Chapter Nine

The First Encounter

The telephone rang, three times or more. I didn't care. My head, my heart and my whole body ached. Not only from the sex that I had with Godric last night, but also from the information I'd got from that god damn fucking Google!

I had found where Meröe City is or was. It located somewhere in Sudan, Africa. There were names of Queens and Kings who ruled the Kingdoms. Most pictures of women I saw were quite large women. So, Godric's first woman wasn't a skinny bitch, and she was an African, which meant she was black. I should've guessed when he said her skin had been like Athenian Fruits (I searched again, and found that an olive tree had been created when the Goddess Athena struck her spears to the ground. Therefore, the city was named Athena, to honor the goddess. In ancient times, it was commonly called Athenian Fruits). This Meroitic Kingdom had existed long time ago, reaching back to more than 1000 BCE. My blood went cold when I read this. Could it be that Godric was around 2000 or 3000 years old? Then, I read something that made my chest hot, like I had been staked.

The Queens of Meröe had a title 'kandake' or 'kentake'. In the Gideon Bible and other Bible, it was mentioned, "Candace – the queen of Ethiopians" (I really should read the Bible again – especially the Gideon one!)

Godric had murmured that word; he called out his fucking queen when he had been making out with me in the small kitchen!

I had been this close to smashing my computer when I realized I didn't have money to afford a new one. Two thousand years or more and he still called out her name, even during fucking another woman! I felt betrayed, cheated and used!

If I saw his face again, I would fucking stake him!

I kicked the box of tissues. It flew somewhere to the corner. I should've known. He's a fucking vampire! It's my own damn fault for trusting him, to let him inside my house, in me! And he had left my living room a disaster, as if Katrina had come and turned it upside down!

What had happened?

I remembered Sat had been here, giving me a small bag made of cotton. I had found the bag (it was on the floor) on it was TT written. 'Tara Thornton'. Callisto had made it for me, according to Sat. Then, I had made a cup of tea from it, and that was it.

How had Godric come in? Why hadn't I remembered that I had invited him? But he had been here, he had given me a bath, scrubbed roughly – to be exact, and then we had sex. The things that happened in between I didn't remember. I pulled my hair. God…what was happening to me? I had to ask Sookie. Had the same things happened to her, when she drank Bill's or Eric's blood?

A rough knock on the door pulled me back to reality, but I didn't have either the energy to shout or to get down from the sofa and answer the door. After the third knock and I hadn't answered it either, the door was opened with force. Lafayette was standing there, with his hands on his hips.

"Jesus Christ, Tara! What have you done?"

"It wasn't me." I said. "It was a fucking vampire!"

"What? A vampire…did all of this?" He pointed the room and then looked at me. "Did he do you too?"

"Shut it!" I yelled.

Lafayette came to me with his fingers lifted. It looked as if he had been afraid to touch anything.

"Oh, Girl…" he took me in his arms. "What happened to you?"

I held him tight. "I've been asking the same thing too."

I told him everything that had happened, from the accident night until last night. Lafayette's well shaped eyebrow was getting higher and higher while he listened to my story about the horse.

"There's no horse in Bon Temps," he said, and I agreed. He lifted his hands as I told him about what happened in the bathroom and on the bed (not the sex thing, but the part where I tried to seduce Godric after almost being raped).

"That is so fucking weird," he said. "You should report him to the authority. He attempted to rape you, Girl…"

"No, he didn't."

"Yes, he did. He touched you when you definitely said no. You did say 'no', didn't you?"

I nodded.

"You have to do it, so that he won't do it again."

But to whom? To Andy? I wouldn't give him the pleasure to hear that a vampire tried to rape me. To Eric? Godric already had problems with Eric, and if what Sookie said was true, Eric would try to bring him to vampire court. I didn't know how they punished their own kind, but I could imagine it wouldn't be kind. His tender eyes and soft way of looking at me flashed in front of me. No, no fucking way. He had been gentle to me even when I had asked him to do to me as he wanted…and nobody had ever treated me so patiently and tenderly in bed as he did…

"Oh, no…" Lafayette's voice made me look him up. "I know that look."

"What look?"

"Jesus! He must have been very good in bed to make you to have that look. Girl, you're in love!"

"What? No fucking way. He saved me! I don't want to repay him by reporting him to the police!"

"Yeah, yeah…whatever…"

"Don't 'whatever' my opinion…" I covered my mouth. Had I just used Godric's sentence?

"Did you just use 'whatever' as a verb?" He looked at me. His eyes were wide open.

"You spend too much time with your politician!" I said. "You are using complicated words!"

"Leave Bob out of this!" he said. "Now, what do you want to do? Do you want to report him or not?"

"I don't know."

"And what about this…" he made a kind of whirling movement, pointing at the living room. "…shit."

"He said he'd fix it."

"Did he?" he looked cynical. "How do you know that he told you the truth?"

"I'll ask him."

"You don't have any plan to look for him, do you?"

"No. But he works at Merlotte's…"

"What?" his bangles made noises as he tried to remove the tail of his bandana. "Since when did a vampire work at Merlotte's?"

"Since you are busy shagging your politician and forgetting your work."

"Hah, as if you're always able to keep your own fucking job. Seriously, since when did Sam hire vampires?"

"A week ago, around…"

"I don't like this." He got up. "Your accident, your nosy doctor, your nosy social worker and your vampire…it's too much for coincidence to me."

"You mean somebody wants to kill me?"

"Hah, I know for certain that half of Bon Temps residents want to kill you," Lafayette smiled. "I'm just not sure if they will actually do it. Girl, to think that somebody wants to kill you and they actually get along with their plans, you have to be sure you must have done something real bad to them. The questions are to whom and what have you done?"

"Godric was right."

"He might've known about that all along, or he might've been a part of the plan…"

"Oh, shut up! I don't believe in any conspiracy theory. He saved my life. He couldn't have been a part of the plan! I mean, why would he bother to save me if he was?"

"Girl, you're in a deep shit. You're blinded by love."

I was in a deep shit all right. My body ached, my house was a disaster and I wasn't sure if I could go to work. Godric was only a tiny part of the problem. I could dump him at any time I wanted. He's a vampire. Unlike the other boyfriends I'd had, a simple withdraw of the invitation would make him unable to enter my house. He might be deaf and not want to listen to the denial, but still, he wouldn't be able to enter my house. At least, I'd be safe!

But who's gonna pay for the disaster in my living room? Surely I wasn't the one! Godric and Sat had done it; they had to figure out how to split the cost!

After a good omelet breakfast made by Lafayette, and a long shower, I decided to go Callisto's place. Lafayette's big eyes got bigger when he saw the bite marks on my body.

"Jesus, Tara! What has he done? Oh, I do hope he's worth all those bruises!"

Yes, he is. Definitely.

"I'll tell Sam not to hire him anymore…"

"No." I cut him off. "I don't want anybody else to know that he and I …you know,"

Lafayette looked at me. "You're sure about this? He could glamour you and do other nasty stuffs to you." I wasn't sure about the 'nasty' part; Lafayette wasn't really serious either because I saw the twinkling lights in his eyes.

"Yeah, I am sure."

I could handle Godric. He might be thousands of years old, but he's just a seventeen-year-old boy, mentally. Oh, yeah. I can handle a seventeen-year-old boy anytime!

Xxxxx

Callisto held me tight as soon as she saw me.

"Goodness, Tara! I was so worried when you didn't pick up the phone, and thinking to myself, 'I have to see her! I have to see what's going on with her!'"

She took me straight to her kitchen, poured a cup of tea and asked me to sit down.

"Where's Sat?"

"He didn't tell you?"

"What?"

"He went straight to New York after giving you the tea. He did give you the tea, didn't he?"

I was confused. "Yeah…"

"I'd asked him to wait for the result, then around ten minutes later he called me that it worked and he left for New York. One of his professors had called him and wanted to discuss some paperwork with him."

Then…what had happened last night? Why did my living room look like a battlefield?

"You look confused, my dear."

I didn't look confused, I was confused!

Callisto took my hands. "What happened?"

I'd like to know the answer too. I decided to tell Callisto about what I had heard last night and what I believed I'd seen during the accident. Carefully, I avoided telling her about Godric. I meant, if Sat hadn't been in Bon Temps last night, it could only mean one thing. Godric had lied.

"That's interesting," she said. "I'd really love to know more. Why don't you stay with me for a couple of days and see what happens."

"Are you sure about that? I don't remember much from last night, and in the morning I found my room in a total disastrous condition. I don't want the same thing to happen here."

"Don't be silly. You're not alone here. We will take care of you, Tara. You don't have to be afraid of losing memories again."

"I'll think about it, okay?"

Callisto touched my face. "Take as much time as you want, dear. My door is always open for you."

I spent the whole day at her place. I loved it there. I didn't have so many people, who could give me comfort. If I had, I tried to stick by them. One of them had been Gran. Now that Gran died, I only had Sookie. If Callisto could give me the same comfort as Gran or Sookie did, I would stay with her too.

The sky was dark when I went home. The South-West street looked creepy in the night. It was the last corner of town that was developed. There were not so many houses, yet; and the distance between the houses was far too big for my taste. There were still a lot of trees and empty abandoned lots. During the day, it was wonderful to be here, especially during hot days in the summer. The trees gave us coolness and protection from the direct sunlight and when the fall came, the colours of the leaves were beautiful. They were red, yellow, brown and green. I had felt many times as if I had entered some kind of painting. Ruby-Jane hated this street.

'Too many shimmering people,' she said once. 'And they aren't always friendly, especially the ones who come up from the pond.'

If those shimmering people existed, I just hoped they would be at least a little bit friendly to me tonight. It's enough with horseman, vampires and god knows what else that would come to my head. I really didn't want to join Ruby-Jane at her fancy hospital. Yeah, it's fancy and it's expensive too, but it's still a hospital. You stay there when you're sick! No excellent service would be able to convince me to stay!

My steps stopped when suddenly, I saw a shadow under a tree. Jesus, Maria, Joseph! I said in my heart. I know I didn't call you guys often enough, but please…help me? Oh, I really should read the Bible again so that I know how to say a prayer against ghosts or demons – there is something like that in the Bible, isn't it?

"Who's there?"

That shadow moved.

My heart jumped when I heard the steps. It's a horse's steps! No…not the horseman! He's real…he's not only in my head…or was it? I was at this street, where Ruby-Jane saw things…how could I be so sure that it was real….?

I'd better stop thinking. I had to run, now! But my feet were stuck to the ground. I couldn't move! No! My breath ran faster, but my body stayed. No panic…I may not get panicked.

"Easy…easy horsey…" I said.

That shadow was getting nearer, but I couldn't see its face. There wasn't enough light on this street. The people who lived on this street were really greedy fucking assholes who didn't want to spend a bit more money to buy lamps! I cursed them all!

As the steps were getting louder, I closed my eyes. It was stupid, really, but I didn't want to see it. I didn't want to carry its face in my head for the rest of my life! God, please help me…Suddenly, I felt strong wind pass by me. I opened my eyes, and I was sure I was out of my mind and definitely would join Ruby-Jane any day soon.

In front of me stood a figure, facing the horseman. He or she was shimmering under the dim light.

I was definitely seeing things!

"Go!" It was a she. "You are not welcome here."

I heard a neigh. I didn't know if it was a yes or a no, but the shimmering figure said, "Don't try our patience."

Obviously, it was a no.

The horseman neighed again, and then he moved away.

"Thank you," I said.

"Don't come here during the night. It's not safe for you."

"Yeah, I know now."

"Go." She said.

"I am going!" I said if I could move my feet. "Thanks a…"

Whoossh, suddenly she's gone. She must have been one of those unfriendly shimmering people…anyway, thanks.

I felt weak. This was too much for me. First the horseman, and now ….my head spun. How would I be able to go home? Unable to hold myself any longer, I fell; however, before my body touched the ground, I heard a soft voice, "Tara…"

Xxxxx