Deadly Memories: Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Charlaine Harris, who I’m very thankful for writing such great characters. I’m only borrowing them, I hope she won’t mind.

Rated M: There’s some language that might be offensive to some readers.

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“It’s Bubba!”

Eric turned to look at Bubba, who was still in his grasp. Bubba was shaking. He hadn’t ever seen Eric so upset with him before.

“Bubba?” Eric asked, questioningly, surprised to see him there. He usually would be able to sense these kinds of things. He didn’t know why he hadn’t known who it was. He was confused and bothered by it.

“Hi, Mr. Eric,” Bubba replied back. He was still shaking, even though Eric had slowly released him. “I’m sorry…I’m sorry,” he kept repeating over and over. “I didn’t do like you asked. I took her here, like you told me to, but…they still took her.” Bubba cried, worried that he had failed badly and that Eric was going to take it out on him.

Eric stepped back, trying to control his temper. With any other vampire, he wouldn’t have been so lenient. But it was Bubba and he was special. He relied on Bubba to do so many odd jobs for him. He tried to fight his temper and instinct as much as he possibly could. “Bubba,” he replied back, after a few moments, once he had gotten enough control of his temper.

Eric wondered why he hadn’t sensed that it was Bubba who they had stumbled upon…usually he was very good at knowing who was near him. Since he was so old, his senses were better than most vamps. He was at a loss as to why his senses were failing him now.

“Who took her?” Bill interrupted Eric’s thoughts. Damn, I should be the one asking these kinds of questions, Eric thought to himself.

Eric wondered if his feelings weren’t getting in the way, he couldn’t conduct a good, thorough investigation like he used to. It must be because was bonded so closely to Sookie, he figured, but he couldn’t trust anybody else to look for her either. They would only fuck it up.

Eric looked at Bubba, intently, he wanted Bubba to spill it before he lost control completely. He waited as patiently as he could. “It’s okay, Bubba,” he tried being tactful. Using his charm to let Bubba know that he didn’t hold him, wholly responsible. “You did your best. Did you happen to see who took her?”

Bubba looked down, ashamed. “No, I was searching in the bushes because I heard something, but when I came back, she was gone. I told her to wait, but she didn’t. I was polite and knocked on the door first though,” he grinned, as if proud of that fact. “The witch told me that Sookie wasn’t there. Then, I began looking in the woods again because I couldn’t find her in her car either,” he explained.

“How long ago was this?” Eric asked, patiently. He didn’t know where he could find the patience at a time like this, but he knew that with Bubba, he had to be gentle. He wouldn’t get anything out of him with force or if he yelled at him.

“I don’t know,” Bubba replied. “A little while ago, the sun hadn’t set all that long ago.”

It was now getting close to dawn. Soon, he was going to have to sleep until night fell again. He wanted to get as much time in now before he went to sleep. There had been too much time wasted already. She could be anywhere by now.

“Thanks, Bubba,” Eric replied, patting him on the shoulder.

“You’re not mad at me?” Bubba looked at him, surprised.

Eric shook his head. No, I’m only mad at myself because I wasn’t here to protect her, Eric thought to himself. “No, it’s okay…don’t worry, we’ll find her.”

“Okay, I’m going to go to bed now,” Bubba told him, before running deeper into the bushes until he disappeared from sight.

“Why doesn’t he stay at your place?” Bill asked, puzzled. “You have many homes, don’t you?”

“Yeah and I’d sell them all off right now, if it meant that I’d get Sook-…” Eric paused when he realized that he was about to reveal too much to Bill, who he still considered a rival, in a way. He turned to look at him. “Bubba doesn’t stay with me because he’s too independent,” he replied back, instead.

“Okay, I’m going to do what I can before daybreak,” Bill explained, before walking towards the graveyard that separated his property from Sookie’s.

Eric turned around and walked back towards his car. He turned to look at Sookie’s darkened bedroom window, as he walked by the house.

“Don’t worry, I’ll come get you…somehow,” he told the window, as if Sookie was staring out at him through the panes. He walked towards his car, backed out of the driveway and roared down the highway back towards Shreveport.

My eyes opened and the first thought in my head was, I’m hungry. I couldn’t remember the last time that I had eaten. What time of day was it? Where was I? Those were my second and third. They were questions that I didn’t have any answers to, but I hoped that I would find out soon.

Were they trying to starve me? I wondered. Because if their plan was to kill me with starvation, then wouldn’t it have been a lot easier just to shoot me or choke me? I didn’t want to think about ways to die, but those would be better, than going through a long term form of torture.

I wondered what Eric was up to. I tried once again to reach him through our bond, but this time, I was giving him some incentive to come find me. I promise…if you find me really, really, really soon, I won’t ever give you a hard time ever again. If you want to sleep with me, no problem. I’ve been fighting it for awhile now anyways. It’s been a really long time. I want to touch your ass. I want to run my hands up and down your gracious plenty…

Whoa, I was starting to get really horny talking to Eric like this in my head. It’s almost like having blood-bond sex. Was there such a thing? I kind of liked it. I grinned to myself, thinking of what I would do to him if he were the one tied down right now and I was standing over him.

Kinky…

Was that what blood-bond’s do when they’re not near each other? That would be so cool. Knowing already, some of the kinky ways that Eric liked things…well, I acknowledged, that I wasn’t really sure what the real Eric liked, but the fake one had. I had a feeling that the real Eric wouldn’t mind those ways either.

He had always had a one-track mind. I remembered the time when he had saved me during the massacre by laying on top of me. He had gotten excited even then. It had been one of the worse possible times to be thinking about sex, but somehow he had become aroused. Then, of course, he had used that situation to his advantage in order to con a kiss out of me. I had minded at the time, because 1. It was the worse possible time…while people were dying. And 2. Because I had been dating Bill at the time. But if circumstances had been different? Oh yeah…

Great, now I was horny and I had no way of pleasuring myself, not that it was a habit of mine. My hands were tied. I was laying on my back. I could feel my nipples peaked and ready underneath my shirt.

That was when I remembered that I was still in my work uniform. What had I been thinking? Why didn’t I go back in to change before I left work?

Stupid, stupid, stupid…no wonder I felt uncomfortable when I laid on my side. My tip money was still in my pockets. I wasn’t sure how much I had, but I could feel it. Since my hands were tied, I couldn’t even move the money around, so that I’d be more comfortable. I needed the money too. So, I didn’t want to lose any of it.

One thing was for sure…when Eric came and rescued me, he would get a kick out of seeing me laying here tied to this bed in my uniform. Somehow, I knew that he would think it would be a real turn on. Me, tied down. Me, in my uniform. Knowing him as well as I did, I knew that he would take full advantage of the situation and there wouldn’t be anything that I could do…except enjoy it.

Oh yea, baby…I would most definitely enjoy that.

Why am I so horny? I couldn’t help but wonder. I never had these kinds of thoughts at home. My eyes opened and then my eyes narrowed into slits as a sudden thought struck me. Eric. That dirty vampire was putting these ideas and thoughts into my head so that I wouldn’t be so afraid. It would be just like him.

Just wait until I got my hands on him. He would regret it until the day, well…until the day I died. A part of me thought it was sweet of him to try to keep my mind off of things, but this? What kind of person does this?

Oh yeah, that’s right…he’s not human, he’s a vampire. A wicked, scheming, sexy, dirty-rotten vampire. I couldn’t wait to see him, if only to give him a piece of my mind.

I heard footsteps up above my head. The floorboards were squeaky and loud. At least, I’ll be able to tell if someone was around or not. I tried reading the person’s thoughts, to see if I could find out anything. Either they, A. Knew that I could read minds, therefore they shut their mind off from me. Or, B. They were a Supe of some kind. Their brain waves were blurry, so that I couldn’t tell what they were thinking.

I wondered which it could be. I held my breath anxiously, wondering if they were going to finally appear to me so that I finally could give them a piece of my mind. Maybe they were already scared? I hoped they were. Once Eric got here…I knew that he would make them regret it.

Those kinds of thoughts kind of scared me. I had never really had murderous thoughts until now, but when you’ve been through what I have I guess, you get to a point when you get so sick and tired of it and don’t care anymore. Maybe that was happening to me?

My stomach growled again. I wondered, briefly, if we were anywhere near a fast food place so that whomever had taken me, could go grab me some food.

Where the hell am I? I could tell that I must be in a basement of some kind. It was so dark, I couldn’t see if it was the basement of a house or whatever it was. But there weren’t any windows.

It’s a good thing that I’m not scared of the dark.

I tensed up as soon as I heard the footsteps come to a stop overhead and started to open up a door. The reason why I could tell this was because a tiny shaft of light filtered in and gradually got larger. Have they finally come to pay their respects to their hostage? I thought, sarcastically.

I could hear footsteps begin to walk down some stairs. I turned my head to the side. I could make out a shadow growing smaller and smaller, until I could see some big-assed feet, coming down the stairs. Holy shit! Those were huge feet. They were boots of some kind, I could barely make out in the dark.

Whomever it was, was wearing dark pants. Gradually, I was able to see a whole body, as they descended the stairs. Finally, they got to the bottom of the stairs, but it was still too dark to see their face. It was still in shadows as they turned to face me.

“I hope you like this,” a deep gravely voice told me in the dark. “I’m under orders to take good care of you.”

It was a he, unless it was a really big woman who sounded like she had gone through a sex-change operation. He set a plate on a table next to me, which I didn’t know was there until now because it was so dark.

“Now, promise me that you won’t try anything when I untie you,” he said, before he reached for my gag to take it out of my mouth. “If you try anything…I’m tying you back up and you’ll starve,” he threatened.

Like he wasn’t already doing that? I wondered. I was so tempted to say something as soon as the gag left my mouth, but my mouth and throat were so dry, that all I could do was squeak out, “water.”

He must’ve carried down a glass of water as well, because he helped me lift up my head, so that I could take a sip of water that was in the glass. It tasted heavenly! If you had ever gone awhile without anything to drink, it would taste heavenly to you too. I sipped it as fast as I could, spilling some on my shirt, but I didn’t care. I was too parched.

“Are you going to be a good girl?” he asked, trying to persuade me. He slowly began to untie one of my arms so that I would be able to sit up, at the very least.

I nodded my head, my throat still too sore and dry to really say anything. Oh…but I wanted to. It’s just that I was so thirsty and hungry and the smell of the food was making me dizzy with need, that I decided to play nice for awhile.

Maybe after I ate…then I’d start to bitch.

I sat up in the bed or cot or whatever the hell I was laying on, I noticed that I had a pillow, which he used to help support my back. If I didn’t know any better…I could’ve sworn that he was almost gentle with me, while he helped to get me situated enough so that I was in a better position to eat.

He put the plate on my lap and handed me a fork. I kind of wished that it was a spoon because he was feeding me, of all things…macaroni and cheese. It tasted kind of plain, I usually preferred to eat it with hot sauce or ketchup, but since I hadn’t eaten in awhile, I didn’t care. I gobbled it down, as if my life depended on it.

He watched me eat, all the while. It was kind of nerve-wracking. Hadn’t he ever seen someone eat before? I wished that I could read his mind, but still this close, I was getting nothing. Not that I was touching him or anything like that, so that I could get a better reception…but it reminded me of whenever I would run into Renee. I hadn’t been able to read his mind either. It was a good thing, in a way, but I wished I would’ve been able to read it before he had killed my Gran.

I couldn’t tell if this guy was a Supe or a human. He was the size of a Were, but I wasn’t getting the same kind of brain waves from him that I usually got with them. I wondered what he wanted with me and why. I couldn’t remember ever meeting him before, of that I was certain. Someone his size, I would probably remember running into him from time to time around Bon Temps. I wondered if he lived there. Or, just where we were.

I looked around the room, with the light coming from upstairs, trying to figure out where I was. I could now tell that I was indeed in a basement. I tried to memorize what I could see of the man’s features, so that I could use them. I wanted to be sure that I could pick him out in a police line up when I got out of there so that he would pay.

Finally, I had finished eating. The man took the plate away from me, then held the glass up to my mouth again. I was still really thirsty, so I took another sip or two…or three.

That’s when I reacted. He didn’t see it coming, I was pretty sure. I tried reaching for my legs to untie them, but he quickly reacted, then held me down. I laid back on my back again. I could feel him re-tying up my free hand, that I had eaten with. I was tied back down again. My escape attempt had failed. I sighed and looked up at the ceiling, hoping that the man wouldn’t want to have anything else to do with me for awhile.

“What did I say about being nice?” The man scolded me. He made a, tsk, tsk sound with his mouth. “There’s no way you’re going to get away from me, you understand?

He shoved the gag back in my mouth, before I could say a word, so I just nodded my head that I understood him.

“I’ll be back to check on you in a little while. I have a few things that I’ve gotta do,” he explained, before gathering up my empty plate of food and the glass of water. “Try not to miss me.” He took them with him when he climbed back up the stairs, closing the door behind him.

I was in complete darkness once again. Like I would? I wanted to shout back at him. In fact, I screamed it, but it came out muffled because of the gag. I lay there, staring up at the ceiling, trying to calm myself down. I had never thought that I’d hate anybody so much as I did right then. I clenched my hands into fists, imagining taking one of my fists and punching him in the eye.

I took a few deep breaths. Getting all worked up, when there was no one there wasn’t going to help me out, now will it? I needed to think up a new plan…

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