Chapter 2

"Pam, go to the porch and get three bottles of blood and heat them up."

Pam grimaced. "Surely she can wait for something decent. What's another 30 minutes after being starved for 30 days?"

"Pamela. Go."

It was risky getting close to a vampire this far gone. They could sometimes do more damage than you would expect, although this was far outside the bounds of normal. She had even managed to sit up, so she could get as far from him as possible.

Pam came back in with three bottles. "There's no microwave and the stove is gas, which isn't hooked up. It's cold or nothing."

She was crouched in the corner of the hollow space under the floor of her closet. She stared at the bottles in Pam's hands as if she were afraid they were going to disappear. He took them from Pam, shook them, took the caps off, and set them close enough to her that she could reach them, but far enough away that he didn't spook her.

Her hands trembled when she picked the first one up, and she spilled at least half. But, by the third, she was much steadier, and managed to get most of it inside her.

"We need to go to Shreveport. Come, and we will get you real blood, a shower, and some clothing."

She hissed at him, and when he reached for her, she bit his hand. She was like a feral kitten - hissing, biting, and scratching, desperate for help but too terrified to accept any. She swallowed a very small bit of his blood, and he felt it take root inside her.

He sighed. "Pam. Go get the silver."

"Eric, there isn't a blanket or anything to wrap her in!" He couldn't possibly put silver on her directly. She was far too weak.

He thought about putting his shirt on her and silvering her anyway, but he was afraid that even that would be incredibly painful, considering. Pam put her hand on his wrist. "Why don't you go out and see if there's anything you missed." She cut her eyes to the vampire in the closet and then back to him. He hesitated, but then nodded and went outside after she narrowed her eyes at him.

Pam sat down on the floor several feet away. The emaciated vampire seemed to relax a little, but she was still very wary.

"Would you like another blood?"

She shook her head. Barely, but it was there.

"We won't harm you. You're safe. Safe and free. We will get you clean and fed and healthy enough to travel, and then we'll get you back to wherever you came from. I'm sure you have friends or nestmates looking for you."

She shook her head again, and Pam wasn't sure what part she was disagreeing with. She tried again.

"There are only a few hours left until dawn. Wouldn't you like to have some real blood? A shower?"

Blood welled up in her eyes again. The poor thing was overwhelmed and scared to death. And Eric threatening her with silver hadn't helped. Pam decided to start from scratch.

"My name is Pam. The other vampire is Eric. He's my maker and the Sheriff of the area. What's your name?"

She just looked at Pam for a minute or two, but then she swallowed and licked her lips. Her tongue looked so dry. "Sookie." It was barely a whisper, and her voice was rough and weak and rusty from disuse.

"Sookie, you need help. You need real blood and a doctor. You need to come with us to Shreveport."

"Can't leave."

That sort of threw Pam. "Have you been commanded to stay?"

She raised one shoulder, and then nodded. Did that mean that there were vampires implicated in this drug ring? What a fucking cluster fuck.

"Well, you can't stay here. We might have to tear down the walls. Eric!"

Sookie shrunk back into the corner again.

"He won't hurt you, Sookie. I promise."

She didn't look convinced, of course. Eric came in and raised an eyebrow at Pam. He tried to keep his distance. The vampire in the closet was very afraid of him.

"Her name is Sookie. She has been commanded not to leave the house."

Sookie shook her head. "Room."

Eric set his jaw. So that was why she hadn't drunk the Red Stuff in the back porch fridge. Or just left.

"Can you try to leave?"

She swallowed and shook her head again. "Hurts."

She was so fragile. And he certainly couldn't just leave her here. Tearing the house down was an option, but there would be a lot of debris falling into it. Including wood. It was too dangerous.

She was still crammed in the corner of the closet, so he couldn't grab her from behind. He hated to do it, and she would almost certainly bite him again with her face level with his neck, but he didn't see that he had any choice. And she had already had some of his blood, and would probably benefit from more, so he supposed that it made little difference. He just hoped that he wouldn't hurt her. He sighed and then, moving as quickly as he could, he picked her up with his arms around her chest and her arms pinned at her sides. It felt like she weighed almost nothing at all.

Between the Red Stuff and the tiny bit of his blood that she'd swallowed, she had already regained some of her strength, and he was surprised at how hard she was able to struggle. She screamed hoarsley and twisted and kicked as he carried her to the bedroom door, and then she bit his shoulder as he walked through. He kept going until he had walked out the door and onto the front porch. Sookie was still struggling and her screams had turned to growls, but she hadn't let go with her fangs, and he heard her swallow again and again. Pam followed him outside.

"You will drive her to Fangtasia. I will fly."

Pam opened the passenger door of Eric's Corvette, and Eric walked over to it. "Do you feel compelled to go back inside to that room?"

Sookie shook her head just a bit; she still had her fangs sunk into his shoulder. Pam placed her hand on Sookie's back. "Let's get you into the car. We can discuss things another time. It's ok. There's only room for two in here, so Eric will have to get to Shreveport on his own. It's just going to be us girls."

Sookie stopped biting Eric, and Pam gently picked her up and carried her, bridal-style, and set her down on the passenger seat. After she closed the door, Eric said, "You be careful. She is unpredictable and surprisingly strong. And now she has had even more of my blood."

"I'll be fine. We connected a little, I think."

He kissed her head and floated up a dozen feet or so. He was going to fly above the Corvette all the way back to the bar, just in case.

Pam got in behind the wheel and grinned at Sookie. "He almost never lets me drive it. What a treat!"

Sookie put on her seatbelt, and Pam thought it kind of odd, but maybe she hadn't been vampire for long. The girl pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, hunched into a ball as much as she could.

Pam chatted the whole way there about the bar, the other vampires that might be there tonight, herself and Eric, and the area itself. Pam could tell that the girl was listening intently, but she didn't say a word.

Pam pulled into her parking space and Eric landed in front of the employee entrance of Fangtasia and went inside. He came out two or three minutes later with a blanket. Pam got out of the car and took it from him.

"I'm going to use your office. You'll need to stay away. She's terrified of you."

"So I feel. I will go out to the bar. Let me know if you need me."

Pam wrapped Sookie in the blanket and carried her inside to Eric's office. She set her down on the couch and went into the closet for one of Eric's shirts. "There's a shower in the storeroom. Would you like to use it now, or would you like to have some blood first?"

"Shower."

"Do you think you can stand?"

Sookie shrugged and then nodded.

Pam carried her into the storeroom, and set her down on her feet near a wall, in case she needed it to balance. "Well, shit. There aren't any clean towels in here. Will you be alright to wait here while I grab one?"

Sookie nodded again, and Pam went back out into the hallway after throwing the blanket into the hamper full of dirty bar towels. The employee bathroom was next to the shower, and Sookie walked, with shaky legs, to the door and went inside.

When Pam came back with an armload of towels, Sookie wasn't there. Where in the fuck could she have gone? Not far, considering. Pam set the towels on the shelf and opened the bathroom door.

Sookie was standing in front of the mirror. She didn't make a sound, but her face was streaked with fresh blood. There hadn't been a mirror in that room. Pam wondered again how long she'd been imprisoned in it, and what she'd looked like the last time she'd seen herself.

"Let's go get you cleaned up, ok?"

Sookie nodded and Pam led her out to the shower with her hand on Sookie's back. Pam turned the water on and Sookie stood under the spray for several minutes, just enjoying the feeling again. She looked at her arms and wrists and noticed that they had finally healed. Then she picked up the soap and the washcloth that Pam had given her, and scrubbed herself so hard that she would have rubbed herself raw if she were still human. There was a bottle of shampoo on the floor in the corner, and Sookie washed her hair twice and rinsed it clean. Well, as clean as it could get, as tangled and matted as it was.

She was reluctant to get out, both because it felt so good and because she knew that she was going to have to answer a bunch of questions soon. But the thought of real blood was just too hard to resist. It had been a long time since she'd had any. Months. She'd given up keeping track of the passage of time a long time ago.

She turned off the shower and took the towel that Pam handed to her. After she dried herself off, she put the shirt on. It hung to her knees.

Back in Eric's office, Pam took the brush from her purse and sat Sookie down on the chair behind his desk. "I just texted Eric to send back some blood. Don't worry. He won't be bringing it himself. He's also called for Dr. Ludwig to come and have a look at you. She's very prompt, and it won't take long, I'm sure. While we're waiting, let's get your hair all brushed out, and we can get to know each other a little better."

Longshadow walked in with three bags of warmed blood and a pint glass from the bar. Sookie shrunk back into the chair and hissed.

"What the fuck is your problem?"

Pam put the brush on the desk, took the blood and glass from him, and said, "Just get the fuck out." After he did, Pam opened one of the bags and poured it into a glass and put it down in front of Sookie. She drank it down and Pam refilled the glass twice. Pam picked the brush back up, stood behind Sookie, and started to tease out the tangles.

"Now. Where are you from, Sookie?"

Sookie's throat felt a little looser after all of that blood, human and otherwise, but her voice was still quiet and weak. "Bon Temps."

Pam had not been expecting that at all. As far as she knew, there were no missing vampires in the area. And she didn't think that this one had ever checked in, even under a different name. But even clean, it was hard to tell what she'd looked like before.

"How long ago were you captured?"

"I wasn't."

Pam's brow wrinkled. "Surely you weren't there of your own free will."

Sookie sighed. "No. That used to be my grandmother's house. She died when I was little, along with my daddy and my brother."

Now Pam was even more confused. "How long were you there?"

"What's today's date?"

"September third."

"The year?"

She couldn't be serious. "2006."

Sookie thought for a minute or two and then licked her lips. "Nine years, eight months, and 11 days. December 28, 1996 is when I rose. This is the first time I've left the house since I went to the Christmas Eve service the night before I was turned."