I just wanted to say thank you to all the people who reviewed! I know how hard it is to keep faith in a story that's rarely updated. But I unfortunately have a husband that reminds me regularly that I need to write so... *sigh* I wish he wasn't so awesome sometimes.

Chapter Nine: Good Little Girls Follow the Rules

"Little girl~" Light rain splattered my face, making me gasp as I struggled to wake from another world, another dream. A better dream - one that made me ache and feel alive - finally alive after years and years of… existing.

I gasped, reeling as a hot, calloused finger skimmed along my cheek, burning into my skin as it went down, down, down my neck and to my collarbone.

"Wake. Up." I didn't want to wake up. And whoever this brod was, she was being a real bitch. So I gritted down and gave her the mental middle fingers as I tried to focus on anything except for her finger that was burning through my collarbone. Dreams were kind of my thing. I had done this before - slipped seamlessly from one subconscious to the other. I could do this. I could get out of this.

I thought of that distant world, soft and warm instead of this cold place, just below the mountains. I thought of my sisters laughter, the way her eyes sparkled as Jason chased her around the lawn with a squirt gun. Of Lafayette and Tara when they were sitting on our porch in our wicker chairs as the fireflies came out, griping about some asshole that had hassled them that week. Then they were turning as Sookie stepped out of the screen door, holding iced tea followed by - my breath caught as my mind sighed over her white hair and soft smile. Gran.

"How sweet." The voice was back, jarring me. She didn't sound like she thought it was sweet. Her voice was made of brimstone and darkness. She sounded like she wanted to burn my world to the ground. She sounded like she could. "But isn't one of those people already gone?"

Gran. I bit down on my tongue, so hard that a gush of blood filled my mouth which earned an amused giggle from the woman above me. Woman? Her voice… Women? A shiver crawled up my spine as I remembered a clearing, a tree so large that it seemed that it was clawing its way to the clouds that thundered above. But I hadn't dreamed of that place since I was small. There was no way-

"Oh there's always a way with us, darling." I swallowed a scream, seizing against the chill, dewy ground as another finger searing into my skin, burning and blistering the skin there. Tears leaked from my eyes without will as the pain caught in my throat. Hot, damp breath blew over my ear. "Even a child like you should know that."

Someplace. I was losing the thread of that world - my world. Why was I so scared? Why did this woman frighten me so much? I needed something to keep me grounded. I needed - Eric. He was dancing through my mind before I could stop myself, his smile taunting me. Wisps of blonde hair fell into his eyes, making the blue there seemed shaded and safely concealed.

"No!" I did scream this time, jerking away as all five fingers curled around my throat. Some part of my mind shut off, the back of my brain zinging through with so much pain that I thought I would black out. Tears blurred my vision as I crawled, breaking her hold with agonizing slowness. My hands clawed into the ground as I slid farther away, trying to focus in around me but only really seeing darkness and the shadow of a great oak as it crouched over me.

And the woman - she wasn't here anymore. Did I imagine it? I whimpered weakly as my fingers reached up to skim over the oozing blisters that was forming. Definitely real then.

"It's just a dream," I whispered, panic threatening to burst from me as my stomach knotted painfully. I curled around my knees, my eyes flicking around the clearing nervously. Was this what I had dreamed when I was younger? What kind of fucked up little psychopath was I?

"Not a dream." I jumped at the sudden voice - voices - shivering as a shadow swept across the edge of the clearing, drawing closer and closer with an otherworldly grace. Slowly, the dim light cast from the dozens of stars above revealed a tangle of dark hair and luminous, milky white eyes. But then there would be a swirl of blue or green that would outline her pupils. She was completely naked, her breasts full and enticing and her whole body slightly muscled. She was gorgeous, taking my breath away as she moved slowly toward me. But not in the otherworldly way that girls on my TV were. She looks destructive, gorgeous in the way that a goddess of war would be. "You've been very bad, Runa dear."

I shivered, curving towards the roots that bit out from the earth around me, like they could hide me. "How - how do you know who I am? Where am I?"

The woman sighed in irritation, stepping nimbly over a series of roots. "You were so much more bearable when you were younger." A slow smile spread across her face, giving me a rather startling glimpse of teeth that looked like little needles. I gasped, lurching as I ran my tongue along the sharp tips of my own canines. "But then again, it all comes around here doesn't it?"

She let out a little giggle that made me uncomfortable, suddenly feeling itchy in my own skin. "What-"

That's when I saw it. Felt it.

This wasn't my body.

My hands were chubby, fingernails caked in dirt and grass. And - for the love of God - I was wearing an atrocious pair of overalls that had a iron-on butterfly at the pockets. It was what Gran would always dress me in and - I brought a tentative hand up to my hair, wincing at the cropped cut, shaved down to the scalp on the sides. What. The. Fuck?

"What the fuck did you do to me?" I gritted out, angry tear suddenly springing to my eyes as I glared up at her, moving to crouch instead of just sitting on my ass like some - Well, like some dumb kid. Which I was. Which was terrible. What if I had to go through pimples and gangly awkwardness and sexual discovery again. That was fucking terrifying.

"Oh, simmer down, child." Her eyes weren't on me anymore, turning instead to the great oak that loomed in the middle of the clearing. I squinted, an instant of vague recognition lightening my mind.

"My tree." Distantly, I heard the soft giggles of a little girl, a chill breeze rolling from the mountains in the distance. At the trunk, amid the snarl of roots that burst from the ground, twisting around each other as if fighting to strangle some of the life from their siblings, I thought I caught a glimpse of dark hair and pale skin as a small body tried to climb up into the dense branches above. "This isn't real. This can't be real."

"It's as real as the Fae," the woman smiled, stopping beside me. Her nose wrinkled into an almost conspiratorial expression. "Although you wouldn't know much about that, would you?"

"I don't like riddles." Somehow being in this place made me a bit more brave. I was in control here. This was my dream. Even though I could still feel the dull burn from her fingers around my throat, the skin already puckering and blistering.

Slowly, she moved to sit on one of the more robust roots that jutted from the ground, looking elegant and feral as she ran a hand along it. Almost like she was worshipping it. Her eyes snapped a sharp yellow as she turned them to me. "Do you know anything of who you are? What you can do?"

My mouth thinned at the condescending tone that entered her voice, skirting around a root or two to gain some distance between us. I knew what I was. I knew that when I was nine I had killed seven people. I knew that on the playground when I was twelve, a boy tried to kiss me and I had gotten so scared, so terrified as he reached to feel the sticky sweat that coated my thighs, that my hands had reached out and that he had died. Twelve, the adults around me would muse. Twelve and he had died of a heart attack? The real fucked up part? I couldn't even remember his name. All I remembered was the look on his face as he clutched at his chest, me screaming, crying for someone - anyone to help. I knew what I had done - how dirty Runa Stackhouse was.

Instead, I chose to deflect. "You sound different."

A single brow rose and clumsily I tried to elaborate. "When I was little, there were women that used to come to this place. They would tell me things."

"Ah," She tipped her head back, turning to stare at the moon above. "They're all gone." I stopped moving, going still as her face grew distant, her eyes moving once more to the great tree. She looked… almost sad. All those women? All of them dead? How? They had been - seemed so powerful, the beasts that bore them frothing at the mouth and wild. Suddenly, this place, my clearing seemed cold - lonely.

"This isn't yours." The venom in her voice suddenly yanked my from my thoughts, her eyes back on me once more. "You speak - think - as if these things belong to you. How can they be yours when they are born from the earth - when they speak and move without you? What gives you the right to own this clearing? Do you take possession of the mountains and the rivers as well? Do you know of the lake that runs just a step past the tree's line? Have you caught the morning dew on your fingers when the sun drags her gown across the sky? How the berries in the tree's taste after a good rain?"

I didn't know what to say. As a child, I had taken this small clearing and placed ownership over it as any child did. My dreams were my own possession. Weren't they? A sudden spike of fear lanced through me.

A small smile curled my companions full lips. "No." It was a simple statement. One that made my throat tighten and my lungs constrict on every drag of breath. Her eyes turned wistful again as they reforcused back on the great oak. "Do you have a God? Have you given yourself over to the human world?"

But then her eyes were flicking back to me and she gave me a small smirk before turning back. "No," she answered for me. "You would be dead if you had bowed to that way of thinking. A God is a master." Her fingertips ran lightly along the bark beneath her. "We do not abide by such divine rules."

"Dead?" I gasped out, trying to draw in breath as a trickle of sweat rolled down my spine.

"The elders spoke to you of this." It wasn't a question just a dull sort of statement. "They inform every mare of her duties - her role in this wretched world. Those were the women that you spoke to - although I loathe to use your disgusting, little word."

"They were women," I whispered, feeling light-headed as I stumbled into one of the roots.

"Mare," she hissed back, her shoulders raising and an unearthly purple light sparking in the depths of her eyes. "Don't use that human term for something so much more."

"I-" My eyes burned, a hand reaching out blindly to clutch at anything and grabbing along bark. "They were like me."

"Do you grow tired of always being the last to know? To feel something inside yourself and let it take you without know how or why?" Her words were sharp, cutting into me although I didn't know why. Maybe because I felt so small and lost beside her. "How long have you gone without learning a single thing about yourself? Working in some dinky restaurant, serving humans while the world moves around you? While vampires and shifters and the Fae shuffle about around you - ignorant, insignificant, you?"

She sounded absolutely disgusted by me. At the moment, I felt kind of disgusted myself. My whole life I had been the smart one in the family. I had held my job at Merlotte's since it opened. I was one of Sam's first waitresses and I had rode out my senior and junior year in that bar, settling for regular paychecks rather than going to college. Who needed a degree when I could get an easy 900 a week from tips alone? I had Gran. I had Sookie and Jason - a family to come home to with a warm bed.

But I wasn't normal. I wasn't someone who could get away with a steady job and zero drama.

Enter Bill Compton.

"I'm getting out more," I gave a hollow laugh, trying to make the whole situation light. Didn't really work out well.

"With vampires." Was it possible for her to sound more disgusted?

"I'm not dreaming am I?" The only response I needed was the open eye roll before she focused back on the great oak.

There was a long pause, letting me take in the distant sound of birds and… My ears strained. Firewood crackling? I sniffed, catching the light smell of fresh flowers and mountain air.

"You come to her when she calls you." My eyes snapped back to the woman - mare across from me, taking in the slow rise of her breaths and the distant, almost drugged look that she had taken. "And she holds your image so that you can slide into the first - purest version of yourself."

"Who..?" My words trickled of as she tipped her head to the great oak.

"You've sat in her shadow for so long - I'm surprised that you haven't realized that a heart beats at her very core." Her fingers skimmed along the roots once more. "The elders told me of their creation - before…" Her brow crinkled, a sudden sadness washing over her face before she shook herself. "They said that when they opened their eyes it was not to the waiting arms of a mother. No. They opened their eyes in the form of maidens, cradled in the branches of this very tree. They could feel the whisper of her and they drew power from the many secrets that were given to them." Her eyes suddenly sought out mine. "She is our temple - the beginning and the end of our lives on this human plane. Do you understand?"

I understand that you're sort of fucking crazy. "Yep."

A small smile curled her lips. "No. You don't." She seemed to consider something. "But you will."

Slowly, she uncurled herself from the root, straightening to her full height and I panicked slightly as the thought of her leaving suddenly kicked through my brain. "Wait!" I gulped, not fully knowing what to do with her attention once I had gotten it. "Do you know about what I can do? What's been happening to me? Can you-"

"Do you remember the last time you dreamed of us?" she cut me off. My brows furrowed, straining to remember. But I had been eight - nine? Fuck if I knew. Slowly, cautiously, I shook my head which seemed to spur a curl of glee from the mare. "Let me be clear with you, Runa darling. The Temple has become privy to the company that you're consorting with-"

"How-" I blinked in bewilderment, panic tightening my throat as I thought of all the nights that I had felt the press of eyes on my back.

"Hive-mentality," she said simply. "If we were to come together in one state, we could kill the entire populous. It's a rather nice ability to have but considering we're not stupid-" Her eyes moved pointedly to me and I suddenly had the odd image of all the Vampire rights movements on TV. Her smile grew as she continued. "- We've chosen to stay separated, imparting our rather sizable contribution to society on different continents, states, you get the idea."

"Others?" I spluttered, blinking rapidly. "There are others? Wait. You've met them? I could-"

"We have cocktail parties at the Taj Mahal on Mondays," she snapped, smirking viciously.

"I need to know." I sounded desperate. I hated myself for it.

"No," she said, sounding condescending patient. "The thing that you don't understand is that you don't. Until you find out what you can offer us then you don't need to know anything."

"Give you?"

"Mm," she nodded. "See we're very much like your little fanged crush in that aspect. The more you can do for us, the more we'll do for you."

"So you're just letting me prance back without knowing anything?" I hissed, suddenly growing angry. She had basically told me that I had done something wrong, that we were born from a fucking tree and that a lot of mares had died.

The mare sighed, glancing back at the great oak before shaking her head. "I am not your keeper, Runa. I will not guide you as the Fae do their weak progencies. Mares are born of this earth and given only one rule - a rule that you are very close to breaking. Do you wish to know of your powers?" Her eyes sought mine, clearly seeing the desperate panic that was there as I nodded. "Then go out and find it. Stop playing by such mundane, human rules. You are something holy - something that was risen to be worshipped. I will not lead you like a leashed animal."

So there it was. I gulped, feeling heavier than I ever had. Distantly, the wind howled through the trees. I would have to find out on my own. Not much different from how I had grown up.

"And there are far less secrets to give of the mares that remain on this earth," she said softly. "Scattered across the world, we can hear one another - sharp little voices chattering when they want to be heard. But we do not congregate. The only place that we will gather is here - when we are called."

"You said I was breaking a rule," I whispered, weakly trying not to feel defeated under so much information.

"A mare cannot be tame," she murmured, drawing a sharp nail over the side of my face. "You've be consorting with a Viking-"

"We haven't-"

"Oh fucking him would be a lot more cut and dry than the tangle that you've gotten yourself into." Her smile was cruel before settling into a blank mask as she turned away. "You will cut all ties with this rodent. You will break him."

That word - break. I flinched, thinking of such a man being brought to his knees. It was an impossible thought. It had no basis of truth behind it. Eric Northman was more than a vampire. He was more than a mere viking. He was a force of nature, so elemental that to rip him from my world was - I shook my head.

"If I don't?" The words quivered as they escaped my lips, drawing the woman to a stop. For a moment, I thought that she wouldn't answer. But then her shoulders rose in a dainty shrug.

"A bit of a preview then." Vaguely, her hand rose, flicking out before she was lost in the shadows of the trees, her voice echoing as I suddenly choked, feeling a gush of something hot and metallic clog in my throat. "The Temple has spoken. You have until the rise of the Witches."

I could barely hear her over the sudden rushing that was filling my ears. My whole body burned, my heart stutter as I tried to gulp down a thick layer of mucus and - I spit, gagging as I watched a mix of blood and spittle dribble onto the grass. What was happening to me? I gagged again, unable to keep my mouth closed as I let another gulp of blood run down my throat. I was-

"Runa!" I blinked, fighting to stand even as my knees gave out, sending my crashing to the grass.

I was dying. There was no way - But I could feel it, feel the chills shiver up my spine. Feel the sheen of sweat that was coating my sides and neck. Fighting, I rolled, choking as more blood clogged the back of my throat, making it near impossible to breath. I wanted to die. I wanted to die looking up at the stars. Tears blurred my vision as I thought of poor Sookie. She would never forgive me. I coughed, flinching as another wave of blood sloshed from my lips. Damn. This was awful.

"Runa!" But at least I wouldn't have to deal with the world any longer. My eyes fluttered shut, an endless blackness stretching out in front of me.

"It's a dream!"

I gasped, choking on air as I went jerking forward, my knees hitting the dashboard as my fingers clutched desperately at the car handle.

Where was I? The clearing? My brows crinkled, sudden anxiety crashing into me like a freight train. I had been in the clearing but now - My finger tightened on the door handle even more, feeling the solidness of it against my skin. This was real. Pale hands clutched at my bicep. This was real.

"I'm gonna throw up," I whispered, yanking on the door handle clumsily and rolling onto the gravel outside. Thank god we were already stopped. The content of my stomach went along the driveway, mixed with - "Oh my god." I gulped down an unsteady breath, shaking as I caught the glint of red among all the slosh. Shaking, I brought a hand up to my lips, blinking back tears as it came away red.

"Runa." Bill was there, crouching over me as he set a tentative hand at the base of my spine. "What happened? You fell asleep right when you got into the car and then all of a sudden right when we crossed the line back into Bon Temp you starting whimpering and screaming."

Glancing around, I suddenly realized that we were in my driveway, the lights blazing through the sheer curtains that shaded our windows. Damn. I felt weak from how much the sight of that old house made me feel.

"I -" I gulped down a breath, blinking rapidly as I took in the sting on my tongue. I had bit through the top layer of skin there. That was where the blood was coming for. Not that I was just going to fucking shake off that bitch from my dreams. No. Not a dream. There was no way in hell that was a dream. "I'm alright now. Bad dream."

When I looked up, Bill didn't look like he believed me but he still gave a nod, getting up slowly with me stiffly cradled in the crook of his arm. Maybe the guy wasn't so bad.

"What-" I stumbled, suddenly clutching onto thin air as Bill took off for the door, his brows furrowed.

"That's okay!" I called, slumping against the car for a moment before I stumbled my way up the driveway to my porch. "I got this. You go handle your business."

When I finally reached the door I realized why he had looked like a dog that had just been humped by a poodle. My sister. And Sam Merlotte. I winced. And a lot of screaming.

The way that Bill had Sam slammed up against the wall almost made me rethink the whole "puppy" Bill persona that I had created for them. His fangs bared as he gave a low his, sending Sam's head to smack up against our flower printed walls one more time before Sookie wrestled in between the two. Not exactly what I would have done but - hey! To each their own.

"HE HAD HIS HANDS ALL OVER YOU!" Bill roared and I resisted the urge to yelp in surprise as I glanced from my sister to Sam. No fucking way was this vanilla wafer getting in my sisters pants. He had been moony for her for so long that it had honestly gotten creepy.

"She's not your property!"

"Shut up, Sam. I can speak for myself." Her breath came ragged as she turned back to Bill. And I stood rooted to the spot - unsure of whether I should go get some popcorn or try to fend through the sea of testerone to try and get a scope of whose side I should be on. "You left me alone with no promise to come back and then you attack the man who's helping keep me safe?" She jerked forward like she was ready to haul off and punch Bill right in his Civil War chic nose. "HOW DARE YOU?"

"Sounds like more than keeping you safe," I whispered, deciding rather quickly whose side I was going to be on. And surprised to see that side being next to one Bill Compton. No one paid me any mind although Sam sent me an exasperated stare.

"He's helping keep you safe because I asked him to," Bill seethed, sending a vicious glare Sam's direction.

"GET OUT!" Sookie screamed and I blinked, a little lost as Bill took a weak step back.

Bill's voice was weak as he gave a shaky answer, staring down at my sister with a mixture of longing and anguish. "If you knew what I had done to return to you-"

"I rescind your invitation," she whispered harshly, following him as he took mechanical steps back, back, back, following the route that he had used to enter. It was almost hard to watch and some part of me twisted in anger.

"Sookie - don't." I wobbled from my position in the doorway as he reached me. "Please."

The only thing he got was the door slamming into place and then my sister flouncing off. I honestly didn't know what alternate dimension I had been driven into but there was no way in hell that this was my sister. Blinking, I turned a disbelieving stare to meet Bill's through the sheer blue material of our front door window. This wasn't right. She should have kicked his as to ther curb for making her look like a fool in front of the whole of Bon Temp. Hell - not telling her that he was safe and alive seemed like a good one too. But this? He had gone to that tribunal to pay for keeping her alive. For once, I was pretty fucking sure that Bill Compton wasn't the jackass in this situation.

I was staring at her.

"What the fuck was that?" I hadn't moved from my spot by the door, even as Bill stormed away, vanishing into the night. And Sam had apparently taken it upon himself to comfort my poor, fuming sister.

"Yeah," Sam declared and I resisted the urge to go and kick him in the balls, getting a mild bit of satisfaction as my sister shifted from his hold. "How can you even think about being with that douchebag? He's fucking unstable, Sookie."

"Shut the fuck up, Merlotte," I hissed, storming past him just as Sookie rounded to snarl up at the dirty blonde.

"Sam, my living room's wrecked. I've got a killer, a vampire and a shapeshifter on my plate. Right about now, I'm not thinking about being with anyone."

"Yep!" I declared, grabbing his arm and shoving him roughly towards the door. "That's about your time to leave, Sunshine boy!"

"I'm here to protect Sookie-" he started to protest, eyes wide as I gave him another push.

"Don't worry about it, big boy," I snarled, giving my best mean girls smile as I opened the door for him. "Now that big sissie is back the mean old boogie man won't set a goddamn foot near this fucking house. Coincidence that you won't either! Bye - bye!"

I slammed the door in his face and locked it before he could give me more than a light grumble before whirling around to face Sookie.

"Did you get a new fucking sister while I was away at band camp too?" I asked, putting on a false smile so bright that I actually had to blink a couple of times to keep it in place.

"Oh shove it up your ass, Runa," she huffed, storming over to sit heavily on the couch.

"Wow!" I whistled. "Things have changed since I went off to war." My eyes cut into her. "Or did you forget that Bill and I were sent to the tribunal at all?"

Guilt and fear passed over her face and suddenly I could see the sheen of tears build in her blue eyes. Ah damn. Sighing and shushing her, I went over to sit beside her, drawing her into a tight embrace.

"It's been so fucked up," she hiccuped, biting down on her bottom lip as she let out a desperate breath. "And you haven't been here. I thought - I thought -" A sharp shiver jolts through her. "I've been selfish. I don't know what I would've done if - if-"

"Sssshhhh," I murmur, stroking a hand through her hair. "I'm not. I'm here. That's all you need to think about. I'm here and I'm alive…" I took a breath, suddenly remembering the outburst that had gotten Sam kicked out. "And you need to tell me what has happened while I've been away."

Blinking away the remaining tears, she straightened, sniffing. From the look in her eyes, some serious shit had changed since I had been looked up in Eric Northman's basement.

More complications in the Stackhouse life? Yay.


Okay, ya'll! I know I'm gonna ask the impossible but I was wondering if you could push out some reviews for me! They keep my mind on the story and when I get long ones I get little Runa/Eric babies in my head. Sounds weird but I like to call them Runics - sounds mystical, am I right? Anyway, yeah guys if ya like it and ya kind of sort of like me then please, please, please shoot me a review.