least I was getting further away. I looked around. I was on the stretch of road leading back to Shreveport . There were woods on both sides. I headed for them.

"RACHEL, DON'T MAKE THIS SITUATION WORSE THAN IT IS. YOU ARE IN DEEP TROUBLE."

I hummed, almost screeched, the national anthem. Blood started to drip from my nose.

I had to get new clothes. I would change my appearance. I would stay away from towns.

Only one thing bothered me. Could Pam or Eric fly?

Pam—POV

By the time we got on the road, I was in a seriously foul mood.

The Duprees—Father, Mother, Son, and Spiritual Advisor—insisted on going along. It took them forever to get their VW van started. Bill finally had to use his jumper cables. Eric had urged them to stay home, but Mama Dupree shrieked, 'ARE Y'ALL OUT OF YOUR MINDS?!! RACHEL IS MY BABY AND I'M GONNA FIND HER AND BRING HER HOME AND NONE OF Y'ALL ARE GONNA COME NEAR HER EVER AGAIN!!!"

"Will you hush and get in the g.d. car, Mama?!" Billy gave her a little push. Pa Dupree loaded his shotgun with silver bullets. "Got em' special, once I heard." He said with a mirthless chuckle. "Any of you try to hurt her and someone's gonna die, understand?"

I opened my mouth but Eric stomped on my foot. "Of course, Mr. Dupree" he replied smoothly.

"Billy, if you would ride with us, you can direct us" Bill offered. That was big of him—to allow Billy in the car with Sookie. Or maybe he was trying to make a point.

"Pam will follow with my car. And I…" Eric rose into the air, leaving Rachel's family to gawp at him. Showoff!

Eric took off, leaving the rest of us to follow Bill and Sookie. I was glad I was alone in the vehicle. I felt like spitting nails. Invoking the mark takes a lot of energy, and Rachel's resistance was wearing me out. My foot hurt and Eric had gotten his nasty black boot prints all over my brand-new Jimmy Choos. I was also worried for Rachel, and that made me even more furious—that I should have to endure all this for a human! It was insufferable!

But she's not a human. She's a vampire, a small voice in my mind protested.

She's acting like a human, I told the voice wrathfully. Creatures who never think; they just react. Dogs have more sense!

Bill turned onto the road that led south to Shreveport and eventually to New Orleans. It made sense that Rachel would head there. New Orleans is so full of vampires it would be easy for her to disappear; we had to stop her before that.

I saw Eric as a pale speck, far ahead in the night sky. I kept calling Rachel, only to be treated to a shrill, eardrum-shattering rendition of 'The Star-Spangled Banner'. The little bitch had a sense of irony; I had to give her that.

Finally, the lines on the road began to waver in front of my eyes and I had to stop. I had to grip my hands hard on the steering wheel; they were cold and they trembled. It would have served Eric right if I wrecked his 30,000-dollar car, but I was not willing to take the risk of banging myself up.

Sookie—POV

"She'll be running for the coast" Billy said flatly as he climbed into the back of Bill's car. "There's a place in Gulf Shores…we always went there when we were kids. She kept going back all through college, even though Dad sold the house ages ago. She would just stay at a motel and go to the same beach. Stubborn…but it was her favorite place to heal."

Bill glanced at me out of the corner of his eye; I could see the surprise in his face. Billy was speaking in a perfectly normal voice, his accent diminished to a faint trace. The genial good ol' boy I had met was completely gone.

"Heal from what?" he asked.

"My sister has had a lot of heartbreak. It's hard when you have to hide all the time…" Billy looked thoughtfully from me to Bill. "I don't guess she's told you much about herself, but she's close to being a certified genius. And it's more than that. Do you remember the night when I first came to y'all's house and I mentioned that I had a little savvy?"

"Yeah." I said.

"It's like a talent. Rachel started calling it savvy after she read some book about these kids with weird powers. She can move things with her mind…start fires; sometimes she can affect the weather. Me, I tend to know about things. Sometimes I'll know who's gonna win a fight, even if I never saw em' fight before. And if you hand me something like a ball or a shirt, I'll know all about the owner."

In a way, I wasn't surprised. My own contact with the world of the supernatural was limited, but I had already figured out that the humans that were attracted to Supes—and were attractive to them—were the ones who had such glitches. It usually meant they had a Supe ancestor.

"Our Great-great-granddaddy on Dad's side was a medicine man…he came from a long line of them. Pastor Bob is from the same tribe."

"So there's some witch blood" Bill said.

"Yeah, but don't call it that in front of Mama…the idea scares her silly. Her mother, our Grandma Fan, used to beat her when she said she could see dead people. Granny Fan was a bible-thumping, holly-rolling woman. Mama calls her dead folks angels now. Pastor Bob helped her with all that."

"Does Rachel know how to use her powers? Really use them?" I asked.

"She could. If she wanted to. But Rachel's always just wanted to be normal. Most of the time, she stays away from people because she's afraid they'll find out, afraid something weird will happen while she's around them. In college she dated this girl for a while, and then Rachel caught her with another girl. Right in the act. The girl's dorm room caught fire. Nobody was hurt, but that girl spread the story around all over the place and nobody would have anything to do with Rachel anymore. And Mama always drummed it into both of us that being normal's the best thing you can be."

"That explains it. I wondered how such a young vampire as Rachel was able to resist Pam's call." Bill sighed. "No, she never said anything about this. And nothing ever happened to make me think that she was anything other than an ordinary young woman."

"She's anything but that" Billy smiled, but there was no humor in his eyes. "When we find her, I don't want anyone killing her, even if she's done wrong. I don't know if either of you can change that Eric guy's mind, or Pam's, but as far as I'm concerned, they brought it on themselves."

That was hard to argue with. I knew Bill thought so, too, because he didn't say anything for several minutes. I said, "I'll see what I can do."

"Sookie…"

"He's right, Bill" I said firmly. "And if you don't want to talk to Eric about it, then I will."

"Sookie, this is none of our affair."

"How can you say that when she's lived under your roof for three months?!"

"Because she is not my responsibility. Jessica is my fledgling and you are my love. I am fond of Rachel, but deciding whether or not to punish her for this is not up to me."

"Bill Compton, I'm ashamed of you!" I scolded. It drove me crazy when he said things like that. For a long time, Bill thought he didn't have emotions. Since he met me, he's figured out otherwise, but it hasn't seemed to cross his mind that emotions create responsibilities. "You mean to tell me you're not going to say a word, not one single word, to help a girl who doesn't have anyone in the vampire world to look out for her?"

"She would have had Pam if she hadn't been so foolish."

"Right. She's supposed to trust someone who dumps her with vampires she hardly knows, almost never comes to see her, and threatens to give her away to her worst enemy? Come on, Bill!"

He was silent. Score a point for me.

"Let's just hope" Bill said at last, "That we find her before Pam and Eric do."