Look Before You Leap [True Blood]

33: When One Door Closes

RPOV

I ran my hand over the black dress I'd chosen for Terry's funeral. I hadn't known him well, but he had always been kind to me. He was one of the few people that hadn't treated me like I was some fangbanging whore after everyone learned I was dating Eric.

I walked across the cemetery towards the plot that belonged to the Bellefleurs. A large group of people had already taken their seats but I wasn't the only straggler. Arlene was standing in front of the casket and I walked up to her. "I'm sorry for your loss, Arlene. Terry was a really good guy."

She nodded. "He thought you were a lovely girl." To my surprise she gave me a hug. "Thanks for coming." She gave me a sad smiled.

I spotted Sam and wandered over to him and squeezed his arm. "Hey, Rachel." He gave me a half hug. A pretty girl, who I didn't recognized smiled at me. "Oh, this is Nicole."

"Nice to meet you," I told her.

"You too, I've heard a lot about you and your sister."

"Oh, well, hopefully nothing too awful." I gave her a quick mental scan and noticed something odd. I leaned towards Sam and whispered, "Is she pregnant?" He nodded. "Is it yours?" He hesitated but nodded again. Nicole glanced at us and I smiled at her, she turned back to the woman on the other side of her. "Oh my god," I whispered.

"Emma is alright, just so you know," Sam told me. "She's with her grandmother, but they left the pack."

"That's good, I'm glad she's okay." I opened my mouth to ask a question but then stopped myself.

"If you are wondering about Alcide, he's okay too," he told me. "He isn't packmaster anymore, he actually helped us save Emma."

"Oh," was all I could think to say.

"He's not a bad guy, Rach."

LPOV

As the sun came up, I had to admit I was scared. I had seen Warlow and I knew his blood would let vampires walk in the sun. He was a hybrid and so was I. He could walk in the day, and the assumption was that I could to.

When we reached the facility the sun was fully up. I stopped running and stood in the daylight, as Eric killed the guards. Russell had been right I was a daywalker. Eric ran into the building and I followed him.

This Eric was a stark contrast to the Eric who'd stood with me in the daylight just a few weeks ago. It wasn't that I missed the Eric who had no memories. But that man had showed me that Eric could be kind, and now I couldn't see the kindness at all. I couldn't help but feel like it was my fault that he was gone.

Once inside the building I ran straight to gen pop one to free Tara, Jessica, and Pam. I was too fast for the guards, any that tried to stop me were killed before they could. After breaking the neck of the guard outside the door, I used his arm to open the gate. "You're all free to go!" I called to the women inside, they flooded out. None of my friends were among them.

"Lil?" Someone asked. I turned and saw Jason sprawled out on one of the benches.

"Jason?" I rushed to his side. His neck was covered in bite marks. "What the hell happened to you? Why are you here?"

"I came to help," he told me. "I'm real sorry for the way I treated you before. I wasn't myself."

"I know, I read your mind. You were pretty fucked up."

"So we're cool?"

"Yeah, of course. Do you know where Jessica and Tara are?"

He nodded. "Yeah, they took all the vampires away that knew about the poisoned TruBlood. I'll take you to them." He started to sit up but faltered. I caught him before he could fall off the bench.