She clung to me as we flew. Such a small, warm body snuggled into mine. Had I held a child in this manner since my human life? I took her to the middle of the forest, far from all other humans. I put her down and sat down on a rock nearby.

"Are you an angel?" she asked.

I laughed – I could not help myself. "No child, I am certainly no angel. You may call me Eric."

"Nice to meet you Eric, my name is Sookie Stackhouse," replied the tiny human girl in her night gown. She held out her hand like a southern lady at a garden party. Surprising myself, I shook it. As a matter of course, vampires do not shake hands. To survive we must blend in, and cold hands aren't at all helpful. But, she knew I could fly. She took the levitating outside of her window, flying, leaving with a stranger in stride. A cold hand probably wasn't going to push her over the edge. Which reminded me…..

"Sookie."

"Yes, sir?" Someone had trained her very well.

"You do realize flying off with a stranger in the middle of the night isn't a very good idea."

She started trembling. Great, Northman. I tried again.

"I assure you that you are safe with me, " I paused and looked her in the eye, "but in the future you need to be more careful."

She looked down at her bare feet. (Would she be cold? Should I have brought a blanket? )

"Almost anything would be better than being in the 'sylum. All those minds screaming at me! You can't imagine what some of those people are thinking. You can't imagine what some of them have lived through." I had seen mental health care improve dramatically in my long existence – expelling demons, cages, lobotomies. And yet there was so much still wrong with the current system. "What do you want with me? Are you going to ask a bunch of questions, poke and prod at me?"

"Just questions, no poking or prodding," I answered with a grin. She didn't grin back. Apparently she had been "tested" quite a bit already. "For each question you answer, I will answer a question about myself." Glamour later. Of course, that piqued her attention.

"Only if I get to go first."

"Ask away, Miss Stackhouse."

"Did you braid your hair yourself or did someone do it for you?" I roared with laughter. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed children. I had enjoyed my own very much.

"If you are going to laugh at me, you might as well leave,"said the small night gowned girl with her hands on her hips. She stomped her foot for good measure.

I put on my serious face and looked her in the eye. My eye might have twitched. "I braided my own hair. When I fly I often pull it back. I learned this particular method on the steppes of Asia. Do you like it?" I turned around and preened, just a bit.

"Yes, very much. Although usually only girls braid their hair. Next question…."

I cleared my throat. "What about my question?"

"You asked if I liked your hair and I said yes," she replied in complete earnestness. Outsmarted by a small girl. A wiser vampire might have flown off at that moment. I frowned and nodded for her to continue with her question.

"Will you braid mine? " I smiled and motioned for her to turn around. I gently stroked her hair and began. "My momma hardly does my hair. When people touch me, their thoughts are just that much clearer. I don't like to be touched, especially by Momma. She is afraid of me. She thinks that maybe I am evil." She said it in such a matter of fact manner. I almost offered to take her home with me. "Sometimes my gran brushes my hair. I don't mind her touching me. Mostly she thinks about how much she loves me and what a special girl I am."

Our question/beauty shop session went on for some time. What I learned from Sookie was that she could hear peoples thoughts, though some people sounded louder than others. She didn't know how to stop their thoughts and she had a hard time telling the difference between what they were saying in their heads and what they were saying out loud. Most people were afraid of her and thought she was crazy. She was beginning to think she was crazy too. She thought much longer in the 'sylum and she really would be. I told her I was a vampire, that I drank blood, showed her my fangs, that I had children when I was human, what their names were, my favorite color… Her hair would have turned out nicer if I had a brush, but I was pretty satisfied. When I told her it was time to go back, she turned and ran as fast as her legs would carry her.