Author's Note: Thanks to Viking Rule, who corrected and reviewed the story! I had a thought to plant some new brains in Jason's head, but I think, I love him just the way he is ;). I promise, I'll try my best to surprise you, my friend; because along the way I know, I surprise myself. Surprises are good, Doctor Who would say. And so are bow ties, lol.

My hero - Andy Bellefleur - is a total different story. I believe Chris Bauer can pull it off if Andy had to act tough and clever. I really want to see Andy kick some asses in True Blood!

Chapter Four

Fangtasia

"You wait here," said Calvin as he opened the car door. "Whatever happens, don't open the door and do what I say."

Clack, clack.

Arlene pushed the button that closed the windows. Calvin nodded at her and walked to the building in front of them.

She didn't know where they were. What she knew was that it took around an hour to reach the place. Calvin said something about asking a guy who knew a guy who worked for a guy. He told his people to stay at home and to send somebody to fetch them if something happened in Hotshot.

What was this place anyway? On this lonely road, there was no other building but the one she was looking at. The building was ragged and dirty. Some parts of the walls had lost their color, some of the blocks of cement were just hanging! The roof looked like a hurricane had just left some minutes ago! Some tiles were broken, and some were hanging loose. She swore, if the wind a little blew a bit harder, those tiles would fall!

Fangtasia.

That was the name of the building or at least that's what Arlene thought. Fangtasia, just like the building itself, the colors on the letters were already faded, one of the "A"s completely and the "i" had lost its dot. Fangtasia? It was more like a nightmare than a fantasy. Or it had to be some kind of perverted fantasy!

Waiting inside a car, which had seen its best years long ago, on a lonely road made Arlene wonder, what she had doing all these years , or to be more precise, where she had spent her years. This place and Hotshot community looked like places, which existed only in Western or Noir movies, or worse, some remote province in a third-world country. It had never crossed her mind that she would've been there, alone, waiting for a man, whom she had just met some hours ago, asking a guy who knew a guy who worked for a guy.

Stupid. And naïve. That's what she was. She should be more careful and not so easily trust just anybody!

Arlene took a deep breath. What would Eric say when he knew she was being careless like this? If what Calvin said was correct, he kept her alive for a reason... what the hell? Who cared what Eric would say! She swore, she had believed she would die when Eric jumped on her. His fangs had been bare and the madness in his eyes was something she'd never ever want to see again. She didn't recall what she had done, but one thing for sure, she had screamed, probably the loudest and longest scream she had ever made in her life.

Arlene knew, by investigating this thing further she would only drag herself into more trouble and probably even deeper problems. However, she had to know. She had to know why Eric hadn't killed her, why those werewolves had tried to kill her, and for God's sake, if whatever Eric had told her was true!

Calvin was out of the building, waving at her to come.

Arlene stepped out of the car. She looked down to see that her necklace wasn't covered by her t-shirt. For a moment, she thought about putting it under her t-shirt, but then, she changed her mind. Holly hadn't given her the necklace for nothing. Eric said it was a High Priestess' necklace. Maybe he had told the truth, maybe he hadn't, what the heck! It's worth to try.

Calvin drew a smile when he saw the necklace. "You don't really believe in it, do you?"

"What?"

Calvin whispered. "I know a witch when I see one. But it's a nice try. People in this building believe that kind of crap."

Arlene looked at him. Who was this guy?

Her skin crawled as they entered the building. It was seedy, dirty and even when the sun shone brightly outside, this building was dark. The light from the lamps on some of the walls weren't strong enough to brighten the room, in fact they even managed to make the building look shadier. Arlene swore, this building had no windows or even doors, which was nonsense because they had just walked right through it. The smell of booze and cigarettes hung heavily in the air. Somewhere in the corner, there was even a smell of a dead body or something! It's so stank that Arlene had to cover her nose.

"What is this place?" she whispered.

"A very mismanaged bar," said Calvin. "In the hands of someone with a better sense of business, this bar would be very lucrative!"

Whoever that somebody would be, they would need to blow this place up and start rebuilding it again from the scratch to get rid of all the smells!

At the bar, a woman with short dark hair, dog collar on her neck, ring on her nose and uncountable earrings around her ear was wiping a glass. Her face wasn't exactly friendly when she looked at them and said, "Andy is in his office."

This place had an office?

Calvin nodded and asked Arlene to follow him. They went through a small hallway, also as dark as the front room, climbed some stairs and they were there. The office. A small room, which had a table filled with every kind of sauce - Tabasco, Valentina, Texas Pete, Trappey's Hot Sauce and Lord knows what else –, arranged neatly.. The cabinet in the corner was full of folders. They looked as if nobody had ever arranged or even touched those folders. if she were the boss, she would have fired the one who took care of them! Immediately!

Behind the desk was a man. He was in his forties, had a strong figure and bald. He wore a khaki shirt, with two upper buttons opened, showing his white under t-shirt. "I'm going to regret this," he grunted. He was obviously the one whom that woman called Andy.

A very friendly man, Arlene thought, just like the rest of the people in this building.

"I'm not a part of this shit, Ma'am," he looked at her. "You have to know this. It's my cousin who works for them and not me. I'm telling you right now, I have nothing to do with it, and I know nothing about it."

"Fair enough," said Arlene, trying to sound as strict as possible.

"He has a bar somewhere in the North, and it's only open in after dusk. But you can't enter, if you don't have a member card. You tell her, Norris."

Calvin looked at her. Under the dim light, his eyes looked green-golden, and to Arlene's surprise, they also looked like a cat's. "You have to be a supe to be a member."

Arlene opened her eyes. A what?

"A witch isn't exactly welcome there," Andy looked at her from head to toe. "And you're not a were or a shifter, either." He lifted the telephone. "I don't promise anything...,"

"Tell Terry he owes me," said Norris.

Andy snarled. "You got to know, Ma'am, he's not exactly a friendly man."

If his cousin was a bit friendlier than he was, Arlene'd consider him as friendly enough.

Andy tapped the table with his fingers. It's clear that he was impatient. After a while, he took the phone from his ear. "Nobody's picking up." The lines on his forehead appeared. "That's strange. Terry's phone is never off the hook. Let me try again."

After several attempts , and still no answer, Andy pressed a number and said, almost yelling, "Sweetie, send somebody to go to Terry's... I don't care who...Now!" He smashed the telephone back on its base.

"It could take a while," Calvin said. He took a chair and offered it to Arlene. "Please, take a seat," he said.

"Thank you," said Arlene, sitting down.

"Can I offer you something to drink?" asked Andy.

"No, thank you," said Arlene. She'd do anything she could to avoid drinking or touching anything from this place.

"How's business, Andy?" asked Calvin. Arlene thought Calvin must have been joking, asking that question.

"Not so good," he said. "Bad economy and stuff, you know."

Aha, thought Arlene. Blame it on the economy, that's a good way not to improve the quality of your business.

"I am thinking about selling it, and move out of this shitty town."

"Any offers?" Arlene looked around the room. With a little bit of a clean and tidy up, she could imagine this room would look nice. It had high walls and arched ceiling. Right in the middle of the ceiling was a chandelier. It had a simple motive, only a circle and some candle holders. Then, as her eyes trailed along the wall, she caught a picture of three men. Her heart jumped. The one in the middle held fishing equipment and a big fish. But that wasn't the reason her heart beat crazily like that.

"Arlene, are you all right?" asked Calvin.

Under that photo something was written: 'The Bon Temps Fishing Competition Winners: The Bellefleurs and Dawson'. Bellefleur... Bobby Burnham had mentioned that name when he was at her place. "Terry...," Arlene said, "Terry...Bellefleur?"

"Yes," Andy looked alerted. "Do you know my cousin?"

"No. Bobby Burnham mentioned his name once."

"You know Burnham?" Now, not only did Andy look alert, Calvin did too.

"Yes...," Arlene covered her mouth. "Dear Lord...," she looked at Calvin. "Why didn't you tell me it was Bellefleur, and the other guy you meant was Eric Northman?"

Calvin and Andy looked at each other. They didn't have to tell her; Arlene could see from their faces that they were surprised to know that she knew Eric. Why was Calvin surprised anyway? She had told him about Eric. She couldn't imagine there were other vampires whose names were Eric!

"I don't know if it means anything to you," she tried to be as calm as possible, but her voice was an octave higher when she continued, "But they were under attack last night. I am sure your cousin was also there."

"Where?" asked Calvin.

"I don't know. I heard Burnham saying that Eric should come to help them. One of them – Chow – was down, and Jackson Herveaux was injured. You must know where their place is."

"Northman's bar. It's got to be it." Andy got up and pulled out the drawer. He took a gun from the drawer. "Norris, we can't take care of this thing by ourselves. We're gonna need some help, and the Long Tooth Pack has to know."

Calvin's jaw moved. "They probably know already. We'd better go there and see what's happened."

Hurriedly, they got out of the office. Andy told the girl, almost yelling, to close down the bar and told her whomever she had sent to fetch Terry to tell him to go to Northman's bar and take some people with him.

The dust was flying up in the air as Calvin drove the car away from Fangtasia. Arlene turned around and took a good look at that shady place one more time. She saw Sweetie standing in front of the building and puff! She's gone. Her clothes fell to the ground, and rising from her clothes was a bird, which soon shot itself into the air.

Arlene gasped and turned her face around. She shook her head and rubbed her eyes. She's hallucinating; she was sure of it, there's no other explanation! She turned around again. There's nobody there, but the clothes were still there.

"She's a shapeshifter, Arlene," said Calvin. "Most of Fangtasia's visitors are supes, I should've warned you about that, sorry."

"Supes?"

"Supernatural beings," he patted Andy's shoulder. "Including Andy here. He and his cousin Terry are the best fish catchers in town; I don't believe that he's just a human. He must have something in him that attracts the fishes!"

Andy snorted. "As if I didn't have enough problems already! Supes my ass!"

Then, the conversation changed to fishing. What was the best bait, where to fish, with what and when and more importantly what you have to have in your tackle box. Andy mentioned something like aspirins, toilet paper, even a lighter. Arlene thought it would've been something more important like rod, reels, line or even a net. But the more she listened to him, the more he made sense.

"Remember Murphy's law," Andy said. "When something can go wrong, it will go wrong and it will cause the worst possible damage. So never underestimate the importance of toilet paper."

Somehow, Arlene thanked Calvin for it. It's simply good to hear a daily conversation after what had happened over the last two days. Fishing wasn't exactly her cup of tea, but it's better than blood or killing. It's also good to see Andy look more relaxed. The sour and angry expression he had given her some time ago was gone and replaced by excitement and sometimes even laughs. It made him a completely different man and somehow...

BUMP!

A loud noise hit her ears as the car suddenly stopped. For a moment she was thrown to the front and then swung back into the seat! If she hadn't worn her seat-belt, she would've flown through the front window.

"What the f...?" Arlene heard Andy cursing.

"Are you okay, Arlene?"

"Yeah, yeah. What happened?"

"Stay in the car," said Calvin, opening the door.

Andy opened the door too and jumped out. "Arlene, you'd better sit behind the wheel," he said. "Just in case you have to leave this place by yourself."

"What is going on?"

But neither of them answered.

Arlene opened her seat-belt and moved to the drivers seat. Through the window she saw Andy cocking his gun and Calvin spreading his arms. Her jaw dropped. Calvin's arms were now covered by black fur and coming from his fingers were long pointed claws... like claws of a tiger, no, not a tiger, a panther. Was he a werepanther? Did that word even exist?

Arlene forced herself to concentrate. Whatever Calvin was, she told herself, he was on her side. Or he was being helpful and that's what mattered.

Both of them continued walking, and then they knelt. They were checking something. Arlene craned her neck to catch a glimpse of what they were checking, but Andy's and Calvin's big figures blocked her view. What was happening? Did they find something? Was somebody there...laying on the ground?

She had to know. Somebody had told her what to do for the last two days, it was either Sam, Holly, Eric or even Calvin. No, it's enough. She had to take the matters into her own hands and face it. She couldn't act like a naïve idiot who did what everybody told her to do, no, not this time. If she wanted to get to the bottom of it, she'd better start accordingly. She's a lawyer, for Christ's sake, where was her intuition and curiosity?

Arlene opened the door and stepped down.

Calvin turned around and got up when he saw her. "Arlene, you don't want to see this. Please, stay in the car."

"No," she said.

"Arlene...,"

"Let her see it, Cal," Andy got up too. "She's dealing with Northman, let her know what he or his enemies are capable of."

Arlene shrieked when she saw what Calvin and Andy had been checking. On the ground, some steps away from them, was a body. He was naked, or if he wore any clothes, Arlene didn't see it. His body was black-red from blood, which wasn't dry yet. Arlene had seen some gruesome pictures from murder crime scenes, but she'd never seen something like this before. His head was twisted 180 degrees, his eyes were wide open, so were his jaws. And in those open jaws, some long pointed teeth were seen.

"Werewolf," Calvin spat on the ground.

"We have to call the police," said Arlene. "We can't leave him laying around like this."

Suddenly, Calvin snarled.

Arlene jumped back. His sound was like the roaring of a tiger. His amber eyes changed into yellow and out of nowhere, two pairs of large teeth came out of his jaw. His black fur covered arms were now pointing at her face. Arlene's hands were shaking. She felt her blood run cold.

"You will do no such thing," he said.

Andy lifted his gun. "Cal, calm down, now. Arlene won't do such a thing, right, Arlene? We will all calm down and talk with cool heads, right, Cal?"

Calvin shook his head, sniffed and slowly, his eyes returned to normal. "Sorry, Arlene," he said. His voice was hoarse. "I can't let the Government's people see this. When they see this, they will sweep the area for any escaping wild animals. I can't let them enter my village. Soon, we will have full moon; some of my young cubs can't control themselves yet, I don't want any blood spilled."

Arlene tried to catch her breath, which had suddenly returned and filled her lungs with so much air, she could hardly breathe.

"Arlene, you stay close to me, right?" Andy took her hand and pulled her behind him. "There's so much blood here," he said. "Calvin can't think straight because of it."

"It's all right, Andy," Calvin said. "It will never happen again."

Yeah, right, thought Arlene. Who can guarantee that?

"Northman's bar isn't far away from here. Let's go back to the car and finish this thing once and for all."

xxxxxx