Look Before You Leap [True Blood]

23: Last Line Of Defense

"Stop? Like he was going to stop torturing that boy?" I glanced around but the kid must have run. "He deserves this."

"This is my battle, let me fight it," Alcide told me. He launched himself at JD and the two started trying to kill each other. I couldn't separate one emotion from the other even if I had tried. JD finally flipped Alcide and had him by the throat. JD turned and ran after the kid and Alcide chased after him.

Rikki walked towards me. "You alright?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'm ok. What about them?" She didn't answer though I had a feeling we were both thinking the same thing.

LPOV

Being a vampire wasn't as strange as I expected it to be. Maybe it was because Nora was right and I wasn't one hundred percent vampire. I wanted to call Rachel and tell her but Salome had taken our phones days ago and so I had no way of reaching her. Salome had us moved into actual bedrooms and I was sitting in mine that night when Bill came in. "How are you?" He asked.

"Pretty good, under the circumstances." I looked for a piece of paper and wrote down "Is it safe to talk in here?" He shook his head no and then tapped his forehead. I dropped my guard so I could hear him.

"Salome and the others are planning something. They want to take down the humans and put vampires in power."

"Who am I supposed to trust?" I asked quietly.

"No one." He said in his head, but out loud – for the benefit of anyone who might be listening in – he said, "Everyone here has your best interest in mind."

"Great," I said sarcastically. Bill gave me a look to tell me I wasn't being a very good actress. "Where's Eric?"

"I think he went to find Nora." He started to say something else but before he got a word out Salome was walking into my room.

"Oh, Lily. You must come have dinner with me," she said.

"Oh, I just ate," I lied.

"No matter, come anyways. We'll talk and I'll eat."

I glanced at Bill for help but he didn't say anything. He seemed too passive, as if he could care less about Salome dragging me off to do who knows what, not at all the Bill I had gotten used to. Salome motioned me out of the room impatiently and I followed her down the hall to the holding cells where there were at least twenty humans caged like animals. I felt sick to my stomach.

"Which one do you think looks good? I have a hard time choosing," she said to me. I didn't want to look at them, they all looked so scared. I rifled through their minds looking for someone who didn't have a family, someone who wouldn't be missed. "Well, which one?"

"Him," I said reluctantly. I pointed at a man who from what I gathered didn't have a family and had been found on a street somewhere. Salome shrugged and motioned for the guard to remove him. The guard led the man down the hallway back to Salome's room and then left the three of us alone. He was quiet, unlike the others and that made me feel worse about having to choose someone. I sat down on the couch and tried not to look as she sunk her fangs into his neck. The metallic scent of blood filled the air but my fangs didn't so much as quiver. As soon as she was finished she let his body drop to the ground with a thud and then leaned into the hall to motion for her guard to take it away.

"You're very restrained for a newborn. It's quite interesting. I would have drained a hundred men a day if my maker would have let me." I shrugged. "Ah well, of course you wouldn't have any idea about yourself. You are a peculiar case. A half-blood faeire turned vampire." I didn't know where she was going with this so I just nodded along. "It's such a shame you didn't keep a single power, Russell found that unfortunate as well after he sobered up."