Part 39
Some days it seemed like no matter where I touched Sookie it could set in motion love play that would leave us both spent and wrapped in bliss. But that night I needed it to be different. My beauty was exhausted, and disheartened. Tara had offered nothing further but acrimonious bile, aimed at Holly, at Sam and at Sookie herself, and while she tried to write off the viciousness as a product of Tara's own sorrow, Sookie was having a great deal of difficulty with the task. I did not question her further, but only offered my similar observations about Tara, though with a less forgiving tone of voice. It was nearly midnight when we arrived back at Sookie's house, and since she had been up most of the day I encouraged her; mostly by picking her up in my arms and carrying her to the bed, to sleep. She tried to protest but I began to carefully caress her, undressing her in as chaste a way as I could manage. I let my fingertips rove over her back with more pressure than my standard feather touches, designed to arouse her. And as much as I wanted to make love to her then, I kept my hands from the obvious spots that would push her towards her edge. I ran my hands down her neck and on either side of her spine, pressing carefully at the knots that had formed there. I worked her shoulders similarly, bringing my mouth down to kiss her gently, listening all the while to her heartbeats, counting them silently to myself as they slowed into sleep.
"My love, I will return to you before the dawn and give you my blood so that you will have strength for the day ahead." She nodded slowly, eyes closed. "I am going to feed now, but I will never be far away from you."
"I love you." She mumbled on sleep-addled lips. "I don't know how I could get through this without you Eric."
"You will always have my love Sookie. Now sleep." I stood, wanting to simply wrap myself around her instead, but I left her be. Making another check of the house to ensure all the windows were latched and shades drawn I comforted myself that she was truly asleep. I did intend to go out and feed, but I also intended to make the walk across the cemetery to see if Jessica was still in Bon Temps, I purposely did not mention the intended visit to Sookie, because she would have insisted on accompanying me. And I was taking no chances on her meeting Bill Compton again. I had heard very little of him in the months since our last encounter, but it was certainly not out of the realm of possibility that he had returned to his only home and was hiding there.
I walked across the cemetery path, marveling in the quiet of the country. Not that Shreveport was a bustling metropolis, but it had very few moments of complete silence. Bon Temps was dead, if you pardon the irony of the statement, but for the sounds of the creatures of the night, of which I was one, and the being coming towards me another.
"Who's there?" Came the high, nervous voice I had once mentored.
"It is I Jessica."
"Eric?" She burst from the growth further along the path, sending a little cloud of lightening bugs into the air. "Oh thank god it's you Eric!" She nearly flew into my arms. Of course she was not as strong as I, but she clung to me with a strength I had not remembered.
"Jessica?" I peeled her off of myself. "What is going on around here?"
"I don't know Eric, but I'm scared. I didn't know what to do, I didn't know if I should call you or Pam, or who."
"Bill has not returned to you?"
"No, I haven't seen him in months, he just left me here, packed up a bag and took off." As happy as I was that Bill was not in Bon Temps I felt a rising anger at how he had treated his child. It seemed to me that he had been looking for every excuse to abandon Jessica, ever since he had brought her into our world. I knew he had not chosen to make her, but it was still no excuse to leave her alone.
"I am here now Jessica, tell me what it is that has you so frightened?"
"Haven't you heard it?"
"Heard what?"
"The howling?" I had to admit I had not but pressed her for more information.
"A terrible wailing out near Merlotte's like someone has been howling for Sam, except that they started a few days before he died."
"Have you heard it this night?"
"I haven't gone near Merlotte's since Holly found him, well, not since that night."
That explained why I had not heard the sound, we had arrived days after the event. Though it might seem egotistical, the possibility of missing something so obvious bothered me.
"Will you go out there with me now?" I intended to investigate immediately. Though I couldn't exactly say that Jessica looked paler at the suggestion, she certainly didn't look pleased about it. "I will protect you Jessica." I dropped my fangs for their effect; she shuddered but reluctantly agreed to accompany me.
Our trip was a quick one, Jessica had also become quite fleet of foot it seemed; the changes in her prompted a question.
"Jessica? Who have you been eating?"
She smiled shyly and dropped her gaze to the graveled carpark of Merlotte's Bar. Normally peppered with vehicles and security lights, it was abandoned, as dark as the building itself.
"Jason." She whispered.
It made sense, Sookie was part fairy, her brother must have inherited some of the traits as well. A steady diet of fae blood had made up, somewhat, for what Jessica's maker had denied her. And I well knew that just the presence of a fae near a Vampire had wondrous healing properties; not that they mattered as much in someone 1000 years old, but in one less than a decade they factored in considerably more. Neither of them had actually mentioned the relationship, but Sookie had been pulling away from Bon Temps and towards me little by little. And perhaps Jason and Jessica valued their privacy, or wished to spare themselves the embarrassment. I thought she had been going with another boy in Bon Temps, but I did not ask any further questions in that vein, there was no need.
"When have you heard the sound?"
"Usually after midnight. Before Sam died it was when I was getting off work, three nights in a row, around 2 am. The night I came back, it was earlier."
"And where was it coming from?"
"Around back, in the woods." There was staff parking at the back of the building, close to the dumpster, and the edges of the same woods than ran out to Sookie's place. It was a forest that you might imagine the whole of Bon Temps had been carved out of, excepting the stretches of pasture and farmland that bordered the only the source of natural water, a river, more of a creek, that also ran through the edge of Sookie's woods. From what little I knew of North American agricultural practices, those now open spaces could have been thick forest at one time also. It did not rouse my curiosity enough to put further thought into researching it though. Instead I walked around the building slowly, dismissing the sounds of my feet, and Jessica's on the gravel, concentrating on the noises of the woods, selectively identifying each one and pushing it aside.
"What did it sound like Jessica?"
"I don't know." Her voice had its own wailing quality to it, and I watched as her head darted around, scanning the woods as well as the buildings; she included Sam's trailer in the sweep, almost as if she expected something to emerge from it.
"Think Jessica." I tried to bring her back to focus. "You've been to Zoos. Did it sound like a particular kind of animal? A wolf, a coyote, a big cat of some sort?"
She pushed her fists to her temples and closed her eyes.
"I don't know Eric."
I was feeling an onset of frustration at her inability to recall the data I required, but I did not feel it for long as the still air was split by a plaintive wail that would have made my blood curdle, if that was even possible any longer. That was it would have if I had not heard it before. Leaving Jessica I tore into the woods, heading in the direction of the sound, though by the time I reached the clearing she was gone. Again I felt the disturbance she had left behind and the memories that had been sparked in Sam's office returned to me, and suddenly I had another piece of the puzzle; a piece that left me feeling cold.
"Eric?" Jessica's scolding tone did not sit well with me, especially coupled with the new threat I had identified, I wheeled on her, my fangs bared, a snarl on my lips. The expression stopped her dead in her tracks.
"Do not speak to me as if I am a petulant child Jessica. There are things at work here that are far beyond you." My anger, and if I can admit it, my anxiety, manifested themselves in harsh words to Jessica, but if she had been taught properly about respecting her elders by her now absent maker I would not have had to put her in her place as harshly as I did. She cowed before me.
"What do you know of the woman who visited Sam?"
"The red head?"
"Yes."
"I didn't see her myself Eric, she came during the day. All I heard was Tara complaining about her over at Jason's place. She showed up one night to tell him she'd quit. I think she was looking to see if he would comfort her, because she got really pissed to see me there."
I had to shake my head.
"Did Tara say anything else?"
"No, she just cursed a lot about Sam and that woman and about Holly, and she got pretty drunk, so Jason called Lafayette to take her home."
"Smart man, not wanting to get in a car with her."
"That's what I thought" Jessica still couldn't make eye contact with me.
I softened a little towards the frightened girl in the clearing with me. She was simply trying to find a place for herself in the new reality of her life and she had been a friend to Sookie. For those reasons I backed off.
"Does Jason treat you well?" If Bill could not be a parent to her, I could try.
"He does. It's not just all about sex either."
"I'm glad to hear that."
"Can I help you to search Eric, for whatever this thing is?" I shook my head.
"You will not find her if she does not wish to be found, especially if you are a Vampire." Though there was no predation between our species, there was also no alliance.
"But what is she?"
"My dear girl, I think Bon Temps now has a Banshee."
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