Title: Adrift in a Room of Mirrors (ARM)

Substory: Ghost in the Machine (True Blood/Southern Vampire Mysteries)

Disclaimer: All characters and locations are the property of respective show or book creators, other than the ones that are all mine

Author: Princess Alexandria

Christine wondered if whatever she had was a power or a fortunate form of insanity. "Lavender blouse." The voice in her head told her when she was reaching for something dark, as gothic as her closet offered.

"Really?" She muttered out loud. It didn't seem to make sense, given where she was going, but the feeling she had was certain, so Christine went with the lavender blouse and switched her pants to a purple skirt, which other than black pants was all that went with this.

For the past year she'd had a voice in her head that she told no one about. It wasn't persistent, intrusive, it was like a friend that was always there to give advice, and since no harm was being done she did her best to accept the voices story about being a "Christy Taylor" from another world. That voice helped her with the last novel she wrote. That voice also convinced her that she didn't have to dump the vampire story she'd been working on before the vampires came out of the closet, she just needed to find a vampire to consult with and edit it.

In coming up with a plan for picking a vampire Christine found herself starting to think maybe her voice really was what it claimed, because the bar the voice wanted her to check out really existed, and the owner was who the voice claimed it was.

An hour later Christine felt her nerves reach an amazing level as she approached the bar entrance. It was still rather early in the night and apparently the place didn't get too busy until later, because she walked through the ropes and up to the woman who sat at the door. The woman seemed irritated, huffing as she held out a hand for Christine's id. Christine quickly pulled out her wallet, and handed over her id. While the blonde woman studied her id, Christine took in the outfit the woman was wearing and started to really doubt her voice. There was leather, blackness, and dark makeup that made the woman look like a stereotypical vampire. Probably everyone here dressed like this. "I'm not dressed right, am I?" Christine asked quietly, glancing a little warily at the closed door to the bar, before looking back at the woman handing her back her id.

"You look absolutely delicious doll." The door woman smirked at her. "Lavender is one of my favorite colors." Her voice seemed to purr, and Christine blushed at the attention. It also felt rather nice, because normally she only got hit on openly like this when she was on a book tour. Her 'fans' seemed to think she was as wild as her characters though, so she'd never hook up with them.

"Thank you," She grimaced. "But will the people here well,"

"Want to eat you alive?" The Door woman smirked again, it seemed her natural reaction now.

"Well, that would suck," Christine gave the woman a small grin, and watched the woman smile. "But seriously, there's what, maybe one vampire in there and a hundred gothic kids every night?"

"Oh, you'll find more than one vampire sweety." The woman licked her lips teasingly.

"I'm not really, after, well, that." Christine felt herself blush at the woman thinking she wanted to hang off a vampire and see if they'd bite her. "I just don't know where else to talk to them, you know?"

"You came here to talk?" The door woman shook her head and then seemed to take in everything about Christine running her eyes up her body. "Isn't that just adorable. You go tell the bartender Pam told him to give you a free drink sweety."

"Just tell him?" Christine frowned a little. "And he'll believe that?" It seemed odd that if Pam wanted to give something away she wouldn't at least want to write a note.

"Yes, no one else would dare say it if I didn't okay it." Pam smirked and then moved to hold the door to Fangtasia open for her.

"Well, thank you." Christine wished for a moment that Pam wasn't working there, so she could ask the woman to sit with her. That was something new too, she'd never had a woman buy her a drink. It distracted her from her nerves long enough for her to get into the bar properly.

As she stood at the bar, waiting for the bartenders to mix the drink, the Voice spoke again. "Make sure to tell him what Pam said. She might be upset if you forget." Christine thought that was most likely solid advice, like all the advice she'd gotten from Voice, but she still wasn't so sure about the outfit change so perhaps Voice wasn't perfect.

"Pam told me to tell you to give me a free drink." Christine managed to spit out with some confidence and then blushed at the assessing gaze the male bartender gave her before handing over the drink. Her heart sped up just a bit when he chose to smile at her and she found he had fangs.

He was a little to intimidating to talk to just yet, Christine thought, maybe after a drink or two, if he wasn't too busy. She moved to find a table and just study the place, to get a sense of it, and hopefully avoid making a fool of herself. She almost felt like texting her mother to say she'd seen a vampire, but thought better of it. Still, she was feeling energized by the fact she wasn't the strangest person in the room anymore. Sure, she had a double of herself living in her head, but that man was a real vampire.

Maybe she'd get lucky enough to find a consultant here. Glancing at the bartender again, she wasn't sure he would be the right person for the job, but someone else could show up. Christine would work with whoever she could make this work with, but ideally she'd like to find a woman who was a vampire for a while before the reveal, a vampire that had lived in the shadows, and if she had enough history to give her insight into Christine's two hundred year old character, all the better. Maybe this really could work.