Ghost in the Machine – true blood

Christine came early again, thinking maybe she'd build up the nerve to approach a vampire today, and fewer humans around would make that easier to try and spot the vampires. She wasn't really sure how good she'd be at spotting vampires, but if all else failed, tonight, she was going to ask Pam to point them out. That was only if she'd failed herself, she thought. It would be easier if she could first just talk to a vampire, see if they seemed like someone who, well, she felt odd thinking it, but someone smart enough to help her out. Living for a long time didn't guarantee the person read books, paid attention to the world, or even could string thoughts together. She really didn't want to be in a situation where a vampire wanted to help but she had to turn them down because it wouldn't work, that would be way too awkward.

"Nice, blue." Pam smiled at her as Christine walked up to the door. "I still like lavender better, but you pull off blue very well." Christine blushed at the appraising eyes traveling over her.

"Thank you." Christine glanced at Pam's black outfit, the leather, the cut, it was very leather bar meets gothic. It was sexy, but hard to complement without sounding like a pervert. "That is a very nice necklace." She stared at the necklace falling just before Pam's cleavage, and the charm on it wasn't really anything she could identify. "Is it silver?"

Pam chuckled. "Ah, no, it's white gold." Pam gave her an amused smile.

"Really? I didn't know they had colors of gold." Christine gave the necklace another appraising look and then glanced at the door, eager for a topic that wouldn't make her seem too stupid. She didn't know anything about jewelry; it was stupid of her to bring it up. "Do you think it will be busy tonight?"

"Nothing more than normal." Pam leaned in closer, "Tell the bartender I told him to give you a free drink." Pam practically purred it at her as Christine opened the door to go inside. Christine blushed as she finished going inside. At the way Pam gave away drinks, they were losing money, but Christine did tell the bartender and got the searching look again, before wandering off for a table with a view with her drink.

She nursed her drink slowly, so a half hour later it was still partly there. She'd learned her lesson and it was kept close to her, even if she set it on the table. Christine let her eyes wander over the crowd, and it was slowly growing. A few of the people, the more pathetic as far as Christine was concerned crawled up to the blonde man sitting on some sort of fake throne, and she could tell he was the token vampire, but she wasn't going to go through all that to talk with him. Her eyes moved over the others in the crowd, seeing if she could get lucky and spot a more approachable vampire. It would be perfect if she found one with a little age, and even better if it was a woman.

"Keep an eye out for people who seem very popular and don't give a shit." Voice gave her advice as Christy started her visual search more seriously. Something about Voice's tone made Christine think Voice was yet another person who didn't give a shit, and that was unusual. Christine would really like to make her connection before Pam was free, so she could spend some time with Pam and not have this hanging over her. It made her focus, intently on finding that elusive vampire she needed.

The women in the place were scary in their own right, Christine thought as her eyes traveled over various women. Some were disturbingly thin, and she assumed they were on drugs. Others were hanging off of someone else, or looked like if you approached them they might actually bite, regardless of if they were a vampire or not. One woman sat in another booth who didn't look like she fit in any better than Christine. Christine was a little relieved to not be the only one not dressed like the others, but that woman was in a bright and cheery sun dress, and had a very obvious tan that made it clear that wasn't a vampire. Christine discounted her table mate as a man, because Christine was focused on the idea of a woman for now.

Her eyes found a popular, bored, woman in the corner, and the people around her were acting like she really was the center of the universe. Christine studied her more carefully, wondering how hard it would be to get that woman alone. She had to be sure she was a vampire before she did that, or that would be beyond embarrassing. The woman was rather attractive looking too, so Christine wanted to get in and get out before Pam caught her with the woman, so that her other plans for the evening weren't ruined.

Too bad older vampires didn't have something about them that made it obvious they were older. Something Christine could see, so she knew she had what she was after.

A small commotion at the throne drew her eyes and she watched as some dark haired man approached the blonde sitting there looking so bored he could die from it. Christine watched the dark haired man lean in and whisper and it was like his words breathed some life into the blonde.

Since she wasn't there to watch the 'floor show' Christine focuses once again on the woman she was going to try and approach. God, her heart was hammering a little at the idea of doing this, but she had a job to do, so she had to just get up and go over there and say something. There was no way she wanted to tell Justine she didn't have a vampire yet, so Christine did her best to talk herself into it.

She was actually up and out of the booth when someone else approached her. "You've been summoned." The waitress told her, as if that made any sense. Christine gave the woman a searching look.

"I'm busy." She muttered and glanced back to make sure the vampire she was about to hunt down was still there.

"NO, you've been summoned." The waitress was firm and Christine gave her a lost look, until the woman pointed toward the throne and the blonde man sitting there, watching her. The seat beside him was now taken with the dark haired man, and that blonde woman with a bit too much of a tan was standing awkwardly nearby.

"Shit." Voice muttered. There was a pause. "I can't believe she heard you." And that made no sense whatsoever.

Christine's heart gave out a loud thump as she realized this was serious. She just nodded to the waitress and started to make her way up to the raised throne.

As she made her way up there, unsure why she felt like she was being summoned to the principal's office like she was in trouble, she started to consider the fact that perhaps Pam set this up for her. Pam knew that Christine was having trouble meeting a vampire and she did work here. That thought helped to calm her a little.

The blonde woman's eyebrows were scrunched together like she was a little confused, as Christine nodded to her and turned her focus onto the blonde vampire. "Hi." Christine said and then felt like an idiot as he continued to stare at her. "I heard you wanted to talk to me?"

"Yes," he didn't sound the least bit friendly. "I was wondering how you were enjoying yourself at my club."

"Ah Erik," The blonde woman spoke up and the vampire didn't even turn to face her. "There might have been a bit of a mistake."

"Sookie, " His eyes moved to the blonde, who looked rather embarrassed. Christine found herself also looking at the woman. "Are you telling me you made a mistake?"

"She started to think that maybe Pam asked you to talk to her." Sookie was blushing, and Christine found that odd, along with the way the woman seemed to spill out what Christine was thinking. Christine was getting more used to weird, Voice made that necessary, but to think someone outside of her was listening to her thoughts.

"It can happen." Voice just muttered that and went quiet. Christine's eyes widened as she stared at the woman in front her her, a telepath. It felt like her heart nearly stopped at the idea, that was so amazing.

"Not really that amazing." Sookie muttered quietly, and Christine stopped breathing for just a moment. Sookie was wrong, it was, and Christine suddenly felt a frenzy of thoughts as she considered her old books, her plans for her new ones, the one she was trying to resurrect, to see if she remembered putting a telepath in any of them. Sookie grimaced and then it dawned on Christine she should stop staring at the woman and turned her eyes back to the vampire. She came here for a vampire, she needed to stay focused.

Oh, but she was so going to try and get a phone number for the telepath, Christine thought, as she considered what kind of project she might want to take on after her vampire novels.

"Oh." Sookie made a slightly surprised sound. "Erik, she was looking for a vampire, but she's just writing a book. She's not trying to get V."

"What?" Christine's eyes widened as she realized what she'd been accused of. Her face paled as she considered what a crime like that would likely earn her if they really thought she was doing that. "I'd never,"

Erik stared at her forcefully. "Why are you here?" his voice was low and demanding, reminding her of Pam.

"I'm looking for a consultant for my novel." Christine blushed. "It was rejected when vampires went public, but my agent agreed with me that if I had a vampire consultant check it over and could say it was done, I could still sell it." And that book had been a stain on her record. Everything she'd written since she first became published had sold, everything but that, and she'd felt it was among her best work. Enough time had gone by, that perhaps she could get it out there now. She'd spent so much time on it, and the plans for its sequels.

Erik gave her an odd look, "Is that really the reason?" He seemed to stare harder.

"What seems to be going on?" Pam's voice came from behind her and Christine felt a hand rest on her shoulder. "Why have you summoned her?" It was demanding and confident and Christine turned to see Pam staring at Erik.

Erik switched to some language Christine didn't know, it sounded Swedish or something along those lines. Pam shocked her by replying in it. Their words moved back and forth and the longer it took the more awkward Christine felt, but Pam kept her there by a strong grip on her shoulder.

"Very well." Erik turned to her. "It appears you are what you claim." He glanced over at Sookie, before staring into Christine's eyes. "Forget what happened here, I just invited you up here to say hello."

"Ah, sure." Christine was willing to let bygone be bygones, she wasn't hurt. Nervous, but not hurt.

"Come along sweety." Pam steered Christine away from the throne area, and back toward the table Christine came from. There were people there, but they parted as Pam appeared. "I'm taking my break now, so would you like another drink?"

"Sure," Christine felt a little disconnected and confused, and a little disappointed she hadn't thought to ask for help finding a vampire while she had Erik, but he just didn't seem approachable at all. She knew she didn't want to work with him.