Reckless

Chapter 5

"You!" Sam sneered at Bill in that unsettlingly inhuman way of his. Had he hackled, they'd be raised up on the back of his neck, spiked and sharp. Fangs out, ready to attack, that was Sam Merlotte.

"Bill Compton," Bill said, inclining his head at Sam. Outwardly, he almost looked friendly, but you didn't have to be a mind reader to know that his formal introduction was a smokescreen for his own aggressive stance. It was like a testosterone parade.

"What the hell are you doin' here? How the hell do you know where Sookie lives?" Sam was Mister Defensive, and if I wasn't stoned out of my mind on pain medication, I probably would have pushed him out of the way. I don't need a protector.

"I have seen her come home at night. I live just across the way." He gestured at the old farmhouse across the cemetery.

"This is why you should be living in town," Sam said to me. He narrowed his eyes at the vampire standing awkwardly on my welcome mat.

"Oh Jesus," I scowled. "I don't need this shit right now. This is my house." I shoved my shoulder into Sam's arm and pushed him out of the way. "Bill had a hand in saving my hide last night at the bar, same as you."

I turned to Bill and stepped out onto the porch, my head feeling a little sore and a little dizzy. The rest of me, in comparison, was in fine shape. I couldn't feel anything but happy butterflies from the eyeballs down. I shut the front door behind me and sat down on Gran's old porch swing. The moon was high in the sky, casting a white glow on the headstones.

"Look," I began, not looking at the vampire but talking to him all the same. "I don't really know what you did to me last night but thanks."

"I fed you with some of my blood. Vampire blood has numerous effects on the human body, including the ability to heal you when you are ill. You should take more."

"Thanks, but I'm fine." I shuddered. I'd ingested vampire blood? I recalled Bill's arm on my face, his blood in my mouth. It came rolling back to me like a tidal wave, and nausea followed right behind it.

"It will not harm you, Sookie. You cannot become a vampire unless you are near death. And even then, we must exchange blood." He spoke like a teacher reading out of an encyclopedia. The creepy factor was definitely settling in.

"It's too easy," I said warily. "There has to be a catch."

I sighed and looked out over the porch railing at the wide lawn. There were fireflies darting to and fro over the grass, turning on their little lights and dancing around like drunken fools. I was building up courage. I don't usually ask people for favors, but I needed a way into that vampire bar, and I wasn't going to dress up like a damn fangbanger. If I went with a vampire, I'd have a chance at finding Maudette's killer.

"Look, I don't normally ask for favors, but…"

"Ask," Bill grunted. He stood beside the balustrade, looking right at me.

"I need to go to the vampire bar in Shreveport. I need to find out more about Maudette's murder, and if I'm there…well, I just need to be there."

"You won't be safe."

"I'm going to heal up some first. I'm not going anywhere lookin' like this." I looked down at myself, my sling, my scraped knees. "But I'm going. I have to go."

"And you do not wish to go with your boss?" Bill swung his head to the house. I followed his eyes and saw Sam peeking out of the kitchen window at us. When he caught my eyes, he turned away.

"Sam would lose his temper too fast in a place like that. Besides, vampire escort to a vampire bar? What could be better than that?"

Bill gazed at me a minute. I closed my eyes and reached out with my brain, but I still couldn't hear him. Was he thinking anything at all? When I opened my eyes again, he reached out to touch my hand. I jerked it back and his hand fell away limply.

"I will take you." Bill agreed after another minute.

I spent a week laid up in bed, swallowing pain killers and eating nothing but ice cream (the only thing I didn't have to cook). Dawn and Arlene, a couple of waitresses at the bar, covered my shifts. Arlene brought by a tuna casserole one night, and Dawn called to ask if Jason was seeing anybody (I didn't know). On Friday, while I was sitting on the sofa reading, there was a knock on the back door. It took me a minute to get up and answer it, and there was Sam. He looked downtrodden. He was carrying a pizza, my check, and the world's sorriest face. I let him in and he went to set the pizza down on the kitchen table.

"You better sit down, Sookie," Sam frowned. So I sat, grabbing a slice of cheese and mushrooms.

"What happened?" I asked. "Did they figure out who killed the Rats?"

"No, not yet. They don't have any leads. But look, chere, Dawn was found in her apartment,"

"What do you mean found?" I coughed. I set the slice down. I hadn't even taken a bite yet.

"She's dead, Sookie."

"What the fuck do you mean she's dead?!" I bounced up out of my chair and flung my arms up. I'd taken off the sling days ago but still wore a splint of Velcro and black padding.

"I don't know too much about it. The police aren't releasing anything about it. She's just… I found her this afternoon."

"You found her?" My voice squeaked.

"She was late for work, and I called around to see if she was in. There wasn't an answer, and with you out, and Maudette… I didn't have another replacement. So I went over to see if she was in, sleeping or something, forgot about her shift, you know…" Sam covered his face with his hands.

"Oh Jesus, Sam," I frowned. I touched his shoulder, just because I wasn't sure what else I should do. I'm no good with people. Hearing people's thoughts doesn't help much with the bonding experience.

"There's more…" Sam choked. How could there possibly be more? "They brought Jason in for questioning. He was with both Maudette and Dawn before they were…"

"Jason?" I coughed. Jason was a dumb shit but he couldn't kill anyone, not even by accident.

"I don't think it was him, but…"

"Look, can you take me over there? I have to…"

"Hear his thoughts," Sam finished for me. He was looking up at me, and there were red rings around his eyes.

"Yeah…" I frowned. Sam was one of the few people in the world that knew about that extra gift of mine. He grabbed his keys off the table and put the pizza in the fridge.

We drove in silence to Jason's house, but he wasn't home. There was only one other place he could be, but I almost didn't want to believe it. Jason was the sweet one, dumb as a post, but not one to get in trouble with the law. That was my territory, for sure. Sam parked in front of the police department and I got out. After five days of bed rest, I looked a lot better. It was more of a slightly bruised but doing okay look than a wow Sookie got hit by a truck look. I stalked into the building with Sam on my heels and slammed my good fist onto the desk.

"I want to see my brother," I growled at Charlotte, the secretary.

"They just got him settled in a cell, Sookie. I'll ask the deputy to take you back." Charlotte was a good old bird, even if she'd mostly met me in handcuffs.

I left Sam at the front of the building. Rain clouds broke over us as I stalked back through the offices to the jail. I'd been here more than a few times before, but I'd never traveled without a man mishandling me and dragging me by the elbow. It was an unusual experience. Jason was sitting with his head in his hands, his elbows on his knees. He looked distraught, but I knew that he wasn't thinking so much about Maudette and Dawn as he was wondering how the hell to get out of this mess.

"Jason," I said, scowling at him through the bars.

"Sookie!" Jason yelped, getting to his feet. "You gotta get me out of here! They're gonna charge me with murder! Damnit, I didn't kill anybody!"

"I know," I sighed. I didn't even have to read his mind to know that. "Look, do you know if Dawn was ever…with vampires?"

"Okay that's just disgusting! Hell no she wasn't. Dawn was normal." Jason's eyes darted around my head, but I wiggled around in his pecan-sized brain. Vampires! Man oh man, what is this world coming to? I can't believe her! Those marks on her leg…vampire fangs. Disgusting!

"Right," I said. "Like I don't know you're full of shit."

"I didn't kill anybody, sis," Jason repeated.

"Don't worry. If I know anything about the law in this town, they won't be holding you for long. They don't have any evidence, except that you're a whore."

Sam dropped me back off at the house and went to open the bar for a few hours. I wolfed down a couple slices of pizza and went to change. With a little makeup, I could cover what remained of the bruising. I couldn't take off the stupid splint, but I could at least wear black to match it. I pulled on a pair of tight black jeans and a low cut black halter top. I wiggled my feet into a pair of patent leather black pumps, and put on dark lipstick and lots of mascara. I needed to achieve a look that was both breathtaking and slutty, something that Dawn or Maudette would wear out to the vampire bar. That way, I could pick up the right kind of attention from the wrong sort of people, the people that murdered my friends.

I knocked on Bill's door at a little after nine o'clock. The door opened slowly, but Bill wasn't behind it. Instead, there stood a pasty white man, short with greasy black hair tied in a ponytail. He grinned at me, his fangs visible.

"Well howdy there, sugar," the vampire hummed. "You're just in time for the party. Why don't you come on in?"