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He watched Sookie drive out of sight, before making a quick call to Pam. Instead of going back to the club to glamour the hell out of the cops, he would leave it to her. His child was more than competent, she could handle those dimwits easily.
He took to the air, following Sookie as she drove unsteadily. She was obviously shaken by tonight's events. He felt shaken too, but it had nothing to do with the raid. From the moment she had walked into the club he had been inexplicably drawn to her. She was beautiful, yes, but plenty of beautiful women frequented Fangtasia. Her scent was intoxicating, but not so much that the other vampires at the club were affected the way he was.
He couldn't pinpoint what about her called to him, but whatever it was he wasn't about to resist. He hadn't felt like this in a very long time, if ever. He wanted to find out where she lived, what she liked, who she spent time with.
There was also the matter of her knowing about the raid. He believed her when she said she wasn't a cop, but it angered him that she had known about the raid and therefor might have come to his club with ulterior motives. Maybe she was a reporter who had wanted to cover the raid? Or the girlfriend of one of the cops, along for the ride out of sheer curiosity. Then there was the fact that he had tried to glamour her into telling him how she knew and to his utter surprise he couldn't. In his long life he had only come across a handful of humans who couldn't be glamoured. Supes, yes, but she wasn't a supe. At least not completely, that much he knew.
Regardless of any ulterior motive she might have had in coming to his club, she definitely had a physical reaction to what went on at Fangtasia. When he had cornered her in his office her heart rate had picked up, but her scent revealed no fear, only excitement. Regardless of why she had come, he wanted to get to know her - a mere human - which was a first for him. He also wanted to fuck her senseless and drink her blood, but all in good time.
He was so deep in thought that he didn't notice that something was wrong until it was too late. Her car was careening dangerously off the road and before he could reach it, it crashed into a tree with a horrific thud.
He landed by the car and the overpowering scent of her blood flooded his senses. It had spilled everywhere; her clothes and skin were covered in it, as was the car. He wanted to lap it all up till the last drop, but he knew that if he did that she would be dead within minutes.
Instead he removed her from the car as gently as he could, laying her on the grass so that he could heal her. She was slipping in and out of consciousnesses, but he was able to get enough of his blood in her to start the healing.
In her lucid moments she clearly registered the strangeness of what he was doing to her, but whether it was because she was too weak or too disoriented, she never questioned his actions. He again tried to glamour her with no luck. That sealed her fate. A human who knew of vampires and could not be made to forget was a liability that the council would not tolerate. If they found out about her, she would be executed, as would he. The fact that he knew this and decided to save her anyway shocked him more than anything.
He called Pam to bring him a car, which she did with the speed and efficiency that he was used to from her. He took Sookie home while Pam cleaned up the wreckage. They would have to act quickly to explain her disappearance. There was no turning back now. If he was not going to let her die, he would have to keep her hidden from the world. Those who knew her had to believe that she was dead. He and Pam would be the only ones who could know of her existence. That thought appealed to him more that he thought it should.
He took her home and carried her up to the large guestroom next to his own bedroom. He cleaned the blood off her, then lay her on the bed. He watched her while she slept, elated at her presence as well as utterly bewildered by it. It had only been a few short hours since she had entered his life and she had already turned it completely up-side down. His thoughts were only interrupted by the soft sounds she was making in her sleep and the occasional text from Pam.
He was chuckling at Pam's comments about Sookie's brother Jason, who apparently was easily glamoured on account of being "dimmer than a broken light bulb," when Sookie's eyes fluttered opened.
"I crashed the car. I'm sorry." Of all the things that had happened to her tonight, that was what she was most worried about?
She heard him chuckle and it was a chilling sound.
"That's what you're sorry about?" She wasn't sure what else he thought she should be sorry about.
"I was in so much pain. It felt like I was dying."
"You were."
"I feel good now. Great, actually. How is that possible?"
"I gave you something for the pain."
"There was blood everywhere. I passed out. You know why?" She paused for a second to give him a chance to answer, though she knew he wouldn't.
"There was a bone sticking up from my leg. Literally sticking up, through my skin. Did you give me something for that too?"
He moved so quickly her eyes couldn't register it. One second he was on the other side of the room, the next his body was pressed up against her, his large hand around her throat.
"You'd do well to remember your place, Miss Stackhouse. I will not tolerate insubordination." He loosened his grip on her throat, but kept his hand on the soft skin, forcing himself not to let his lips replace his fingers.
She relaxed into his hand as if the possibility of him ending her life with one simple movement didn't faze her at all. She was either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid. He didn't know which, but he looked forward to finding out.
"You gave me your blood. Who does that? That's just strange." He could feel her confusion, but also her utter fearless determination. "I was dying. Now I feel amazing. Did your blood do that?" She stopped for a second before looking him in the eyes. "What are you?"
He had known it would come to this the instant he realized that she couldn't be glamoured. Once he'd given her his blood in a moment of uncharacteristic recklessness he knew he had only two options. To kill her or to reveal to her what he was. For reasons that he himself couldn't phantom, the thought of ending her life repulsed him.
She heard a soft clicking sound and then the two sharp fangs protruded from his mouth.
She stared at him – stunned - then slowly lifted her hand and carefully touched one of his upper incisors. The feel of her skin on his fang did overwhelming things to him, both as a man and as a vampire. He wanted to bury himself in her in every sense.
"These are fangs. You are real. Vampires are real," she whispered. He thought for a second that she was going to pass out, the way she was hyperventilating, but she just continued. "What else is out there? Werewolves? Unicorns? Fairies? The Loch Ness Monster?"
He smiled at her wild guesses, half of which were right.
"Yes. No. Yes. Not that I know of."
"Really?"
"Really."
She was quiet for a few minutes before she finally asked the question he had dreaded.
"Are you going to let me go?"
He knew he couldn't allow her to return to her home. Only one vampire resided in the small back-water town she was from, but he was a particularly spineless specimen who would no doubt run to the queen the moment he picked up the scent of his blood in her.
If Compton was told to investigate further he would almost certainly attempt to glamour Sookie into revealing her connection to him. When he'd realize he could not, he'd instantly alert the queen to the fact that a vampire, the Sheriff of Area 5 no less, had revealed the existence of vampires to a human, an act punishable by final death.
So he had no choice but to keep her completely secluded until she was loyal enough and submissive enough to not only refrain from escaping, but to keep up appearances as a pet, someone used for blood and sex, but glamoured into forgetting. He had a feeling it would not happen easily.
"No."
"Never?" He didn't have a chance to answer before an overwhelming mix of fear and rage slammed into him.
"You bastard! You can't do this to me! People will come looking for me! You will go to jail for this! Let me go!" She started to sob uncontrollably and he was tempted to console her, but he knew it would do no good at this point. Instead he had to deliver a final blow.
"Your car will be found in the river tomorrow. Everyone will believe that you're dead. No one will come looking for you." They wouldn't find a body, but it didn't matter. It hadn't taken Pam much to find out everything they needed to know about Sookie's circumstances to make her disappearance believable. Her parents had been dead since she was a child and the grandmother who had raised her had died of a stroke the year before. She was someone who could be made to disappear easily.
There were less than a handful of people who might want to keep searching for her until her body was found and he made sure to have Pam pay them a visit to settle their minds and accept her death. The only one who couldn't be glamoured was her shifter boss, but Eric didn't expect him to question her tragic accident any time soon. If he did, he would have no qualms about making sure the shifter had a tragic accident of his own.
The feelings of fear and grief coming from her pained him, but he knew that it was for the best. The sooner she could accept her fate, the sooner he could train her to be an obedient and respectful companion. Once she had accepted his complete control and could be trusted to pretend she was a regular pet, she would no longer need to be kept secret from other vampires. Then she could leave the house on occasion and not be completely sequestered in his home.
"You won't always be this afraid of me. You might even come to realize that this is for the best." He knew it would take a very long time for that to happen, but if there was one thing he had, it was time. He left her in her room, sobbing. There was nothing he could say to her tonight that would make things better and dawn was coming soon.