Dead As Dead Can Be

the black panther

Rated T for now

Post All Together Dead Sookie Stackhouse has returned from her last adventure, set on avoiding vampires for the rest of her life, and getting everything back on track. Do things go as planned? Do they ever? The undead jump back into her life, but this time, because they fear their own demise.

""

The evening sun had set, and we telepaths were left in boredom. We had all but run out of topics to discuss, and silence over took us. Some of the European telepaths had thought to bring books with them, apparently anticipating a long wait. I hadn't. I sat, kicking my leg, staring off into space. I wondered where Quinn was, and what he was doing. Would he be looking for me? No, he knew that the telepaths were fathered together. He wasn't concerned about me.

There was sudden movement from the corner of the room, and I looked up to see Edan, who had been looking very statuesque for the last hour, jumping up to walk to the door. She opened it, standing much like a soldier would if a superior was walking in. I could only assume that one was. A pretty young woman, who at least appeared to be Edan's age—maybe nineteen or twenty, quietly entered.

She was definitely a vampire. She was very pale with platinum blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She didn't look the least bit mean or threatening. In fact, in her powder blue dress, she looked almost friendly. But she's a vampire, I thought to myself, and you know how even the nicest one has turned out. She walked in and the creepy girl shut the door behind her. "Good evening," the blonde girl said in a soft, gentle voice, "it's wonderful to see some familiar faces, as well as some new. I bid you all welcome, and I thank you for coming."

I nearly snorted to myself. It wasn't as though most of us, if any of us, really had much of a choice in coming. But oh well, that's something I wasn't going to say aloud.

"For those of you whom do not know me," she continued, "my name is Isabella Vespasian Valentinian. My mother is the Regina. I am also a telepath, and therefore in charge of this group of ours. I am aware of the inconvenience this has been to you, and I am terribly sorry for the wait. Edan will distribute your identifiers and then we will move on so that we can all be on our way for the evening." The creepy dark haired girl took her cue and opened the trunk she had previously been sitting upon. From inside, she started to pull out set of velvet boxes.

Now, when I was told about this 'identifiers,' I was thinking this was going to be like some Nazi camp, you know, with ugly bands on our arms to let everyone look down on us for what we were. Not the case. The boxes that Edan brought out were jewelry boxes.

She set the all down on the ground, kneeling over them, and opened each one. I guess it mattered which ones went to certain people. There was silence as she did so, but randomly, I saw her nod. I glanced back at the vampire woman, who was watching her. They must have been communicating through their secret bond thing or whatever. It made me wonder about the two of them. "Ladies and gentleman, do forgive me, but for those of you whom have done this before, you will not be receiving the same gems as you usually do—" there were groans in response "—we will try to give you similar stones, but something unexpected has come up, forcing us to change the marker distribution."

It really didn't make any sense to me, I mean, what was the big deal about changing what you got? Apparently, it did, at least to the Europeans. We Americans had never had them, so we couldn't have cared less. Edan stood, cocked her head to the side, looking at all of the open boxes intently. I couldn't see what was inside of them, though now I knew that they had gems or something like that. She abruptly moved back down, quickly slamming the lids shut before stacking them in a particular order.

The creepy girl grabbed a handful of the boxes and walked towards us, handing out a few to the Europeans first. Then a few more. Then a few more. I was last. I was number twelve, I noticed. With the vampire girl, that meant that there were thirteen telepaths. Lucky number thirteen. Edan walked over to me, her hand outstretched with a box. I took it, and, forgetting who I was dealing with, looked up to thank her. Her eyes locked with mine, and I paled, quickly taking the box from her. I agreed with the other telepaths now. I didn't want to know what went on in her mind.

I opened the black velvet box, keeping my head low so that I wouldn't look at the girl again, and nearly fainted. A necklace.

A diamond necklace.

I looked up to see that the other Americans were looking at one another, shocked. The Europeans looked extremely irritated as they leaned over to see what was in their neighbor's box. "If you will please put them on now, I will move on," the vampire announced calmly, still standing, folding her hands in front of her. We all looked at one another before placing the necklaces around our necks. As soon as they sat properly, the gems sitting by our collarbones, I wanted to pass out again—this time from sickness.

Each of us dealt with the sickness in our own way, resting out heads in our hands, putting out heads back, messaging our temples. . .

"Within the diamonds," Isabella stated, unaffected by the sudden bout of illness in the room. I looked up dully, my head still in my hands, noticing that she also wore a similar necklace to ours, "there is a particular energy that acts as an enhancer to telepathic abilities. It takes a bit getting used to, but the energy will make it much easier to control your abilities. Each of you will be able to more clearly read human minds, and even supernatural beings'. This also blocks out the minds of other wearing the necklace. You may have noticed that, while inside of this room, your minds were not open to each other. That was because the gems, when together, amplify power. Edan, who has a mind closed off to everyone except for myself, used her own mental state to somewhat silence the room. However, from this moment on, you will be able to hear the thoughts in almost every person in this building, except for the vampires. I cannot explain to you how to block minds out, so you will have to learn on your own, if you do not already know."

I groaned, thinking of how difficult this would probably be. It was hard for me to keep a mental barrier up without amplified power, and with it? I couldn't even imagine.

"Tomorrow night, at the banquet-ball, you will be scattered amoung the group, listening in to individual's thoughts. Privacy of mind does not exist here for safety reasons. Times are dangerous now, for all beings, not just vampires. Feel free to wander around the grounds, but be wary of any danger. They may not try to kill you, immediately, but as one of you has already found out, Slayers are very willing to capture. Enjoy your evening. Tomorrow night you start to work."

As she turned to walk out, the Europeans all stood. I followed suit, feeling dizzy as I did so, trailing behind the mass. Isabella turned left, but we were directed by Edan to go right. The mass of humans went through a set of large double doors that we had each come through to get to the sitting room. This time, however, I noticed the markings engraved in the wood, markings which looked similar to the one the creepy girl drew in the air to get the ghost maid to come.

One of the Europeans shut the door after all of us had passed. This Regina must have liked her privacy. Speaking of which. . .

When were we going to see this mysterious woman? I mean really, sending her daughter to meet us? Well, okay, I guess since she was a telepath it was understandable, but shouldn't she have the decency to greet us since she was the one making us all come?

These royal pain-in-my-ass vampires were all the same.

I followed the group, hoping that at least a few of them were heading back to the telepath wing. I barely recalled where I was going and many of the hallways looked exactly the same. Knowing my luck, I would get lost and end up wandering somewhere that I probably shouldn't have been in the first place.

"Are you going back to your room?" Helen asked me, almost like a mother to a child. It was a bit insulting, but I tried not to take it personally. Maybe it was just how she was.

"Well, I want to go back to my room, I just don't exactly know where it is from here," I replied with a sigh. She smiled, as though she had been expecting that answer.

"I'm going back as well, so I can show you. We've had a few more days here than you have. It's only right that you haven't found your way around yet." The group split off as individuals decided to leave and go elsewhere. Soon, it was just Helen, Barry, and I heading to our rooms. "You know, I wanted to ask. . . what Isabella said about someone learning of the Slayer's nature—the kidnapping, was it you? I know it wasn't any of us, so it must be an American. Did you have an incident with the Slayers?"

I was a little surprised that she asked me about my encounter. I was even more surprised that she had been able to figure out that it had been me. She couldn't use her telepathic abilities on me, after all, so how had seen known so quickly.

"Yeah, it was me. But how did. . .?"

"You were the one most interested in the Slayers, I just figured that you had already met one or two," the British woman said with a shrug.

"Two of them. They tricked me into thinking that they were the people sent to pick me up from my house. I guess another one was supposed to switch driving or something, because we had to stop. That Des came out of the shadows and killed one—she kissed him. That was a lovely sight," I muttered dryly.

"Her death kiss. She sucks the darkness out of them. Humans are dark creatures by nature, so it's like sucking out their life force. It's not pretty," sighed Helen. "Well, here we are. If you will excuse me, I'm going to change before I go out exploring." She gave Barry and I one last smile before heading to a room to our left. I waved to her and hurried to my own. I didn't want to be around Barry. He was being incredibly quiet and making the situation awkward. I guessed we weren't speaking.

I placed my finger on the scanner pad, waited for the green light, and then opened my door. I slid inside of my room, shutting it behind me. Sighing, I jumped on my bed. Moments later, I remembered how long it had taken me to do my hair and quickly sat up, smoothing it down. Where was my Alieve? I needed some to get rid of this headache I had. I forced myself out of my bed and into my bathroom so that I could search for some painkillers. It took me a few moments, but I managed.

Maybe my boyfriend had called me, or sent me a text message. Nothing. Well, there was that banquet ball thing tomorrow, so maybe he was just busy. He shouldn't be too busy for me! Okay. Not getting into this mental battle once more.

Fine. I would just go out and explore.

I would have a nice time, damnit.

""

t.b.p.: eh, so it took a few days. It's better than a few months, right?? I'm honestly not sure when the next chapter will be out, as work is coming to an end, and school is starting up soon. I'm going to try my best to get it out though, I promise.

Powerhungry, as always, thanks, hahaha.

MerryXgirl, I know, I do have typos. You should read some of my older stuff though. Now THEY are bad. I don't re-read my stuff. I just don't have the time. I would never get anything updated if I tried to edit my own work. I could get a Beta, but then, I would stop updating all together, I know. So, I've gotten a lot better at just not having the typos. I still do, though they are usually because I'm typing what I have written down, so I'm not watching what I type. Sorry 'bout the typos though, ahaha. Thanks for reviewing.

Everyone else. . . review. Seriously. Not joking. I see you clicking. I've had like two hundred visitors. This Reader Traffic is very helpful, you know, in seeing that I have many different people who are just TOO LAZY to give me a review. So do it. Or I'm going to have creepy Edan wake you up at midnight and gouge out your eyes with spoons O.o.

. . .

Review.