Chapter Ten

She woke covered in mud and dirt, her body submerged in water too. Freezing water, though the temperature didn't bother her. Panicked she waved her arms around and scrambled to where she guessed was up. Gasping for breath she didn't need, she grabbed to tree roots poking through and pulled herself from the ground. The rain hammered down on her naked and muddied form, which explained the water she had been sitting in. But, where was Eric? He had promised to wake up with her. She scanned the area to see if he was watching from afar. Nothing. Not a single thing. Had he abandoned her? She didn't even know where she was buried.

Frustration took hold of her emotions and she slammed her fist into a tree causing it to creak and crash to the ground in a mere second. Shocked by her own temper and actions she recalled her newborns temperamental spat and took deep breathes tasting mud in her mouth. She spat it out and what she missed she used her fingers to claw out before realising that they too were caked in dirt.

Where the fuck was Eric? Did maker not cover the clause about helping their child into life? She poked into the bond but it was almost completely gone, the only parts left were narrow and nothing but blurs came across it. This was wrong, the bond was meant to get stronger not weaker.

Tackle one problem at a time, she could find Eric later. But right now she was naked, muddy and starving.

Her child! She exclaimed in her mind and patted her flat stomach. Nothing, nothing was there, no lump, no heart beat, no light show. She had killed her child before it could even live. She shut down her emotions to that, she would grieve later, she had bigger issues. Like where the hell she could find clothes. She might not feel the air, but modesty was still prominent in her mind.

Following the direction of the rain in the wind she ran vampire fast hoping for some clothing store or anything. Her vast brain informed her of the lack of money or credit card, to which she just grunted and ran faster.

Where the hell was Eric? He was meant to be doing all this.

Shoving back down the bubbling anger again she changed course and followed the sound of an old record playing. It led to a small bungalow on the outskirt of an old dust road. Sookie caught mental signatures of only one human living in the house; she was remembering old times with her husband when they had danced to the music currently playing. Out of habit she went to smooth down her clothes before knocking but remembered annoyingly she had nothing but mud on her person.

An old woman, frail and small answered the door.

"Hello…you're not the cable repair guy" Sookie smiled. "Good lord Child, you must be freezing, come on, come inside. I've just been baking cookies, for the grandkids. By the look of you I'd say you need them." Sookie felt magical as she walked into the woman's house, she hadn't even needed to glamour her. "Come child, sit. Sit yourself down"

Sookie was pressed into a rocking chair in the living room and in almost an instant the lady returned with coffee and cookies. Remarkable movement for a woman of her age.

"Thank you," Sookie's voice was soft and warm like before, but the shiny polish vampirism splashed her with made everything so much more beautiful.

"Of course. Now, what size are you? About an 8 I'm guessing, maybe a six. I wish I had something more fashionable to offer you but I have a few things my daughter wanted to keep safe with me. She won't mind lending them to someone in need though." Rose left to fetch a long black dress her daughter had stored in the back closet. Although Rose didn't say it out loud, Sookie knew the reason the clothes were left here were because they were the clothes her daughter wore to her father's funeral. Sookie understood. She could never wear funeral clothes to anything other than funerals. More than that Sookie repressed her hunger, to not feed from such a kind lady or to give her daughter another reason to wear black. She might not need to kill to feed but without Eric here to stop her, it was best to err on the side of caution.

"Towels are in the bathroom my love. You can use whatever you want then we'll have a chat about how you ended up naked and dirtied on my road in the middle of no-where. We'll get you patched up my darling." Rose called from the hallway as she moved between rooms. "I wish I had some underwear for you…but I don't. I can go out if you want to get you some…but I can't drive and the shops are quite a distance away."

"That's alright ma'am." Sookie called back "I'm grateful for just the coffee." It was a lie, but she could feel the ease flow from the older woman as the words left. Sookie met her caretaker in the hallway and then was shoved into the bathroom with vanilla shower gel.

Never before had she been so mixed emotional wise. She was grateful mostly for the switch that seemed to stick her emotions at a simple one point of nothingness. She knew that if she let herself feel, her entire being would crack and she would lose control over everything. Her thought as she finished her shower was simply; where in god's name did Eric go to? That and the fact she was overly happy about a chance to get clean than ever before. She towel dried her hair and body, slipping on the dress. It fit relatively well.

When she met the woman back in the living room her head was in more of secure state. Using telepathy and glamour she set to work on finding out information and wiping Rose's memory clean.

"Rose, where about do you live?"

"Turnpike cottage, Rummerdale." Rummerdale, why the hell would Eric bury her there? It was no-where close to Shreveport or …anywhere really.

"Have you seen any exceptionally tall blonde men around here recently?"

"No, the only man to come and visit is a red headed handy man who helps with chores and delivers my mail from the main village."

"How far away is the village from here?" Sookie leaned closer.

"2 or 3 mile North. Follow the dirt tracks."

Sookie ran her fingers through her hair smelling strawberries and vanilla from the shower gel fuming in the air.

"And the woods… a little while further back than here. Have you seen many vampires around there?"

"I see no vampires, Miss." Glamoured; she was fuzzy. Which either meant Eric had come here before, or there were other vampires around.

"Rose, thank you for your hospitality it was very kind. However, you had no visitors today. You will not remember me being here at all. Your daughter's funeral dress was misplaced during a tidy up and you can't find it at all. You think you will take an early night tonight. Lock up your doors and be asleep dreaming of your golden days with Albert, baking under the sun of May 5th."

"We had such a good day." Rose reminisced and a single tear fell from her wrinkled eyes. Sookie smiled sadly and took her leave quickly. Running in vampire speed yet again down the 2 mile stretch of road.

When she reached the village she found herself a nice meal. A demon of a man named Bryce wolf whistled and called her over, painting himself a target. He was with another man but that didn't matter. Sookie would be able to get Bryce alone.

"Hey Sugar, what's a sweet piece of ass like you called?"

"Whatever you like." Sookie battered her eyelashes, the words rolling silky smooth and teasing off her tongue.

"My name is Harry." Liar. "I've got a cabin further up if you'd like to decide your name there."

Sookie resisted the urge to vomit and pulled on his hand slipping it into hers and tugging in the direction he pointed. The cabin in question was actually his sisters but she had left for the weekend and he saw no reason not to lie for the common day whore.

"How much love?" he asked as they got closer. Sookie just looked up at him and reached into his pant pocket for his wallet.

"Well…Harry?" she checked as she flipped open his driver's license clearly saying Bryce Rodin. "I think this should suffice." Her fangs clicked down as he went to shove her off. Thankfully her attack was planned out of view and she pushed back diving atop him out of sight. She started her glamour immediately then sank in her fangs.

She didn't kill him, just left him stunned and penniless. But something was off; the thrill wasn't there with his blood. It was more nutrition than fun. The 'eat your sprouts or no ice-cream' type of deal. Now she was searching for ice-cream tubs.

Bryce was now convinced he had got a full work up and down from a whore named Sparkle who was worth everything in his wallet, to which he was sleeping off. Sookie chucked him back his skinny wallet and folded the bills sliding them to sit in the dress, next to her breasts.

She walked on, searching for pudding and finding it in a tired mother of three. AB negative she would guess if she had to. She had only had it once before, but the smell was unmistakable. She licked her lips just thinking about it. This one would not be passed up. Sookie followed her into a grocery shop and halted by the paper stand to watch the woman. As she pretended to read the front page she almost fell over.

The date said Friday the 17th of January. There HAD to be a mistake. She was turned at the end of November. She expected to rise to a chilly December and before a Christmas drinking blood with Eric. She had been in the ground for that long. Impossible.

"What's today's date?" she asked no one in particular. The shopkeeper popped up from boxes of cigarettes and alcohol.

"17th love. Says so in the paper"

She brushed her hand through her hair again. Then whispered a thank you to the shop keeper and took off forgetting about the rare blood type ice-cream delight she had abandoned. She absolutely MUST find Eric now. It was imperative. Eric would explain what the hell had happened. He had to.

It would explain the bonds weakness if she had been gone so long.

She still had 8 hours of night and after taking directions from a few other people she was set off again on her way. When that wasn't fast enough and she couldn't hold flying very well she did something very un-Sookie-like. She glamoured herself some car keys to a shiny red thing that looked pretty fast and told the owner they had been threatened and robbed.

With a mere hour left of darkness she screeched the tires outside a closed Fangtasia.

"Fuck" she sighed and dropped her head to the steering wheel. She would have to wait till tomorrow to find him. Unless, if she found his mansion. Besides, she needed somewhere to stay during the day. If she could only remember his cell phone number before she was turned then she could have just called him. Sighing again she kicked the car back to life and went to one of his eastern estates which he spoke of preference to. Hoping he was there tonight. If the bond was stronger she could just pull her way to him, but the only thing she kept getting was a static TV buzz.

Her nose was dripping blood as she arrived desperately hoping for shelter. She made to walk up and stroll in but she was stopped, like running into an invisible wall. She wanted to move her feet or to reach for the handle but nothing happened. No movement. She couldn't enter.

"Fuck." she swore in whispers again and dabbed at her bleeds. Eric had sold the fucking house to some humans. A silent string of curses crept through her and she ditched the car and ran behind houses to the farmer's field. Cursing wildly, no care for noise now, she stripped of her borrowed dress balled the money inside it, stuffed it under a hedge row and dug with her fingers to escape the sun with the ground. Her last thought was of pure anger.

Whatever the fuck Eric had that was so much more important than a safe house he needed to get his ass over here by the morning or she would personally carve a stake for him.