A/N: Hi gang! Glad you liked dem lemons. Kind of fast, but necessary for future chapters ... if you know what I mean.
Aaaaaand a GP thanks to chiisai-kitty for beta-ing this bad boy. While I'm at it, also for being my Twitter-Mr. Miyagi (*tweet on, tweet off*).
Characters: we're just friends, nothing serious.
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I woke up grinning. It was two in the afternoon, so I wouldn't have to wait around twiddling my thumbs before Eric woke up. I had surrendered myself to sleep as late as Eric; yesterday was the first time I was awake to see him disappear into his hidey hole. He had winked, "Good day, lover," before closing the trap door. Sigh. Could he be any more perfect?
I stretched; even with Eric's blood, I was still a little sore. It was worth it though, especially when I replayed how and why I was sore.
And as I moved to get out of bed, I detected someone, a Were from the red fuzzy brain signal, standing on my front porch. I threw the covers over my head like a child. Who could it be? Was it a Were-witch? Or was it the Were bodyguard? Whoever he was, and I could just tell it was a man, he'd been out there for over four hours and he was getting pretty anxious because I still hadn't woken up.
I hastily slipped on a pair of polka-dotted boxer shorts and an old tee and tiptoed down the stairs, grabbing a cutting knife from the silverware drawer and slowly inching towards the front door. Almost as if he or she could hear me, the Were knocked and rang the doorbell. Did Weres need to be invited in like vampires? I hope so.
"Who is it?" I called out from behind the still closed and locked door. Hopefully not the big bad wolf who, with a huff and a puff, will blow my whole life down.
"Alcide Hevreux," a voice said gruffly, pronouncing it Al-see, with a silent 'd'. Let me in, let me in, little pig!
I realized I never asked Bobby Burnham for the Were bodyguard's name, just his phone number. Dang. Serves me right for being careless.
"Uh, Alcide, what're you doing here?" I asked hesitantly, like he'd answer, "To kidnap you."
"Pam and Colonel Flood sent me; Pam was supposed to call. I'm the Were in debt to Eric. I'm supposed to protect you during the day." Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin.
Then I had an idea. I ran into the kitchen and traded the knife for the scrap piece of paper by the phone "Alcide, what's your cell phone number?" I asked, praying it would identical to the one in my hands.
It was.
I opened the door and looked up. And then looked up some more. Alcide had a familiar face; he had been at the meeting last night, which made sense. He was so handsome I wondered why I hadn't really noticed him last night, but I guess you wouldn't look at anyone else when Eric was talking to you. He wasn't as tall as Eric (was any non-NBA player?) but he definitely wasn't a pipsqueak either. He had eyes as green as Eric's were blue, a fact that was bolstered by his tan and crisp white polo. His tousled hair was curly and thick and black as tar. He was definitely a Were.
"Hey there. I'm Sookie. Come on in. Sorry about all the security precautions."
"That's alright. Better safe than sorry," he replied easily. He looked at me for a few long, long, seconds before finally holding out his hand. Maybe he was just being careful? We shook.
"Something I've never really understood until now. Would you like some coffee? Is it too late to have coffee? You've been here for a while, though. Sorry again. I wasn't expecting company, as you can probably tell," I blabbered.
"Coffee would be great. Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. You?" I answered automatically, before realizing he meant why I missed the phone call. Oh. He didn't answer and a big blanket of awkwardness covered the room.
I walked over to the answering machine. Four messages. Oy.
"Eric, pick up … Eric, pick up, it's urgent … Fine, don't. It's only one o'clock, so I don't know what you're doing that won't allow you access to the phone, but it better be good. Call me, I'm eagerly waiting to hear your excuse."
One down, three to go.
"That was Pam earlier. And right now. Eric, Sookie, Hallow, whoever's there, answer the phone. And if you pick up after this message ends, you might as well call me back, since the phone's already in your hands."
Okay, so that wasn't so bad. Two left.
In a clearer voice, Pam continued, like she'd never hung up, "It irks me that I repeatedly told you I'd call after the meeting and you aren't answering. Well, it's getting early, so here it goes. The meeting with the Weres went smoothly. The shifter has agreed to give you the day off from work, it's too dangerous otherwise." Shoot, I had forgotten all about work; I was supposed to work the dinner shift tonight.
She added, "Also, the packmaster sent his best trackers out to look for the witches. Sookie, a Were by the name of Alcide Hevereux should come by tomorrow; he is the one indebted to Eric. He'll stay with you until Eric wakes up, and then you are to drive yourself and Eric over to Fangtasia. If you feel squeamish about being with Alcide, you two can drive over to Fangtasia during the day; Eric left his clothes and other items here that you could bring home with you. I will call after I wake to inform you of what will happen tonight. Hopefully you will pick up then. If all goes well, then I can have my undead life back."
Homestretch!!
"Hi cher, it's Sam. It's about six. Hope everything's okay. Uh, you seemed pretty busy last night at Fangtasia, but you kinda missed a lot. Pam said she'd call you but I'm just checking in to make sure you don't go to work today. I know you're supposed to have the Were there, but I'd appreciate it if you called me back. Take care."
"What's supposed to happen tonight?" I asked, wondering what Pam meant.
"We're having another meeting. We think we found the witches, but we're not sure," Alcide answered calmly. My eyes bugged.
"WHAT?" I screeched. Alcide looked a little startled. I didn't blame him one bit. "Sorry. How do you like your eggs?"
Now Alcide looked at me like I just told him I was a mermaid (note to self: ask Pam if mermaids would exist, because that's probably the one fairytale character I'd actually like to meet).
He recovered by saying he'd eat whatever, so I got to work frying some sausage (before the eggs—for the grease) in Gran's old skillet, the one she'd received as a wedding present many, many years ago and had been using ever since. I wondered what Gran would do in this situation.
After the sausages cooked I threw them on a plate that I popped in the oven, along with some pieces of bread (to save time) and started scrambling some eggs. Alcide asked if he could help with anything, so I told him he could set the table; he obliged, opening the silverware drawer on the first try and taking out two cups and two mugs after I silently pointed to the cabinet that stored them. He poured us some orange juice as I started the coffee.
He ate neatly, but he ate everything. He complimented my cooking many times, but that only made me guilty for making him wait out there for so long.
After we cleaned up (I washed and wondered while he dried) Alcide excused himself to the bathroom and I tried to formulate a plan. I needed a shower, especially now that I was in company with someone who had sniffing capabilities. Shoot, could he smell Eric and sex on me? Oh my god, was that the reason why he looked at me strangely earlier?! Holy crap. Now I really needed a shower, but I didn't want to bathe myself while there was a male stranger in the house. Oh well, it was that or smell of fangtastic Eric sex.
Once Alcide entered the living room I told him I needed to take a shower and to feel free to look around. He smiled and picked up the remote and easily turned the television on, sitting down in what I'd come to think of as Pam's spot on the couch. My living room seemed to be the unofficial hangout of all supernatural strangers.
I quickly showered, noticing that I had a couple bruises and fang marks that only Eric would ever see, and slipped into a pretty blue Henley and cargo pants, feeling a secret thrill at standing naked on top of where Eric was now resting. Would he be able to smell me when he woke up? We could have fun with that later.
Geeze, one night of mind-blowing sex and I think I'm a dominatrix. Being with an absolute sex god vampire would do that, I guess. I felt skeezy thinking that if sex with Eric was that good, than I now understood why he had his own fan club, or why there were fangbangers in general. I shook my head and walked downstairs.
Alcide looked up from some golf tournament that was showing, and I could tell he thought I looked nice because he both told me that and thought that, except he used a different adjective in his mind.
I blushed and thanked him. He asked if I had any plans, and I said it might be fun to check out Fangtasia during the day, which he agreed. He insisted on driving (not that I minded) and I could see why once I saw how his face lit up when we walked out to his big black pick-up truck that looked like a newer, nicer model of Jason's.
As we bumped down my eroded driveway, I asked, "So, can I ask why they're forcing you to babysit me?"
He laughed and answered, "They have a marker on my father. They own a casino in Shreveport, you know?"
I nodded even though, no, I didn't know. Eric (and Pam? Unless Alcide had his pronouns mixed up) owned a bar and a casino? Gee, maybe he owned a vampire amusement park too.
Alcide continued, "My dad got in too deep. He owns a surveying company—I work for him—but he likes to gamble. A lot." Although he was concentrating on the road ahead of us, I could tell that his green eyes were raging and his hands were gripping the wheel. I quickly replied that Alcide didn't tell me if he didn't want to, but he shook me off.
"And your vampires own his marker, his debt. If they call it in, our company will go under," he explained. I nodded, but this time I understood. Apparently Weres respect vampires as much as vampires respect Weres. No wonder Pam was working her vampire butt off last night; I just thought she was being unusually cordial, but she was campaigning for the Were's votes. Thank goodness it didn't resort to Pam kissing babies.
"So, to get the marker back, I have to watch you. Not that I mind," he added quickly, glancing over at me, "I was expecting them to give me a lot worse than hang out with a pretty lady all day. Vamps must be getting soft."
I laughed without much gusto, but that seemed good enough for Alcide, who smiled and looked out the window. "So what's your vampire marker? How the hell does a nice, real human lady like you get tasked with guarding Eric? Is it your telepathy?"
I shrugged. "Yeah. Luck too, I guess."
"Wait, are you a leprechaun as well?" Alcide asked eagerly, turning to face me. I laughed and shook my head no. "A ninja, then?"
"I wish. Nope, I'm just a telepath."
"I don't think you needed to put the 'just' in there. Being a telepath sounds extraordinary."
"Yeah, well. It has its ups and downs."
"I hear ya," Alcide said darkly.
I wanted to ask him what he meant, but instead I asked what his job was like, and he went off on a proud explanation. Feeling like I had to contribute somehow to this macho conversation, I told him that my brother was the road crew supervisor for Renard Parish.
Conversation kind of died after that, so Alcide turned the radio and started scanning through the stations. I remembered Eric doing that last night, his face glowing even more than usual when the sound first came out, and I looked out the window. I distantly heard a country song come on and Alcide asked what kind of music I liked. I welcomed the distraction.
Soon I recognized the road we were on, and Alcide pulled into the strip mall parking lot. There weren't any cars parked in Fangtasia's parking lot, but Alcide still insisted on parking around back in case someone wondered why a car was parked outside of "Shreveport's premier vampire bar" (according to the small script on the sign) during the middle of the afternoon.
There was a plain gray door, probably the employee entrance, on the regular gray building and the only abnormal feature was that it was wide open. Either Pam was extremely trusting, or something was bad, really bad. I'd bet on the latter.
Alcide did too, especially after sniffing. He tensed and grabbed my arm, pointing to his nose and whispering "Witches. Humans too." I cocked my head, but I could only sense two humans, unless witches didn't have their own signature brain waves like vampires or Weres. I listened in, pointing to my head; Alcide nodded. I raised two fingers, to signify that there were two people, and Alcide nodded again.
'Our Father, who art in heaven ....'
The other person's thoughts were quiet, flickering almost. 'I never should have gotten mixed in with these vampires, I knew they would be the death of me and now they are, just not the way I wanted!'
I realized these people were dying, maybe even having their last thoughts, and the hair on the back of my neck stood up even though it was broad daylight. I pushed past Alcide and ran in the building with him nipping at my heels. I felt like I was in a giant vampire bar-themed maze; the only way I didn't get completely lost was that I followed the brain waves. I ran through the open doors showing the area I remembered as the bar and abruptly skidded to a stop, literally too shocked to function. Alcide banged into me and let out an "Oomf!" that trailed off once he saw what I was gaping at.
There were tables and chairs overturned, the cash register was open, and there seemed to be some apparel missing. But I only registered that after I saw a brunette, the one who had been thinking the louder and clearer thoughts, lying in the weirdest yoga position I had ever seen; her legs were bent double, her heels pressing into her hips. Her face was made up with pain, but there wasn't any blood or even any visible marks.
I rushed over to her side and bent down as Alcide remained standing, certifying himself as the lookout of some sort.
"Hey," I whispered, "I need you to look at me."
The woman's eyes were red and swollen and teary, but she managed to gaze up, though somewhat dazedly. She blinked a couple times and focused on my face.
"Who are you?" she asked after a long time. Her voice was hoarse and laced with suffering; I wondered how long she'd lain there waiting for help or death, whichever came first.
"My name is Sookie. I am here to help. I am … close to … your master. Eric."
She nodded with effort.
"Are they still here?" I asked, hoping she'd know I meant the people who did this to her. The witches.
She shook her head, this time a little more firmly. "Tell Master Eric we tried to hold them off." She sounded so loyal, so devoted. Eric must be a really good "master" if his "subjects" were this devoted to him.
"We?" Alcide asked in a jittery voice, and I suddenly remembered the other brain wave.
"Where's the other person?" I asked, blinking back tears. I knew I could find him or her with my special built-in radar, but I didn't know if we had enough time.
"Bathroom," the woman whispered, and Alcide took off without another word. I trusted his navigational skills and stayed put.
"How long have you been here?" I questioned.
"Since early this morning. Pam called us in to clean up after a party and wait for a blonde woman. You?" Her face contorted in an invisible pain and she whimpered. I softly moved a piece of her hair out of her face, feeling completely useless. I couldn't even tell what was wrong with her, but something obviously was.
"Yes, that's me. I need you to tell me what the witches wanted," I said, noticing that she was wearing a flimsy black dress with a slit up the side. There were fang marks on her neck, but they didn't look anything like mine.
"They wanted to know where we'd put Master Eric. They'd seemed to think they'd done something to him, and that we'd hidden him." Her face became even more pained and her face widened. "Do you know where Master Eric is?"
I hesitated. This girl, this poor girl, hadn't betrayed Eric. She might even have to give her life for his. She deserved to know the truth at least. I nodded my head.
"You're next then. They're … you do not want to meet them," she whimpered. I got goosebumps, especially when her face contorted and she closed her eyes and groaned. "My legs … oh, my legs."
I sprinted into Eric's office and frantically called 911, saying there were two injured girls at Fangtasia (I didn't even know the address, but how many vampire bars with a stupid pun for their name could there be in Shreveport? Big city and all, but still. It wasn't until after I hung up that I noticed the big red pentagram spray-painted on one of the walls. The drawers of Eric's desk were open, some even on the floor, and there were shreds of paper everywhere. Good thing Eric had brought his iPod home, or else he wouldn't know what kind of music he liked.
I raced back to the girl's side and saw that her body started having spasms. Once they'd stopped I quickly told her the ambulance was on the way and asked what was wrong with her legs. I was scared of the answer, but I needed to know, especially since this could happen to me.
"They made the muscle in the back of my legs pull up, like it was half as long … like one of those giant cramps you get when you're pregnant."
She began moaning again as Alcide came back in the room.
"How's the other one?" I asked. Alcide's face darkened, but he didn't say anything. He looked queasy. "What? What?" He just shook his head.
I brushed past him, barreling through the rock-solid arm he had thrown out to try and stop me, and followed the brain waves that were slowly becoming weaker and weaker.
Alcide roared, "Sookie, NO!" but it was too late; I had already pushed open the bathroom door. I almost threw up, even bending over in preparation, but I managed to swallow it down. Not that it'd make a difference; the room was covered in blood. Lots of blood. Too much blood. Way too much blood.
The body of a strawberry blonde was folded up in the same position as the other woman, but this one wasn't moving as much.
This woman had been standing in front of the sink when she'd crumpled, and her head must have hit the lip of the sink on her way down. Her eyes were closed and her hair was even more red because of all of the blood that had gushed out of her head. She was alive, but barely. Just barely. If I hadn't been able to read her I would have thought she was dead. There was nothing I could do to help her. Alcide pulled me back, and I followed dumbly. He dragged me back to the club, back to where the first woman was lying with an even more agonized look on her face.
I tried to assure her the ambulance should be here any moment, but I don't know if she understood through all of my sobs. I felt so inadequate; she was the one with the painful curse but I was crying. I couldn't stop.
Alcide drew me to his chest as he asked her where we could find Pam and Chow to warn them, but she moaned and said they just showed up at the bar after dark. She also said the woman who'd worked the spell was a witch named Hallow; she had short brown hair and was over six feet tall. I peeked in the girl's head, and she was the same woman who'd stopped by Merlotte's.
"She'd told me she was stronger than a vampire," the woman added, taking her time and breathing in deep breaths. I cried even harder. She was in so much pain, so much unnecessary pain, but she was doing her best to help her master's ally.
She pointed behind me and whispered, "You see .... " Alcide let go of me and whirled around, preparing for an attack. But there was nothing there. Nothing that could hurt him, that is. But what I saw was almost as terrifying as what I'd imagined: the long metal handle of a dolly, one that looked like the ones we used at Merlotte's to wheel cases of drinks around, was twisted into a U. Holy shit.
"I know Master Eric will kill her when he returns," the woman said falteringly but surely, the words coming out in jagged bursts because of the pain.
"Sookie, we need to leave here or else we'll have to deal with the police and we can't exactly tell them the truth," Alcide whispered. I nodded. He walked past me and bent down to the woman. "Though this isn't much help, I am so sorry. But we need to leave. The ambulance is coming soon. Just say a passerby heard you, okay? That's what happened."
She nodded with effort. "Go," she said, her voice ragged, "go and save yourselves. We are lucky you stopped by."
I distantly remembered that we had come here for a purpose, but none of that mattered. I needed to get out of here. Alcide walked briskly in front of me, his hands clenched into fists.
He drove off quickly, just pulling out onto the road as ambulances and police cars came past us. I breathed a sigh of relief, still not trusting myself to speak.
We drove in silence until I remembered something I should have mentioned earlier. "I have Pam's cell phone number. I don't have her address though. Her business card's at home."
Alcide nodded tensely. "Colonel Flood might." He pulled into a gas station parking lot and pushed his seat forward to get in the backseat of the truck. He pulled a small silver cell phone out of a backpack and quickly dialed some numbers.
"Hello, this is Alcide."
A silence.
"No, she's fine. We just came back from Fangtasia. Two waitresses were cursed by the witches."
A shorter silence.
"No, a different curse. Their legs were twisted out of place. They're still alive, barely. Hallow and some other witches did it."
Another silence.
"Sookie called 911. The cops are there now, but I could distinctly smell the witches. You might want to send out the trackers again, just to confirm the whereabouts, if they can follow the scent after this."
A longer silence. Much longer. I began to worry.
"Yes, sir. I will. See you then."
Alcide hung up and started the truck. As he was looking to turn he saw my nervous expression and said, "Everything's going to be okay."
I nodded meekly. "What did he say?"
"He's sending trackers over. I'm to stay with you until Eric wakes up. There was supposed to be another meeting tonight at Fangtasia so I don't know how that's going to work. We have to wait until Pam wakes; the witches might have taken important information or intelligence."
Alcide sounded and seemed so calm and composed. I envied him. I felt on the edge of a nervous breakdown and I must have looked it, because Alcide quickly began asking me simple questions about my job and my family and my likes and dislikes. I obliged, going into much more detail on most answers than I needed to just so I didn't have to think about legs and blood and curses.
Soon we were back at my house, and we shuffled into the living room like zombies (add to the ask-Pam list). Neither of us felt up to a lot of conversation. So of course I had two new messages on my answering machine.
"Hi cher, Sam again." I cursed; I had forgotten to call him. Shoot! "It's about three now, just wanted to see if there's anything I can do for you. Maybe you just had a rough night and are sleeping in. I sure hope so. I'll call again in a half hour, but if you get up before then just give me a call. I'm at the house. Bye." Click.
"Sookie, where are you? It's three-thirty now. I just saw on the news that the police were called to Fangtasia and two women were escorted to the hospital for undisclosed causes. I really hope you're not one of them … I'm going to call every fifteen minutes now. Cher, I'm worried about you. Just call and put me out of my misery." He paused, then growled, "Sookie, I swear ... I'm going to give you a cell phone as a bonus." Click.
I looked at the microwave; it was 3:44 now, and the phone began ringing when it became 3:45. I picked up hurriedly.
"Sam?"
"Oh thank God you're okay!"
"I'm so sorry Sam. I got your message before but I forgot to call and then we did go to Fangtasia and saw those women and .... " I trailed off. I had just managed to stop thinking about that.
"Are you okay?" he asked worriedly.
"Just a little shook up." Alcide turned to look out the window.
"Do you want me to come over?"
"No, I'll be fine. Eric should be up soon anyway." Alcide glanced back at me and then out the window again.
"You sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure. Listen, I'm really tired. Thanks for checking in. Sorry again about the confusion."
"No problem. Are you sure you're okay?
"Yep."
"Well, call if you need anything. Anytime. Okay?"
"Buh-bye Sam."
"Bye." Click.
"Everything okay?" Alcide asked. Ugh, right now, "okay" was shaping up to be my least-favorite word.
I feebly shrugged my shoulders. Could anyone be "okay" after seeing what I just saw?
"Do you want to talk about it?"
No, I want to forget about it. "Not really, no."
Alcide cracked his knuckles. "Okay." Grr … "But I just have to say, I think you're handling this really well."
I stared. Was he nuts? I was two sentences away from bursting out into tears.
He saw my look and rushed to explain, "I mean, for someone who isn't a Were and just became involved in the supernatural community. That was the first time you saw something like that, am I right?"
I nodded feebly. "Listen, Alcide, I appreciate what you're doing here, but can we just not talk about it? Can we just play a board game or watch a movie or something until Eric wakes up?"
Alcide smiled. "Board games, huh? I can't remember the last time I sat down and played. What did you have in mind?"
I walked over to the living room and opened up the trunk by the book shelves. "Everything. Clue, Scrabble, Monopoly, Candy Land, Life. Take your pick."
Alcide followed close behind, peering in at what could serve as a paranoid babysitter's tool kit. "I always liked Scrabble, but whatever's fine with me."
I grinned. Scrabble was my favorite game too; I loved trying to spell out my calendar word-of-the-day choices (although I haven't had the time to pick one up for the New Year, what with my new house guest and his pesky friends and enemies). "Scrabble it is. We can play on the kitchen table."
And we did, miraculously being able to joke and tease. Alcide had laughed when I placed "were" and "fur" down, but he wasn't so cheerful when I successfully argued that the "jack" I had put down on the Double Word Score should count because it wasn't just a name.
We played so hard for so long that neither of us noticed Eric in the room until he quietly asked, "Lover, who is this Were and why do you smell like blood?"
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
I always wondered why Sookie never used her telepathic skills in Dead To The World when she went to Fangtasia's during that day, so there ya go. *shrugs*
And some of my SVM sisters-from-other-misters have persuaded me to bite the Twitter apple. Boy, does it taste good! Watch me procrastinate at http:// twitter. com/afalcone10. Expect writing angst, sneak peeks, and what your fwiend afalcone10 will say when it's 2 am and she's too tired to watch what she types. Good times, good times.
