A/N: I have written a whopping 3 paragraphs today, but meh. I don't need chapters held back. Right?! Just say yes.

Thank you to everyone who is following along and reading and reviewing and all of that stuff. And thanks to ilovemysteries for being awesome.

Chapter 5

Sookie said goodbye to her wolves and they left, and left her behind. She was so scared and had never felt more alone in her entire life. She desperately wanted to follow them. The tall guy, Eric, was pacing around and talking on the phone. He sounded mad. He was so terrifying. But her wolves had said that he would take care of her, and she didn't know what else to do. It wasn't like she had anywhere else to go. She sat on the floor against the wall and hugged her knees and just tried not to think about anything.

When Eric was finished on the phone, had shown the cleaners what they needed to tend to, and had changed his shirt after he'd cleaned himself up a bit, he squatted down a few feet in front of her. He was going to try very hard not to get impatient. "We must go down to the security office. I need to see the tapes for the time after you were turned. I need to find out what happened to Pam. Do you think you can control yourself around humans? If not, I will need to take you somewhere else first, and have others watch you."

"I'll be Ok."

He handed her one of his T-shirts and she got cleaned up as best she could in the bathroom and changed into it. It hung down well past her cut offs. She pulled the spent glow bracelets off of her wrists, threw them in the garbage, and took a deep breath. She followed him into the elevator.

They went down to the security office and Eric glamoured the security guard to stand quietly in the corner until they were through. He found the camera feed for the elevator and found the file for Monday, which began at midnight. At 1223, Sookie and Pam entered the lift.

Eric could tell how much her scent was affecting Pam. Hell, even now, as a vampire, she smelled good enough to eat. And drink. And he could certainly see why Pam had been interested even without the smell. The Sookie on the tape was absolutely compelling, even if he couldn't hear her voice. Or her laughter. He was able to read their lips, though. It was a big difference from the terrified vampire that looked like a cornered rabbit cowering behind him.

He watched Pam's last footage over and over again. And he found that, by the last couple of viewings, his gaze was being drawn to Sookie's side of the conversation more and more.

Finally, he let that go past and sped the tape up to find out who else had gone up to the penthouse. A pretty brunette got into the elevator and inserted a keycard. Eric growled.

From behind him. "Hadley?"

Eric turned, grabbed her throat, and slammed her into the wall.

"How do you know Hadley Delahoussaye?"

"Sh-sh-she's my c-cousin! I haven't seen her in two years or b-better."

"And you expect me to believe that Pam just happened to pick you up on the same night she was, I assume, staked by your spoiled rotten brat of a cousin?"

"Yes! It's the truth! I swear! Pam came on to me! I've been looking for Hadley for months and couldn't find her!" She still asked around about her regularly, but nobody she'd spoken to had seen her in well over a year.

He was probing the bond and had found no deceit in her at all. He set her down. He rewound the feed and he watched Hadley go up in the elevator, get out, and then get right back in again only a minute or two after the doors had closed. At that time of night, it wasn't called to a different floor in the interim. She went back down and exited into the lobby. He found that time on the lobby feed, and watched her leave the hotel. He checked the feed out front for the same time, and she walked down the street and out of sight. There was no entry for the penthouse lobby. Anywhere. It didn't seem to be connected to the system at all. He checked all of the camera feeds, and nothing.

He asked the glamoured security guard, "Where is the feed for outside the penthouse?"

"The camera's been busted for months. The replacement is on backorder."

Eric growled and nearly decapitated him, but held his fists clenched at his sides instead.

Sookie tried not to cry anymore. She just wrapped her arms around herself and tried to disappear into the wall. She was willing herself not to run away. Not to scream for help. She was a monster now. If anyone came, they would be the ones who would need help. She might hurt them, or worse.

Eric rewound the feed of the front of the hotel until he found Hadley approaching from the parking lot. He checked the parking lot feed and watched her walking the rows until she found Pam's car. She checked the license plate carefully. He backtracked again and watched her approaching the parking lot on foot from the other direction. Hadley had arrived not 15 minutes after Pam's car had been parked by the valet.

There really wasn't anything else for him to see. She would have had to have had a penthouse or master key card, but that could have easily been bought or glamoured from any number of people, at any point in time, really. He watched the elevator feed again. Minutes after Hadley got out, a server with a room service trolley got in. She chose the button for the penthouse and inserted her master key card into the slot. At the top floor, the server pushed the trolley out. The next evening, housekeeping took the trolley back down.

He needed to kill Hadley, but he couldn't just walk up to the palace and kill her in front of the Queen. And he needed to know why she had done it. He needed to plan, and it was nearing dawn. And he needed to do… something with Sookie.

"Come." Reluctantly, she followed him back upstairs. The cleaners were just finishing up. There was a new pane of treated glass in the window, Pam's ashes were cleared away, and the blood smears and drops were all gone. Eric tipped them well and they left.

He was not comfortable with having her out of his sight, as unpredictable as she was. Even if she would be out before he was pulled to his rest, and he would rise before her. He was… distracted. She was liable to jump out the window again.

"It will be dawn soon. You will be dying for the day. You will rise again after the sun sets. We will rest here tonight. We have some things to do in New Orleans before we go back to Shreveport. You will be able to see your Wolves again in a night or two. Are you hungry again?"

She shrugged and then shook her head.

"There are many things that you will need to be taught. Normally, of course, this would be the job of your maker. Once we get back to Shreveport, I will find a suitable foster for you. In the meantime, I will try to teach you all you need to know in the first few nights.

He was about to go on, but she didn't really look as if she were processing much right then. And dawn was very close. He led her to the bedroom and said, "You need supervision. I'm afraid you must rest in here with me. I promise not to touch you."

She shrugged and climbed into bed and curled up in a ball, as close to the edge as she could get.

Sookie was used to sleeping with her wolves like a litter of puppies, all cuddled up together, or even piled on top of each other. And she shared beds with tons of people, all the time. On stormy nights, they always had a few car seat surfers. Their community was pretty tight knit and sometimes she crashed in an RV or at a squat with friends when they were all having too much fun to end their night. There was always a wolf close by, and they were way stronger than any teenage humans. Plus she could read minds to snoop out any ill intentions. She hadn't slept alone since those first two nights after she had run away. As much as she didn't like Eric, and was still scared of him, she didn't really like the idea of sleeping alone, either. Her wolves said to trust him, and she didn't really feel like she could trust herself.

She was dead for the day within a minute or two. He laid down next to her in his boxers. She really was an attractive little thing. But so timid. She didn't really seem much like a vampire at all. Her behaviour certainly wasn't typical. If she got a handle on herself, she would have a very easy time passing for human, at least. And part of him felt almost drawn to protect her. He supposed it has something to do with the bond, and maybe just her connection to Pam.

As he was just starting to drift off, she molded herself against him. She had even managed to turn over so she was facing him. He frowned. At his age, resisting the pull of the sun for a little while was no great matter. But Sookie should have been dead - immobile until the sun set again. He pushed her back over onto her side of the bed and rolled onto his back. A moment or two later, she was pressed right up against him again. He rolled onto his side, facing her, to push her back again. Her arm snaked around his waist, and she nuzzled her face into his chest. He had no place for his arm but around her back. He stroked her hair a little, and sniffed it. She really did smell wonderful. The notes of Pam almost made him feel like she was close by. And, frankly, he could use the comfort, too. He held her a little closer to him and let the sun carry him away to his daytime death.