IV.

Not being able to cross the entryway of my own house really was a problem. All the wards were now mostly specific to Amelia and Tray and their two kids. I could pass before but now I was vampire and they lived there, so I guessed I'd have to be invited in and then reclaim the house and be incorporated into the wards as an allowed vampire. Nonetheless, the fact that I was even worrying about this ludicrous detail, instead of being concerned about why I was now on the front porch of the Stackhouse home in Bon Temps, was a clear indication of exactly how low on fuel my brain was. Talk about scrambled priorities.

It was after midnight. I wasn't sure exactly what time it was. Probably too late to ring the doorbell.

Now I really was getting hungry. The only thing I could think of doing was walking across the graveyard and seeing if Bill was home and had any True Blood. So that was what I did.

When I stepped, silently enough, onto the porch of the Compton home, Bill appeared instantly and turned me toward him. He looked stunned that it was me. Bill knew I was going to be turned but clearly he was puzzled as to why I was here in Bon Temps.

"Sookie? What are you doing here?"

"Do you have a few True Bloods I could have?"

His eyes widened. "What's going on?"

"I'm not totally sure. But I'm really getting kind of hungry."

He looked at me like I was a weird one, just as they had, I noted to myself. I was pretty calm I guess. It wasn't as if the hunger was so overwhelming. But I could definitely eat or more accurately drink.

He walked me around the veranda and in through the side door and the sitting room, then off to the tiny kitchen. He took two bottles out of the refrigerator and heated them in the microwave then handed me one. He clinked my bottle. We sat down in the sitting room and I rook my first swig of True Blood.

It was horrible. Horrible, horrible stuff. If my Grandfather ever spoke to me again, I had to talk to him about how bad this stuff tasted compared to real blood.

Bill chuckled when he saw my face but then became serious again.

"Sookie, what happened. I don't understand. Why are you here? You were in New Orleans, right? When did you get here? And… how? I didn't hear a vehicle?"

"I think I'm here because I wanted to be here. I wanted to go home. That's all I can tell you." I was so confused myself at this point that I could hardly even think straight.

"We need to call Eric."

"No!" I said emphatically and sitting up straight. I wasn't ready to start dealing with my own personal Dieter again so soon.

"Well, I don't know what's going on, but I'm calling Eric because there is something very odd going on here, Sookie." He looked at me through narrow eyes like he almost didn't trust it was really me. I rose to leave and suddenly he reached out super fast and grabbed my forearm. "Oh, no you don't," he said sharply.

His touch was painful and I tried to yank my arm away. As I pulled back his fingernails scored my forearm deeply enough to make it bleed. He relaxed his hold when he saw what he'd done and I pulled my arm back, gasping at him and looking at him wide-eyed. The wound was already healing but it had really hurt. I got blood on my shirt and some dropped onto his floor. What was wrong with them? I asked myself. None of them would have treated me this way before, I thought to myself. They're all so rough and mean.

He took out his phone and hit one of his speed dial numbers. He looked very shaken. "Eric? Do you know that Sookie is here in Bon Temps?"

I should have gone to Sam's, I thought. I should have just walked into town and gone to Sam's house. I wouldn't attack anyone even if I was working up an appetite. Sam would have just gotten me some True Blood from the bar. Sam will treat me like a friend, I thought to myself. What I couldn't do was stay here. And in an instant while Bill turned away, I was gone. The last thing I heard of his voice was the word 'teleported?' Then I understood.

I sat outside on a table at Merlotte's and listened to the crickets and an owl hooting up in the tree.

I had heard of a vampire that could teleport. There was a vampire in Washington State that could do it, head of a well-known nest near Seattle. It was considered a real rarity. I only knew of the guy because Eric let me look through the database in his office for my work as a liaison. It was something of an open secret that he let me do research in the database. But that's how I knew about the Washington nest and the vampire, whose name was Kieran. Then I wondered whether I could teleport because of my fae blood. Basically, the Fae were doing teleportation when they popped from one place to another. This Kieran person was Irish. Had he been Fae or part-Fae? Perhaps my eighth fae blood combined with 1100 year old vampire sire blood could create enough magic to make me pop? Why was I even asking myself that stupid question? Wasn't the answer already obvious? Less than an hour ago I was in New Orleans and now I'm in Bon Temps, having gone to two different locations here on top of it. Obviously, the answer to that stupid question is yes, I said to myself. Now I was annoyed with myself for thinking stupid irrelevant thoughts. I should stay focused. The focus points were not promising, however. My change had gone very obviously wrong. I wasn't a ravenously hungry, easily controlled new vampire. I was not quite right. However, even if I was low on fuel, I could evidently travel pretty much where I pleased. But the moving around seemed to really kick up my appetite a bit. I wished I'd kept that bottle from Bill's even if it tasted horrid.

Suddenly I became aware of Bill's scent and thought signature nearby. He'd tracked me, or figured I was likely to go to Merlotte's or to Sam's place. As he started to round the corner to the patio tables, I struggled to think where I could be safe. Somewhere I could be alone, where they weren't likely to look. As Bill seemed to rapidly cruise toward me I closed my eyes and thought of Red Ditch and Hunter. I could see it in my mind's eye, and then… I simply vanished.


It is a measure of Hunter's trusting nature that when I knocked on his window at 2 am, he took in the situation and opened the window anyway. He knew I was going to be turned because I'd told him about the plan. Since his mother, my cousin Hadley, had left Hunter and his father Remy when he was a baby, and then gone over, I didn't want there to be any surprises or any worries that somehow I'd fall out of his life, too. Hunter was in the midst of the familiar adolescent telepath crisis- hearing all this stuff in everybody's minds that you really, really don't want to hear. Social stuff. Sexual stuff. Mean stuff. I would have thought that it was easier for a boy, but really, since society demands that men act so tough, it wasn't any easier. Hunter was really attached to me for emotional support and understanding that his parents, Remy and Kristen, just couldn't give him. Because they really didn't understand. And Hunter was such a fine person. The kind that wouldn't skim answers off another student because he hadn't studied enough for his geography test. Or read a girl's mind so he could falsely try to suck up to her by talking about only what she likes. He was also the kind of kid who, when his newly vampire 'Aunt' tapped on the window at 2 am, would talk to her cautiously and then… let her in.

He let me sleep in his walk-in closet, covered in his comforter. He packed dirty clothes around any cracks under the door and hung a pair of jeans on the hinges, just to be sure. He was sure Remy and Kristen wouldn't come in his room and wouldn't think anything of stuff on the floor if they did. I could see his point. He was 13 and his room showed it.

"I'll let you go back to sleep. I'll leave at sunset," I told him. I was positively starved but figured that it could wait. Hunter however, seemed almost to sense it in my manner. But he didn't act scared of me. I was grateful for that, but realized with any other vampire, it was an attitude that I should discourage him from having. Being so trusting could get him killed.

"I'll get you some of that blood stuff for when you wake up. And you don't have to go. I could ask my dad and Kristen if you need to stay, or we don't even have to tell them."

"I think it's better for me to leave, Hunter. You're parents aren't going to be thrilled that you have a vampire in your closet, even if it's me. By sunset tomorrow, I'll have a plan, okay? You should just go back to sleep, sweetie."

The following evening, when I woke, I did the normal thing anyone does when they're in serious trouble and their parents are no longer available. I called my Grandfather from Hunter's cell phone. I didn't even want to chance causing problems for Claudine or Claude. Instead of it going to the answering service, Niall answered the call on the second ring.

"Where are you, child?" he said in a soft voice. Obviously, he already knew something had gone wrong.

I countered with "Who will you tell?"

He was silent for a moment as if taking in the broader implications of my question.

"What happened, Sookie? Are you alright?"

I took another sip of my second bottle of True Blood O negative and shook my head to myself. No, I was definitely not alright. But I didn't want to start talking badly of Eric in front of Hunter. I didn't want to scare Hunter. And part of me reflexively also didn't want to speak badly of Eric to Niall, either. Gosh only knows what he could do to Eric if he thought Eric had hurt me with the whole sire thing, I thought to myself. Eric liked to think he was powerful enough to fight the Fae, but really eight years of liaison work and knowing my Grandfather a bit better, I would be very worried, no matter how upset I was with Eric, that my Grandfather could harm him. Eric could fight fairies, sure. But Niall had the service of many creatures that were much, much nastier than fairies. Really, I didn't like people seeking retribution on my account.

I settled for saying, "I can't talk freely right now."

"I need to know what happened. Where are you?" I suddenly felt the locket on my chest warm and it was as if I smelled the magic emanating from it. Magic really had a scent?

"You know, Grandfather, this True Blood stuff is really awful tasting. I'm amazed anyone can mainstream if this is the solution. You have to do something to improve it. It's horrid."

He sighed softly on the other end of the line. "Well, you still sound like yourself, Sookie. You are with Hunter?"

"Yes," I said cautiously. For now, I thought.

"We will have to explain things to him. I assume he cannot be glamoured?"

"I don't know and I wouldn't do that to find out…"

"I will arrive shortly." He hung up.

I turned to Hunter and thought about what to say. I guess it was about time he knew a bit about the Stackhouse family history, at a minimum. This would be the extremely abridged version.

"Hunter, someone from our family that you don't exactly know about is going to come. Have you seen fairies on TV? Those really beautiful people? Like in the movies and stuff?"

He nodded, looking serious and pale, his freckles standing out more obviously. His dark brown eyes were locked on mine.

"Okay, well, we have some Fae blood. I do, Jason does and your mom did. So you have some, too."

"Is that where it came from? The mind reading, telepathy stuff?" he asked wide-eyed.

"No, sweetie. That's still a mystery. But this is a secret thing, okay? Just like being a telepath. You can't tell anyone at all about it. You'll find out more later on, I'm sure."

When Niall arrived, to my dismay, he glamoured Hunter so that we could talk. I wasn't too thrilled looking at Hunter frozen in some sort of fixed stasis, eyes staring blankly at where Niall had arrived. Niall glanced in dismay around at Hunter's room, which was something of a pigsty. Then I could see him surreptitiously checking out Hunter's neck and wrists to see if I'd fed on him. That just made me lose it. I openly expressed my disgust that he could think that I would feed on a child. I pointed out that it was disgusting and furthermore, illegal. Meanwhile, he kept to the other side of the room, while I rapidly went through the four remaining bottles of TrueBlood that Hunter had given me. Really, I had absolutely no inclination to go after Niall at all. Even though after a while I could tell that he was deliberately letting me catch his scent as if to see what I'd do. It was one of those things you can say smells good but you don't have to eat it. Like popcorn or grilled onions. He seemed to be studying me carefully while we talked. I told him the simple events that led to my being here with Hunter, including just a bit about Eric's manner with me. I said that I guessed Eric was angry with me but didn't get into the details. I didn't want to mention the being like Dieter part because even years later, Niall still felt bad about it, according to Claudine. To sum it up, I said I was a very messed up version of a vampire because I wasn't hungry enough and didn't do as I was told. From the way his eyes sparkled when I said it, I think Niall would have laughed if things weren't so serious. Finally, when I was done talking, he said,

"Well, Eric called me. Clearly things did not go as planned. They are worried about where you are. He is very upset, Sookie," he said softly.

"Eric's upset? He's upset? Well, I gave up my life. You know, this is just stupid. I don't even wake up hungry. I'm clearly defective. This whole thing was a huge mistake." I had already been thinking seriously dark, or should I say, light as in sunlight, thoughts earlier in the evening.

Niall suddenly threw some sort of magic at me that held me fast, as if I was caught in an invisible net. It smelled like odd, almost like cinnamon but burnt. He drew close to me, looming over me. He was almost as tall as Eric and now, in spite of the fact that I had been so used to him when I was a human, I felt more fearful of him. Part of me felt that was irrational, but looking at him up close made me frightened. The glamour on his appearance was not as complete to my eyes anymore. He was fierce and powerful. He glowed brightly and his eyes sparked almost angrily as he looked down at me.

"Give it time to settle down, Sookie. You're upset. You need to take the time to adjust. That is all."

I looked askance at him. Settle down how? And where? Was he suggesting that I go home, to where I was being rather painfully roughed up for failing to toe the line?

"I'm not going back there, Grandfather, and if you or anyone tries to make me, I will take off and you won't find me. And if I'm not happy with my quality of 'existence' that is my business and no one else's."

Niall's eyes widened at the last comment although the whole thing seemed to bother him. From my perspective, teleportation kind of limited the ability of someone to tell me where I should be. I could park myself right out in Gran's garden at dawn if I wanted. And frankly I was seriously thinking about it.

"I think you should talk to Eric, Sookie. He is very worried about you."

"Oh, really… Well, I'm just touched," I said snidely. He certainly hadn't been too worried when he was hurting me the previous night, now had he?

"What is it that has you so upset that you will not even speak with Eric?"

What could I tell him? That I really didn't like someone forcing their way into my head, trying to control me? I suppose I could count that as my fault for not realizing that might be a bit of a problem before agreeing to be turned… That Eric being so rough inside my head felt no different from what happened eight years ago when Dieter pretty much mauled my mind? That I told him he was hurting me and he didn't stop? That it was rather upsetting to think that someone who I loved was treating me that way and I simply wouldn't stand for it? Well, I was not telling him any of those things because I had no idea what he'd do in response.

"I can't explain it to you. But I'm not going back. At least not right now."

"Child, I don't know what happened but I do know that Eric very much wants you to return home. It doesn't seem it would be safe for you to be on your own at present. Especially if you haven't turned in the expected way. Especially if you are thinking the way you seem to be. You should go back to him, and to your friend. They will help you."

He was going to tell them where I was. I was absolutely sure that he was going to tell them. I could even read it from his mind a bit, and see his wondering if he could keep me restrained this way long enough to get me to Eric. He was trying to formulate a plan. I was acutely aware of the fact that the more I focused on him, I could clearly read some of his thoughts in the smooth pattern that was the fae mind. His internal voice was nowhere near like that of Eric or Pam's. It was less visceral and more visual. He was figuring out how to get me back to Eric, back home. But what was important was that I didn't want to go back. I thought wildly that I had to get away. I was afraid to go back home. 'Home' had hurt me. I didn't trust Eric. I was… afraid of Eric.

I glanced away from my grandfather and focused on the poster on Hunter's wall. The bonds that he had wrapped around me burned me as I struggled to depart, leaving a web of crisscross cuts all over me that hurt me so badly I cried out. But I got away. And they healed within a few hours.