"Sookie, step away from the vampire," the man ordered. Eric could smell the alcohol on his breath.

"No," said Sookie, holding Bill closer.

The cabin's squeaky screen door protested being opened, and the party guests rushed outside to see what was going on. The man with the gun seemed unfazed by his larger audience. Eric could hear their whispers from the porch. "Never seen Bellefleur so drunk before." "What's gotten into Andy?"

"You smell like Eric," Bill told Sookie again, more angrily this time.

Was that really his chief concern at the moment?

Sookie apparently shared Eric's annoyance because she shot back furiously, "Yeah, uh-huh, and I can't even tell what you smell like! For all I know, you've been with six women! Hardly fair, is it?"

The expression on Bill's face was priceless, and Eric couldn't contain his laughter.

"Stand together in a group!" their drunk attacker demanded.

"Have you ever dealt with vampires, Bellefleur?" Eric asked casually. He had no intention of obeying, and this drunkard should be grateful if that was the sheriff's most impolite action of the evening.

"No, but I can shoot you dead. I have silver bullets." His slurred "thilver bulleth" made the statement sound even less threatening.

Bill wisely muffled a protest from Sookie, and Eric decided to humor Andy. For one thing, the bullets in that gun could hurt Sookie, and Andy had drunk himself beyond the point of rationality. For another, Sookie had placed herself among this filth for a reason, after all. The murderers were on that porch, and here was the policeman who had the ability and incentive to do something about it. He walked back over to the porch, indicating that Bill and Sookie should follow suit.

"Which one of you was it?" Andy shouted, stumbling towards them. "Or was it all of you?" He got no answer. "Sookie, come here!"

"No," said Bill.

"I have to have her right here beside me in thirty seconds, or I shoot her!" He aimed the gun – for the most part – on Sookie again.

Bill's voice was cold and firm. "You will not live thirty seconds after, if you do."

Try four seconds, Eric thought.

"I don't care. She's not much loss to the world."

Rage lit up inside Eric like a wildfire, and he clenched his fists. A second later, he realized that the anger he felt was also Sookie's. She wrenched free of Bill's protective grip and stalked out towards Andy. He tried to sense fear from her, but there was none. Only anger and resolve. He admired her for that.

"Now, Sookie," Andy said, "you read the minds of those people, and you tell me which one did it. He handled her like a rag doll, turning her around by the neck to face the pathetic assembly on the cabin porch.

"What the hell do you think I was doing here, you stupid shit?" she lashed out. "Do you think this is the way I like to spend my time, with assholes like these?"

Eric smiled and wished that she were once again lying beneath him on the hood of his car. He wanted to kiss that beautiful, defiant mouth for all he was worth. The drunkard did not feel the same, evidently, because he shook her impatiently.

Suddenly the breeze carried with it a new scent, one that was both a threat and a relief. He knew that Bill had caught it, too, because the younger vampire had tensed... though that could be because of the armed drunk treating his girlfriend like shit. Eric inched closer to the young couple who had looked like friends of Sookie when they were inside. The woman was wearing nothing but red underwear.

"Has a strange woman been seen around here?" he asked under his breath.

Before one of them could answer, a dog howled, and Eric turned to see a collie emerging from the woods. It was a shifter.

"That's my collie," Sookie said. "Dean, remember?"

"Yeah," said Andy. "What's your dog doing out here?"

"I don't know. Don't shoot him, okay?"

"I'd never shoot a dog," Andy protested.

Sookie rolled her eyes. "Oh, but me, it's okay."

The dog went to Sookie's side, but more importantly, the scent of the maenad was becoming stronger and stronger.

"Back up, dog," growled Andy.

Sookie's emotions were a jumble, but one thing was clear. She was planning out a brave but stupid maneuver. "Tell her to stop whatever she's doing," Eric whispered to Bill.

"No, sweetheart," Bill called out to Sookie.

And there was the creature herself. The maenad was coming up from the words towards them. She was naked and wild, clearly capable of ripping apart a bull with her bare hands, and she carried her thyrsis. "Oh, who is being held like a little cub?" she asked. "It is my messenger!" She circled Andy and Sookie. "Hello, messenger. I forgot to introduce myself last time, my canine friend reminds me. I am Callisto."

Eric touched Bill's arm and nodded away from the porch full of nude and semi-nude humans. Very subtly, they inched away. People were about to die, that much was clear.

"Miss Callisto." Even tonight, in front of a naked, mythical being, Sookie Stackhouse never checked her manners at the door.

"Who is this stalwart brave gripping you?" the maenad asked.

"This is Andy Bellefleur. He has a problem."

She addressed Andy next. "You have never seen anything like me, have you?"

"No," said the drunk policeman.

"Am I beautiful?"

"Yes."

"Do I deserve tribute?"

"Yes."

Whether deserved or not, she would be taking tribute tonight. And it wouldn't be wine and a bull. By now he and Bill had achieved a fairly safe distance from the humans on the porch, who were still staring at the maenad in amazement and confusion.

"I love drunkenness," she said, still talking to Andy. "And you are very drunk. I love pleasures of the flesh, and these people are full of lust. This is my kind of place."

"Oh, good, but one of these people is a murderer, and I need to know which."

"Not just one," Sookie said quietly. The maenad returned her attention to Sookie and feathered her fingers down the side of Sookie's face.

"You are not drunk."

"No, ma'am," Sookie replied. Eric smiled. She would probably call the devil himself "sir."

"And you have not had the pleasures of the flesh this evening," the maenad said.

"No thanks to you," Bill muttered to his side, and Eric smiled again.

"Oh," Sookie replied, "just give me time."

The maenad laughed, which was fortunate, because Eric was laughing too. Bill glared at him, but he couldn't care less. As the maenad laughed, Andy released Sookie, whose legs gave way. She sank to the grass by the dog, while the maenad flirted with Andy.

One of the men from the porch called out to her, "Come on up here, new girl. Let's have a look at you." The fool.

The maenad ignored him. "Now," she said to Andy softly, "what did you want to know?"

"One of those people killed a man named Lafayette, and I want to know which one."

"Of course you do, my darling. Shall I find out for you?"

Eric and Bill, as if with one mind, inched away still more from the group of humans.

"Please," said Andy.

The maenad smiled at him. "All right."

"Don't meet her eyes," Eric muttered to Bill.

Any vampire who fell under a maenad's spell would be seized with an uncontrollable hunger and bloodlust. If she managed to charm either Bill or himself, every human here would be torn limb from limb and drained dry within a matter of minutes – including Sookie. He focused his mind on her, which was easy when he was keeping his eyes fixed on the hood of his car.

The maenad was speaking to one of the party-goers, but he thought only of Sookie, who appeared in his peripheral vision as she crawled towards Bill. Callisto was moving closer to the porch, and she stopped next to him. Knowing better than to disrespect a maenad, he turned towards her. But he kept his eyes locked on her breasts instead of her face. If he couldn't meet her eyes, he had to pick something that would be equally mesmerizing. He was suddenly very aware that he wore pink Lycra from head to toe.

"Lovely, just lovely," she said in a rich, seductive voice. "But not for me, you beautiful piece of dead meat."

Much to his relief, she moved away and continued on her way to the porch, where she proceeded to speak to the humans. Eric blocked out her voice and watched Sookie instead. He could not let the maenad drive him into a frenzy, not with her here. He knew full well that if he gave in to it, Sookie would be the first one, not the last one, to die at his hands. He would rape her until she bled to death; he would lap up every drop of her blood until she was nothing but a white, limp corpse. The thought disgusted him, but it protected her.

"I love the violence of sex," Callisto breathed huskily from the porch. "I love the reek of drink. I can run from miles away to be there for the end."

Suddenly, a great tide of fear swept over him, flooding every cell in his body like an overflowing bayou in a hurricane. It wasn't his fear. Bill was holding on to Sookie with all his strength, and Eric rushed to help restrain her. No, Sookie, he pled with her. He smelled her blood and realized that she had bitten her tongue. Not helping. He shielded himself to some degree from the terror that consumed her, and he tried to send calmness to her. But their bond was weak at best, not strong enough for a human, even one as gifted as Sookie, to receive anything from him. As Callisto continued to confront the humans on the porch, Sookie became more and more consumed. She was shaking now, and some of the blood from her tongue had seeped from the corner of her mouth.

Then a moment of quiet. Eric met Bill's eyes and nodded, confirming what they both knew was about to happen. They tightened their grip on each other's arms and held Sookie securely. The maenad's spell descended on the humans, and as their minds raged and thrashed with madness, so did Sookie's. If only the damned creature would end this before she killed Sookie along with the murderers. He gritted his teeth, fighting the spell from overtaking him as well.

Sookie opened her mouth to scream, but Eric stopped her with a quick hand. Then she bit him. Not. Helping. He closed his eyes and felt a drop or two of his blood become part of her body. It amounted only to a thin thread being woven into the bond that connected them, but it was enough to send even more of the madness that was crashing against the shield he was trying to maintain.

The humans on the porch screamed, and then Callisto exacted her violent and bloody brand of justice. The scent of blood exploded into the air and hung there like a macabre, invisible cloud; Sookie fell weakly against their arms, no longer fighting. Bill lifted her up and carried her to the car, where he laid her down on the hood. The maenad was approaching them, so Eric and Bill stepped back warily.

But Callisto wasn't interested in them. She spoke to Sookie. "You were close. You were very close. Maybe as close as you'll ever come, maybe not. I've never seen anyone maddened by the insanity of others. An entertaining thought."

Take that to a third degree – a vampire in danger of becoming maddened by the insanity of others, through a tenuous blood bond with a human telepath – and it became even more "entertaining."

"Entertaining for you, maybe," said Sookie.

The maenad ignored Sookie's remark and made her goodbyes to the shifter instead. So this dog was Sam Merlotte. Very... entertaining.

As Callisto made her exit, Eric and Bill walked to the blood-soaked porch, where body parts were strewn about, their owners no longer distinguishable from one another.

"Jesus Christ," Bill whispered.

Eric began picking up body parts and throwing them onto a makeshift pile. "We'll have to burn the cabin. I wish Callisto had taken care of her own mess."

"She never has that I have heard. It is the madness. What does true madness care about discovery?"

"Oh, I don't know," he replied as he lifted what seemed to be a torso. He was in no mood for Bill's philosophical bent to rear its ugly head. He added the limbless trunk to the pile. "I have seen a few people who were definitely mad and quite crafty with it." A few fairies came to mind. Hazel the witch came to mind.

"That's true."

Eric sincerely hoped that Sookie wasn't looking at this. He hadn't seen many things in his long life that he would call disturbing, but the carnage on this porch fit the bill.

"Shouldn't we leave a couple of them on the porch?" Bill asked.

Eric smiled slightly and motioned to the complete disarray. "How can you tell?"

"That's true, too. It's a rare night I can agree with you this much." Bill gave him a significant look, then nodded his head in the direction of Sookie on the hood of the car.

Eric took his meaning. "She called me and asked me to help."

"Then all right. But you remember our agreement."

"How can I forget?" If he had forgotten his desire to protect Sookie, why on earth would he be at a small-town orgy dressed in pink Lycra?

"You know Sookie can hear us," Bill pointed out.

You're the one who brought it up. "Quite all right with me." He laughed and shook his head as he strode across the porch one last time. Then he saw Sookie's friend, the one in red underwear. "Whoops, here's a live one!"

The shifter, now in his human form, called to the frightened woman, and she ran towards him and Sookie. She threw herself into Sookie's arms – not that Eric could blame her for that impulse – and wept. Eric turned back to the human wreckage on the porch.

"Did she ask you to seduce her as well?" Bill asked, using the toe of his boot to nudge an arm closer to the pile.

"We were at an orgy. Certain things are expected."

The shifter jogged up to the cabin, naked, and went inside. A moment later he emerged with a blanket, which he carried back to the two women.

"How are Eggs and Andy?" Eric heard Sookie ask.

Her friend Tara gave a mad little laugh. "Sounds like a radio show."

"They're still standing where she left them. Still staring," said the shifter.

Tara seemed to find this funny as well, because she began to sing the words. Eric laughed, undeterred by Bill's disapproving glare, and they rejoined the humans.

Bill placed a hand on Tara's arm. "What car did you come in?"

"Ooooh," she cooed, "a vampire. You're Sookie's honey, aren't you? Why were you at the game the other night with a dog like Portia Bellefleur?"

Eric smiled. "She's kind, too." He would have thought that Sookie could pick better friends. Of course, Bon Temps didn't seem to have a great selection.

Bill tried again. "What car did you come in? If there is a sensible side to you, I want to see it now."

"I came in the white Camaro. I'll drive it home. Or maybe I better not. Sam?"

"Sure, I'll drive you home," the shifter said with a nod. He didn't seem at all embarrassed by the fact that he was naked. "Bill, you need my help here?"

"I think Eric and I can cope. Can you take the skinny one?"

"Eggs? I'll see."

The shifter walked over to the first man the maenad had summoned from the porch, and Eric followed. "Eggs" was standing there in a kind of trance, mercifully for him.

"Can you lift him?" Eric asked. Sam was built solidly, but he wasn't a tall man. His attempt to heave up Eggs' dead weight was unsuccessful. "I'll do it." Eric lifted Eggs over his shoulder, as he had carried Sookie from the orgy earlier that evening, and carried him to Tara's Camaro. Tara stared at Eggs with an unreadable expression... was it worry? "He will not remember any of this," Eric assured her.

She swallowed and looked away. "I wish I could say the same. I wish I'd never seen that thing, whatever she is. I wish I'd never come here, to start with. I hated doing this. I just thought Eggs was worth it. He's not. No one is."

Perhaps she wasn't such a bad friend for Sookie after all, though her rambling was tiresome. "I can remove your memory, too," Eric told her.

"No, I need to remember some of this, and it's worth carrying the burden of the rest. But they're all dead, all but me and Eggs and Andy. Aren't you afraid we'll talk? Are you gonna come after us?"

This was all too true. He looked across the car at Bill, then back to Tara. "Look, Tara..." When she met his eyes, he glamoured away every memory of the night. His moral compass didn't always point due north – if he even had a moral compass – but taking away memories was something he rarely did; it seemed almost like stealing away a portion of a person's life. But there could be no good reason for a human woman to remember what had taken place there that night, and the risk of her telling someone, even years later, was too great to ignore.

Bill set about the task of making a fire, while Eric returned to the porch to double-check that nothing was out of place. Nothing apart from the bones, tissue, and blood, anyway. He also stepped into the cabin to check coat pockets for car keys, retrieving his coat and Sookie's sweater while he was at it. He went back out into the yard towards Sookie, who was standing beside Andy.

"Why does Bill hate the Bellefleurs so much?" she asked absently as he draped her sweater around her shoulders.

"Oh, that's an old story, back from before Bill had even changed over." He threw his coat into his car and went back to the cabin to help Bill with the fire. "Sookie's asking about the Bellefleurs," he said. Bill's jaw tensed, but he said nothing. "Should I set another fire around in front? The faster this burns, the better."

A car pulled down the gravel drive, and they returned to the front of the cabin, leaving their small fire to fend for itself. It seemed to be catching on nicely unaided. The driver, a woman, parked and sat staring at the gruesome tableau through her windshield.

"We can't start the fire from more than one place," Bill told him, continuing their conversation, "or they may be able to tell it wasn't natural. I hate these strides in police science."

Eric rolled his eyes impatiently. "If we hadn't decided to go public, they'd have to blame it on one of them." He motioned to the pile of bodies. "But as it is, we are such attractive scapegoats. It's galling when you think of how much stronger we are."

"Hey, guys," Sookie called, waving her hand at them. "I'm not a Martian, I'm a human, and I can hear you just fine."

The woman in the car picked that moment to leave her vehicle, and she ran over to Andy, who was still standing dumbly in the yard. "What have you done to Andy?" she asked. "You damn vampires."

Eric raised an eyebrow. Another Bellefleur? Perhaps the "dog" mentioned earlier by the eloquent Tara?

"They saved his life," Sookie said.

This was boring. Eric rattled the sets of recovered keys in his pockets and strode over to the cars parked along the drive. He heard Bill, Sookie, and Andy talking about the events of the evening, but he listened with only half an ear. The cars contained nothing interesting. Fast food cups, beer cans, tapes and CDs, a dry cleaning bag. The last car was a Lincoln, and when he opened the trunk, he immediately smelled blood.

"But I haven't got any proof," Andy was saying morosely.

"Oh, I think so," Eric called to them. They joined him and stared down at the bloody clothes and wallet before them. Eric took the wallet and searched inside for a name.

Andy peered over his arm. "Can you read whose it is?"

The driver's license was a little faded, but the name was clear. "Lafayette Reynold."

He had to speed all the way back to Shreveport, racing the sun, though he watched carefully for police cars. They wouldn't be very forgiving of a vampire clad in pink Lycra.