Dead Until Dark – Chapter 1
“I’d been waiting for the vampire for years when he walked into the bar.”
Sookie Stackhouse is a twenty-five year old telepathic barmaid living in Bon Temps, Louisiana. While at work one night at Merlotte’s Bar, she notices a customer walk in who has a slight glow to his skin and she instantly realizes he is a vampire. He orders a bottle of Tru Blood – the synthetic blood developed by the Japanese that allows vampires to not be a “threat” to humans – but Merlotte’s doesn’t have any of it in yet. He settles for a glass of red wine. Sookie quickly realizes the evil plans in the thoughts of others sitting near the vampire. The Ratray’s, a local trashy couple, are vampire drainers, and plan to drain Bon Temps newest citizen. When she realizes that the vampire has left with the Ratrays, Sookie takes a chain from the back of her brother Jason’s truck and goes to rescue the vampire. She finds him pinned down with a silver chain and the Ratrays already in the process of draining him. She fights them off with the chain and saves the vampire. Sookie is amazed at the fact that she cannot read the vampire’s thoughts. She finds out the vampire is named Bill and then goes back to work.
“Ooh, did he have fangs?”
When Sookie arrives home that night, she finds her grandmother, Adele Hale Stackhouse, waiting up for her and tells her grandmother about meeting Vampire Bill. Of course, she leaves out the fight. Gran is very excited that Bon Temps had its first vampire and mentions how she would love to meet him.
“Somebody killed Maudette in her apartment last night.”
The next day Sookie is sunbathing (one of her favorite pastimes) when Jason shows up upset over her fight with the Ratrays. He had heard about the fight from his good friend, Rene Lanier. Gran fixes lunch for all three of them and Jason shares the latest bit of Bon Temps news – Maudette Pickens was killed in her apartment the night before. Maudette was strangled, but she also had vampire bites on her. Gran is not concerned about the vampire bites and asks Sookie to invite Vampire Bill to share his stories of the Civil War to the Decendents of the Glorious Dead chapter. Sookie assures her Grandmother that she will ask Bill about it the next time she sees him.
“Rene’d been a busy bee.”
Rene Lanier had also told Sookie’s boss, Sam Merlotte, about her encounter with the Ratrays. Sam had never expressed his feelings for Sookie before, but he is very frustrated that Sookie put herself in danger. Sookie had never read Sam’s mind, but she cann’t help it when he grabbs her and tells her how he doesn’t want to lose her. His mind is fuzzy to her, which is odd, but she can read that he has feelings for her. She runs from the room and vows to avoid his mind from now on.
“What are you?”
Two nights later, Vampire Bill walks through the door of Merlotte’s again. Sookie asks him to meet her after she get off work around 1am because she has a favor to ask him. Intending to ask him to meet her Grandmother, she is clueless when she walks into an ambush from the Ratrays. This time Bill is able to save Sookie (by killing both of the Ratrays) along with the help of a mysterious dog. Sookie is on the brink of death, so Bill gives her some of his blood (vampire blood has the ability to heal humans). When she wakes up, she finds Bill licking her head wound and he remarks that she tastes different from other humans. She explaines that she is a telepath but she can’t read his mind. She finds comfort in the silence. Sookie finally is able to ask Bill about visiting her Grandmother, and he agrees to come over two nights later if it would make Sookie happy. The dog has vanished and Sookie goes home to rest.
