chapter five

Two Months Later

                When Sookie pulled up to her old family farm house in Bon Temps, she opened the door and then turned, looking at the darkening yard and recinded her invitation to every vampire she had ever met, even those who had not been to her house. When she stopped, the only things that answered her were the crickets.

After that night, life went on. Sookie’s life might stop for vampires but the rest of the world did not. Luna Garza, who Sookie had met a long time ago in Dallas, finally made her way to Bon Temps. She’d had enough of the werewolves dominating two natured politics. She never forgot about Sookie and Bon Temps. So she pulled all her money together, loaded her old truck and headed east. When Sam met her, he immediately offered her a job and one of his rentals rent free til she had made a little money.

                Sookie was happy to see Luna and deep down she knew Sam and Luna would make a great match. Luna was two natured, a shifter like Sam. Sam had always nursed a real love for Sookie but over the years of watching Sookie first being with Bill and then Eric and taking a turn briefly with Alcide and Quinn and back to Eric had tempered Sam’s love for her to the deepest friendship any two people could ever have. There was also the fact she had saved his life. He was dead. He still had those strange flashbacks of near death where he remembered a bright light, the sounds of voices singing and the shape of people coming toward him.  She was also his business partner and though Sookie would have found this ironic, Sam was afraid of having an intimate relationship with her which would complicate his working relationship with her, which was Sookie’s excuse for not entertaining thoughts of more with Sam.

                Then Luna came and she had a vibrant energy he enjoyed. They were tentively exploring a relationship. Luna had just gotten out of a relationship with a werewolf, a very political werewolf who was on the abusive side. She wanted to trust Sam because she liked him a lot. He was hoping there would be more, and he sensed she did too. Of course coming to this realization did not take off the painful edge he felt when he remembered the night Sookie finally came to him, just as he always wanted her to, just as he had always fantacized she would do, and then he turned her away.

After the battle and Sookie’s routine had picked up where she left off, Pam showed up one evening at Merlotte’s, Sookie knew she would have to speak to Eric’s second in command. Eric, she was sure,  was back to work, sitting in his bar, being the head honcho, making money as if he had never been away. Nothing had been heard from DeCastro. They knew he was back in Nevada and there was a man running the state of Oklahoma for him as regent, but no ruler had been named for Louisiana.

  Pam was more than happy to give Eric back his position as Sheriff and with the exception of his problems with Sookie, he was happy. At least to the outsider. Pam knew differently about her maker and she could not stand to see Eric the way he was. He was moody and angry and easy to set off to absolute rages. All at a time when he should have been happy. Victor Madden was dead, the disasterous marriage was over and he was being left more or less alone to rebuild his empire and gain control once again of his area. The Vampire’s Kiss and the Redneck Roadhouse were shut down and both Fangtasia and Merlotte’s were busy. This particular evening, Sam was behind the bar  and the witch Holly was serving drinks on one side while Sookie and India were serving the other. Pam liked the look of the waitress India. Sookie, on the other hand did not like the look of the Vampire who was obviously waiting for her. She dropped off a pitcher of beer and finally came up to Pam’s table

                “I am a little busy Pam,” she said without preamble.

                “We need to talk,” said the blond Vampire.

                “I don’t think we have much to say to one another,” said Sookie, looking at the pad of paper in her hand.

                “Do you really care nothing at all for Eric?” asked Pam. “He is miserable without you.” This was something Pam hated to admit to Sookie. Pam may like the telepathic waitress but she loved her maker Eric Northman much more.

                “I think I said everything I needed to say to Eric that night. I hate he is miserable, but he will get over me,” said Sookie. And that burned her a little too.

                “Sookie, order up!” said Sam, setting a pitcher of beer and two mixed drinks on the tray for her. She turned on her heels and went to the bar. “Everything okay Sookie?”

                “Oh yeah, that’s just Pam, everything is fine,” she said. Sookie took the order and served everyone at the table and then went back to Pam’s table. Being a telepath sucked because she could hear the minds of the patrons wondering what sort of trouble Sookie was going to get into now, seeing as how she was talking to the vampire. “Did Eric send you to talk to me?”

                “No and should you speak with Eric, please do not tell him I have been here to speak to you,” said Pam.

                “That is not high on my list,” she said to Pam. Sookie looked around. They were looking at her, watching her. “Look Pam, if there is nothing else you have to say to me, I am really  busy here.”

                “We need to talk further. I will meet you after your shift, what time do you get off?” asked Pam.

                “One o’clock,” said Sookie and took off to take an order from a rowdy table and when she turned around, Pam was gone. She turned back. Sam was watching her. Later, when there was a lull, he sidled up to her.

                “What did she want chere?” asked Sam.

                “To talk to me about Eric,” she said, unhappily. For weeks, Sookie had been working hard at Merlotte’s, sleeping, and working.  She worked hard not to think about Eric and even prided herself for being so strong. Now she was wearing down. She rinsed the glasses and put them on the drainer where Sam was drying them and Luna came up to put them on the service tray so the bartenders could grab them for drinks. Sookie may not be able to read shifter minds very clearly, but she knew Luna didn’t appreciate Sookie maybe pulling Sam into her Vampire crap. Luna and Sam were a great match and the shifter did not want to lose her good thing.

                “So you have not spoken to Eric?” asked Sam, interupting her thoughts.

                “No, I have not spoken with him in two months. There is no more to say to him,” said Sookie. “I don’t even know what I am going to say to Pam. I just can’t take this amymore, Sam, all of this vampire crap,  and he gets his ass in a snarl because I broke up with him and he was the one who broke up with me first to get married to that other woman.” Sookie was working up a good angry so she would not be weak in front of Pam. She knew, sure as God made little green apples, everything she said would be taken back to Eric.

                Finally, Sookie finished her side work and was able to leave. She went out with hope in her heart but gave up when she saw Pam waiting for her, leaned against her car. Sookie opened the door of her car and put her purse in and closed it and went to stand in front of Pam. Pam was dressed in a pair of black slacks and a white linen blouse. Sookie thought she looked like the old time actress Veronica Lake with her smooth blond hair and big blue eyes.

                “Okay, what is it?” asked Sookie.

                “Please speak to Eric, Sookie,” she said. “He doesn’t care about anything. He doesn’t have any interest in the bar, he is angry all of the time. You are the only one who can help him.”

                “It is always gonna be this way though Pam. When I was with Bill, he would say: We have to because Eric says so, and then it was I went back to Lorena to protect you, she was my maker, and then it was, the Queen sent me to procure you, to seduce you if I had to, and I was hearing the same thing from Eric..” Sookie shook her head. “It won’t ever be different, it will always be someone meaner or stronger or more powerful. I can’t live that way Pam.”

                “It took so much for Eric to drop his guard and care about you, Sookie and it hurt so much when he felt the blood bond go,” said Pam.

                “I’m sorry Pam,” said Sookie. “I can’t help him. He just needs to get on with his life.” Sookie got into her car and Pam turned and watched her leave, heading for her house. Pam rarely liked humans. She rarely liked other vampires. Eric had been her maker, her lover, her father and friend. He freed her and made her powerful. Makers and their children had the strongest of the blood bonds. There was of course different levels of bond. There was the blood link and that usually occurred when users of V had a bit of vampire blood. That link was like hearing one’s name being whispered and turning around and no one being there. Then there was the simple bond, which Sookie had with Bill. Then there was the bond she had with Eric.

                Eric had forged the strongest bond of all with Sookie. It was just short of making Sookie vampire. This was the mystical bond. Sookie’s blood was Eric’s and Eric’s blood was hers. Both had been totally aware of the other. Of course that changed when Sookie broke the bond. Pam doubted Sookie would ever make another bond with a vampire, even one that would save her life. She also doubted Eric would make a bond with another human. It hurt him too much when the bond was gone.

                Pam let herself back into Fangtasia. It was closing and the human staff were cleaning up. “Where is the Master?” she asked Jocelyn, the newest fangbanger waitress.

                “He is in the office ma’am,” she said. Pam headed to the office and stopped at the door and pecked on it and then stepped in.

                “Where have you been?” asked Eric, looking at the computer screen.

                “Out,” said Pam.

                “That’s obvious. Indira had to watch the door tonight and you know how she hates to watch at the door,” he said. “Permission has come through, your request to become a maker has been approved, congratulations.”

                “That is good,” said Pam. “It might be nice to take some time off and find someone who might be worthy, help them adjust to our lives together.”

                “Anything to get away from me,” said her maker, saying the thing he knew Pam had been thinking but did not say aloud. Eric had been feeling Pam’s aggitation since his break up with Sookie.

Usually, Eric had mastery over his feelings but this situation had torn him apart. He loved her as he had loved no other creature. He admired the strength of her spirit. He could not imagine the strength it took for an essentially human woman to withstand the torture the two fae had inflicted upon her. But was that really what he loved about her? Eric did not like to think of the alternative, that he may have been in love with the faery blood and not her. He refused to listen to the voice deep inside him that said he had, that tormenting and comforting voice that tried to speak in whispers things that would explain to him why he was so intense about her, why Bill was so intense about her. “Have you been to see Sookie?”

                “Why would I go see Sookie?” asked Pam, trying to look innocent and not really making it.

                “You and she are friends, don’t you like her anymore?” asked Eric.

                “My loyalties are to you,” she said.

                “If you have nothing more to say to me, I bid you good night,” he said grimly.  She was being dismissed.

                “Good night Eric,” she said.

                Eric left Fangtasia a little after Pam. Physically, he was as strong as ever. Emotionally, Eric felt all of his 1000 years. He was distracted and right now, that was a very bad thing to be for the Viking vampire. While he was being distracted with this inner turmoil, there were factions growing in Bon Temps and perhaps the whole country that would effect all of them detrimentally. These factions were not limited to the vampires and their twisty world of violent politics, this included human politics as well. There was the usual Fellowship of the Sun activity, which included their new off shoot, the Take Back the Night movement. Then there was the back to the coffin movement, full of increasingly more backward thinking vampires who wanted very much to be back in the shadows so they could behave as they pleased and hunt who they wished with no restrictions, to go back to the old days and the old ways.

                 What the vampires knew from this ordeal with Eric was there was also a new vampire political movement, to get more involved with human politics. After they returned to Bon Temps, they really got serious in investigating the situation. The so called Deadacrat movement said they were simply wanting to have a voice in human government so they could secure the rights they deserved as citizens of the country. Humans tended to lump the entire supernatural community  together for the sake of expediancy and the two natured and the vampires were both insulted with  the development. This suited the so called the Deadcrats, made up right now of humans, because while they masqueraded as breathers who sought only the best for vampires, they were actually being controlled by the back to the coffin vampires. They would take gifts of money and blood and even sexual favors in return for sneaky little laws curtailing the vampire world hidden carefully in legislation initially written to control the two natured. Since both communties did not speak to one another, they were easy to manipulate and cozen for gain. They took advantage of this situation and there was no vampire ruler more excited about this development than Felipe DeCastro.

                De Castro wanted Sookie Stackhouse and he thought getting Eric married off to Freyda would give him a direct line to her. She would be without a Vampire protector. The blood bond was gone and the marriage to Freyda had cancelled out the marriage she had with Eric.  He would acquire her, blood, body and telepathy. He never counted on Eric passing Sookie along in an age old tradition, though it was frowned upon as backward thinking.  Vampires like to collect useful humans, telepaths, psychics, telekinetics, fire starters, witches. They had prided themselves on their menageries of gifted humans. They used the humans as bridges between humans and themselves.  Vampires often acted as the shadows to the thrones of human empires and humans were always more than willing to ignore that shadow. Vampires took advantage of human greed and stole the world by candlelight.

                And there was always blood, of course.

                Eric arrived at his Shreveport home and drove his corvette into the garage, opening and closing the doors with the remote. He got out of his car and used the key pad to let him in the house. He slid off his shoes and padded in sock feet through the kitchen and into his living room. The room was empty except for cans of paint and tubes of spackle and bits of used sand paper. After the battle and he was able to come home, he had been to see Sookie at her house. She met him at the door and refused entry to him and would not listen to his explanations. Eric had come home and taken everything out on his house. He tore the livingroom apart and then went into the bedroom Sookie often slept in and broke everything, busting the bed, ripping the bed linens into shreds and punching holes in the walls.

                Just now, he was having the house repaired. He was planning an office in the bedroom Sookie had occupied and he had hired a decorator to plan the rooms. He went downstairs to his secure windowless bedroom. Sookie hated this room, hated sleeping with him there. She said it felt like she was sleeping in a funeral vault. He had tried to explained to her that though he was deep in his vampire sleep he could still feel her warmth and smell her sweetness and it was heavenly to him but her eyes would just scan the walls with no interupting windows and shiver. She would kiss him good night and leave him to sleep alone so she could sleep upstairs with its one narrow window.

                Eric undressed and slid into the shower and washed, getting the smell of the cigarette smoke off his body and out of his hair. He slid out and dried off and brushed his wet hair and squeezed out the water and rubbed it til it was nearly dry. He stopped and leaned forward on the counter and looked at himself in the mirror. Suddenly the rage bubbled up out of him and he put his fist through his own reflection and the mirror shattered into a million pieces.

                While vampires sIept  their day sleep, it was a sunny day in Bon Temps and Rachel Westnight was happy. She walked to work, feeling the sun on her skin and the breeze blowing back her hair. She thought her life was nearly perfect. Rachel had a successful business, The Whole Body Health Center, and she had a lovely little home and she was back in Bon Temps, where she loved to be. She had been born in Bon Temps but she had moved away with her parents when she was four. She shocked her family when she decided to take her inhertance from her beloved Grandma Clara Beaumont and  open a health food store that would also offer such things as tai chi, transcendental meditation and and accupuncture. Then she noticed there were Vampires who were enquiring about her services and she was intrigued. She could not figure out what exactly they would get out of such things, but in response to the increasing inquiries, she hired a Vampire massuese and a Vampire accupuncturist who could work with their kind and their special needs and she began to schedule evening sessions for them so they could take tai chi and yoga and do TM as well, though what they got out of it, she had no clue.

                She walked around back and went through the rear entrance and walked the narrow corridor to the reception area. There standing at the reception counter was Sally McMerchant, who ran her front office and made appointments and rang up purchases.

                “Hey there Sally,” she said.

                “Morning Rachel,” she replied. “That professor called, she said she would be here in a few hours.”

                “Great,” she said. Rachel’s last occupant had just moved and she had a hell of a time getting the walls painted back from the thick flat black she had used on every inch of the walls. It took several coats of white and hours of Terry Bellefleur’s life to get the walls back. About that time the man himself appeared. He was coming to help her put in a new air conditioner in the window. “Hey Terry.”

                “I found this on your window Miss Westnight,” said the grizzled vet. It was a Take Back the Night flier advertising a meeting. Rachel took it, wadded it up, and threw it in the trashcan behind the desk.

                “I am getting real sick of them people,” she said, more to herself than the others.

                “It’s them Vamps you got hired,” said Terry.

                “You don’t mind that I employ Vampires do you Terry?” she asked.

                “Nope, they are alright in their own way,” he said.

                “We better get up there and install the air conditioner, you got a box cutter?” she asked.

                “I sure do,” he said.

                Terry sweated and grunted and finally wrestled the air conditioner into the window and plugged it in. The loft was already cooling by the time he left with Rachel’s money in his jeans and it was wonderfully cool by the time the new tenant arrived.

                Skyller Faulconer was like Rachel. She was raised in Bon Temps but she had moved away when she was 12 and she always liked coming home. She was a professor of Vampire Studies at LSU in Baton Rouge but when she read in the Bon Temps Herald that BTCC was looking for a professor who could teach Vampire topics, she applied for the job and was hired a couple of days later. She would finish her last classes and pack up and move but first she had to get an apartment.

                Vampires had come out of the coffin when she was a junior in college, she found them intriguing, and she was no different from her classmates when they realized there were Vampire professors and fellow classmates were fanged folk. When the next semester started, she took a Vampire survey course and loved the subject so much she majored in Vampire studies and got her masters in Vampire Politics and Culture. She was recruited right away to teach at LSU and though the money was good, she wanted out of Baton Rouge. She was over the city and the politics. She wanted to teach and write her textbook and live a small town life. Her parents were aghast at not only her move but her choice of degrees. They were not openly bigoted but they wondered secretly how long it would be before Sky would bring home a vampire boyfriend.

                Sky drove up in her black Lexus, parked in front of the storefront, and pushed back her hair. She was 5’8”, thin with medium sized breasts and nice hips and flat stomach despite her love of greasy hamburgers and onion rings and gooey cheese pizzas and milk shakes.  She had long curly red hair that had blondish highlights and a round kittenish face. She took off her sunglasses and revealed the greenest eyes anyone had ever seen. She was casually dressed in an LSU tee shirt and jeans and tennis shoes. She checked her make-up in the mirror and stepped out and walked into the store.

                “Hello, welcome to Whole Body,” said the girl at the counter.

                “Hi, I am Sky Faulconer, I came about the apartment?” she said.

                “Rachel is waiting for you upstairs, go on out to the back of the store and out the back the door and up the steps to the apartment, she is there,” she said, smiling.

                “Thanks,” she said. Sky went through the back and out the door and up the wooden stairs to the back porch which was massive and furnished with beautiful wicker furniture with turquoise cushions and a large red braided rug and bright golden yellow throw pillows. It was cozy and comfortable looking. She crossed the porch to the screen door. The interior door was shut but ajar. She opened the screen door and pecked on the interior door opening it at the same time. “Hi, are you Rachel?”

                “I sure am, come on in,” she said, waving the woman in. Rachel was a woman in miniature. She was about 5 feet tall and endowed with long straight dark black hair that hung to her waist. She had the creamy sun kissed complexion of the French Cajuns. Under arched black brows were two of the brightest grey eyes, the color of polished pewter. She was tiny waisted and had slender arms. She wore a long cotton skirt and a summer tank sweater all in creamy beige. Her feet were encased in cloth slip ons. “Well, you can see, this is the place. It is pretty roomy for it being only one big room, but you see there are great shelves and a working gas fireplace and I just installed an air conditioner.

                Sky looked at the apartment. The bed was about five feet from the back door and it was a queen-sized bed with an apparently new mattress. There were two bedside tables, not matching but pretty close and looked antique. There was a large braided rug on the floor.  Shelves lined the walls on each side of the fireplace, nearly wall to wall and everything smelled freshly painted. The floors were wood and well kept. The bed area and the living area were separated by red painted shutters which had been hinged to act as a room divider. There was a comfortable chaise and sofa and small chair and ottoman and there were end tables and a coffee table all comfortably arranged around another braided rug. There was a desk empty and chair waiting for a computer and the flat screen TV was hung over the fireplace. The living space was divided from the galley kitchen by a long countertop with bar stools and the kitchen was small and efficient with a stove and oven and microwave.

                “You said there was some storage space?” asked Sky.

                “Oh yes, it is part walk in closet and food pantry with shelves for linens, she said, drawing Sky to the front of the room and showing it to her. Sky peeked in and nodded her approval. “And the bathroom is on the other side. She followed Rachel to the back of the apartment back toward the bedroom area. “I think the bathroom actually makes up for the size of the apartment because of the tub, I think this tub was the biggest claw foot tub I have ever seen.” Sky looked at it and was impressed.

                “Can I paint?” she asked.             

                “As long you don’t paint it black. And you can change out the furniture if you have your own furniture, just let me know and I can have the furniture moved out and stored,” she said. “Now, I don’t have a washer and dryer here, but the Soak and Suds is just down the street.”

                “I like the furniture. What is the rent like?” she asked.

                “Six hundred a month, including utilities and twelve hundred security and last month’s rent, which I will return when you move,” she said. “You pay your own cable and phone and internet.”

                “Do you take a check?” asked Sky.

                “I do,” she said. Ten minutes and a paper exchange they had a done deal. As Sky walked out to her car, Rachel did explain to her she employed two vampires and vampires did patronize her shop. Sky smiled and told her that was fine, she was professor of vampire studies and it did not trouble her in the least.

                It had been a good day at Whole Body. Sally had received more bookings for the single evening scheduled yoga class she would have. As the sun went down the evening TM class began to file in. She actually had three vampires in her class. She chuckled. How would you know if a vampire were meditating or simply on screen saver, as she thought of vampire down time? She went into the back, came back with a cardboard box of candles, and began to set them up on the shelves. She did not hear the vampire come in.

                Bill Compton passed by the Whole Body a few times before. He knew from their own intelligence she was being targeted by the Fellowship of the Sun and the Take Back the Night flier campaign. Eric called him a day or so ago to check out the place, particularly since a few of their kind had been patronizing the business and she had hired a couple of vampires. Bill stood there and watched her as she put the candles on the shelves. He knew he should make his presence known but he was enjoying watching her. She had a way about her that was sweetly old fashioned, reminding him of his human life.

                Bill had been a vampire for something close to 146 years, he had been human for thirty years for a grand total of existing on this earth for 176 years. Women had changed a lot since his time. Though he enjoyed the liberation of the sexual aspect of women’s lives, he missed the delightful unwrapping of a woman like a gift and while he had no desire to see them return to hoop skirts and corsets, finding a woman at home in a long skirt and wondering what she might be like naked intrigued the Vampire.

                The events of two months ago with Sookie were troubling to him.  Rekindling his relationship with Sookie had been a mistake. It was what he had fantasized about, but he sensed it was like an alcoholic who had been on the wagon for years and he’d had a sip. Bill had no desire to hurt or confuse Sookie. Unfortunately, the road to hell was paved with good intentions. Seeing Sookie cry and knowing he was responsible to some degree was troubling to him. He even felt sorry for Eric Northman, who he detested. Bill had never established a blood bond with Sookie as Eric had and it had taken a very long time to come to a conclusion about Sookie. Eric would suffer longer he imagined.

                The vampire had consulted others of his kind regarding the effects of fairy blood on vampires and it was as he suspected. Vampires sometimes got as strung out on fairy blood as humans did on vampire blood. It may not drive them to frenzy, but it was enough. Bill resolved to break the habit.

                Just as Bill was about to speak, the woman turned and was startled by him. She knew he was a vampire right away.

                “Oh Lord,” she said, pressing her hand on her chest. “I didn’t know you were there.”

                “It is I who should apologize; I should have made my presence known.”

                “I should have a chime on my door,” she said, flustered. “I am Rachel Westnight.”

                “Bill Compton,” he said, extending his hand. She offered her hand to him and he took her small warm hand into his cool one. Rachel knew vampires did not ordinarily shake hands she knew, so this small gesture was a sign to her he was mainstreaming.

                “I know who you are, Mr. Compton, I have seen you at the chamber of commerce meetings. You gave an excellent talk about how human businesses can open up for vampires,” she said, reluctantly taking back her hand. Rachel looked at the dark chocolate of his eyes and their sparkle.

                “So nice of you to remember, Miss Westnight,” he said warmly. “Please call me Bill.”

                “Please call me Rachel,” she said. “So…Bill…did you come to avail yourself of our services?”

                “I was unaware your establishment could offer much in the way of services to my kind.”

                “Well it took a little imagination, but we offer deep muscle massage by a trained vampire. Some vampires enjoy acupuncture, though I am at a loss. And then there a couple of vampires who do transcendental meditation, though I have no idea what they get out of it.”

                “Your guess would be as good as mine,” said Bill. He knew there were some vampires who wanted human to see them doing certain social things. Vampires had no religion, which was an important part of social life in Bon Temps, and the south. The compromise was to be seen doing pseudo spiritual activities. “We understand there has been some trouble here from the Take Back the Night movement.”

                “Just some fliers when I hired Ming, my vampire masseuse,” she said. “Nothing more than that.”

                “All the same Rachel, you should feel free to contact me if you have any further problems,” said Bill. He slid his hand into his jacket and pulled out a card and gave it to her. “This is my number, you should call me, even if it is day, and leave me a message. I will be here as soon as I rise for the evening.”

                “Thank you Bill, I will. Would you like a tour? I have a wonderful garden in the back.”

                “I would be delighted.” She finished putting out the candles and took herself and the empty box to the rear of the shop, Bill following behind.

                “I am going to have a cold tea, would you like a TrueBlood?” she asked.

                “That would be very nice, thank you,” he said. He liked watching her move around with such easy grace. She did not seem anxious around him and she seemed…pleased he was there.

                “What type?” she asked. “We have all of them.”

                “AB neg,” he said. She grabbed the bottle and took off the cap and popped it into the microwave. “How long have you been here?”

                “Nearly a year and a half,” she said. “It was a real labor of love to put it all together, find out what the people want. And I have been remodeling my house.”

                “Where do you live?” he asked.

                “On Dupre Street, the house with the turret and the copper roof flashing?” she said.

                “I know it very well,” he said, watching her take the bottle out of the microwave and giving it a shake. She grabbed her bottle of tea and headed out, handing him the blood. “I remember when the house was built, a very notorious woman built it.” She smiled.

                “Did you pay her a visit?” she asked, as they went out the rear door and went into the back garden.

                “Not when I was a human, no, but after I was made vampire, I did,” he said. “This is a lovely garden.” She went to the switch and turned on the electric lanterns which cast a lovely glow on the whole garden. There was closely cropped grass but most of the garden was made up of squares of closely matched wooden plank platforms.

                “When we have warm weather, I like to teach my yoga classes out here,” she said. “So, you know my house, do you have a very long history?”

                “I am 176 years old,” he said. “I was 30 when I was made vampire.”

                “And do you like being out of the coffin?” she asked.

                “It has its advantages,” he said. “What is upstairs?”

                “That is an apartment, I finally got it rented out,” she said. “I would show it to you, but I would have to turn around and rescind my invitation, and I would not like to do that.”

                “I understand,” he said. “Rachel, would it make you uncomfortable if I asked your permission to call upon you again? There is a very lovely restaurant called Deux Poissons and I would very much like to take you.”

                “I’d be pleased to accompany you,” she said.

                They spent an hour more together when Bill offered to see her home. He really hated to leave her company, she being so at ease with him. He walked her slowly to her house and they shook hands at her garden gate and he watched her walk up and onto her porch and go inside.

                The king of Nevada was in his palatial home. He sat there, listening to the report from the emissary  he’d sent to Stan Davis. “And he will not give us back the telepath we paid such exorbitant fees to have?”

                “No, he will not your majesty,” said Hugo Ayres. Stan was very surprised to know the lawyer was back in the United States and was now in the employ of the king of Nevada. “And he says he will not be returning the rest of the fee as you endangered his telepath unnecessarily during the situation in the Oklahoma house.”

                “How do we stand with that situation?” he asked.

                “The fire marshal has declared it an electrical fire, though there were some questions by law enforcement about the vampire cells in the floor of the basement. We explained they were resting quarters and nothing more.” The lawyer fell silent and waited for DeCastro.

                “Call that insufferable human, tell him to present himself to me. And Eric Northman?”

                “He is licking his wounds in Shreveport,” replied Ayers.

                “And Sookie Stackhouse?” he asked.

                “She is back in Bon Temps, working at Merlotte’s and not having anything to do with vampires,” he said.

                De Castro turned his head and looked at nothing much. “I want you to begin calling the people on the list I gave you, I want things to begin happening to our friends in Louisiana,” he said. “And arrange a peace meeting between us.”

                “Think they will go for it?” he asked.

                “Vampires make peace treaties every night with each other so we can coexist as we have done for thousands of years. Of course they will,” said the king.

                “Very well,” said the lawyer.

                “We make them every night and we eventually break them,” he said.  

                Hugo Ayers sometimes cursed the day he met Isabel in the entourage of the Sheriff of Area Six, now King of Texas, Stan Davis.  He became fascinated with her immediately and then of course there was the sex. He thought for sure Isabel would find him, find him and suck him dry, when he was released and he began to run. Everyone thought he’d gone to Mexico or Canada, but he actually went to California for a while. He applied for his law license and hung out his shingle and began to work, mostly ambulance chasing and wrongful death, nothing to do with vampires. He really wanted nothing to do with that world again.

                He felt safe, secure. He had resumed his life and he swore he would not get involved with fangs ever. To ensure this, he joined a church. Not a Fellowship of the Sun Church, just an ordinary church with no agendas. Or so he thought.

                He was approached by the deacon. Apparently, he was involved with the Take Back the Night movement. It was primarily a leaflet campaign to encourage humans to write their political leaders to protest special rights for vampires and for the newest addition the supernatural world the two natured. He stayed away as long as he could, but eventually, he succumbed.

                One night, however, he was pulled back into the world of vampires. He was in a coffee shop, a stack of fliers on the table, waiting for a rare cloud burst to pass by when a vampire came and sat at the table with him. “I know you,” he said.

                “Then you have me at a disadvantage,” said Ayres.

                “It is not important right now for you to know who I am,” said the vampire. “I just want to make a proposal.”

                “What sort of proposal?” he asked warily.

                “I know about you, I know who you are, I know you were in trouble with Stan Davis. I know you are working as an ambulance chaser, making a living but not much more, and you volunteer to do these flier campaigns. But you can do better,” he said.

                “I can?” Ayres looked confused.

                “You can,” said the vampire. “You can make a lot of money and you really don’t have to do much more than what you are doing, just passing out these fliers.”

                “Perhaps your command of the English language is lacking. These fliers are anti-vampire,” he said. Ayres felt brave, primarily because he thought it was all over anyway.

                “I am aware of the agenda of the Take Back the Night movement, and we really don’t want you to change anything about it.  Have you heard of the Deadacrat movement?”

                “No, I have been out of the loop as far as you people go,” said Ayres.

                “Would it shock you to know the secret agenda of the Deadacrat movement is to curtail the rights of vampires and by extension, the two natured?” said the vampire carefully.

                “Vampires have always played both sides of the board to control one another,” said Ayres. “So what do you want of me and more importantly, how much?”

                “You have a telephone?” he asked.

                “Of course,” said Ayres.

                “All you have to do is call me from time to time and tell me how the movement is doing,” said the vampire. “For these chats, you will receive a cash gift of $ 2000. You should call twice a month and you will receive a bonus if you call me with interesting news, any change in the agenda, any clarification of issues, any new news about laws coming down the pike. Simple,” the vampire shrugged. “And I will give you a reward if you make yourself available to travel to visit with my boss. You will be treated to a wonderful stay in a luxury hotel with the amenities and house chips to gamble with all expenses paid.”

                “I don’t think I am interested in doing that type of close work with your kind,” he said, frowning.

                “Do you remember a young woman, you met her in Dallas, Sookie Stackhouse?” he mentioned casually.

                “What if I do?” he asked.

                “How would you like to get some revenge?” said the vampire. “And all you have to do is contact this person. He is a teacher and a member of your leaflet campaign. All you have to do is relay messages from my people, to his people. As things come together, revenge is inevitable.”

                “I’ll think about it,” said Ayres.

                “Very good,” replied the vampire. “I will be anticipating your call.”