Chapter 8

The car shrieked to a stop as we pulled into the empty lot. A red, neon sign spelled out "Fangtasia", the vampire bar where Bill said he knew someone who could help Sookie. She was in the backseat with Bill, cradled in his arms seemingly an inch away from death.

"Drive straight home," he told Jessica once the car halted.

"But I wanna go with you," she protested.

"As your maker, I command you," he said for the second time that night. He then turned to me. "You should go as well, Lissa."

"Like hell I'm leaving her here," I said, somehow mustering up the courage to talk back to the vampire. Something shifted in his eyes, and for some odd reason, it was like I could feel a pull on my mind.

"Lissa, everything will be okay," he whispered persuasively. "You will go home with Jessica. Nothing tonight ever happened. You didn't hang out with Sookie, you worked late and went straight home to bed. It was an uneventful night. Everything's going to be okay."

I gawked at him. "Yeah, like I'm gonna be able to forget about all of this. I'm staying here, and that's final." For some reason unbeknown to me, Bill's eyes widened in shock and confusion. Before I could ask him what was wrong, however, he shook his head and dashed Sookie in the door.

"Sorry Jessica, I have to stay," I said to her. "I promise we'll call you once we know anything." I felt bad leaving her after the rollercoaster of a night she had, but I had to stay with Sookie. I got out of the car and offered Jessica an apologetic smile before I headed inside the bar.

I opened the door and peered into the dark, gothic looking bar, and the first thing I saw was Sookie. Already, they had her lying face down on a table, her shirt cut away to reveal the three gruesome scratches. A tiny doctor, and by tiny, I mean a dwarf, stood over her wrecked body, examining the wounds.

Bill stood behind the doctor, his arms crossed, anxiously awaiting the diagnosis. A few feet away, someone sat in a chair, their back turned to me, so I could only see his combed back hair.

"What kind of doctor are you?" I heard Sookie mumble from the table.

"The healing kind," said the small doctor. "I'm Doctor Ludwig, what's your-"

"Ahhh," Sookie groaned as the doctor touched her wound. "Sookie," she cried, answering Dr. Ludwig's unfinished question. "Miss Sookie Stackhouse… am I dying?"

"Yes."

"No! She cannot die," Bill insisted. "You will save her." I gasped quietly at the thought of my friend dying.

"Back off, vampire. Let me do my job," Dr. Ludwig snapped.

"Forgive him," said a deep, masculine voice that could only belong to the seated vampire. "Bill is abnormally attached to this human."

"Well, we don't have a lot of choices," she explained. "She's been poisoned. You ever heard of Komodo dragons? Their mouths are teeming with bacteria. After one has bitten you, it will track you for hours, days, just waiting for the toxins to slowly eat away at your nervous system till you're good and helpless. Then it will devour you alive."

"I was scratched by a dragon?" Sookie gulped.

"No, but this poison is similar but way more efficient. I think I've seen it before, but it's hard to tell without further testing and we don't have that kind of time." Dr. Ludwig looked from Bill to the other vampire. "Give us some privacy. I need to remove her clothing."

"I'll stay with her!" I stupidly blurted out as I made my way into the room. Everyone turned to look at me, including the blond vampire who had gotten up out of his chair.

He was tall, so tall. Definitely a couple inches over 6 feet. And he was… handsome, in fact, radiant; blond and blue-eyed, tall and broad shouldered. Like something from a cover of a magazine. His dark jeans complimented his perfect butt and you could practically see his toned muscles through his jacket. And his lips, oh his lips, they looked handcrafted by God and… what was wrong with me? I quickly forced the intrusively lustful thoughts out of my head.

"No, you won't," Dr. Ludwig said to me. "We need privacy, all of you must leave."

"Yes," the tall vampire said as he looked me up and down, drinking me in. "Come." He gestured for me to follow him, and I hesitantly obeyed. I waited for Bill to join us, though, as while he wasn't much, he was the closest thing to familiar I had with me. He knelt before Sookie.

"I will be just outside," he whispered soothingly to her. "And I am so sorry." She started coughing up some foul substance and I looked away, disgusted.

"She's running out of time, Mr. Compton," Dr. Ludwig warned impatiently. He looked at his dying girlfriend one more time before joining us.

I jumped when I felt a hand pushing on my back, and saw it was the handsome vampire forcing me forward. I reluctantly left Sookie, and was lead through an "Employees Only" door and into an office of sorts. The cold hand on my back moved to my bare shoulder and I was roughly shoved down into a chair. This time it registered that I didn't have a vision after the skin to skin contact, and I was shocked.

"Who's the girl?" the vampire behind me asked Bill, not even bothering to let me introduce myself. I scoffed at his impoliteness.

"Excuse me?" I said, annoyed. Still, neither of them acknowledged me.

"Sookie's friend, she is not of importance… right now," Bill said rudely. But his last two words struck me. He had added on "right now" after a short pause, and he made it sound like I was of some importance to be discussed, just not at this second. I shivered at the thought, but convinced myself I was making up things. "We need to discuss what happened to Sookie."

The other vampire looked at me in thought for a moment before he began pacing and murmured, "Head of a bull."

"That's what she said," Bill confirmed. "It was dark. It all happened in seconds."

"So you didn't see this, uh, bull man, huh?

"No."

"And what about you?" the tall vampire turned to me. I looked up at him, taken off guard by him actually acknowledging my presence. I gulped.

"I- I didn't see anything," I told him. It was true; I didn't see what attacked Sookie. But I had seen what happened moments before the attack, but I wasn't about to share my vision with two vampires I didn't know.

He seemed to catch on that I was hiding something. He was in front of me in seconds, arms on either side of my chair, leaning into me.

"Don't lie to me," he growled, and I shrunk back into the chair. I stayed silent, petrified.

"It's true, Eric," Bill vouched for me, to my surprise. "She was with me."

The vampire in front of me seemed to consider this for a minute, before finally easing up and letting go of my chair.

"And you gave her your blood?" he asked, reverting back to the topic at hand.

"It didn't work," Bill said, frustrated. "You ever heard of anything like this?"

"Surprisingly, no." He sat down behind his desk. "Pam. Chow," he called in a normal voice, not loud enough for a human in the next room to hear. "I thought in over a thousand years I'd seen everything there was to see." So he's a thousand years old, I thought to myself. Holy shit.

Two other vampires walked into the room to join us, presumably Pam and Chow (I was still amazed at their ability to hear themselves being called so quietly). Pam had blonde curls that fell on her shoulders the way Hollywood movie stars' always did. Her pink ruffled top really looked nice contrasted against her pale skin and light hair. She looked almost like a Barbie doll. Chow was a big, muscular, scary looking man. He looked like he meant business as he folded his strong arms across his chest.

"Search the woods around highway 71," Eric told his associates.

"He can do it," Pam said, nodding to Chow. "I'm wearing my favorite pumps." I had to admit her pink heels were beautiful and looked really expensive.

Eric said something to her in a strange tongue and she sighed. I wondered what language they were speaking. She and Chow left to search, not having acknowledged me once during the time they were in the room. Jesus, what was with these vampires?

Eric turned back to Bill. "She is extremely lazy," he explained. "But loyal. How's yours? Jessica, huh?"

"Petulant. Dangerous. Afraid," Bill answered.

"I'm glad to see you two are bonding. Being a good maker is very rewarding."

"I have to get back to Sookie," insisted Bill.

Eric rolled his eyes. "Oh, relax. Dr. Ludwig treated one of Pam's humans when it was mauled by a werewolf." There was so many things wrong with that sentence. Pam's human? It? These vampires acted like humans were merely pets to them. And werewolves existed too? My head was reeling; this was all too much to take in for one night. He continued, "Lost an eye, but otherwise he's fine."

His gaze suddenly fell on me. "Besides, we still have business to discuss."

Bill shifted uncomfortably on his feet. "What about her?"

"What is she?"

"I'm a friend of Sookie's," I spoke for myself.

Eric's gaze snapped to me, but he still didn't address me when he said to Bill, "I can tell your keeping something from me, something about this one." When Bill didn't answer, he warned, "Do not forget that I'm your sheriff, Bill. It is not wise to test me."

Bill glanced at me and I stared back nervously. Did he know about my visions? There was no way he could've known unless Sookie had told him, and I didn't think of Sookie to be one to tell others' secrets.

"I can't glamour her," he finally said. "I don't know why."

"Wait, what does that mean?" I asked, confused. My question was unsurprisingly ignored.

"Please, Bill," Eric said, amused. "It's not like you're the best at glamouring." He turned and looked me in the eye. I felt that familiar tug on my brain as he said to me, "What is your name?"

It was a perfectly simple question, but I was annoyed at how I was being treated. "It's none of your goddamn business," I told him and he pulled back. I stood up from my chair, angered. "I don't care for the way you've been treating me, like I don't even exist or like I'm not held to the same standards as you. It's fucking rude and I'm over it. I'm going back out to Sookie."

I stomped towards the door, but before I could make my escape, Eric grabbed me by the arm and pulled me back. Before I could react, he had reached into the back pocket of my pants and pulled out my driving license.

"Let go of me!" I yelled. No matter how deliciously sexy he was, and he was pretty sensual, I wasn't going to let him treat me this way. I yanked on my arm for freedom, but his grip was like a vice. It seemed like he didn't even have to really try to hold me there, he paid no attention to my struggling and read over my license.

"Alessandra Marie Eldoris," he purred. My stomach filled with butterflies at the sound of him saying my name, much to my dismay.

"It's Lissa," I spat, but as expected, he paid no mind. I reached with my free hand for my license. "Now give it back."

"Interesting," Eric said, as he tossed my card onto his desk, out of my reach. "It appears you were right about the glamouring, Bill. Sorry to have doubted you." Bill only nodded in response. "I think you would agree that this is a problem, though. One that must be closely monitored. Perhaps I should keep her for surveillance."

"No fucking way!" I objected, trying desperately to free myself from his grasp. "Get the hell away from me." Eric half smiled at my feeble attempt to escape.

"Eric," Bill spoke up. "Let her go. She is Sookie's friend and now roommate. I can watch over her." Eric released me suddenly and I stumbled and fell to the ground.

"Is she yours as well?" he asked as I picked myself up.

"No," admitted Bill. Eric opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by a bloodcurdling scream.

"Sookie!" I exclaimed and ran out the door, the two vampires in tow.

Sookie's exposed skin sizzled as Dr. Ludwig poured something over the wounds. Her screams rang out as she jerked on the table.

"What are you doing to her?" Bill yelled.

"Hold her down!" the doctor ordered. "Or let her die, your choice." Bill immediately moved to hold her still, and I went up and stroked her hair trying to calm her.

"Sookie? Sookie it's me," I said to her. "It's okay, it'll be over in a second, just breathe." She could not be soothed, however, and continued to scream and writhe.

To my horror, Dr. Ludwig dug her finger into one of the gashes, evicting another scream from Sookie. She dug something out and squinted her eyes, examining it. I couldn't take it anymore, it was all just too much. Too much for a lifetime, and it had been just a day when I had witnessed more than I cared to. I leaned over and heaved up dinner, my brown hair falling into the impact zone. I passed out before I could pull it back out of the way, and my world turned black.

Author's Note: Yay! I'm finally getting somewhere with this story. Now that I've introduced Eric, his relationship with Lissa is going to become the main focus of the rest of this fanfic. Also, I'm completely open to suggestions and criticism (as long as it's constructive and not just plain hateful) so feel free to say something in the reviews. I'm really nervous since this is my first fanfic and I don't really know what I'm doing. I actually debated publishing the story, because I'm really shy about my writing, which is really personal for me. I really hope you guys are enjoying this, sorry for any mistakes.