Ghost in the Machine – True Blood
Pam took her to a very nice restaurant. It had several windows and Christine was able to look in as they walked around the building to the entrance. Christine saw an actual fountain in the middle of the room, with the tables around it. It was nicely lit, very welcoming. "Will they have anything for you?" She asked quietly and watched Pam smile just a little as she held the door opened for Christine.
"You'd be surprised how many restaurants cater to our unique tastes." Pam whispered seductively as Christine passed her and then Pam took charge of letting them know they had a reservation. This was the type of place that required that.
Christine remembered learning her date was a vampire in another very nice restaurant, and while it seemed odd to bring it up now, she was going to try and work a confession that she, herself, was a bit supernatural during this meal, having a voice in her head that was real was being possessed and that was supernatural, not cool like a vampire, but still not quite normal anymore. The idea that she could drive the vampire away with how weird she was wasn't very comforting.
"Pam doesn't seem the type to scare easily, don't you think?" Voice replied in a reassuring tone as they were following the waiter to their seat. Their table was next to the large fountain, it was a gentle trickling fountain with perhaps a pool a foot deep at the bottom, not something that would douse the people next to it, but Voice seemed to sigh happily. "I like water." was all Christine got as an explanation.
They ordered their drinks and Christine ordered her meal. "You picked our first date to tell me you were a vampire." Christine spoke and noticed her voice was a little shaky. Pam noticed it as well, because she frowned. "No, I'm fine with that." She reassured quickly, "but now that it looks like we're going to continue going out, I probably need to be a bit honest myself." Christine glanced around, and the place seemed private enough. "I'm not exactly normal."
Pam's voice was deeper and just a hint resigned. "What is it?"
"Good question." Christine sighed. "Erik didn't glamour me, I pretended it worked to get out of there."
"Good, start with that and we can move from there." Voice encouraged her.
"I can't be glamoured."
"You came back the next day when I told you to, after the dipshits tried to drug you." Pam tilted her head and stared at her.
"You are sexy, of course I came back, not to mention I needed to find a vampire. I didn't know you were one." Christine sighed. "If you don't believe me, just try it. Try and make me do something."
Pam leaned closer, her expression serious and Christine stared into her eyes and waited. It seemed to take a while, before Pam spoke. "Kiss me."
"That's not fair, I want to do that all on my own." Christine spoke slowly and gave Pam a small shy smile. Pam's eyes widen a little.
Pam stared harder, and she repeated herself and Christine did nothing to prove Pam couldn't make her do anything. "I don't believe it. Only Sookie has resisted before, it's nearly unheard of."
"Well, I am unusual." Christine muttered in response to Pam, but she was stuck on how to say the rest of this.
"What are you?" Pam asked her, but Christine's dinner came and Christine sighed heavily and waited for more privacy.
"It's strange. I'm possessed." Christine saw a puzzled look on Pam's face. "It's like I have a ghost that lives inside of me. Voice gives me advice, and she somehow protects me from being glamoured."
"For a writer, you just call the voice in your head 'voice'?" Pam smirked at her as if that was amusing.
"Well, she's actually a Christy Taylor from a different world, another version of me and I didn't want to talk to her and call her my name." Christine explained, but it sounded insane to her. "She goes by Christy, or Demise which was her code name, but she didn't tell me that for a long time and I just thought of her as the Voice in my head."
Christine gave Pam a searching look. "I'm not crazy, but I'd understand if you thought I was. I thought I was for a while, until she started telling me things that just made it impossible not to believe. I wasn't ever going to tell anyone about this, but I didn't expect to be dating. It's not right to not tell you, I mean, when we finally have sex, well," Christine blushed painfully. Her voice became a quiet whisper, "I just couldn't continue with you and not tell you." She reached out and rested a hand over Pam's which was resting on the table. "She likes you too, and if you're with me, well," Christine paused, uncomfortable with the topic, but unable to avoid it. "If you're with me, you'll be with her too."
"That sounds a little kinky, even for me." Pam teased. "I love it."
Christine chuckled, unable to stop herself, because Pam overdid it, making it funny. Christine's laugh might have been a little too high, a little nervous and a hint hysterical, but Christine laughed. Her nerves were shot, but it looked like it was going well enough.
Starting her dinner, hesitantly, until Pam made a motion with her hand for Christine to eat, Christine watched the blonde vampire take a slow sip of her own meal. "Is that enough?" Christine asked quietly, looking at the glass.
Pam gave her a hint of a smile. "Why are you offering desert?"
The blush was almost automatic, and Christine did her best to ignore her own reaction. "No, I'm just curious if that is really enough. For the whole day?"
"Two to three of these would be enough for a day." Pam tapped her glass with a fingernail. "But I must admit I indulge it a bit more once in a while." Her tongue gently caressed her upper lip and caressed fangs. It was a rather seductive move and Christine found herself thinking Pam's fangs were very sexy on her. "I also don't prefer it in the glass."
"I understand that, but I can't," Christine sighed, her words leaving her for a moment. "I don't know if my blood is normal and I won't let you have any if I don't know if it might hurt you." She finished and watched Pam's fangs recede.
"You smell perfectly fine to me." Pam told her and gave her a puzzled look for a moment. "The voice, it wouldn't change the taste of your blood."
"I think she might consider me a typical 'voice in someone's head'." Voice spoke up slowly. "She's not completely buying in to the supernatural explanation." Christine frowned a little when she heard that. While she could understand why Pam might not believe her, she didn't want Pam thinking she was crazy. "I could prove it to her." Voice told her softly. "But it would probably be like you were sleeping, you never wake up when I take over to practice at night. Are you okay with asking her to take me out on a date?" Voice sounded a little hesitant.
Christine looked over at Pam and stared into confused eyes. Christine had been quiet a bit too long. "I know you don't really believe, but it's true and if you just humor me a little Voice says she can prove it to you." Christine could feel she was getting paler. "You need to meet her, and she wants to know if you'd be willing to go on a date with HER."
"So the voice in your head is asking me out on a date? And you're okay with this? " Pam asked, her eyebrows drawing together as she asked the questions.
"I wouldn't have met you without her. She told me about the bar, she convinced me that a vampire consultant would help me sell my book to a publisher." Christine admitted with a weak smile. "I'm kind of stuck like this, I'm adapting as best I can. It's weird, I know, but can we try?"
"Sure, why not." Pam looked like she was willing to ride the craziness for a while, and Christine hoped this would work, because how many women would even agree to this much? "Why is she named Demise?"
Christine blushed a bit and was sure this was not making her sound less insane. "She was a spy, it's her codename."
"Codename, of course." Pam sighed and then took another sip of her drink. "I thought spies were named after numbers, like 007."
"That's what I said." Christine smiled. "Demise, I mean really? That's Death, she named herself Death."
"It's fits." Voice muttered in her head.
"Pam?" A feminine and surprised sounding voice interrupted their conversation and Christine turned to see Sookie standing near their table, that dark haired male vampire she'd been with in the bar behind her.
"His name's Bill, and he's an ass. Don't trust him with anything." Voice muttered. "I keep debating about warning her about him, but if we get involved with Sookie and her drama you'll have to share the body more, because we'll run into shit storms left and right."
"This is Christine." Pam introduced her lazily, clearly not wanting to encourage the couple to stick around and Christine had missed something as Voice explained the dangers of associating with Sookie.
Bill spoke up first. "Hello Christine." Christine just nodded and gave him a fake smile.
"Nice to meet you again." Christine smiled at the telepath, who gave her an odd look before a fake smile crossed her lips.
"Nice to meet you too, Christine. How is your book going?"
"Pretty good." Christine tried to remember if she was supposed to remember that Sookie was a telepath and could say something about that or if she was supposed to be 'glamoured' at the time. She went with saying nothing, even though she wanted to ask for a phone number to talk to her, because Bill was there and wasn't trustworthy.
Sookie stared into her eyes strangely. "I could show you around during the day," Sookie glanced at Pam. "If you haven't made too many daytime friends," Her words trailed off meaningfully.
Being a writer, Christine always had paper and pencil nearby, so she jotted down her phone number for Sookie, and was still relieved when they left to return to their seat.
"Sookie pulled you in. She isn't one to take crazy chances, but she's targeted by trouble." Voice warned her. "If you are fine with that, perhaps we should have a bit of a talk with her. Bill causes quite a bit of that."
"Are you really going to 'hang out' with her?" Pam asked once they were alone. "What, getting your nails done and sun bathing?"
Christine smiled at the sun bathing comment. "I can't sun bathe, I burn quickly."
"Oh, I bet I burn faster than you do sweety." Pam teased, but Christine didn't find that idea funny.
They were waiting for the bill when Christine glanced over at the front doors when it opened. "Shit." Christine heard Pam mutter and she agreed as she watched what looked like a small mob coming in, complete with angry faces. The woman at the check in booth looked scared and when she reached for the phone and was stopped Christine's heart started to pound.
"I hate to do this to you, but I think I should take over. This might get dicey." Voice told her and Christine tensed up as she saw the small crowd, and the Fellowship of the sun tshirt that she could read. They looked rowdy and there was no doubt they wanted to cause trouble. "Just relax and don't fight me, I've never tried taking over when you're awake."
"Just relax? Now?" Christine muttered quietly, shocked that Voice thought that was even possible. She looked at Pam and could see she was staring at the trouble with narrowed eyes.
"They are coming for vampire, and are prepared to fight vampire." Voice spoke harshly. "I have powers too, and they won't be prepared for me. Give me the body and I'll protect you both."
It was very hard to surrender control when things were getting bad, but Christine did her best to just fade off, to let her body go, and there was a moment when she felt a tug and her vision and hearing warped for a moment, and then she was seeing the world through other eyes, and seeing her field of visions shifting as Voice took over turning to share a look with Pam, and Christine found she was still aware, she wasn't asleep at all.
…
"Their timing is suspiciously good. Once we're done with this we should ask the manager who the new employee is who called the local KKK." Demise spoke softly to Pam while putting a hand into the water of the fountain as deeply as she could from her seated position.
"Voice?" Pam asked and spared an odd measuring look to her that had Demise grinning just a little in spite of the trouble brewing. They were smaller fish than she normally fried, but she was limited with her powers now.
The water was trailing up her body quickly, but a dip in the pool would be better. Demise focused on the protective net she'd invented for times like this, it was an all over bulletproof vest that she pulled around Christine's body. "Demise, Voice is just her name for me." She sighed. "I'm going to need to fall in the water when they take a step in here, let me."
"There are two of them damned vampers here." A voice called out and Demise took her cue to stand up and take a step back, falling into the fountain as if on accident. It was a foot deep, more would have been nicer, but she rolled quickly and coated her body in water, and that webbing she'd learned to do. It glistened a little and with time she could make it a second skin and make herself look different, but she didn't want to advertise she was a threat just yet. Gloves formed over her hands though, black and slightly bulky on the knuckles, she also added shoulder pads, just to grab as much extra material on her body as she could in the few seconds she was in the water, before she got back out. The mob was laughing at her, but Demise just grinned back and shared that grin with Pam.
"Can we get away with killing them here?"
"I can't, but feel free if you want to." Pam muttered. "Publicity and all, damn it."
"We don't like you vampers and fang banging whores in our neighborhoods." One idiot yelled at them and got his round of cheers from the crowd.
Sookie was moving her back up towards Pam, and Bill stood in front of her, so apparently an alliance was being formed. "Okay, on a scale of one to ten, how violent are they?" Demise asked the telepath with a smirk that caused Sookie to give her an odd look.
"They want to cause damage." Sookie whispered. "They've got silver and too much confidence. I don't think they've seen a vampire in action before."
"Of course." Pam drawled.
"So you live around here." Demise moved a bit forward, and Pam missed her chance to grab her quickly and keep her out of the line of fire, it was nice to know Pam wanted to though. "Good to know. That means the new dishboy can get a ride home, because he's lost his job and if I have to I'll kill him and bottle up his blood myself if you don't all turn around and get out of here." The way a few of them looked at each other told Demise she'd guessed well, and she shouldn't let any of the staff here behind her until they found the troublemaker.
"You are sexy when you're threatening bloodshed." Pam spoke up with an amused tone.
"You should see me when I deliver." Demise grinned at the female vampire.
The soft air noise of a net gun was enough warning and Demise turned to face them her right hand shooting out and she formed claws to help her snag the silver net out of the air and toss it to the ground. She didn't like that she'd just saved Bill, because he was in front, but for now he was on their side.
"Fuck." Someone muttered as she left her wolverine claws out and turned to stare at them, before tilting her head just a little as if daring them. When no one moved she held the hand up and reformed it into the slightly bulky glove. Lies for Bill were already playing around in her head, but she took a step closer. "What the fuck is she?"
In their distraction Pam moved, and it was impressive to see how fast she could move. Bill took a moment longer before realizing he should help. They took weapons and tossed them away, and Pam held the leader by the chin, glaring at him.
"Oh my god she's going to kill him." Sookie sounded scared.
"He deserves it." Demise glanced at the blonde. "How many of them were planning on raping the fangbangers?" Sookie blanched, but Demise had seen that type of mentality before. "I say, free buffet."
Pam chuckled at her, but then lifted the idiot up and stared into his eyes. He had pissed himself, and he was breathing like a trapped bird. "You will never do this again. If you hurt anyone I will hunt you down and see if my new girlfriend is serious about bottling blood for me."
"Oh, I'd do it." Demise offered. She'd done much worse, and if the blood was useful and the bastard wasn't, she'd be willing to recycle and reuse.
"There, are you satisfied Sookie, I let the little monster go." Pam seemed to growl at the telepath before returning to their side.
Bill was giving Demise a measuring look. "How did you do that?" He motioned toward her glove.
"It's a little toy I picked up over the years." She lied and then turned to Pam. "The instigator worked here. Probably called them the minute we sat down, and again when Sookie and Bill came in."
The manager was called over by a livid Pam and Demise found forceful and angry looked good on her as she glamoured the manager into finding the asshole and firing him. It was a little surprising they didn't take the time to deal with the troublemaker themselves, but Pam had her out the door quickly after that. They left Bill and Sookie with hardly another word.
Even with them leaving the building first, Bill was the first to pull away from the restaurant and Pam turned to stare at her. "Demise. She really is possessed, and your little ghostly powers are impressive."
"Thank you." Demise smiled but the danger was over and if she didn't give the body back she'd be betraying Christine's trust. "I have to give the body back. When can I take you out?"
"I could get out of work tomorrow." Pam told her and then started up the van.
"Try and finish your date. You're someone we both agree on, and honestly, I wasn't sure that was possible. She's a lot more innocent than I am and my tastes are a bit," Demise gave Pam a sexy smile, "more exotic than I thought she'd go for."
Pam's smile was wicked. "The innocent and the seductress in one package, and it's not even my birthday."
Demise took a deep breath and closed her eyes, surrendering the body back as she'd promised. It hadn't been a huge deal, a real battle, and that was good. It had been a good test run on switching drivers. If they were going to be here long, or involved in the circle of bad luck around Sookie, they'd need the practice.
…