Another update because you guys have been so good to me! Thank you all so much for the follow and favorites! I hope to see more of them.

permisable: Thank you! I definitely will.

MicroSpider: Pam's actually always been my favorite character. And sassy is what I love to write so I think it'll be fun.

str8jacket: I'm so glad that you like that part of Runa! It means a lot to me that you like her.

X Blue Eyed Demon X: I love you!


Chapter Three: Silence is a Part of the Game

Foreign was a good word to describe the vampire bar in Shreveport. The outside wasn't the threatening part. It looked exactly like any down home restaurant in Louisiana would. But through the open front doors, I could see the red and black leather furniture peeking around the corner. Strip poles on raised dance floors and high chairs with granite tables dotted the interior which seemed endless from the backseat of Bill's car. A long bar was just to the right of the entrance, the red lights glowing softly over the alcohol bottles and picture frames. Blood and sex - that's what this place was designed for.

"I would advise you to stay silent," Bill was saying tightly. He had gone through the whole conversation about this Eric Northman being a very powerful vampire, Sheriff, blah, blah, blah, Sookie getting checked out like a library book, blah, blah. My eyes were too busy taking in the red, glowing sign over the red canopy that guarded the front entrance. Fangtasia. Inventive. "You were not exactly in the plans for tonight."

I nodded, meeting my sister's gaze and opening my mind up for her. If you need my help… Discreetly, she nodded before turning and getting out of the car. An interrogation was what we were going to be walking into. And although my powers were normally a plague, a little fear was all that most anyone needed to open up like a clam.

"If I had known before this moment that you would be coming with us than I might have suggested a…" I stared at him, slamming the car door shut and crossing my arms as he gave me a pained once over. Finally, he gave me a strained smile. "More appropriate attire for a meeting of my kind."

My eyes turned down to my black mesh top, my sports bra plainly in view and my ripped capris. Sighing, I walked past him to the door. I was pretty sure that these vamps would be able to rip off any clothing that covered myself within a matter of seconds. "Next time I'll make sure to wear a silver vest and some garlic. Invited guests first."

Giving them a wan smile, I let them pass me up and into the bar. Just out of my view from the open door were the three scariest motherfuckers that I had ever come across. Fuck Bill and his stupid little civil war puppy dog shit - These vampires made him look like a golden retreiver next to a couple of great white sharks. Goosebumps flashed up my spine as all my muscles seized was a natural instinct like breathing. Like a kitten coming across a couple of bobcats.

Leaning against the bar, a lean blonde woman in a light pink sweater and khakis eyed a shivering human in the chair just across from her. You wouldn't think that someone as cushy as her would look like she could slit your throat and then laugh over your corpse. She made it work. Deep scarlet painted her lips and dark makeup accentuated the icy depths of her eyes as they slowly ran over to us. Standing just behind her, flicking his fingers over an open flame was a man of Native American descent in a leather vest, his hair long and dark as it swept to his shoulders.

"I didn't know that we invited them to a free for all fucking barbeque," the blonde woman quipped, giving me a long once over and then a slow smile. I looked away.

The last one, his shoulders hunched in like he was trying to curve in on the human sitting just beside him. He made my blood go cold, my heart rate picking up just in time as his eyes flicked up and he gave a lazy smile. This had to be Eric Northman. There was no other answer to the utter predatory power that this man exuded. A black tank top hugged every curve of his chest, accentuating his defined arms and shoulders. He was attractive - there was no way that I would ever deny that. Sandy blonde hair hung down to his chin, where a light splatter of stubble softened his powerful jaw. The most striking thing about him were his eyes - wasn't that what it always boiled down to? They were cold and calculating, blocks of ice in the Alaska sea, frothing over at the edges.

A burst of pain sliced through my skull and I let out a hiss, pressing my fingers to my eyes as it skittered along my brain. I recognized him. No. That wasn't right. It was something about his narrow nose and sharp gaze. It seemed familiar. Painfully familiar. Like a picture your mom shows you when you're young.

"Runa?" Sookie was next to me, her eyes wide as she stared up at me, her hands going to my back. "Are you okay?"

I had stopped the whole damn procession. I should have gotten a standing ovation for how indiscreet I was being. Wincing, I forced my hand away from my face and moved to stand on the opposite side of Compton as Sookie. "Just lovely, sis."

The icy depths churned and Northman tipped his chin back. Sookie was right about Gran not liking this man. She would have turned her nose up at the way his eyes were nearly eating the clothes off of my body. My jaw set. I was pretty sure that a hoodie and sweats wouldn't have stopped that from happening.

"Have you acquired a second Stackhouse, Bill?" My insides shivered at the gravelly rasp that thickened his speech, drawing out the words until they seemed to scrape along my skin. His eyes stayed on me as he said them, an amused tilt coloring his voice.

"I'm afraid I have not had the pleasure," Bill said thinly and I sent him a long side-ways glance. And you never would, buster.

"Interesting," Eric mused and I felt an odd buzzing hum through my body as his smile turned predatory and then dimmed into a tame mask as he turned to Sookie. "Has Bill told you of our arrangement?"

My sister straightened and I saw the blonde woman give a patient smile against the bar. "Yes. But I-"

"Good," Eric cut her off, pulling out the chair across from the sweating human with a clatter. "Take a seat, Miss Stackhouse."

It was safe to say that by the time my sister sat down, she looked like a cat that had had her tail pulled on a time too many. Her back was ramrod straight, her shoulders up as she stared at the blonde man with a mixture of disdain and disgust. My spine went just as stiff as I felt Bill's hand slide into the curve of my back, his eyes apologetic as he gently pushed me to stand beside him at the bar, facing Sookie. She couldn't see either of us. My lips thinned, my mind opening up as I allowed her to feel a bit of my anxiety and worry. Slowly, her shoulders eased.

"Now that we're all settled," Eric said smoothly and I gulped as he made his way around the side of the table, his gate slow and steady. It was like watching Jaws all over again. "Pam, Longshadow and I are all partners in this club."

My eyes instinctively lowered to the ground as he passed, the feeling of his eyes moving over me sending a sharp bolt of unwanted awareness through me. He was a vampire. He could definitely hear how fast my heart was beating.

"And we recently noticed that 16,000 dollars has gone missing." I was suddenly very glad that I was beside Compton, his body positioned just in the way of the woman who I assumed was Pam and Longshadow. Slowly, Eric took his hands from his pockets and squeezed the human's shoulder until he made a squeal similar to a pig's right before it died. "And Bruce...is our accountant… Perhaps you can start by listening to him."

"He isn't saying anything," my sister snapped defiantly and I resisted the urge to go over and shake her. We were already in this maze of death. She knew that we need her to get out of here without being bait.

"Don't be coy," Eric said, not even glancing up from the human who had begun to sob quietly. "It's humbling enough to turn to a human for assistance. We know what you can do."

There was irritation in those words, his shoulders rolling like a caged animals as he looked around his bar.

"And I know what you can do too. Why don't you just glamor him?"

"Now don't you think we might have tried everything before summoning you?" Eric said, annoyance now plainly obvious in his voice as he gave my sister a sharp glance. "So… It would be a great favor to me and to Mister Compton if you helped us."

I stayed as silent as possible under the overwhelming tension. My mouth had gotten me into a lot of trouble. But no one would ever say that I hadn't learned from all the backyard beatings I had gotten when I was young. And I definitely wasn't going to be baby food for some greek god who looked like he could tear whole cities down with an indifferent sweep of his hand.

"If I found out who did it," my sister said carefully. "Then what?"

"We'll turn that person over to the police and let the authorities handle it from there."

I didn't look towards the deep voice coming from behind the counter. Instead my eyes were dragged up to Eric as they flicked indifferently and a bit sardonically over the Native American vampire. I had a feeling that the blonde haired man would not have made the same offer.

He would have told the blunt, horrible truth.

My sister scoffed, her eyes meeting mine in a what the fuck moment. I shrugged. Who knew how dumb these vamps thought we were - two country girls with the southern drawl and the tits to match. And what were we honestly going to do if they refused? Come out and protest outside the fucking bar?

"Hundreds of years old and you're still a terrible liar," Sookie snorted before whirling back to stare up at Eric as Longshadow gave her a snarl. My eyes finally flicked to the vampire, giving him a sneer that could have melted the skin right off of any country hick within a ten mile radius. "I'll make you a deal. If you promise to hand over the person who did this to the police, I'll agree to help you anytime you want."

"Sookie," I hissed out, stepping forward as rage sizzled along my skin. All eyes turned on me, Eric Northman's mouth tipping up in a dare-me-not way that had my hackles raising. I met my sister's eyes, silently pleading with her to take everything she had just said back.

If she needed my help today than I would be roped into this little deal as well. There was no doubt in my mind that oddities were something that vampires rarely came across in their existence. Sure they lived through history. But after a while - human after human after human, sex and gore and blood - it had to be the dullest existence that they had. A step up from human existence was one thing. Concurring was the next. Eric Northman looked like a man who enjoyed concurring things that he couldn't - shouldn't have.

My abilities. The emotion pressed into my mind and I stared at her as my nails dug into my palms. She didn't know what she was doing. I bared my teeth at her, forcing all of my logic into her like a scream. Her skin went the color of paper, the sudden realization of the jeopardy that she had placed not only herself but me in as well suddenly pressing down on her. But it was too late.

"Alright," came the low voice, that familiar sarcasm lighting up the words. I gulped, dragging my eyes away from my sisters to meet Eric's. Curiosity. Was it odd that that was more terrifying than any other emotion that I could have seen there? I leaned back, dropping my gaze to the floor again and ignoring Bill's bewildered stare. "Why not?"

My mouth thinned. He knew what he was doing. How could he not? I closed my eyes, hunkering down against the bar. I hadn't told Sookie through our link about the unstable ground that she had put me on. Just the logic of what this man could do. What he could make her do. Maybe I should have. That would have saved me.

"Bruce it's okay," I heard my sister whisper. "Take a deep breath… Did you steal their money?"

I looked around. The way that all of these vamps were looking down at poor, ol' Bruce was the farthest from nice that I had seen in awhile. I wondered why they hadn't just flayed him and questioned him that way.

My sister's shoulders tightened, a dribble of sweat rolling down her neck. She spent so long ignoring the voices, I was sure it was painful having to open up to them so completely. Painful and physically taxing.

"No," Bruce started out calm but quickly spiraled into hysterics. "No, no! Ya gotta believe me, I didn't do it! I swear to ya!"

He was so filled with fear that I could barely get around the stench of it. His dreams opened up to me. His nightmares. My eyes slitted as I stared at the beads of sweat collecting around his eyes. Vampires. Vampires all night long. He breathed them in during the days at his desk with his numbers but at night - well, that was when the monsters came out. He dreamed about what he saw when he had snuck in on the blonde one in the basement. Opening the door-

I jerked, blinking away the images as he got up. Bill was watching me out of the corner of his eyes.

"You trust the skinny one to clear the fat one?" Longshadow questioned vehemently.

"That skinny one just cleared your prime suspect," I said before I could think, my eyes staying on the accountants sweat soaked back until he disappeared out the door. "I would think you would be happy. You won't need to bribe another accountant to keep all your dirty little secrets."

Longshadow let out a hiss which I fully reciprocated, watching as his eyes darted to the rows of sharp teeth lining my mouth. Dull enough to pass as human but jagged enough to bite off his tongue. Pam let out a chortle, throwing her head back in glee.

"Runa-"

He was in front of me in a secret, the bulk of him crowding me against the bar before I could even let out a breath. My sneer dropped, my heart rate increasing painfully as I tried to look anywhere but his eyes. Just over his shoulder seemed like a good option.

"It's actually quite easy to bride an accountant." He leaned in until I felt his cool breath running along my ear, my insides quaking at his close proximity. "Everyone has their price."

And then he was gone and I was left with the attention of two vampires and my sister on me. Not doing too well to fly under the radar, huh? Maybe I should throw on a sombrero and jarabe tapatio on one of the granite tops.

"Bring the next one in," Eric ordered offhandedly, a slight nod in Pam's direction.

I tightened my lips, settling back for the show as the humans were paraded in front of my sister one after the other. By the fifth one, her shoulders were slumping, her hands slightly shaking.

"No um," she mumbled out, before pressing a hand to her face. Tiredly, she turned to me, her eyes confused. "Runa…"

He's not even shaken. He's hiding something but I just can't get past all the bullshit.

My eyes moved to Eric, his tall, lean figure imposingly vigilant. He looked like he was the closest out of anyone to ripping out the scrawny, little weaklings throat and bathing in his blood. Slowly, I turned back to my sister. Are you sure? Mr. Northman looks like he's doing a good job.

A spark of sarcasm lit her gaze, her lips tilting down. Just help me.

My muscles creaked and my joints popped as I leveled myself from the bar.

"Miss Stackhouse-" Bill started to hiss before Sookie stopped him with a calming smile. The other vamps didn't seem to be as appeased by that. I felt like I was walking through a minefield as I rethought my route to the human by skirting around Eric who smirked in amusement. That seemed to be his resting face.

Taking a breath, I put a hand on the boys bony shoulders, ignoring his sputtered rebukes as my fingers gently skated down until I could feel the beat of his heart beneath them. Fears - he had too many to count. Water. He couldn't swim. Cats weirdly enough - he had been mauled by one when he was little. And then - I slipped my hand into his breast pocket, drawing out a rose gold watch that was dainty enough for me to snap it in half.

"He's free to go," my sister's voice chirped out, filling the room as I made my way to the blonde vampire. Her brows quirked.

"Presents so early on?" she mused, her head tipping to the side as she eyed my outstretched hand, the watch glinting softly.

"He's been dreaming about the moment that you find out that he took this from you," I said, turning to stare back at the wide-eyed boy, his shaggy hair falling into his eyes. "A secret admirer."

"Hm." Her lips tipping up and her eyes flashing as she eyed the shaking human. "Well isn't that absolutely delightful."

She was the one to take him out to one of the back rooms. He didn't return.

"Have you been hiding something from me, Compton?" Eric inquired softly, the humor in his eyes belying the overwhelmingly predator way that he was staring at me.

"I - I assure-" Bill stuttered out but Sookie cut him off.

"My sister didn't have the same obligation that I had to Bill."

"It was my secret to keep," I finished, forcing my eyes to meet the cool depths of his. Smug contemplation filled the harsh lines of his face. It was the kind of attention that a normal girl wouldn't want. My jaw set and I turned back to the empty chair, breaking his gaze. I was a normal girl.

Sookie's eyes met mine over the head of the next human. What had she gotten us into? The side of my face felt like an open flame, Eric's eyes boring into the side of my skull. Pam looked like she had just eaten a canary.

I gulped, focusing down on the heartbeat under my fingers. Nightmare after nightmare. Fear after fear. They ate me up. In the night, I felt like I could barely contain my want for blood, for fears and tears and all the emotions that came with both. This invasiveness was eating up my humanity.

I jerked my hands away from the human female as if she had caught fire beneath my fingers, my breathing ragged and sweat rolling down my back. Beside me, I heard Eric rumble and I saw the twitch of his nose as his eyes narrowed on me. That gaze sent hot shivers down me, something secret and mean awakening. Blood. Gore. Sex. I winced, rubbing my hands reflexively as I hunkered down until the next human was set in my chair.

"Runa, you don't have to-" My hand was already pressing over the boy's heart, his breathing going unsteady as he felt the heat of my body against his back. My eyes narrowed, catching on a bit of torn flesh around his neck, just beneath his collar. Shit. Nail marks.

He beat his wife every single night. I gulped, my fingers digging into his shoulder as my hearing went fuzzy. Last night he had raped her. Good thing they didn't have kids. Good thing they didn't have to hear her sob and scream. Damn. Death. He stunk of it. Her dead eyes - still breathing but dead all the same, like it was just her bones and blood keeping her there.

"Is he cleared?" I forced out, my words strained and uneven as my vision snapped in and out. Sookie was looking at me like I had grown a second head.

"Y-yeah-Oh my god! RUNA, STOP!" My fingers dug into the hair at the base of his skull before I could think, sending his head slamming into the table. I wanted to do more. My whole entire body tensed to do more. Sometimes I felt like I wasn't in control. I stumbled back, hatred and disgust clouding my vision as I heard the man moan.

"Well, this just got more entertaining," I heard Pam muse. I could still hear her screaming. Desperately, I pressed my heels into my eyes, trying to get it out with a sharp burst of pain. Sookie soft voice was whispering to the motherfucker-

"Human." I shivered as a hand ghosted along my arm, callouses roughening the skin, removing my hand from my eyes and tipping up my chin. Eric. "Speak."

My breathing evened. It was a simple command. In and of itself, it was a command. It shouldn't have made me feel any better. But it did. I licked my lips, keeping his gaze as his thumb began to make gentle lines across my jaw.

"He beats his wife every night." Sookie stopped touching him, her body flinching away from the human man like she had looked into a baby stroller to find a rattlesnake. Eric's eyes hardened. "Ineptitude. Hate. He dreams about raping her - every night. He dreams about it."

"Fucker," I heard Pam hiss from across the room and I looked away, suddenly feeling very confused.

"SHE'S A LIAR!" The man screamed as the blonde hauled him to his feet and away from my sister, her face a sickly white. "I DIDN'T DO-"

"That's a good bit of information," Eric mused, his fingers tightening around my jaw as I went to pull away. Laughing blue eyes held mine as he moved a bit closer, his lean chest brushing along my front in a light tease. "You are becoming quite an interesting case, little human."

With one final wolfish grin, he released me, brushing around me to make his way to the howling in the back room. I closed my eyes, putting up every difference that I had to keep out the rest of his dreams. I couldn't meet my sisters eyes as she watched me wander back to the bar and take a seat a couple stools away from Compton.

I remained there as the next girl - Ginger - stumbled in, Pam and Eric both coming back into the room looking like they had come back from a picnic. Sookie looked like she was going to be sick. How was her little deal working now?

Barely there, conversation dribbled in through my numbed senses. I was trying to blank it all out. I closed my eyes. I didn't want to see anymore of the wretchedness that inhabited this bar.

"It's a vampire." My head snapped up at that, catching the astonished stare of my sister. Right before -

I lunged forward, Sookie's scream piercing the air and bouncing off the walls as Longshadow slammed into her. He was overtop of her. Panic pumped through me, my body feeling like it was going through molasses as I tried to make it to her. Too far - Her mind exploded in mine - the effect like a stun grenade going off in my head. I stumbled, crashing into the table and then slamming to my knees, my head ringing and my vision popping. Bile rose in my throat, my arms and legs spasming as I fought to stay semi-upright.

"Ginger, enough!" Pam's voice, irritated and closer to a snarl than I had ever heard her. I blinked, trying to shake out my head.

"Thank you," Eric murmured. My brows furrowed, my mind trying to digest everything that was going on around me.

"Well, that's unfortunate." I shook out my head again, blinking up at Eric as he crouched down in front of me, tipping up my chin. "Our little human is clumsier than expected."

I mumbled out a breath, the ringing still bouncing off the inside of my skull like a tennis ball. Something was making an odd gushing sound. Fingers combed back my hair, exposing my temple. My eyes fluttered shut, an odd stillness filling my mind at the touch.

"Ginger, will you please shut the fuck up?" Pam snarled, pushing past the barely clad woman to come over to us. Still dazed, I stared up at her, my eyes narrowing and widening as her figure blurred in my vision. She smiled. "At least this one is a bit more of a bite than the other one."

Sookie was still crashing into my mind, her feelings mixing with horror and disgust. And just blank confusion. I swayed forward, barely catching myself with my hands, my hair loosening from my ponytail until it all came cascading down around me. Fuck. I wanted to throw up. Maybe if I threw up I would be able to think again.

"Humans," Eric was musing above me and I mumble incoherently as strong hands turned me, his long hair tickling around his face as he propped my back up against his front. Fingers still tangled through my hair, keeping it away from my face as he ran a critical eye over me. "Honestly, Bill I don't know what you see in them."

"You seem quite interested in one at the moment," Bill snapped back acidically, his mouth curved bitterly as Pam snorted.

"Oh, good one," she quipped, strolling out of the room.

"You would be right…" His smile grew predatory as he leaned down around me, his other hand skimming along my hip. "If I didn't suspect that this little human wasn't all she pretends to be."


If you want more, you know what to do! All my love!