Hi! I hope you liked the previous chapter. Again, sorry for the mistakes, English is not my first language.

Thats all. Enjoy new chapter!

Beginning of a flashback.

The night sky was full of stars as Aven was walking to Merlotte's from where she left her car in parking lot. One of very little perks of living in a small town such a Bon Temps - there wasn't much light pollution. The moon was nowhere to be seen as it was new moon currently, but she didn't let it worry her tonight. She was exhausted from her long shift at the Vet clinic, the last thing she wanted was to come home and spend the next hour by the stove cooking something for herself. It was Friday night, Morlotte's was overflowing with people having beers after a week full of work, meeting with friends or simply enjoying dinner. She figured she would be safe enough if she sticked to the masses. She just had to leave before the crowd thinned out.

Pushing the doors open, she looked around herself. Few heads have turned around but soon turned back when they found out no drama was coming. These people were living for it. Few people gave her a nod. She wasn't exactly new around here, but she didn't socialize much aside from work. As she looked around, she couldn't see any table that wasn't occupied and all the waitresses were busy taking orders in and out, so she just headed to the bar.

As she sat down, Sam Merlotte himself appeared in front of her.

"Hello, Aven. How are you?" he smiled while cleaning one of the glasses.

"Hi, good enough." she answered and smiled back. Sam was always friendly to her, but she couldn't bring herself to ask him THE question. And how would she ask anyways? Hey you, are you turning into an animal on a regular basis? No thank you. She didn't even want to think what would happen if she was wrong in her assumption. After all, it could be just a feeling.

"What can I get you today?"

"Just burger and some fries. Let Lafayett go crazy on it, I'm starving. Oh and some Coke," she said honestly and sat a bit more comfortably.

"Coming right up! He will be excited to hear that," Sam chuckled and went to the kitchen. Aven went back to scanning the bar. Some college kids were playing pool, having some harmless fun. There were a few families with loud kids and there was a booth with some drunk rednecks, who were shouting at a waitress that she had never seen before. They kept changing quite often. Strange, Sam either had countless of them, which was unlikely considering how small the town was or something else was going on.

"Hard day at work?" he asked her when he came back from the kitchen and found her just staring into the void.

"Just a regular day, there was constant stream of patients so I didn't really get to eat, but I learned a few new things again, so overall good," she said after taking a first sip of her drink. She came to Louisiana for a veterinary internship after she got her title. She was originally from Europe, but she wanted to get as much knowledge and experience as she could after school, so when she saw the opportunity she jumped right at it. The clinic was situated in Shreveport, but she got a little rental in Bon Temps because it was cheaper. She had a two-year contract and after eight months, she was considering extending it some more.

"Aven, every time you come here and tell me something like this, I'm half tempted to start bringing you lunch to work. You can't live like this," he said. His tone was condescending, but there was teasing to it.

"Well, what can I say? Vet medicine isn't easy," she smiled tiredly. Sam just shook his head exasperatedly while smiling and went back to bar-tending.

After a few minutes Lafayett came bounding out of the kitchen with her order in hands.

"Hi baby girl, I heard you hungry!" Lafayett placed her plate in front of her and she instantly dug into it.

"Thank you, you saved me," she replied with her mouth full, not caring anymore. She had her food. She was happy.

"Anytime hooka," he winked, blew her a kiss and hurried back to the kitchen before Sam scolded him for not letting the waitresses bring the order. Sam just sighed and shook his head.

Next thing she knew, Sookie came from the hallway. How nice, Aven was hoping she wasn't working today. Her day was difficult enough as it was. Maybe she won't notice me? Aven wondered.

"Aven. Hi!" Or not.

"Hi Sookie," Aven tried to be polite. They didn't really see eye to eye. Well, at least Aven didn't. Sookie still tried as best as she could to befriend the new girl. But Aven didn't make it easy for her, because the last thing she needed was for someone to find out her secret. And from what she knew about Sookie, it wouldn't end just with her knowing it. It wasn't as if Sookie would intentionally spill her secret to someone else, but she had a loose mouth.

That's why Aven avoided her as much as she could. Have you ever tried not thinking about something?

She figured her out not long after she moved in. It wasn't hard really. If you were paying attention enough and were open-minded it wasn't hard to place two and two together. And Sookie wasn't really secretive about her gift, but Aven didn't judge, she didn't really know what it was like. At first she was surprised that not many people knew, but soon found out that these rednecks blamed everything on being crazy. Hence - Crazy Sookie.

"Where were you? I haven't seen you since last week," Sookie asked, sounding a little condescending. As if it was her business. She stared at her with that intense look of hers. Aven knew what she was trying to do.

"I was holed up at work and when I wasn't I relaxed at home. Nothing special," Aven said honestly, but she could see that Sookie wasn't happy with that answer. She could practically feel her digging inside her head.

"Can you stop?" Aven thought at her. Loudly. She needed to make her point. Sookies eyes went wide and she smiled apologetically.

"Well, why don't you stop by my place tomorrow? I have a day off, so we could catch up and relax together!" Sookie asked hopefully and for a moment, Aven felt bad. She could see, that she wanted to genuinely befriend her and it wasn't like Aven couldn't use more friends in this town, but she was too scared.

"Sorry Sookie, I kind of missed out on chores around the house lately, so I should really get to them. Anothertime maybe?" Aven said and instantly regretted it. Why did I say that?

"Sure, can't wait!" Sookie instantly lightened up all excited.

"Sookie, shouldn't you be tending the tables?" Sam asked from behind the bar after noticing how uncomfortable Aven was during the conversation. Aven was grateful for the intervention.

"I'm going, I'm going," Sookie replied and started walking away with a tray of beer that Sam filled while they were speaking. Before she was gone she turned her head in Aven's direction. "It was nice talking to you Aven."

Aven just smiled at her. She breathed out slowly. "Could gone worse," she thought and went back to her burger. After that, she was thankfully left alone by everyone so she could eat her meal in peace. Shewas starting to feel antsy, she should head home soon.

After she inhaled everything on her plate, she paid for it and said goodbye to Sam and was about to leave when his hand on her wrist stopped her.

"I noticed that you don't socialize much, but I just wanted you to know, that if you ever felt like it, I would be more than glad to offer you some company," Sam said and sounded genuine.

"Thank you Sam, I really appreciate it," she smiled back at him and walked out of the door.

When Aven got out she looked around and there was nobody to be seen at the parking lot. With her keys already in her hand she went directly to her car, when something rustled in trees on her right. She quickly turned her head but saw nothing.

Right when she was about to continue, she felt pain at the left side of her head and everything went black.

End of the flashback, back to the present.

"And what do we have here?" the man asked. His lips were formed in a sly grin and one of his eyebrows raised. He was a fucking giant towering above Aven like a statue. His short blond hair was combed back out of his face and his fangs were out to be seen.

Okay, so vampires. What the fuck am I supposed to do now? Aven's thoughts were reeling. This didn't look good. There was no way she could escape vampires easily, even with her powers. She was overcome with fear. She figured it would be best not to show her true nature just yet if it was possible.

But her fox was, oddly, calm. She wasn't phased by the sudden appearance of the vampire in front of her. She didn't understand why. They could easily end up dead.

"Hmm? Nothing to say pet?" the man asked, belittling her, when she didn't say anything and just kept staring at him.

"What am I doing here? And who are you?" Aven asked, her voice raspy from not speaking for god knows how long.

"You will find out everything you need to know in a minute. For now, I want you to be a good girl and not do something stupid while I take off the collar, understand?" he said sweetly, but she knew it was a threat. She gave him a stiff nod. It was pointless to be difficult at this moment and she really wanted to get that collar off.

Pleased with her agreement, he stepped even closer and bent down above her. His hand touched the skin of her neck before moving to the collar. It was as if electric shock went through her and her heartbeat sped up. Strange. And her fox practically preened. The hell-?

Next she heard a click of the lock and the collar was removed.

She bolted. She couldn't help herself. As soon as she stopped feeling the metal, her instincts just kicked in and she ducked under his arms and went straight for the stairs. From behind she heard a sigh from her captor and then there was a hand around her neck and her back was pressed to the wall above the stairs.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Didn't I tell you not to do anything stupid?" he wasn't happy with her. While he spoke, he increased the pressure around her neck for a moment. She needed to calm herself down. She couldn't think like this, she behaved like a scared animal.

"This is how it's gonna go. You will stop this pointless resistance and let me take you upstairs. You want to get out of here, don't you?" he said with his fangs in her face. She nodded as best as she could with his hand tightly around her neck. She didn't want to get her hopes up by believing that she would be let loose just like that.

With his vampire speed he turned her around. One hand grabbed her by the back of her neck and the other went to her upper arm. There would be bruises from the strength of his grip.

Next moment the world around her was just a blur of colors.

I hope it was okay. Feel free to share any thoughts. And if you are interested in being my betta reader please reach out.
See you soon,
Raeven