Thank you everyone who has been reading and reviewing. It is so encouraging.
Again, I don't own anything.
Chapter 7 Users
She pulled into the parking lot about 45 minutes later, it had taken her a while to replicate what Pam had done the night before, and headed to the employee entrance. It turned out to be locked, there was no answer when she knocked. She called Eric on her cellphone.
"Yes, my lover?" he answered in his most seductive tone.
"I'm at the backdoor, but it's locked, should I go around to the front or wait here?"
"I'll come let you in, Pam is monitoring the front door so no one with VampBait on can get in."
"Okay, bye." She slipped the phone back into her purse and adjusted the dress.
The door opened and Eric looked at her hungrily.
She curtsied deeply and huskily whispered, "Desirée reporting for duty, Master." But spoiled the effect by snorting at the end.
"I told you not to do that." he sounded annoyed.
"If I'm pretending to be a waitress here I have to act the part." She moved past him into the locker area. "Do I get a key?"
"I don't know, Pam usually handles all the human employee details."
She stowed her purse in the same locker as yesterday. "So, can you tell me what tables I'm covering?" The blank look on his face annoyed her, shouldn't he know these things?
"No, but I'll get Leanna, she knows you are starting tonight and can probably tell you what you need to know." He went to the doorway leading to the bar area and made a quick "come here" gesture, like he had done the first night she and Bill had come here.
"Is my disguise okay? Do you think she'll recognize me?" Sookie checked herself quickly in the mirror.
"No, I doubt she will."
"Yes Master?" Leanna was bowing in the doorway.
"Leanna, this is Desirée, she is starting tonight. I believe Pam has discussed this with you. Tell her what she needs to know."
"Yes Master." Leanna agreed breathlessly, bowing again. She cast a sidelong glance at Sookie, who quickly bowed at Eric.
"Good luck, Desirée." He said as he was turning away.
"Thank you Master." She managed to sound appropriately worshipful and kept all sarcasm from her voice with an effort.
As soon as Eric was seated on his throne again, Leanna turned to Sookie. "You've always got to bow and call him 'Master', Pam says he gets really mad if you don't." she said seriously.
"Okay, I'll remember." Sookie nodded. She glanced at Eric trying to have the infatuated, worshipful look she has seen on most of the waitresses and customers. "He's so gorgeous. Does he ever date the waitresses?" she asked hopefully.
Leanna looked deflated. "Date? No. When I started here two years ago, he would sometimes hook-up with us. But he hasn't since before he disappeared for awhile and Ginger was killed." Sookie vividly remembered finding Ginger's body and tried to hide her reaction with a look of disappointment.
"That's too bad, what about the other vamps?"
"Sometimes." Leanna proudly showed Sookie her bite marks.
"Wow, did it hurt?" trying to sound suitably awed.
"Hm-mm, but in a good way." She winked at Sookie, "But we better get to work. Have you ever worked in a bar before?"
"Yeah, but it was a little, small town bar. It was never this crowded." she could honestly look overwhelmed at the throng.
"It does get crazy." Leanna glanced at the crowd. "Okay, no tabs, everyone pays as you deliver. Vamps get free True Blood, any of the topshelf blood they pay for. The bartender will ring up the drinks as you order them so you won't need to know the prices right off. Most people won't ask, if they need to they're in the wrong bar."
"Do I have specific tables?" She was looking around to see if there was an order to it.
"Nope, if someone looks like they need something head on over. People move around too much to track."
"Any rules to enforce?"
"No drugs, no biting, no fighting, no actual sex, clothes stay on; other than that it's pretty much a free for all." she shrugged. "You think you're ready?"
Sookie half-shrugged, half-nodded. "As ready as I'll ever be." Leanna smiled sympathetically and handed her a tray and an order pad.
"The beer list is on the back." She started to renter the bar area and added, "No refunds on the blood if a human orders it."
"Ew!" Sookie said and Leanna laughed.
Taking a deep breath and reinforcing her shields Sookie stepped into the throng. The real noise was almost deafening and she was thankful she was able to block out the mind noise.
With Leanna being off the floor for so long there were several groups that needed attention and she quickly fell into the groove. She had to work to remember to try to keep it somber, but friendly. A few of the drinks names were unfamiliar, mostly vampire-themed, some had a splash of True Blood for show or the daring of it. The drinks were more than at Merlotte's, add to that the much larger crowd and Eric was right, she was making much more in tips.
She kept visually scanning the crowd for Nathan or his dealer, but had not seen either in the first two hours. She had, however seen a couple of other people experiencing signs of withdrawal and from a quick peek into the mind of one of them saw that he was waiting for the same supplier. Sookie tried to keep them in sight while tending to the crowd.
Dropping off an order at the bar, Indira, who was bartending, stopped her and handed her a goblet of blood. "You are Desirée?" Sookie nodded. "You are to bring this to Eric."
"Yes ma'am." Sookie said with a slight inclination of her head. She would have to see how the other waitresses treated the rest of the vampire staff. Positioning the goblet in the center of her tray, she made her way through the throng to Eric's dias. Raising the tray as though it were an offering to the gods and bowing deeply she whispered huskily, "Your drink Master." she managed not to smile, though her lips twitched.
"Thank you Desirée. How is your first night going?" he asked conversationally, trying to sound both bored and politely interested.
"Very well Master. How is your evening?"
"I am enjoying planning for the rest of the evening." He said and the seduction in his voice lit a fire within her.
"The plans may have to wait longer than we thought." At his scowl she gestured with her eyes in the direction of the addicts, who had conveniently clustered together. "I have some customers who are very needy. I should tend to them unless there is something else"
He scanned the crowd, like a bored king surveying his domain, but lingered a fraction of a second longer on the group. "No, that is all for now Desirée."
"Thank you Master." She bowed deeply to him again and backed off the platform. As he raised the goblet to his lips she said softly. "Save room for later." She could hear his fangs hit the glass and smirked. As she walked away she could feel his eyes following her.
As she got to the bar to pick up her other orders Leanna made her way over to her. "What was that all about?" There was jealousy in her tone.
Sookie had been afraid that that was more interaction than Eric usually had with his human staff. "He asked me how my first night was going. Evidently someone told him he had to work on his people skills." She shrugged.
Leanna snorted, "Probably the hick." she said dismissively.
"The hick?" Sookie repeated and allowed herself a peak into her temporary coworker's mind. What she saw was Leanna's mental picture of Sookie as a not-too-intelligent Ellie-Mae caricature. It was a good thing Sookie had years' of practice to not reacting to what she picked up.
"Yeah, some country girl all the vamps treat special, though I have no idea why. She doesn't bow or show proper respect to them and she even sasses Eric." She said the last as though it were a mortal sin.
"Does she come around a lot?"
"No, only when there's trouble it seems. Like last night, she showed up after the attack. I don't know if she brings it or not, but Eric is always moody after she's gone. I don't know why he puts up with her."
"Couldn't say." Sookie responded, she had arranged her orders on her tray and was happy to have a good excuse to end the conversation.
A little later she met Lily, the other waitress working that night. She seemed nice, if anorexic and Sookie kept thinking she needed to eat something.
She did her best to hang close to the little cluster of addicts. Letting her shields down only a little she discovered one was a strong broadcaster. So strong that she could keep a mental 'eye' on his thoughts without dropping her shields to a distracting level and could hear him all the way to the bar.
The evening wore on. In a way it went quickly because she was always busy but keeping tuned into one mind and balancing her shields proved tiring. Nathan came in about two hours before closing and he looked bad, he was sweating and shaking and pale. He mumbled an order for a beer and talked quietly to the others in the same condition.
She was beginning to feel it was hopeless, that he wasn't coming and she realized much of that was coming from her broadcaster. Then suddenly she got such a wave of relief and anticipation that she almost stumbled. Angling so she could look at the group naturally, she saw the dealer approach them. He was certainly trying very hard to look like a nondescript fangbanger but his customers knew him and were visibly excited to see him, which made him annoyed. He was trying to calm them down as Sookie worked her way over to them, taking drink orders as she went so she would have an excuse to linger in that area for awhile. Finally, she reached the group and addressed the newcomer.
"Welcome to Fangtasia, I'm Desirée, what can I get you?" She asked from his side.
"A bottle of Bud Light." He didn't look up but Sookie could see that he was gauging the desperation of the group with obvious satisfaction.
She turned to the rest of the group. "Any of you gentlemen like a refill?" They all waved her off, what they really wanted, she didn't have.
"Okay, I'll be right back with your beer." And she hurried off, she tried to catch Eric's eye, but he was typing into his phone.
Bringing her orders to the bar, she told Indira. "Eric would like another."
Indira raised an eyebrow, "He never has two."
Sookie shrugged, "Just doing the Master's bidding."
Indira prepared the goblet while Sookie tried hard not to look nervous or impatient and keep the exaggerated smile off her face. As she carried it to him she glanced at the group and saw them huddled together but none of them had left yet.
Eric looked at her questioningly as she approached. She raised the tray and bowed. "Your drink Master."
"I thought I was supposed to save room." he murmured as he took the glass.
"The customer you were expecting is here, in the anarchy t-shirt." she whispered not looking in that direction. "I'll try to find out where he's holding her. If he has accomplices they may kill her if he doesn't come back by a set time."
"Good thinking. I'll have Pam keep an eye out and follow him when he leaves."
"Master." She bowed deeply again and left the dias. She gathered her orders from the bar quickly.
She delivered the drinks in a circular pattern so she could stay at the periphery of the group for as long as possible. Her broadcaster was not happy with the negotiations but would pay whatever. She headed over to them, the dealer's beer the last thing on her tray. As expected he hushed the group as she approached. He took the beer without a thank you and passed her some money, not much of a tipper. The crowd was thinning as it was late and she was able to stay near the group by cleaning a vacated table. Lowering her shields a little more she was able to latch onto is mind, she immediately wanted to pull back, his thoughts were dark and evil, he was a user, not of 'V' but of people. He thought of everyone else as tools to be used for his own gain.
Forcing herself to stay connected she tried to pick up any thoughts of where he was keeping Thalia. She wasn't able to go very far from him and still read him clearly. So she took a long time cleaning up the table. Her broadcaster was asking if this was from the same vamp as last time because it had quite a kick.
The dealer smiled, an awful, lecherous smirk. "Oh yeah, we have a blood and sex arrangement going on." The others cheered him, the way guys do when they think one of them had gotten lucky. Sookie was almost ill. When he said that she had gotten a clear mental image of the 'arrangement'. He had Thalia bound in silver chains, he was draining her and raping her. From the collage of images he had done it several times. She grabbed a chair for support and slammed her shields back in place. In her peripheral vision she saw Eric look sharply at her, he had picked up on the distress she was feeling for Thalia, but she shook her head slightly and he remained on his throne.
She gathered up her tray and went to the bar catching Leanna's eye as she went. Concern showed on Leanna's face as she met her. Sookie realized she was probably pale and sweaty. "Honey, are you alright? You look ready to faint."
"I was too nervous to eat before coming on shift and my blood sugar is low. Can I take a break? I have a granola bar in my car, that usually helps."
"Sure honey, I should have had you take a break hours ago, it's almost closing now. Take as long as you need."
"Thanks, you've been great." She headed out the front door, lowering her shields again to pick up on her broadcaster to see if she could tell how much longer the dealer would be there. It seemed they were close to done.
Just as she was raising her shields again she caught another determined line of thought from someone, she couldn't tell who. "There was an attack last night, there should have been another tonight. Someone here has to be wearing the stuff." Then it was lost in the cacophony of thoughts. Well one drainer at a time, she decided and headed out the door.
Pam met her outside, one of the human bouncers was at the rope. "Eric texted me," she began, "What's wrong?" She was looking at Sookie with more concern than she had ever seen on Pam's face.
"Pam it's awful. He has her chained up somewhere and he's raping her." She felt physically ill.
Pam's face went fierce and her fangs ran out. Sookie grabbed her wrist.
"No, Someone else was there. He might kill Thalia if this guy doesn't come back. When he comes out I'll try to get a location from him, otherwise you'll have to follow him and let Eric and I know where to meet you."
Pam fumed but pulled herself together and retracted her fangs. "Fine, point him out to me." She moved to the side so she wouldn't be noticed.
"Tell Eric not to attack him." She hissed at Pam as she saw the glow from her phone. She leaned up against the wall by the door and waited for the scum to come out. As she waited she pulled several bills from her apron. She stood in a smoker's posture, holding one arm stiff out to her side. No one gives a second thought to a smoker standing around.
It was late and people were leaving the bar. Some groups, some couples, a few dejected singles. After about 10 minutes the dealer came out. Sookie dipped into his mind and found it full of self-satisfaction at making a lot of money right under the vampires' noses. He was planning to celebrate by going back and raping Thalia again. He actually chuckled at the thought. Sookie forced the bile back down her throat. She had gotten a view of the building where he was keeping her, but didn't know Shreveport well enough to know where it was.
As he pulled his carkeys from his pocket, Sookie flicked the bills to the ground behind him. Stepping away from the wall, she called out, "Excuse me, sir?" The dealer felt a surge of panic but forced himself to act like nothing was up.
"What?" he asked annoyed, as he turned around.
Sookie bent and picked up the money, letting him get a good view of her cleavage. Big boobs usually distracted men and would bring down his estimate of her IQ, which would keep him from becoming too suspicious.
"I think you dropped this." She said holding up the money and smiling stupidly at him.
"Oh, thanks." He grabbed the money and turned to go.
Sookie put her hand on his arm. "Don't I know you?"
"I don't think so." he replied, what he thought was – I would've remembered those tits.
"No, I'm sure I know you," she insisted, trying to sound ditzy. "Are you from Monroe?"
"No, I've never been there."
"Did you date my cousin, Sarah Compton?" she persisted.
"No, I don't think so." her insistence was beginning to make him think that he did know her.
"Well, where do you live? Maybe we've bumped into each other when we weren't all vamped out."
Then she got it, she saw the building again, but could see the street signs in his mental image. It was a closed down storefront, all boarded up but with rooms upstairs – that's where he lived but Thalia was in the backroom of the store downstairs. "I live over in Bossier City." he lied. He wasn't suspicious , and if he didn't have to get back he would have tried to pick her up. The thought made her skin crawl, but she kept it off her face.
She shook her head, "Nope, I never get out that way. You must just remind me of someone." She glanced at her watch. "Oops, I got to get back, I don't want to be fired my first night. See ya." She turned and sashayed off, swinging her hips more than normal. That kept him distracted enough that he didn't think about the exchange, only the missed opportunity.
Enough people were leaving the bar now that Sookie felt safe whispering, "Pam, I know where she is now." before reentering the bar.