Disclaimer
All rights go to Charline Harris and Allan Ball. I only own my original plotlines and characters.
❝ Some nights you drink tea
Some nights you drink whiskey. ❞
- Atticus
JULIETTE LET OUT a happy sigh as she woke up in a warm embrace. Cladius' arms tightened around her as she snuggled closer to his lean body, her hand teasingly sliding up his smooth bare chest.
Beautiful. She heard making her look up to see Claudius gazing down at her with gentle eyes.
"Good morning sweetheart," Claudius smiles down at her, placing a kiss on her forehead.
Juliette returns the smile and lets out a content hum, "It certainly is," She murmurs, before shifting so she was straddling him.
Juliette leaned down to connect their lips but before they could touch, the door to Juliette's room burst open.
"Jules, something's happ—oh my god!" Sookie exclaimed, her eyes widening comically, horrified at the sight she saw.
Before Juliette could say anything her door slammed shut with a loud bang. There was a stunned silence as she and Claudius just stared at each other before Juliette broke it with a groan, her head falling to his chest.
"I guess morning sex is off the table," She huffs, earning a rumble of laughter from Claudius.
Fifteen minutes later Juliette and Claudius were strolled down the stairs, Juliette wearing just his shirt, letting his spicy fresh scent envelop her, while Claudius wore a simple black t-shirt belonging to Jason, so he wouldn't be shirtless. Instead of the kitchen where Juliette could hear Sookie making breakfast, the pair made their way straight towards the front door to say goodbye, since Claudius had a flight to catch.
Both sadness and relief warred inside her, she didn't want Claudius to go but it was safer for him if he did, there was still a murderer on the loose and the last thing she wanted was him getting hurt.
With a sad smile, the male opened his arms and Juliette immediately stepped into them. Their arms wrapping tightly around each other. They stood there for minutes just locked in each other's embrace before Juliette stepped back staring into his eyes.
Screw it. She thought making a split-second decision, and surging forward.
They met in a fevered kiss, her hands tangling into his silky hair while one of his arms wrap tightly around her waist pulling her closer and the other shifting down to her ass. Everything about it was desperate as if trying to imprint the taste of the other into their brains till the next time they saw each other.
Despite what a lot of people thought, they didn't have any romantic feelings for each other. They were more than lovers, while Jason was her other half, Claudius was her soulmate. There weren't any words to describe what they had because Juliette couldn't even put a label on it.
An uncomfortable cough interrupted the pair, and they pulled away to see a shirtless Sam looking highly uncomfortable at the display they had just put on.
"Morning," Sam nods, his eyes glued firmly on Julliete's face.
Juliette smirked at the man's discomfort, "Morning Sam," She replies while Claudius just mirrors her smirk and nods. Juliette looks to Claudius and instantly her eyes soften, "Stay safe," She says quietly, keeping her voice low so Sam wouldn't hear.
Claudius smiles down at her mischievously, "And where's the fun in that, sweetheart?"
Juliette huffs but a smile tugs at her lips, and he leans down to place a chaste kiss on her lips before pulling away. Juliette stayed by the door watching as he got into his car, their eye connected but there was a certain sombre resignation in his eyes.
Be careful of Bill.
His voice echoed in her mind and Juliette's eyes widened. Before she could even rush out to demand answers he broke eye contact and pulled out, driving away.
She was frozen. She never told Claudius that she could read minds, at first it was because she hated her ability, not wanting to acknowledge it, then it was simply because she never felt the need to bring it up. So, she didn't understand how he knew she would've heard him, not to mention he certainly knew something about Bill, so what else did he know that he wasn't telling her.
Sam clearing his throat for the second time this morning had Juliette snapping out of her thoughts. Schooling her features, she turns around to see Sam looking at her with a raised eyebrow.
"So..." He starts, "Who was that?"
Juliette raises her own eyebrow, any softness she had disappearing with Claudius, "If I wanted you to know, I would've told you," She replies.
Sam nods, "Right."
"Right," She echoes before pointedly looking down at his nude chest, "You might want to cover up Fabio, Sookie might enjoy the view but I prefer my having my breakfast without the peep show."
A heavy blush settled onto Sam's cheeks and he glared when he saw Juliette's smirk.
"Not funny," He huffs, "and you're one to talk," he retorts, glancing down pointedly at the oversized shirt she was wearing, that brushed just passed her mid-thigh.
"My house Sammy boy, I can wear what I want," She states walking past him and into the kitchen, straight to the coffee machine.
"Your friend leave?" Sookie questions, taking in Juliette's appearance.
Juliette hum, "Had a plane to catch," She replies simply.
Sookie continues her mini interrogation, her eyes squinting slightly, a telltale sign she was trying to read Juliette's mind, "Who is he? I've never seen him before?"
Juliette may not be as controlled as Sookie for choosing which thoughts she wanted to hear but she was sure as hell good at hiding her own much to Sookie's frustration.
"Just a friend," Juliette shrugs, keeping her thoughts tightly on lockdown.
Footsteps approaching made the girls look away from each other to look at Sam who thankfully now had a shirt on.
"Morning," He smiles, looking at Sookie.
"Eggs and sausage warm in the oven," Sookie informs and Juliette's eyes light up at the thought of food.
She tunes out their conversation as she focuses on making herself a plate of breakfast. Her mouth-watering at how good it smelled.
"I am sick and tired of waiting to get strangled!" Juliette heard Sookie exclaimed and immediately she turns to look at her sister.
"Wha ahpen?" She asked with her mouth full of food, it earned her a disgusted look from Sookie but none the less the younger blonde answered.
"I was attacked last night," She informed.
Juliette's eyes widened, swallowing her food as she looked over her sister for any injuries. "What? Did you see who? How come you didn't fucking tell me?" Juliette fired off worriedly.
"It happened at Arlene's party, no I didn't see who, and I didn't tell you because I'm fine and you had company," Sookie huffs.
Juliette glared, "You could've died, you should have told me someone attacked you."
"Well, don't worry Jules, it's not gonna happen while I'm here," Sam steps in trying to diffuse the growing tension between the sisters.
"You can't spend 24 hours a day with me for the rest of my life," Sookie says.
Sam just gives her a lovestruck smile, "Sure, I can."
Juliette scrunches her nose in disgust as she sees the loving look they share, Kill me now.
Sookie having heard Juliette's thought glares before looking back to Sam, "I want to find that guy before he finds me, again."
"Are you insane?" Juliette growls, "No, no way, I won't allow you to hunt down a killer who's trying to kill you!"
"Good thing I didn't need your permission," Sookie smirks, and Juliette's glare deepens.
"So you're looking up killers in yellow pages?" Sam asks once again budding in to avoid a brewing argument.
Sookie sarcastically laughs, "Ha ha, no. I'm—I remembered. In my sleep, I remembered," She said vaguely.
"What?" Sam asked.
Flashes of what Sookie saw entered Juliette's mind making her flinch at the sudden intrusion.
"The girl I saw. Her clothes, the apron, it—it was a uniform," Sookie explained, "She was a waitress and—and there was a tag, her name was Cindy. And the restaurant name was something about pies."
"Big Patty's Pie House," Juliette spoke up and both Sookie and Sam turned to look at her, making her shrug, "I like their pies."
"It's off, uh-off I-49 way south, near Bunkie," Sams says before looking at Juliette to double-check, "Right?"
The blonde nods and both of them look back at Sookie. Her eyes widen as she realizes they meant to come with her, "Oh you—you don't have to come with me," She nervously laughs.
"Either we go, or I match your ass straight to the precinct and have Andy lock you up," Juliette threatens.
"You don't even like Andy!" Sookie protests.
Juliette just gives her a pointed look, "Exactly."
Juliette was immediately in heaven the second she walked into Big Patty's. The smell of pie made her mouth water as she hungrily looked to the spinning display, deciding which one she wanted.
Sookie nudged her, "Focus," She hissed.
Juliette rolled her eyes, reluctantly dragging herself away from the display as Sam and Sookie went on to question the waitress.
The waitress, however, didn't seem to know anything, "No, Ma'am, no, sir, I don't know any Cindy," She replies with a shake of her head, "But I can recommend the fried apple pie, the frozen Hawaiian pie, the chocolate praline pie, the chess pie, the seven-layered Jell-o pie—"
A man cut her off, "They'll have the peanut butter pie and the spunky hollow honey pineapple pie, please Harley?" He said ordering for them.
Harley smiles, "Gotcha, Buster."
She moved to leave but Juliette called out to her, "Harley, right? Can you also add in the chocolate cream pie and the bourbon cherry pie?"
"You bet I can!" Harley exclaims.
Juliette smiles charmingly making Harley blush. "Thanks, Dollface."
"Juliette!" Sookie hisses.
Juliette glares at Sookie, "I am not leaving without my dang pie, so smile and let's go talk to the nice man who ordered us some," The older Stackhouse growled.
The three approach the man Harley called Buster. "You won't get nothing from her, she's only been here two weeks," Buster explained, "Come from three generations as dumb as rocks." Juliette snorts one amusement and Buster shoots her a grin, "Hell, they named her after a motorcycle."
Sookie forces a smile as she starts to speak, "That's really interesting, but—"
"—If you want to know anything about Cindy Marshall, I'll talk to you," He says cutting Sookie off, "and I'll eat that pie too."
"Peanut butter's yours, but the rest are mine," Juliette states, a little too protectively.
The man just chuckles, "Fair enough. Buster Boisseau," He introduces.
"Sookie Stackhouse, that's my sister Juliette and that's Sam Merlotte," Sookie says as the three take a seat by Buster.
Juliette's eyes were solely focused on the three slices of pie in front of her, and she didn't waste time digging in. She chose the chocolate cream pie first and she let out a moan in pleasure the second she tasted it.
Sam starts off, "So, Uh, can you tell us, Uh...?"
"Oh baby how I've missed you," She mumbles to the pie.
Feeling eyes on her, Juliette looks back to see three eyebrows raised as they stared at her.
"What?" She snaps.
Buster just chuckles as he takes a bite of the pie, letting out his own appreciative groan.
"You knew Cindy?" Sookie questions getting back on topic.
Buster nods, "Let's see, I met her two years ago. She moved into town with her brother a couple of months before—" Buster cut himself off, his face falling as he took another bite of his pie.
"Before what?" Sam pressed.
"Well, I hate to be the one to tell you, but...someone murdered that little gal. Just choked the life right out of her," He frowned, genuinely upset.
"Poor thing. Did...did they find out who did it?" Sookie asked.
"Nope. It's a mystery," He stated.
"Well, where's her brother? Could we talk to him?"
Buster just shook his head, "Don't know-how. He was gone by the time they found her body. The police thought maybe he's dead too, or maybe he killed her, but there want any evidence one way or the other."
Juliette's lip curled at the thought that Cindy's brother might've killed her. There were many times Juliette wished she could kill Jason and Sookie but she never meant it, the thought of hurting either of them caused her to feel sick. Siblings were supposed to protect each other and if Cindy's brother really did kill Cindy then he deserved to rot in the deepest pit of hell.
This time it was Juliette who spoke up, "What was his name?"
"Let me think on that." Buster's eyebrows furrowed as he tried to recall Cindy's brother's name, "Hm. Nobody hardly knew him. Let's see, uh, D-something. Dave. Drew—no, Drew. Drew Marshall."
"What was Cindy like?" Sookie asked.
Buster smiled. "Oh, cute as a button, a little wild, fun-loving, always nice to me." His smile faded, "But people talked, you know."
"Talked about what?"
Buster seemed reluctant to say anything but finally, he spoke, "Vampers. They say she was carrying in with the vampers." He said, "I didn't believe it. I mean, what kind of woman would do such a thing?"
But Juliette wasn't listening. It was another thing the three had in common aside from being females, Jason had already spoken about Maudette being a fang banger, Juliette was aware of Dawns extracurriculars, not to mention they already asked about the girls in Fangtasia, with Eric confirming that they indeed were there, Cindy was now the third; but where did Adele fit into all of this, and what about their cat, unless...the killer had never meant to kill Adele.
He had already tried attacking Sookie, so what if he tried going after Sookie only for Adele to see him instead. A bile rose up Juliette's throat and suddenly she wasn't so keen on eating her pies.
"Well it's not much," Sam commented and Juliette blinked realizing Buster had walked away leaving the three to themselves.
"We got a name," Sookie said trying to look on the bright side.
Sam knocked on the window of the precinct, "Hello?"
The man inside didn't move, too busy on his phone but he did shout back, "Hold your horses."
Can't call it adultery if a wife won't have sex. At least Debbie's a Christian.
The man's thoughts floated into Juliette's head and she let out a disgusted scoff. Mumbling that she'll be back, Juliette walked a few paces away, so she was out of earshot before pulling out her phone and calling Claudius.
The line rang, and rang, and rang before the automated voice came through asking if she would like to leave a message.
"You need to call me back and explain to me that shit you pulled before you left," Juliette growled, "How did you know I could hear you? and what the hell do you know about Bill?" She hissed before clenching her jaw and taking a breath, when she spoke again her voice was significantly softer, "Just...Just please call me back."
The line beeped as she ended the voice mail and she didn't move for a few seconds, when she finally did she let out a weary sigh, putting her phone back into her pocket and making her into the precinct where Sookie and Sam now were and talking to the officer.
"Good riddance to white trash is all I got to say," She heard the officer say to her sister.
Already in a dark mood from Claudius' lack of response, Juliette approached the three.
"You're out of line," Sam growled.
"He can say what he wants, I don't mind," Sookie said, "Just hand me a picture of Drew Marshall and I'll go away quiet."
"That files in storage," The officer smirked, "Gonna take a while to get it, probably months."
"Is that so?" Juliette purrs announcing her presence. The officers immediately drink's her in, his leering eyes resting on her chest for a few seconds and Juliette smirks as she leans her elbows onto the desk. "Well now, that just won't do. See you're gonna get it for us now, or your wife's gonna find out about your roll in the sheets with Debbie."
The officer's eyes widen, "Debbie?!"
"Yeah, Debbie." Sam nods, despite having no idea about Debbie.
"Not to mention, the Vampire League of America's will surely want to know about your attitude," Juliette smirks coldly.
"Now, wait a minute, hold on a minute, now," The officer chuckles nervously before he leans close to Juliette, "I can't just give you the photo. What I might...could do is, um, fax it on down to the sheriff in Bon Temps." He says, swallowing nervously.
"Fast," Sam smirks.
"I'll do my best," He nods.
Juliette gives him a sugary sweet smile, "That's all we ask."
The three of them leave the building and Sam turns to Juliette, "You can be really scary when you want to be," He comments.
Juliette smirks, "Oh, I know."
Much to both Sookie and Sam's reluctance Juliette had them drop her off at Fangtasia. She used the guise of wanting a drink without all the mosey locals but in reality, she needed some answers.
Strolling in, Juliette made a beeline to the bar where Pam was working.
"Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in," Pam purred.
Juliette smirked, "Nice to see you to Barbie, unfortunately, I'm not here for your pretty face, I'm here for Eric's, you know where I can find him?" Juliette asked since he wasn't on his throne.
Pam rolls her eyes nodding to a hallway, "His office, last door to the right."
"Thanks, doll face," Juliette smiles before following the directions Pam gave her.
Juliette paused in front of the door debating if she should knock or just barge in but eventually her southern manners won out and she knocked. The door opened but instead of Eric, it was a young redhead.
"Ooh, are you lunch?" She smiled, she looked almost unhinged as her fangs clicked out.
"Honey, I will rip out your fangs if they come anywhere near me," Juliette warned.
"Jessica, let her in," The familiar voice of Eric called.
The red-headed vampire, Jessica, pouted but did as she was told, stepping aside for Juliette to enter.
Eric smiled sharply at her. "What a pleasant surprise. What can I do for you, Juliette?"
"What do you know of Bill Compton?" Juliette asked, her voice hard making it clear it wasn't a social visit.
"That he's a dick," Jessica snorts, making Juliette look over in mild amusement, "Dick, dick, dick," Jessica giggles.
Juliette raises an eyebrow before looking back at Eric, who's face had hardened. "Jessica, leave us."
"But-"
"Now!" He growled and immediately the girl did as she was told. Now that it was just the two of them, Eric relaxed slightly and gestured for Juliette to take a seat, "Now, what is it that you would like to know?"
"Who is Bill really?" Juliette questions, "Is this whole nice vampire thing an act?"
Eric pauses as he considers Juliette's questions. He could easily lie to her and make Bill look like the devil but he didn't really want to. Juliette was a blunt woman and he respected that, and while he wouldn't exactly lie to her, that didn't mean he wouldn't spin this to his advantage.
Carefully considering his words, Eric speaks, "I cannot answer that since I am unsure of Bill's true motives myself but what I can tell you is who he used to be," Eric offers and Juliette nods.
"Tell me."
Authors Note
Due to my recent inactivity, I thought I'd surprise you guys with two updates! Hope you enjoyed!