Waking the Dead

First Night

If my heart still beat, it would've stopped when she turned and looked at me across the crowded bar. I'd been following her for weeks, so I shouldn't have been surprised when she smiled, something she did often, but it wasn't the forced mask she wore most of the time. She looked at me as if I were the only person in the world, and I wasn't expecting one of her real smiles. It was like looking at the sun for the first time in 143 years. Her cheeks flushed with blood, and I could smell her through the smoke and beer and grease and irritating garlic that can't be avoided in Louisiana, her blood a siren song of something rich and deep and sweet. I would find her in a lightless room filled with a thousand people.

"I think Merlotte's got its first vampire," she said to the shifter behind the bar. I tuned out the other noises, and I could hear her as easily as if she's been sitting next to me.

"I think you're right." He narrowed his eyes at me, and I knew he was testing my scent. I'd seen him around her house the past few weeks, but never in the form of a man.

"Can you believe it?" she gushed. "Right here in Bon Temps? I've been waiting for this to happen ever since they came out of the coffin two years ago!" She turned away from the bar and walked towards me. She licked her lips, just a flash of her pink tongue that made me shiver, and absently smoothed her hair.

"Hi," she said, shifting her weight from foot to foot. "What… what can I get for you tonight?" She smiled at me still, and I had to remember why I was there while I willed my fangs to stay retracted.

"Do you have any of that synthetic bottled blood?" I asked.

"No, I'm so sorry. Sam ordered some a year ago, but no one ever ordered it, so it went bad. You're our first." She looked down and blushed again. She whispered the word, as if it might offend me. "Vampire."

I'd been around enough women to know I'm attractive, but I'd learned to blend into a crowd. I'd never known a human who could detect me. Of course, she wasn't simply a human.

"Am I that obvious?" I asked. She exhaled and looked away, and her scent washed over me. I fervently wished I had electricity at the old house. I needed to make more efforts with the contractors so I could buy my own TruBlood, not that drinking TruBlood would make me less thirsty for her.

"I knew the minute you walked in," she said. She looked around the crowded room. "I can't believe no one else seems to."

"He does," I said, nodding to the man behind the bar. Of course a shifter would know what I was. He nodded grudgingly back.

"Oh, don't worry about Sam," she said. "He's cool. I know for a fact he supports the Vampire Rights Amendment."

"How progressive of him." I wanted to bite my tongue for being ill-tempered with this girl. She didn't know it was her fault I was here against my wishes, and it wasn't her fault I was hungry.

For the first time, she seemed uncomfortable, and I wished I knew what she was thinking. She smiled nervously. "Is there anything else… you drink?"

It was my turn to smile. She didn't know anything. So many rumors, most of them started by vampires, had flooded the media the past two years; it was easy to see how the details of our existence were utterly foreign to her.

"Actually no," I told her. She stared into my eyes, as if she didn't believe, or didn't know, that I could glamour her. Most humans don't look that closely, even without knowing that we have the power to alter their minds. I felt the urge to reach over and pull her wrist to my nose, to feel her pulse against my lips. It was suddenly difficult to speak. "But you can get me a glass of red wine so I have a reason to be here."

She finally broke her gaze and wrote on her notepad, as if she wouldn't remember an order that simple. Once again she was in motion, shuffling her feet and looking around, and I wondered if she heard my desires in my thoughts. "Well, whatever the reason," she blushed. "I'm glad you are." I couldn't stop myself from smiling.

"Don't mind Sookie none, mister," a nasal voice said from over my shoulder. "She's crazy as a bed-bug."

For the first time since she came to me, she looked confused and angry. "I'll just get your wine for you," she said in a strained voice, as if she might scream or cry or hit something. She glared at the man who spoke before turning and walking quickly away.

***

When I came home to Bon Temps, the dream of my wife's death returned. For most of the day, I sleep the sleep of the dead. I've always welcomed the dawn and my daily death, when my brain is forced to stop. Unlike most of my kind, I don't mind my body at its most vulnerable, the super strength and speed and senses dead to the world. It's a fair trade for not being able to ponder the thoughts of several lifetimes or wonder about the lifetimes to come or mourn the human life I never got to live.

When I was alive, I knew I dreamed more vividly than most people. My wife used to lie in my arms, early morning light filtering in our windows, fascinated by the retelling of my nightly visions. Even then, I had a way of remembering details. After my human death, I didn't share my dreams with anyone, although that didn't stop me from dreaming them. But it's not until the sun is beginning to set that my mind awakes. In the hour before my body can move, I feel the most human. Those emotions that refuse to be buried come alive to rule me as they did when I was a man.

For decades, day after day, I dreamed her death. Not her death as it was, when her body was old and frail and she looked to me like I was an angel sent to bring her heaven, but as it almost was at my hands. I was still young in my undead life, and I awoke every night thirsting for blood as I'd never felt hunger as a human. My new body was dead, but my senses were much more alive. To thirst was to feel pain I never could've imagined possible.

Each night, Lorena, my Maker, woke before me. She fed more often than she needed to, but when she was as satisfied as she ever could be, she'd find someone to bring back for me. In those days, with the War newly over and soldiers straggling home in their rags, I usually ended up with some poor man like me, who'd survived four years of hell only to die a few miles from home. I begged Lorena for evil-doers, for sinners and murderers and thieves. But when I awoke, shaking from blood-red dreams, I smelled my human victims. I heard the wet thump of their hearts pumping blood through veins, and I drank before I could think. I crushed bones in my rush; I ripped out throats. I choked on hot blood as it gushed into my mouth.

It was during those early weeks, when I was adrift on a sea of new sensations I didn't know how to process, that she took me home. I'd only fed once that night, and I was following Lorena, lost in my own thoughts, when we came upon her. My wife. My lovely wife. She rocked in a chair on our porch, a lamp lit at her feet. I knew she was waiting for me. But all this occurred to me later. At first, all I knew was the scent of blood, and I nearly struck. I stopped myself just in time by the oak tree near the porch, my fingers gauging holes in the trunk. I stopped breathing so I couldn't smell her, and I listened.

I heard her heart beating, and I heard our children stirring in their sleep in their beds. She hummed to herself, the click of needles as she sewed as clear as if I were standing next to her. She squinted into the distance at every sound. She whispered, "Oh Bill," as if she knew I was near. When I returned to Lorena's side, she licked blood tears from my cheeks and laughed.

It was that day when I first dreamed the dream that would haunt me for decades. It was my wife, and I held her in my arms as I longed to do, but they weren't the human arms I wanted. My new arms, strong, pale vampire arms, held her body. She was white and lifeless, her blood drained, and the dream took on all the details my new senses could provide. I could taste her in my mouth even as I wept. I licked her blood from my lips and roared into the night.

By the time I left Lorena, my brain had moved on to other dreams. But I never forgot it. I learned that I no longer forgot anything. Every moment of every night was within my power to recall. Even my human memories, remembered through the dim filter of human senses, were never forgotten. I couldn't forget things I wanted to never remember. And when I ended up lying incapacitated in a bar parking lot not five miles from home, once again I saw my wife.

***

There was no excuse for what happened, but I was thirsty. When the girl left to get the wine that I wasn't going to drink, two humans joined me. I could smell the drugs in their blood, and the woman carried the scents of three different men.

Over the years, I've seen just about everything humanity has to offer. Since the Revolution, I'd done my best to "mainstream," but TruBlood wasn't always enough. I no longer had to glamour unwilling victims. There were long lines of human who wanted to be blood donors. The fact that blood lust and other lusts are so closely tied to vampire instincts was not a deterrent; oddly, it seemed to be part of our appeal.

The woman leaned against me in the booth. She breathed on me. Her hands rubbed against her neck and down her chest. Her fingers lingered on her hardened nipples through her thin shirt. Like everyone else, these people wanted something from me. Maybe he wanted to watch me have sex with his wife. Maybe he wanted to join in. Maybe I would drink from him while I was having sex with her. The possibilities were endless and tedious, and I was hungry enough to not care when I left with them.

Sookie even tried to warn me. She came back to check on the table, and her eyes were suddenly wide and afraid. "Don't you go anywhere," she'd said. But when my body walked out of the bar with them, my mind stayed inside with the girl. That was my mistake. It was one of the first lessons Lorena taught me for self-preservation: no distractions. She used to laugh at my melancholy, at my absent stares. She said they would be the redeath of me.

If I'd been paying attention, I would've seen the signs. If I hadn't been so thirsty, I might've had a split second to react, and a split second would've been all I needed. But one moment we were walking towards their car, and I was listening intently to Sookie moving inside the bar. Then I felt the silver on my neck.

The pain from the chain was unbearable. I smelled my own flesh burning, and I tried to think of an escape as my mind grew weary and unfocused. The vision of my wife swam in my eyes, and I wanted to cry out for her to save me. And then the woman started draining my blood. Only Lorena had ever taken my blood, and it'd been years since we'd been intimate. Even without sex preceding it, even with the needle and rubber tubing, even with the chain burning my neck and the inevitability of my redeath and my thoughts of my wife, when the blood left my veins I felt aroused, and then I felt nothing but horror at the monster I was.

That was when I heard her. At first, I thought it was my wife, coming for me in my final death as I came for her, but it was Sookie, concentrated on the man who paced next to his wife as she knelt by me on the ground. He could only think of drinking my blood, so he wasn't listening for interruptions. They argued even as the woman switched to a new collection bag. That was when Sookie attacked. The man cursed as the heavy tow chain came down on his arm and pulled a knife. Sookie looked as surprised as anyone when she threw the chain and it wrapped itself around the man's neck. As he choked for air, she was quick enough to grab his dropped knife and turned it on the woman. This girl, barely more than a child really, even thought to keep them from taking the two pints of blood they'd drained.

All I saw was her face, those eyes showing only sympathy as she pulled the silver from my neck. The chain smoldered and stuck as she pulled it away from my skin. The relief was instantaneous. I wouldn't have believed it possible, but her eyes got even wider as she watched what must have been my wounds healing and my fangs retracting.

"Shut up," she whispered, staring at my neck. I would've blushed under her scrutiny if I could.

At that moment, I heard the squeal of tires, and I realized we were about to be run down by the drainers' car. In my weakened state, such an event would be painful. For Sookie, it would probably be fatal, but she didn't flee. She lifted under my arms and pulled me towards the trees.

"Push with your feet," she demanded. I did as she said, and the car swerved and missed my legs by inches. With her dragging and my pushing, I was soon leaned against the truck of a tree.

"Oh bless your heart," she said, leaning over to breathe with her hands on her knees. "I'm so sorry I didn't get here faster."

I stared at this breakable human girl and couldn't believe she spoke as if I were a child who required her protection.

"You'll be okay in a minute, right?" Her voice seemed uncertain, as if she didn't know what to do now that she'd saved me. I'd never been helped by a human before. "Do you want me to leave?"

"No," I said. Her smile was instantaneous. There was a slight gap in between her front teeth, and I wanted to lick it. "They might come back, and I can't fight yet." She frowned.

At that moment, the damn shifter turned up. "Well hey there dog," she said affectionately. He barked at me in a non-threatening way, as if to make sure I knew he was watching. He leaned possessively into the girl, and she absently stroked his fur. His tongue quickly licked her cheek, just once, before he barked again and ran off into the woods.

"He's checking up on you," I said. I watched her closely to see if she knew it was her boss.

Her face was open and trusting. She smiled and said, "That's just some old dog that hangs around the bar sometimes. He must live nearby."

Humans spent so much of their lives willfully in the dark. "Oh no doubt," I said.

She leaned over, her hands reaching for my arm, and I instinctively pushed her away. I quickly realized that she was trying to remove the belt that the woman had put on my arm as a tourniquet, not hurt me, but she had already stepped away again.

"I reckon you're not too happy about being rescued by a woman," she said. Her hands were on her hips, and she looked even more like an indignant child. Her being female had nothing to do with my displeasure.

"Thank you," I said as I loosened the belt.

She stood back and shook her head before closing her eyes. It was an odd thing to do, especially with a hungry vampire two feet away. Not that her eyes could see me if I chose to move quickly, but still.

Her eyes flew open. "I can't hear you!"

"Thank you," I repeated, more loudly. I couldn't stop the edge from returning to my voice.

"No," she said as she bent down to take my face in her hands. They were soft and warm. Once again I was enveloped in her scent, and I tried to keep my fangs from sliding out. I forced myself to lean away from her, my head pressed against the trunk of the tree. "I can hear you, but I can't…" Her voice trailed off. I tried to look away, but she moved her face even closer to mine. She stared deeply into my eyes, and I wondered if she could glamour me. "Oh my stars." She looked surprised and uncertain and more than a little excited.

"Aren't you afraid to be out here alone with a hungry vampire?" My voice was low, and she was crouched so close to me that even in my weakened state I could be on her before she knew it. I wanted to kiss her, to taste her.

She took her hands from my face, but she didn't move away. "No," she said. I knew she meant it, too.

"You know, vampires often turn on those who trust them. We don't have human values like you."

"Humans turn on those who trust them, too," she said as she finally stood up and moved away from me. While I knew her words were true, I couldn't imagine what could've happened in her short life to make her seem so certain of that statement. "Besides," she continued as she pulled the silver chain from the drainers out of her pocket. She held it up for me to see, and I couldn't help but shudder. "I'm not a total fool." She wrapped the long chain twice around her neck and sat down on a nearby rock.

"Oh, but you have other very juicy arteries," I said. "There's one in the groin that's a particular favorite of mine." I couldn't help but look at her femoral artery, and I could feel myself harden at the thought of biting her there, how delicious it would be to have her female taste on my tongue and her hot blood in my mouth.

Sookie crossed her legs. "Listen here, mister. You might be a vampire, but when you talk to me you will talk to me like the lady that I am."

I couldn't help but smile at her reaction. She was so different from her cousin, Hadley, whose hungry look oozed desire. Most modern women used sex as a way to control men. Sookie looked fresh and unspoiled, and I couldn't help but wonder if it was possible that she was.

"Do you want to drink the blood they collected?" I asked.

She wrinkled her nose and answered immediately. "No."

"I understand it makes humans feel more healthy." My voice trailed off. "Improves their sex life…" I leered at her again, just to see what she'd say.

"I'm as healthy as a horse," she said. "And I haven't had sex, not to speak of." She blushed and quickly looked at the ground. I got the impression she hadn't meant to be so honest. "So you can just keep it."

"You could always sell it," I told her, even though I knew what she would say.

Her eyes found mine again, and she spoke without hesitation. "I wouldn't touch it."

I didn't try to move like a human when I approached. To her, I would be a blur, and then suddenly inches from her face. I closed my eyes, just for a moment, and lost myself in the smell of her breath. She didn't flinch. I leaned even closer, and I worried that I might not be able to stop from biting her. "What are you?"

"Well," she began, sounding nervous once more. She blushed, and I clinched my jaw shut at the smell of her blood rushing to the surface just inches from my lips. "I'm… I'm Sookie Stackhouse… And I'm a waitress." She didn't move away. "What's your name?"

"Bill."

"Bill?" She laughed. "Vampire Bill?" I rolled my eyes. "I thought it might be Antoine or Basal or… or Langford, maybe. But Bill?" I hated Anne Rice and her damned novels. "Oh my," she laughed again. "So…" She seemed reluctant to end our conversation, and I didn't like that this pleased me. "Silver, huh?" She gestured to the chain around her neck. "I thought that only affected werewolves."

I smiled at her, and I didn't know if she was kidding or if she knew about shifters.

"Not that I'm saying werewolves exist or anything, but that's what they always show in the movies."

Of course. Movies. I leaned closer to her again, and I looked her in the eyes. I focused on her and forced myself into her brain. "I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't share this information with anyone," I said in a smooth tone. "We don't like our weaknesses to be public knowledge."

"Oh," she said. I didn't hear the deadened tone that humans usually use when they've been glamoured, and her pupils didn't dilate. "Okay. Well," she said as she stood up and brushed off her bottom. I got to my feet, but too late to offer her my arm. "I'll see you around, Bill. I have to get back to work."

She walked towards the bar, removing the silver chain from her neck as she went. She didn't look back, although I caught myself hoping that she might. I couldn't help but admire the way her hips moved in her shorts. I usually missed the long dresses women used to wear, their soft mysteries hidden in those folds, but I could get used to watching Sookie walk in shorts…

I should've been more worried that I didn't think the glamour had worked, but instead I listened to her talk to the shifter outside the bar, not giving away anything that had happened. She was actually a bit sassy, which made me smile. The girl was fearless. After she went back inside, he growled across the parking lot at me, and I did something I hadn't done in years. I laughed. I threw my head back and looked at the stars. My mission, quite unexpectedly, no longer felt like a burden as I breathed in the wet Louisiana air. I glorified that I was finally home, and I felt more alive than I had in decades.

***

Several months earlier, when I woke up in Hong Kong, there was a message on my BlackBerry: "Bill Compton, this is Andre, calling on behalf of her majesty, Sophie-Anne, Queen of Louisiana. She requests your immediate presence. Your flight leaves Hong Kong International Airport this evening at 11:20, local time. A car will be waiting in New Orleans to bring you and your belongings to the palace." There was barely enough time to pack my single bag before the Anubis Air representative called up from the hotel lobby to collect my traveling case.

I couldn't refuse, not that Andre's message had left alternatives. As young as I was, living without a nest was dangerous. Lorena had sent me away from her 50 years before, and I never settled in with another group. The bond between maker and child is always strong, but we lived together for nearly 100 years after my human death, and we'd been lovers, including the night she sent me away. We'd fed on each other, deeply and regularly, so that the bond between us was unusually and unbearably strong. After we'd felt nothing but anger and resentment, hatred even, through the bond for years, she forced me away from her. To feel that way about one's bonded is to hate one's self, and she said, with blood-tears in her eyes, that she couldn't stand it any longer, that if I didn't leave, she would meet the dawn or force me to. I loved her even as I hated her. The relief I felt as soon as she told me to go was immense, and I also wanted to clutch her tiny body to mine and beg her to never leave. But she was my maker, and I couldn't defy her.

During the long flight to New Orleans, before I sought the safety of my travel case at dawn, I couldn't stop myself from thinking about Lorena. She could call me to her very easily through the bond, of course, but I still wondered if she were involved in this summons. The last I heard, she no longer lived in Louisiana, but Sophie-Anne was still her Queen. As much as I loathed vampire politics, and I didn't take kindly to being ordered around, I was surprised to admit I was looking forward to heading home.

"Bill," Sophie-Anne said to me when I was escorted into the private sitting room attached to her bedroom. I'd been around the palace on many occasions, and I wondered why we weren't in her official receiving room.

I bowed deeply. "Your majesty."

"It's been too long," she said.

Sophie-Anne was an exquisite woman. Turned over a thousand years ago when she was in her teens, her appearance was deceptively sweet and innocent. When I arrived, she was lounging in a silk robe on a sofa. Andre, her child, right hand, and personal body guard, was standing behind her, next to a very young vampire who still looked human. She was tall and too thin, the way women seem to be now. She had long dark hair and unnaturally straight teeth. She was wearing a black leather corset and a black leather skirt with a slit all the way up to her waist, which looked out of place amidst Sophie-Anne's soft pastels.

"Lorena was passing through not long ago," she said as she casually flipped through a stack of papers, but I saw her watching me closely.

"We haven't spoken in some time," I said.

"So I gathered. The last time I saw you, things were quite different with her."

I didn't answer.

"I haven't seen such devotion outside my bond with my own children," she continued. She looked up from her papers and stared at me. When I didn't respond, she continued. "And speaking of devoted children, I would like you to meet Hadley."

The Queen gestured to the young vampire, who visibly softened with her attentions. When Sophie-Anne held out a hand to her, Hadley ran with vampire speed across the room. She curled up on the floor at the Queen's side like a cat and began kissing her fingers. I couldn't help but glance quickly at Andre. It was well-known that he'd been Sophie-Anne's chosen and lover for hundreds of years, but Andre's face remained pleasantly blank.

"Hadley," the Queen said softly. The girl immediately stopped, but continued to hold onto her hand. Sophie-Anne gently stroked her hair.

"Bill, I've called you home for a special mission."

"A mission?"

"Yes, one that requires the utmost discretion. No one may know what you're doing."

"Yes, your majesty," I replied, but I was curious. There were many older, more powerful vampires in Louisiana.

"Hadley's family is from Bon Temps, Bill," the Queen said. I stopped breathing. "Perhaps you knew her ancestors? The Stackhouses?"

"That's interesting," I said, careful to keep my voice calm and even. I did remember the Stackhouses, good, simple, hard-working people. Their small farm was a few miles outside Bon Temps, just across the cemetery from my family's home.

"What's even more interesting is that Hadley tells me she has a cousin, who lives in Bon Temps, who has a special gift."

"A gift?"

"Hadley," the Queen said softly. "Why don't you continue." Sophie-Anne had a way of saying things that should've been questions, but they weren't.

"Yeah, well," this Hadley began. If she had gum, she would've snapped it, and I tried to keep the irritation out of my expression. "My little cousin? Sookie? My mom was her dad's sister? Well, she hears people's thoughts? Like right out of their heads? It's made her kind-of crazy, but it's for real?"

What I didn't understand about the modern age could've filled several books. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath I didn't need. It was several seconds before I spoke. "I don't understand."

"The last Compton living in Bon Temps died several months ago," the Queen said.

"I know that." While I hadn't been home in many years, I closely followed my living descendants. The internet made finding such information ridiculously simple.

"I expect the VRA to pass fairly quickly, in which case the ownership of the property in Bon Temps will revert back to you."

I paused again. "If I choose to claim it."

"Andre," the Queen said quietly. He was immediately at her side. "Why don't you and Hadley excuse yourselves while I speak with Bill. I'll be in momentarily."

Without a word, Hadley leapt up and practically skipped to a door on the other side of the room, Andre right behind her. The door was barely closed before I heard Hadley giggle, and then the sound of kissing and moaning and leather being ripped.

"Bill," she said, returning her attention to me after an indulgent look at the closed door. "Please." She gestured to a nearby chair and offered me a goblet of blood.

"No thank you, your majesty," I said. "I'll feed when we're finished.

"You must enjoy my feeding room during your stay," she said, leaning towards me. "The volunteers are carefully screened, of course."

"Of course."

"There are some excellent vintages in the group. But still, no reason to make this unpleasant." She pressed the goblet into my hands. I braced for the metallic tang of TruBlood, which was often difficult to choke down, but the blood was human. No trace of preservatives, it was still warm. She smiled at my surprise as I took a deeper drink.

"I want you to move back to Bon Temps," she told me. "The house, as I understand, is the one you lived in as a mortal. Your father had it built. I thought that might be nice for you."

"What will I do in Bon Temps?" I asked. I didn't tell her that living in Bon Temps would most definitely be the opposite of nice. While I thought of Bon Temps as my home, I had no desire to live in the house where I lived with my wife, where my children were born.

"You will investigate Hadley's cousin, this Sookie Stackhouse."

"Is she really a telepath?" While I believed anything was possible, I'd never known of a telepath.

"Hadley believes so," the Queen said. Of course, she would know through the bond if Hadley were lying. I heard louder moaning coming from the other room, and the Queen smiled as she looked towards the closed door. "But I require more information."

"Why send me, then, and not Hadley, if she's the girl's cousin?"

"Hadley's so young, so uncontrolled, and they haven't been close in some time," she said. "There were some… complications… within the family that caused distress for Hadley."

"I see."

"No, you don't," she said as she smiled at me. "But that's of no interest to me. What is of interest is this girl, and I see a perfect opportunity for you to move back under legitimate pretenses and investigate further."

"What do you want to know?"

"The extent of her powers. I've never known a telepath, and provided she doesn't read vampire minds, having one in my retinue would be most useful…" Her voice trailed off, and once again she smiled at me. "Discovering exactly what she can do would make you most useful as well."

"Your majesty?"

"Come, Bill, let's not be coy. I'm generous to those who are useful."

"Your majesty is most kind."

"Yes," she said. "But it's essential that no one know about her. Bon Temps is in Area Five, and I consider it a top priority to keep this information from Eric the Northman."

"Your majesty."

"You know my fondness for the Sheriff, don't you?" she asked. When I didn't answer, she continued. "You two have more in common than you might think. His maker was very much like Lorena." She smiled at me and took a tiny sip of blood. "If it hadn't already been done, when I became Queen, I would've staked him myself for what was done to him."

I took another drink so I didn't have to reply.

"I tell you this so you understand the importance of this mission. As fond of him as I am, he cannot know. Eric has always been too emotional. I'm continually surprised he's managed to survive for a millennium. He has a passion for women, and if he were to get involved…" She shook her head. "This situation cannot be more complicated than it already is…" Her voice trailed off. "And as for the girl, do what it takes. Seduce her, if you have to. I want you to remain here in the palace for as long as it takes to debrief Hadley, who will be fully cooperative in giving you as much information as she can. Once you're in Bon Temps and in contact with the girl, I expect you to keep Andre notified of any pertinent information. You will call his secure, private line directly, not the palace switchboard."

"Yes, your majesty."

She handed me a white business card. "I always liked you," she said. "Here's is Andre's number and the number for my human business manager. Please be sure to send all bills associated with necessary renovations to your home to him. He'll be expecting your call."

"You are too kind, your majesty." Sophie-Anne smiled at me as she took a delicate sip from her glass. Other vampires, usually males who were trying to marry her for her kingdom, thought she was too soft, too lenient, with her subjects. But anyone who thought Sophie-Anne soft did so at his peril. She knew that fear-driven loyalty was not loyalty at all. She ruled with absolute authority, but she rewarded efforts generously, and most served her not only out of devotion, but also love.

I loved her, but I unequivocally did not want to go home, and I had no intention of babysitting a human.

"Your majesty, while I am honored that you would choose me for such an important matter, I wonder if there would be another better suited."

"There isn't another vampire who could accomplish what I want the way you can, Bill." She paused briefly to listen to the sounds from her bedroom, a sweet and innocent smile on her face. I didn't make the mistake of interpreting her smile as good news on my behalf.

"Your majesty is too kind, but I've been at work on a project, one that might interest you."

She smiled at me. "Am I to understand your extensive travels have not been for pleasure?"

I took another drink before responding. It was unsettling that she knew how I'd spent my time. "Perhaps your majesty doesn't remember, but I have a knack for details."

She laughed quietly. "Yes, I remember Lorena being quite proud of your gift. She found it most useful."

I didn't know how to respond to that, so I didn't. "In my human life, I enjoyed history, although I never had time to pursue it like I wanted to," I said. "Now, of course, my interest is in our history." Her eyes were locked on mine, and she gestured for me to continue. Although we were alone, my voice dropped to a whisper that would've been inaudible to humans. "I've traveled, seeking out as many of our kind as I can find. At first, I was merely curious, but as the years passed and I learned more, I started writing down information."

"What kind of information?"

"Makers. Children. Nests. Gifts. Weaknesses. Bonded humans. Memories of those who have perished and how. Myths of our origins. Wars with weres, shifters, and the fae." She gazed at me intently. "After a while, for convenience, I put the information into a computer format. I've included photographs and, when none are available, my own accurate drawings."

"A database?"

"Yes, your majesty."

She had a hungry glitter in her eyes. "How close are you to completing it?"

"Well, that's difficult to say," I began.

"Try," she said with another sweet and dangerous smile.

"Obviously, the work will never be complete. As we shift and move, as more of our kind are turned and perish, the information will constantly need to be updated. And some, well…" my voice trailed off. She gestured for me to continue. "Some of us would not like knowing such information was being compiled. I've been quite discrete as I've searched for this information."

She waved her hand in a dismissive way. "We must learn to adapt for our survival. That was the point of the Revolution, was it not." She took another sip of blood, and when she spoke, it was at a normal volume. "You are a man of many talents…" She closed her eyes and pressed her lips together in a very human gesture. "These humans in Bon Temps," she continued. "They're the only family my Hadley has."

"Humans? I thought it was just the one girl."

"Yes, but she has a brother. Hadley believes him to be of no interest, but I would like that confirmed. And there's her grandmother. These women mean much to my Hadley, which means they mean much to me."

"I understand." I worked to keep my expression calm, but I did not want to get involved with the human relations of the Queen's newest pet.

"I've given this matter much thought, and I chose you for a reason, Bill," she said. "My Hadley, despite her outward appearance, is quite fragile. You, of all vampires I know, have a certain human tenderness. Quite a rare quality in men, even more so among our kind. It's one of the things Lorena loves most about you, even as it drives her insane." At this, she laughed quietly. "And for your young age, you have an amazing ability to control yourself. You do not succumb to your senses or emotions… You have no child, is this correct?"

I paused before answering. "I do not."

"You have no bonded human?"

"No."

"But you are closely bonded to Lorena, correct?"

I felt myself stiffen at these personal questions.

"Please don't take offence," she said with great sincerity. "I need to know who could compromise you, and therefore compromise me."

I took my time in answering. "I haven't spoken with Lorena in nearly 50 years."

Sophie-Anne looked at me with sympathy in her eyes. "That must be quite painful, to be separated from your bonded."

"It had to be done," I said.

She nodded. "Did you know she had a child before you?" My expression must have given away my surprise. "She had a similar relationship with him as she does with you. They weren't together as long, of course, only a few decades, but the connection was strong." She paused, but I didn't speak. "She staked him herself."

I gasped.

Sophie-Anne nodded. "Yes, it was quite terrible, as you can imagine. To lose one's bonded that way… She came to me immediately and went to ground. We tended to her for years as she recovered."

I thought I might be sick, and several minutes passed before she spoke again.

"Is the bond between you blocked?" she asked quietly.

"As much as it can be," I finally said, filing away the horror of Lorena staking her child for another time. "She probed a couple months after we parted, and again about ten years after that. Not official contact, I suspect just to make sure I was well."

Sophie-Anne nodded. "So you don't anticipate hearing from her anytime soon?"

"No."

"You understand my concern, don't you. For such a mission to be given to one bonded to someone such as her."

I nodded and held my breath before I answered. "Perhaps, your majesty, someone else…"

"No," she interrupted. "This must be you. You will handle it with the delicacy and sensitivity that I require. The human is not to be harmed, in anyway." She looked at me again, all sweetness gone from her expression.

"Yes, your majesty."

"And while I expect you to do what you must for the information I require and protect Miss Stackhouse if necessary, she will not be yours." Her voice was dangerously soft. "Is that clear?"

"I understand."

"Excellent. In your free time, you will continue your work."

"Of course." I'd played my only card, and it wasn't enough.

"But you and I will speak of it again soon," she said. "I'll call Eric myself and tell him of your arrival in his area. It's inevitable that you will have to make contact eventually, but I would like that put off as long as possible. He demands service of all his area vampires, but I will have you excused, at least for the time being. I will tell him you're…" She smiled suggestively at me and raised a single eyebrow. "In my favor."

I cleared my throat and shifted in my chair. "Thank you, your majesty."

"Would you care to join us?" she asked, nodding towards the closed bedroom door, "As it's the story now?"

"No, thank you," I said.

She laughed as she stood. I quickly rose as well, bowing my head. "Of course you wouldn't. No wonder Lorena always wanted to keep you to herself." She walked at a human's pace towards the door. "I'll have a car ready to take you to Hadley's apartment just after dark tomorrow evening." She smiled again. "I find it convenient to have safe quarters outside the palace walls… Take as much time with her as you require, and the car is yours when your stay is complete." She dismissed me with her hand, set down her empty goblet, and walked into her darkened bedroom.

After stalling in New Orleans for over a week, talking with Hadley, shopping, and aimlessly wandering the streets I remembered so well, I couldn't put it off any longer, and I drove north to Bon Temps. It was nice to have my own car to drive again. I'd traveled light and swiftly during the previous fifty years. I had my traveling case for when necessary, but all my belongings fit easily into a watertight backpack, and most often I stripped and took to the ground during the day. I didn't need much: my laptop and notebook, a couple books to read, ipod, a change of clothes. At the bottom of my pack, in a small tin box, were the mementos of home that I carried during the war. My wedding ring, locks of my wife's and children's hair, the few letters that managed to find me while I was away. As I sped down the road in my new BMW, it felt good knowing I was going home.

My house rose on a small hill, surrounded by live oaks that were there when I was a boy. Some of the original land had been parceled off and sold over the years, but the house was almost the same. It'd been updated over the years, but not recently. The kitchen and bathrooms were antiquated, and turning on the lights caused a burning smell in the walls that made me wish I knew more about electricity. I immediately set about building a light-tight space for my daytime rest, and I put a large tub in the master bathroom upstairs, but I wasn't in much of a hurry for the rest. Living several lifetimes had taught me patience, and it felt good to go to Home Depot in Monroe and buy simple hand tools like I remembered using during my human life.

***

When Sookie went back to the bar, I sunk my fangs into the bags of my blood and sucked them dry, but I was still thirsty. With the scent of Sookie in my head, TruBlood was not going to cut it, as they say now. I didn't want the complications of finding a human in Bon Temps, and I didn't want to go to Eric's bar in Shreveport, so I ran home, got in the car, and sped towards Malcolm's nest in Monroe.

Dianne answered the door, her ample assets barely concealed in a red dress, and I couldn't help but feel shame. Lorena and I had come to visit Malcolm when she was a new vampire, just months old. Lorena saw instantly how Dianne lusted for me, and she ordered me to have sex with her. Lorena and Malcolm sat on a sofa near the bed, watching and directing as I took her. Lorena intended for me to punish Dianne, and she had Malcolm forbid Dianne from feeding on me. Even without the blood, even with me thrusting with enough force to shatter a human's pelvis, Dianne was pleasured. In a possessive rage, Lorena got more creative and cruel with her demands, and she made certain it took all night. As dawn approached, I was angry with Lorena and disgusted with myself, frustrated and spent, and Lorena pushed Dianne away and straddled me. Malcolm laughed when Lorena bite at the sensitive spot behind my ear, drawing hard on the wound as I roared with my release.

Lorena and I took to the ground that day, her arms wrapped around me as the approaching dawn made my spine tingle and eyelids heavy. "You are mine, William," she said, her lips on my throat. "Tell me that you are mine."

The dirt was cool and damp on my bare skin as I pulled her close to my side. I threw my leg over hers. "I am yours," I whispered as a single tear escaped.

"Tell me again."

"I am yours," I said. She bit gently at my neck, not enough to break the skin, and I growled.

"Tell me," she insisted.

"I am yours forever."

I shook away the memory of that night as Dianne leaned seductively in the doorway. While no magic prevented me from entering a vampire's home without invitation, decency did, so I waited.

"Bill," she purred.

"Good evening, Dianne," I said.

"For what do we owe this unexpected pleasure? We'd been under the impression, from your last visit, that we shouldn't expect to see you often."

"Yes, well," I began, not certain how much I wanted to reveal. "It's been an interesting night."

Dianne laughed and stood back, gesturing my inside with a single finger. I had to brush up against her to enter, and she leaned in and quickly nipped my earlobe. "Mmmm," she softly moaned.

"Now Dianne," Malcolm said from the living room. "Let's not do anything to offend our Bill's delicate sensibilities." He laughed at his own joke.

I nodded to him and sat when he gestured to a spot on the sofa. Their nest smelled of blood and sex and sweat. Everything was draped in clear plastic.

"What can we do for you, Bill?" Malcolm asked.

Dianne laughed. "It's obvious, isn't it?" She perched on the back of the sofa and draped herself over my shoulders. I resisted the urge to pull away or shudder or both. "He's hungry…" She ran her fingers softly through my hair. Even through my shame, it felt wonderful. I'd thought, when I was a human, that certain things felt good – my wife's naked skin against mine, a cool cloth on my sweaty brow at the end of good day's work, a swallow of wine, the soft weight of my newborn son in my arms. But nothing compared to vampire senses, and it'd been a long time since someone had touched me so gently. But just as I was beginning to relax, she pierced her bottom lip with both fangs, her blood oozing sluggishly in thick drops from the wounds.

I cleared my throat unnecessarily and sat up, pulling away from Dianne and gripping my knees. "I've had a difficult evening." My voice came out raggedly, and Malcolm laughed.

"What? No blood sacks in Hole-in-the-Wall?"

"I'm doing my best to mainstream," I said as I stared at the plastic over the plush carpeting. Instead of the smell of Dianne and the two human heartbeats on the second floor of the house, I thought about the floor in my new bathroom at home, the boards I was painstaking stripping and sanding and refinishing. I had put ambient heating coils into the floor before relaying the original wood, and getting out of the tub would feel warm on my feet.

"Trying, but not succeeding." He laughed again and held his hand out to Dianne. "That's enough." She reluctantly licked the blood from her lips and flopped next to him. He leaned against her and closed his eyes. "I find this most amusing. Maybe you should start one of those Anonymous groups." He and Dianne burst into fresh laughter. "Hi, I'm Bill," he said. "I'm a vampire…"

"Hi Bill," Dianne replied. They laughed again, pleased with themselves.

"How do you know about those things?" I couldn't stop myself from asking.

Malcolm smiled. "It's delicious when creatures pretend to be something they aren't."

I growled, stood up, and walked towards the door. "You two have a pleasant evening," I said.

"Wait!" Dianne said.

Malcolm laughed. "Oh Bill! It was a joke."

The tires squealed as I left the driveway, and I ran several stop signs until I saw a 24-hour convenience store. I pulled in, and it hurt to walk at a brisk human pace to the cooler and pull out a 6-pack of O-Negative. Luckily there was a microwave.

As I gulped the contents, burning the back of my throat on a hot-spot, I tried not to think about how disgusting it was. That's when I noticed the clerk behind the counter. He stared at me with his mouth gaping open. I smiled, fangs down, knowing the synthetic blood still coated my teeth in a red film. He gasped and quickly turned away. I microwaved a second bottle, although I wouldn't drink it until I returned to the privacy of my car.

"Will…" the clerk gulped and stammered. "Will that be all?"

I considered glamouring him to do something foolish, but instead I put more money than necessary on the counter and left. I hated convenience stores. Grocery stores, too. Anywhere that sold food. The smells were overwhelming and often intolerable. The BMW engine purred to life, and I leaned back into the leather seat, turned on some music, and sipped at the second bottle. It was after midnight, and I had just enough time, if I drove quickly, to get home in time to watch Sookie come home.

As I drove, I thought about my savior. I'd spent the past month following her. I knew her habits well, and it was an odd life for someone as young and pretty as she. Sookie lived in the old Stackhouse home with her grandmother. Through the internet I learned that her parents had perished in a flash flood when she was a child, and her grandmother had raised her and her older brother, who was a despicable specimen of a human creature. Hadley's assessment was correct, and he possessed no special gifts, other than a singular talent for bedding just about every available woman in town, and some unavailable ones as well.

I'd broken into the old school to read her file. I knew that although she had high test scores, she'd had poor grades. The guidance counselor had suggested all forms of problems, and ultimately recommended a psychiatrist. She worked hard at her job, hadn't been late or called in sick, and she was unfailingly polite, even with people who treated her badly. The entire town seemed to be under the impression that she was insane, just as Hadley had said. While she was on friendly terms with the other employees at the bar, she didn't social with them outside of work. Most surprisingly, given her attractiveness and charm, no men had been by to see her, although her shifter boss, in dog form, often prowled around her house at night. On the nights she didn't work, she usually stayed in, reading or watching television with her grandmother.

I parked my car at the house and ran across the cemetery. Her car wasn't back yet, but I could hear its miserable little engine on Hummingbird Road, and then she turned onto the long, winding drive. I stayed hidden in the shadows and watched as she got out, a spring in her step that I'd never seen the end of a shift, and she skipped up the steps. I couldn't stop the low growl when I thought of her useless brother, how he was usually enjoying female conquests at this hour and could easily escort her safely home after work.

"Hi Gran!" she said after slipping off her shoes and hanging up her keys.

"Hi honey." Gran always sounded pleased, but never more so than when Sookie came home.

"You'll never guess what happened tonight!" She was bursting with her news, and I wished I could see her face as she spoke of me.

There was a significant pause as her grandmother obviously thought of guesses. "Oh! You got a date!" There was such hope in her voice that I cringed.

"Um, no," her tone abruptly changed to one of slight disgust and boredom, but the enthusiasm quickly returned. "A vampire came into the bar!"

"Did he have fangs?" Gran asked.

"Yeah, but most of the time they stayed put away."

"Did he bite anyone?"

She laughed. "No. He just had a glass of red wine… Well, he ordered it but he didn't drink it. I think he just wanted some company."

I shivered when she said that, thinking that she might be able to read vampire minds. I was afraid Sophie-Anne, as unusual a talent a telepath is and as much as she cared for Hadley, would have Sookie quickly killed if this were the case.

"Did you like him?" Gran asked.

"Well, he was real…" her voice trailed off. I leaned in closer and held my breath. "Interesting." I smiled when she used the same word I chose to describe our encounter. "I'll let you get to bed," she said. I heard her kiss her grandmother, and I closed my eyes and imagined what her lips would feel like on my skin.

"I was just waiting until you got home," Gran said.

"Come on, Tina," Sookie said, and I heard the cat pad softly after her.

I listened as she walked up the stairs. I could hear water in the bathroom, and I knew she was washing her face and brushing her teeth. When I heard her brush her hair, I thought of my wife, how I used to brush her hair. But I closed my eyes and focused on the sounds the girl was making, the whisper of cloth against her skin, the bed being turned down and pillows fluffed, the click as she switched off the lamp.

She sighed and turned often. Her heart was beating faster than usual. I wondered if she was thinking about the fight, or maybe worrying about the drainers' threats to kill her. When her breathing grew deep and regular, I settled back and opened the TruBlood I brought with me. It was even worse now that it was cool, and I closed my eyes and thought about the smell of Sookie's blood to distract me as I drank it as quickly as possible. I wouldn't normally have to drink that many, but the evening had taken its toll.

At one point, she was obviously having some kind of nightmare. She tossed and turned, her heart beating wildly as she gasped and then sat upright in bed. And then the shifter turned up. He growled at me again, and I growled right back. At some point, we'd have to discuss this situation when he could speak, but I was content to leave it for another night. Other than that, I sat outside her house, enjoying the night, until I felt the dawn approaching.

As I walked slowly home, I plotted again of possible ways to get inside her house. There was no way around the invitation, so either she or her grandmother would have to ask me in. I let the pleasant possibilities of what her sheets would smell like fill my head as I settled into my hole for the day.