Previously

"The queen doesn't usually respond back when I inform her of new vampires…" he growled, a deep and terrifying noise to anyone it was aimed at, I'm sure. "This is what you just figured out, isn't it?" he asked.

I shrugged, "Maybe, I'm not sure what you've just read."

He read her response aloud to me. "Sheriff, I am delighted to hear of your new child. I look forward to meeting her and hearing if her telepathic abilities survived the transition." His gaze locked on mine. "I never told her you were telepathic, which means someone else has been reporting to her about you. I think after tonight it is absolutely clear who that was."

I nodded.

"How long do you suppose he has been reporting to her about you?" he asked, half to himself and half to me.

Now that I was Eric's progeny, I had absolutely none of Bill's blood in my system and I was able to see my past experiences with Bill without his influence. I remembered the first time we had met how interested he was in me, which should have struck me as odd but instead I'd just been so flattered and ecstatic to meet someone whose mind was blank to me. As it turns out, if I'd been able to read his mind, my life would have been drastically different.

When I'd asked Bill to meet me after work the next night he had been late. At the time I had been disappointed, but now thinking back, Bill was never late to anything. He was actually obnoxiously punctual. But he'd been late and I'd been beaten almost to death and he was able to swoop in and save me, consuming my blood as he cleaned me and filling me with his own. He had tied me to him and I was just so naïve and grateful to him for saving me that it never occurred to me that it could have been anything ill-intentioned. Seeing him now, without the Bill blinders on, I imagined that it had all been intentional. He'd probably glamoured the Rattrays into attacking me so that he could get his blood into me. Hell, that first night when they'd tried to drain him, I suspect that even was a ruse. The chains were so thin that he was either pathetically weak to be held down by them, or he was playing along at how severely he was injured in order to get my attention. It had worked. He didn't succeed in getting his blood into me that night, but I'd revealed my telepathy to him in my sheer joy and shock at finding a mind I couldn't read. He didn't seemed shocked that I could read minds, just asked what I was.

"I think he's been reporting to her all along," I said. "I don't know if he somehow had an idea already that I was -if he did, I can't imagine how- or if it was just my stupidity in revealing it to him the night we met."

"Well, we could go talk to him and find out." Eric suggested. "He's certainly in no position to harm you now."

I agreed. Bill could try to lie or worm his way out of talking, but there was no harm in trying. We walked down the hall and Eric stopped at a door with a padlock on it. He pulled a key from his pocket and opened the door, revealing a set of stairs. A lot of places in Louisiana don't have basements because the water table is so high, and I could smell the wet, musty smell coming from down there. Due to my lack of experience with basements (and the horrible experience I'd had in one in Dallas) I was very wary of going down there.

Eric stepped beside me, "It's ok, come on."

I walked down with him and he flipped a switch at the bottom that powered a fluorescent bar light. Under the light, Bill was wrapped in silver chains that were attached to loops in the wall so he couldn't move. He looked up at us and I could read the pain on his face.

"Sookie, don't let him do this to me," he pleaded.

I ignored his cry. "How long have you been reporting to the queen about me?" I asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, did you tell her about my telepathy the night we met? Or did she send you to find me?"

He shook his head. "I never told her anything about you," he insisted.

Then I noticed something. What I had always recognized as a void in vampires was materializing around his head, but it was red, instead of just, a blank spot as I had seen them in my mind.

"Do you see that?" I asked Eric.

"See what?"

"Nevermind." I knew he would feel my curiosity and excitement, but he was too smart to push it in front of Bill.

"Let's try again Bill. Did she send you, or did you tell her when you found out that I could read minds?"

"I swear, I don't know what you're talking about," he claimed, but as he did, the bubble around his head pulsed and stayed red.

"Liar!" I screamed. I was starting to lose my temper, and I could feel my fangs itching to come down.

Eric stepped up next to me. He'd been allowing me to take the lead, but I could tell he really wanted to hurt Bill to get the information out of him. He reached up on the wall opposite Bill and pulled down a knife.

"Would you rather I question you, instead of Sookie? I'm sure I can be…persuasive." He said with a wicked grin.

Bill vehemently shook his head "no."

"Fine," I said, "we'll try just yes and no questions, since you seem incapable of giving me a straight answer otherwise. Have you been reporting about me to the queen?"

"No." he said through clenched teeth. His bubble pulsed red.

"Did she send you to find me?"

"No." Red pulse.

"Ok, one last one. Did you set me up to get shot by Debbie so you could bind me to you permanently?"

"Of course not!" he cried. Again, his bubble pulsed red.

"Ok, that's all the time of yours I need to take, fuck you very much." I said and turned to walk back up the stairs and heard Eric following me.

When we got back into his office I plopped down on the sofa.

"What happened?" He asked, pulling his chair over and sitting across from me.

"I think my telepathy took a new turn," I said in wonder.

He gestured for me to continue.

"So, you know how y'all come across as a void in my head? When I was talking to Bill, his void turned into a visible bubble around his head. Every time he lied, it would pulse red. It was like, I dunno, a lie detector."

"Fascinating," he said and scooted closer to me. "Try it on me. I will tell you two truths and a lie, and you must determine which one is the lie."

"I know this game. My brother and Tara and I used to play. You were supposed to take a drink of alcohol if you guessed wrong or if the other person guessed your lie correctly. They stopped playing with me though, because I cheated," I said with a laugh and tapped my forehead.

Eric smiled and thought for a minute before speaking. "I was born as a human in what is now known as Sweden, the first car I owned I built myself, although I love her, Pam is a colossal pain in my ass."

I laughed. "You didn't build your own car; that would be beneath you. And I'm telling Pam."

"Did you see it when I lied?"

"Turns out with you being my maker, I must not need a visual; I felt it when you lied."

"Interesting. We need another subject that can be trusted with the knowledge that you may be a living lie detector. Pam, come." He didn't raise his voice at all; between her super hearing and it being a call from her maker, she was able to respond to him calling her even though she was on the main floor of the bar.

Pam walked in, always looking so casual and bored. "You rang?"

Eric motioned her in and explained our discovery and that we needed her as a test subject. I wasn't entirely sure if it would work with her or if it would be like with Eric, since we share his blood. It could have also just been some crazy fluke with Bill.

Pam sat down in the other chair and faced me, crossing her legs and looking like a proper lady instead of the sarcastic vampire that she is. She thought for a few moments, then said, "Becoming a vampire is the best thing that could have ever happened to me. I firmly believe that shoes are one of the most important part of a girl's outfit. And I wasn't into women before I was turned."

While she was speaking a faint, clear aura had formed around her and it pulsed a light red on her last statement, but I also felt a strange buzzing in my chest, a milder version of what I had felt when Eric had lied.

"You've always liked girls." I said confidently.

She nodded and looked impressed.

"I felt it and saw it when she lied," I said to Eric. "So I hope neither of you plan on lying to me, because I'll know. And given the events that have led to this very moment, I will not take kindly to being lied to."

Eric explained that he had no reason to lie to me, that as I had much to learn yet about being a vampire, it would be harmful to my life, not just my feelings to keep things from me or lie. If I was still human, maybe it would be different since the rules and politics of vampire life aren't widely known, but I believe he's always been as truthful with me as he felt was safe, both for himself and those in his retinue. Certainly he was always more forthcoming about things than Bill was.

Pam announced that she was going to go find someone for dinner and stood to leave. "Should I bring back someone for you, sister?"

I felt my fangs come down at the idea of a proper feeding, remembering how good it had felt to bite Eric, and wondering what it would feel like to bite someone else, but I shook my head "no." I wasn't ready for that yet, especially given my reaction to Eric and drinking his blood. I was not going to be someone who had sex with their meals. I may not be human anymore, but I still maintain many of the views I had been brought up with. Maybe a hundred years from now I'll think much more casually about sex, but as of now, I wasn't interested in sleeping with tons of people, even if I am now immune to STDs and such.

She left, and I turned to Eric, who appeared to be studying me in his silence.

"What are we going to do about Bill? And the Queen? And ohmygod I have to tell Jason what happened to me!"

My mini outburst shook him from whatever he was thinking.

"Bill can stay where he is for now. As for Sophie Anne, I will have to think about it. I'm sure we will be expected to pay her a visit in the near future though. If you'd like, you can call your brother now."

I looked at the clock he had hanging on the wall. It was only a little after midnight. I could call him, but I didn't want to tell him over the phone.

"Would it be possible to tell him in person?" I asked. "He's all the family I have left, I don't want to tell him something so big over the phone."

"And do you expect him to handle it better than Merlotte did?"

I shrugged. Jason hadn't ever been super big on vampires, but he was my brother. Surely he would handle it better than Sam did.

"Do you think it wise to have the first human you interact with to be someone that could cause a strong emotional response?" he pressed.

I shook my head. I'd never forgive myself if I hurt Jason. Then I had an idea. "But what if you used your maker's command to make sure I wouldn't hurt him?"

"I will make a compromise. Tonight you will call Jason and set up to speak to him tomorrow and I will make sure that you do not harm him when you meet with him. After you call him, we will go out onto the main floor and 'hang out'. You need to relax after a very difficult evening, and you can test your reaction to being around humans."

"That sounds fair," I quickly agreed.

He gestured to the phone on his desk and I sat in the chair across from the desk. He busied himself with filling out order forms, I'm assuming to give me a tiny semblance of privacy for my phone call. I picked up the phone and dialed his number and listened to it ring several times before he picked up.

"Hello?" He sounded kind of annoyed. I hope I hadn't interrupted him and a girl.

"Hey Jason, it's Sookie."

"What's up Sook? Kinda late for a phone call." The annoyance left his voice and was replaced by concern.

"Well, I have something important I need to talk to you about and I was hoping you could meet me at my house tomorrow evening, around 8?" I quickly glanced at Eric to make sure that plan was acceptable. Without looking up from his paperwork, he nodded his head.

"Sure. I could meet you earlier than that though if you want."

"I'd love to, but I'm tied up in some things before that. Ok, see you then. Sorry for calling so late."

"No problem sis. I'm always here for you, you know that."

My heart dared to hope at hearing him say that, that he would be accepting of me and my new life.

"Love you." I said and hung up before I started to cry.

Eric's eyes locked on mine. "It's so different now," he said quietly. "Even just a few years ago you would have had to completely abandon your family and friends for fear of being discovered. If he accepts you, it will still be very painful, I must warn you. He will age but you will stay exactly the same. Eventually everyone you knew from your human will grow old and die. This is one of the reasons we caution against staying near family. If you really wish to stay around and interact with him I will allow it. Just know that you are setting yourself up for a great deal of pain in the future."

I felt tears welling up in my eyes, but quickly blinked them away. I've never been fond of crying in front of others, much less so now, knowing how messy it would be.

"Alright," he said standing and reaching for my hand. "Enough of such serious matters for the night. Let's go dance."

Author's note: Sorry, I know it's been awhile since the last chapter. Life's craziness and a lack of inspiration have made it hard to write, but I'm trying.