Sookie was in a good mood.
She tried not to think about how rare an occasion that this had been recently and concentrated on Bill who was sat in the car next to her. Despite his usual brooding look she could tell he was at least a little happier than he had been the last couple of weeks.
The night was fairly cool by Louisiana standards, but Sookie still had the window open a crack and could feel a breeze gently ruffling her hair as they glided down the road. She leant back in her seat and let out a contented sigh. It felt good to not have anything to worry about. There was no one trying to kill her (that she knew of), her and Bill were happier than they'd ever been and Eric finally seemed to be backing off and not causing trouble. All together it added up to about the most relaxed she'd ever felt since Bill had walked into Merlotte's that summer night.
She let out a large yawn and stretched her hands above her head. As her arms fell back down to her lap Sookie felt a wave of exhaustion wash over her. What with all the excitement and stress recently, she hadn't noticed how much the lack of sleep had taken it's toll.
The yawn drew Bill's attention to her and he smiled gently.
"You need some more sleep," he chided gently, an amused glint in his eye.
"Well some of us have a job to go to you know," she joked, "We can't all be sleeping from dawn 'till dusk."
Bill chuckled, but then sobered slightly.
"I don't want you suffering because of me Sookie. You should be living in the daylight and sleeping regular times."
"What so you'd have me in bed by nine?" she replied sarcastically but with an amused smile, "I'm a grown woman Bill, I don't have a bedtime anymore."
"You know that's not what I meant," Bill scolded, a small smile playing about his lips.
"Well when we get back home you can tuck me in and read me a bedtime story, or anything your heart desires."
"Anything?" Bill queried a little too innocently.
A coy smile played about Sookie's lips as she leant over and kissed him on the cheek.
"Anything." She whispered in his ear, in what she hoped was a seductive tone.
Bill looked her in the eyes for a brief second before he fixed his eyes back on the road and pressed down hard on the accelerator. Sookie giggled as she put her had back in her seat and felt the rush of speed and anticipation course through her body.
The mansion came hurtling into view as Bill sped down the driveway, coming to an abrupt halt in front of the entrance. Sookie could never get over how much it had changed since Bill became king. The once broken down, dark old building was now flooded with light. The porch was now held up with columns made to look far more impressive by being illuminated with large spotlights casting impressive shadows; contrasting with the sparkling white of the porch itself. The walls were spotlessly clean, even from the outside, and the grounds were kept pristine, with every blade of grass looking as though it had been measured out and cut with nail scissors. Sookie vaguely wondered how much it cost to keep everything so wonderful in a house so big and whether they employed vampires, with their keen senses, to keep every detail looking so perfect.
Once the car had stopped the door was being opened for her by Bill himself, having sped around from his side without her noticing. She took the hand he offered, and let him help her stand up. She didn't need the help, obviously, but every time he did this it was a little reminder that Bill was from a different time and she didn't want to forget that. It was one of the things she loved about him, how he was so old and yet so modern at the same time. Sookie was intrigued by which things he retained from his time and which things had changed along with the rest of the world. She wasn't 100% sure she'd figured it all out yet, and that was fine with her.
Once she was on her feet, Bill threw the keys to one of the guards who Sookie knew would then move it out of sight until he needed it again. I could get used to this, she smiled to herself.
Holding her hand Bill moved towards the house. Sookie trailed behind him, only slightly, as the guards still made her nervous. It wasn't that she was worried they would hurt her, most of them knew her by name now anyway, but she always felt unspeakably rude just walking past them all without saying hello and it put her on edge slightly.
As they walked through the door, Bill nodded to the guard outside it in greeting and in thanks, but once they moved across the entrance he froze.
"Bill?" a hint of concern crept into Sookies voice, "What is it? What's wrong?"
Bill spun around and walked back to the guard outside the door.
"Who has been in here?" he asked, with a tone as deadly as it was deep.
"N-no one," the guard responded, with a look of confusion at his boss's anger.
"Someone has been in my house!" Bill raised his voice and looked as though it was taking all his restraint to not kill him.
"There are guards all over the grounds sir, no one could have possibly-" the guard began.
"I am not asking IF someone was here!" Sookie could tell he was losing his patience, "There WAS someone here! Now, WHO WAS IT?!"
"I-I-I don't know sir, there's been no report of a breech!" trying desperately to cover his ass, he couldn't help but flinch away from Bill's glare.
"I had gathered that much from your complete ignorance on the matter," Bill growled, "So explain to me how a human man could have breached top level security trained by, and working directly for, the authority and made it into the home of the vampire king of the entire state of Lousiana?"
The guard stuttered and mumbled something about a full scale investigation, but Bill wasn't listening. Suddenly his head snapped up and he looked towards the door.
"Jessica," he muttered in horror.
With the terrified guard still wittering on Bill brushed past Sookie so fast that she felt a gust of wind push her back a step. She heard him tearing apart every room in the house, calling Jessica's name every so often with his voice filling with desperation as time went on. She saw a blur as he fled into his office, still calling her name, then there was a sudden and dreading silence as he stopped entirely.
Sookie ran over to the office doors which stood flung open. Inside she could see Bill standing behind his desk holding a black cloth, inside which sat a lone bullet made of solid silver. Sookie gasped gently, before she saw the look on Bill's face. He looked as though his entire world was crashing down around him, but he no longer had a reason to care. He was staring at the bullet with a look of utter despair and hopelessness. Sookie pulled together her surprise and moved slowly over to him.
"Bill?" she implored, testing how he responded to her voice. There was nothing.
"It's just a bullet Bill, it hasn't even been fired. There's no blood, no mess or struggle, Jess is fine. She's gonna be fine," Sookie felt as though she was convincing herself more than Bill, who hadn't even acknowledged that he'd heard her.
Slowly he lowered the bullet and his eyes moved to the door. A thundercloud of danger passed into his expression and he stalked towards the open front entrance like a lightning bolt trying not to strike. Sookie followed him slowly and quietly.
When he reached the porch he turned towards the guard who was staring at him like he might explode. Bill paused for just a second, but it felt like ten minutes and Sookie could have sworn she was holding her breath. Then he did explode.
He grabbed the guard by the neck and held him six inches off the floor. His fangs had dropped down and he was baring them at the guard as though daring the quivering man to give Bill a reason to kill him. He held up the bullet to the man's face.
"Where. Is. My. DAUGHTER?" Bill screamed the last word as though it was splitting him in two.
The guard could do nothing but stutter. Sookie knew that Bill would kill him if she didn't do something. She took a deep breath and overcame every instinct in her body to touch a gentle hand on Bill's forearm.
"He doesn't know anything Bill, hurting him won't help Jessica," Sookie wondered if Bill could hear the shaking in her voice.
He looked down at her, and a tear of blood dripped down his cheek. He let the guard drop like he couldn't physically hold him up anymore. The guard fell to his side clutching his neck and began dragging himself hurriedly towards the stairs.
"I can't loose her Sookie, I just can't," Bill's voice cracked and his eyes were fixed on the floor.
"You haven't lost her, you'd know if she was... gone, right?" Sookie asked, but received no response, "Vampire's can feel it with their progeny's can't they?"
Bill nodded.
"Well you haven't felt anything like that have you?" Sookie continued desperately.
Bill shook his head slowly.
"See, you don't even know if she was here when that guy came, she might have gone to a see a friend, or gone to Merlotte's for an extra shift."
Bill raised his gaze to meet her eyes, and whilst there was still all the pain and worry from before, there was a new hope there too.
"Come on," she tried to make her voice light, "Let's go to Merlotte's and see if she's there, and if not... well at least it's a start."
Bill nodded again and looked determined now. He stood up straighter and turned to walk down the stairs. A different guard was at the bottom and Bill barked at him to bring the car. The guard began hurrying off, but obviously wasn't fast enough for Bill's liking because a second later he had passed the guard and was around the side of the building before Sookie had even realized he'd gone.
A moment later the car was hurtling full-pelt towards the porch and pulled up with a screech of brakes. Sookie hurried around to the passenger door as quickly as she could and dived into the seat. Bill was already pulling away as she was closing the door behind her and soon they were driving hell-bent down the familiar route with the car full of tension and dread.
Sookie couldn't believe that less than half an hour ago things had seemed so calm and normal. She stifled a sarcastic laugh. When was anything ever normal?