Chapter 34

Eric POV

Sookie is not home.

Irritation wells up in me. It is nine at night, where could she be? I begin to feel something else, but as I enter the house I see a note on the table addressed to me. My irritation ebbs. Good, she is probably out getting grocery items and will be back shortly. I pick up the note and my mild irritation spikes into rage.

Hi Eric,

I just realized that I forgot to tell you last night that I'm going to visit my cousin Hadley in New Orleans tonight. I shouldn't be there long, I just need to tell her a few things and then I'm coming back. I'll call you when I am on my way; hopefully we can still see each other.

~Sookie

P.S. I also left you a voice-mail, sorry if you came all the way down here!

I check my phone and note that I do indeed have a voicemail. In my haste to get here I did not look at my phone.

I have the urge to throw my phone against the wall, but settle for crumpling the note into a tiny, dense ball between my palms. Hadley, the vampire that told the Queen about Sookie's telepathy in the first place. How would Sookie even know where to find her?

Bill.

I am at the Compton house faster than you can say "I am going to kill Bill Compton."

I enter without knocking and find Bill resting on the sofa reading a book. How nice; send Sookie off to the wolves and enjoy a quiet evening reading a book. He sits up and asks: "Eric, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

I stroll toward him. "I was just in the neighborhood." In the next moment my face is inches from his, and my arms rest on either side of his shoulders on the sofa. I restrain myself from physically touching him. I may outrank him, but if I do him serious harm, he will be able to bring charges against me.

His eyes widen slightly. "I take it this is not a social call."

I smile. "No Bill. I am here to ask you a very simple question: Why, given everything we have seen of Sookie's ability, did you allow her to go into the heart of the Queen's territory, alone, at night?"

Bill attempts to move out from under my arms but I don't allow it.

"Answer." I say it in the commanding tone that Pam can't help but obey. I rarely have to use it with Pam.

Then Bill does something that makes me want to rip his head off: He rolls his eyes at me.

"Eric, calm yourself. This is not a matter to worry yourself over. Sookie is visiting her cousin. She will not be in danger. For one so new Hadley is very controlled, and is one of the Queen's favorites. What exactly do you think will happen? The Queen has seen how useful Sookie is, no harm will come to her."

"Bill, your ignorance surprises me. No, I do not imagine the Queen will feed on Sookie, or damage her, though we both know it would be within her rights to do so. No, I imagine she will only speak with her. But what will that lead to Bill? Any contact the Queen has with her endangers Sookie."

"She isn't meeting the Queen, just her cousin. I notified the Queen that she was coming of course, but made it clear that she simply wanted to speak with--"

I back away from him now. "Bill, you are a fool. The Queen will be there."

Bill huffs a breath. He is so human sometimes. "Even so, I think you are blowing this out of proportion. You are too concerned with keeping Sookie all to yourself. Is that what this is about? Are you angry she came to me rather than you? Well--" His eyes meet mine.

He stops. My teeth are bared.

He clears his throat. "No disrespect meant. The address is over on the table by the door if you are so concerned."

With that I am gone, taking the address with me.

I consider ripping the front door off its hinges, but I will find a better way to punish Bill later.

Sookie POV

I must look like a goldfish, wide eyes, mouth gaping. The Queen doesn't seem to notice. Maybe she get's that a lot.

Hadley looks almost as surprised as me for about a second. I guess the Queen had planned to stay hidden. How nice, considering I specifically asked Bill that I only see Hadley. She walks toward us and settles lightly onto the arm-rest of the sofa. Only a Queen could rest in such an awkward location and make it look elegant.

Hadley shakes herself and makes introductions. "Sookie, this is the Queen of Louisiana."

I bow my head a little, "Pleased to meet you, I'm--"

"I know who you are."

Right.

"You have made very serious accusations against one of my favorites." Her face barely moves. If I hadn't been staring at her ruby lips I would have thought there was a ventriloquist in the room.

"Er, well, I just thought I'd let Hadley know. I didn't mean any disrespect… m'am, your majesty."

"Waldo and Hadley do not get on, it is true. However, it seems foolish to put any stock in the rambling mind of a human; especially a human recently fed upon."

I gulp. Jeez, she's going to discredit my whole case! "I just wanted to give Hadley a heads-up. I don't pretend to know anything about this vampire stuff." Yes, there. Play the dumb blonde.

"Your contracts and previous dealings with our kind would prove otherwise. I must say, I wanted to be here tonight to see what all the fuss is about." She looks me up and down. "I do not understand it."

Well! Maybe playing dumb isn't the right move after all.

Hadley speaks up then. "I actually…do have plans to visit the grave of Marie Laveau tomorrow night with Waldo." She looks uncomfortable.

The Queen's eyes move to her. "Alone?"

If Hadley could blush, she would be blushing. She ducks her head slightly. "Yes, he said the ritual would work better with fewer people around…"

The Queen continues to look at her. Her face is like a porcelain mask. She turns back to me. "Thank you for the information. I will send a guard to track Waldo tomorrow night. If he attempts to harm Hadley, he will be stopped." She stands and addresses Hadley as if I'm not here. "Come to me in the hour before sunrise. We will discuss this privately."

The Queen leaves and Hadley looks after her. She looks so self-conscious, it makes her look human. After a minute she looks up at me, as if she's surprised I'm still here. "The Queen thinks the Marie Laveau thing is stupid. She is seeing… She refused to tell me anything about the ritual; the only one that would help me was Waldo. I was so fascinated with the possibility that I could be related to her that I was blind to his motive."

She looks away. "Stupid."

I put my hand over Hadley's. "It's not stupid to want to be something special. I bet you're surrounded by all sorts of amazing people all the time; it'd be hard to be new, and to not have something to your name." It would also be hard to be pushed aside for an arranged marriage, I think. No wonder Hadley wanted to feel she was something special.

She's still looking away. "They all accept me well enough, but like I'm a new puppy, or, god, more like I'm an attractive new lawn ornament. Waldo's the worst of them. He hates me. He thinks I'm not worthy of the Queen."

"People will do crazy things when they are unhappy. I'm not excusing what Waldo is planning, but I've known good people to do much worse." It's not the greatest transition, but I wanted to get this across to Hadley almost as much as I want to save her life.

"I knew this were; he was a good guy, but he got really hurt. He was dying, and the only way to save him was to turn him. A vampire turned him, but that didn't save him. He went on existing, but he hated every minute of it. He hated himself." Hadley turns to look at me.

"I don't know how much you know about weres, but turning into their other form is like breathing to them. He couldn't anymore. He was stuck between two worlds, all alone. All he wanted was to die, but he became twisted, and his own death wasn't enough. He ended up joining up with the Fellowship and betraying a lot of people."

"You're saying Waldo wants to kill me because he hates what he is?"

"I think he does. He may love being a vampire, but he can never be what you are: young, attractive, full of an energy that captures the Queen's attention. He is a wrinkled, albino sadist, and that's what he hates."

Hadley nods, seemingly unconsciously, and asks: "The vampire who turned to were… what happened to them?"

I'm careful not to use a specific pronoun. "They died."

She shakes her head. "What an idiot. I would never turn a were. How could you even get close enough? They smell horrible." Her nose wrinkles as if a dead fish was put under it.

I hide a grin. Now there's the Hadley I remember. "You'd be surprised what people do out of love or mercy. Even vampires." Especially vampires, I think, thinking of Stan.

"Yeah well, obviously that wasn't mercy."

"Yeah," I say "You're right."

Hopefully Hadley will have the sense to leave Jake as he is; dying as he would want: a were.

Dead, but whole.

I almost hug Hadley as I go. There is so much more I want to say to her: How I'll be here to help Hunter. I want to warn her and the Queen about Peter Threadgill's treachery. But I can't. Hopefully in time Hadley will seek me out to help Hunter. The Queen shouldn't be caught without her bracelet now (Hadley can just give it back), but he will probably still attempt a take-over by force. I can't focus on that now. I need to get home and think about the Bill situation some more. I only have a few more days before Lorena lures him away with her siren's song.

I walk out of the building and pause to consider visiting Amelia. I have no idea what I would say. No. No more rushing head-on into things.

I take a few steps and hear something to my left.

I jump and turn to see the source of the noise: Andre edging toward me.

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Thanks for all the comments! Some of them helped to shape parts of this chapter (kind of like one of those old 'choose your own adventure' books). I like to read what everyone is wondering about most; it keeps me from going off on tangents…

Please let me know if you see any typos; I was up until five painting!

Update: Aug 9, 2009. I tried to update yesterday and today, but the site keeps giving me error messages! I will keep at it; and update should be up as soon as it will let me!