The chapter starts the next morning when Sookie wakes up and makes herself a cuppa coffee. Her Gran gets a call from a friend, Everlee, with some morning gossip. It appears that the Rat's trailer fell victim to an unexpected tornado the night before and they were killed in the wake of it. Moving on, Gran asks Sookie if Bill has accepted the invite to speak at the upcoming DOTGD (Descendants of the Glorious Dead) meeting. Sookie confirms that he has agreed and expects to see Bill the following evening. Gran starts a cleaning spree in expectation of Bill's visit.
On her way into work, Sookie decides to take a look at the Rat's lot. She finds the lot in chaotic disarray, the trailer crushed and the yard a mess with trees torn up from the ground and strewed around the area. Shortly after she arrives, the parish coroner, Mike Spencer and the Sheriff, Bud Dearborn also arrive at the scene. The sheriff mildly questions her about her rocky relationship with the Rats. However, it is clear that Sookie was hardly responsible for this destruction or their untimely deaths. As soon as an opportunity presents, she quickly makes an exit using the excuse that she has to get to work.
At Merlotts, the bar is a-buzz with the gossip of the Rat's demise, to Sookie's dismay (she has a hard time keeping the patron's thoughts out of her head). Maudette's murder has taken a backseat to the Rat's misfortune. Here, we also get a quick look into the persona of Rene, Arlene's boyfriend. Rene generally acts like a typical crazy Cajun, however his Cajun accent is completely a put on. And although he and Sookie are hardly friends (although not enemies, either), he does step in to stand up for her when an unruly patron gives Sookie and unwanted grope. Sookie is amazed at Rene's unexpected behavior and speaks to him briefly. Rene tells her that she sometimes reminds him of his sister, Cindy, who moved to Baton Rouge a couple years before. He also tells her Cindy is well and working in a hospital cafeteria.
The next day, Bill comes over after dark to spend time with Sookie and to formally meet Gran. Gran is delighted with Bill's grace and manners. They all touch base briefly on the freak tornado of 2 nights before (what a pity...) then they discuss Bill's lineage. He hails from Bon Temps, albeit generations before. He explains that he inherited the house and land he is occupying from Jessie Compton, a distant relative, who died the previous year. Bill and Sookie then excuse themselves to take a walk together.
On their walk, Bill admits to Sookie that he was the tornado that decimated the Rats and their land. She is not really surprised as she surmised as much.He then briefly mentions his life prior to becoming a Vampire (or "contracting the virus" as the media puts it). He continues into his early years as a Vampire and explains he would generally feed only on people he knew to be of poor character, never fed on children, and sometimes either paid prostitutes for their blood and company or would glamour unsuspecting people into freely sharing their blood, then into forgetting the incident.
Sookie is intrigued at the idea of glamour and requests Bill to try his glamour on her. They find she is immune. They then move on to other topics of conversation. Sookie relates the hardships of growing up with her ability (which she had always thought of more as a disability). Bill briefly explains to her how Vampires are created (they must be intentionally drained to death then take the blood of a vampire, or on occasion, a person can tun if a Vamp habitually feeds or exchanges blood with them too frequently). Bill then related that he is currently in the mindset to mainstream (living within a human society) and is tired of being a drifter. He also mentions that he is having a hard time getting contractors, as his inherited house is in ill-repair and needs some serious updating, Sookie offers to help out with the contractors (being a small town, every one knows everyone). They spend another couple pages getting to know each other better and share their first smooch. (Bill has a fetish for chicks in long dresses, Sookie talks about her preferred breakfasts, Bill had been married before he became a Vamp, and they both enjoy a bit of TV, which are the main highlights).
The next day, Sam calls Sookie to request she come in to work (as it was supposed to be her day off). As she had plans with Bill for that evening, she felt a bit put out and came into work in a mood. At work, she mentally eavesdrops on Arlene to find that her friend is worried about an unexpected pregnancy. Although Arlene is generally fairly accepting of Sookie's gift, she gets miffed and gets annoyed with Sookie b/c it's a touchy subject. Sookie gets upset with herself and at the situation with Arlene and goes to take a breather in the bar's storeroom. Sam comes in and asks Sookie what's wrong and if she "overheard" something she oughtn't of. Then he invites her to listen to his thoughts if she wants. She is a bit taken aback by Sam's acceptance and offer and she declines the invitation, for the moment. Sam has given her something to think about however, at the moment she has to get back to work.
Once her shift ends, she heads off to Bills, since she had expected to see him that evening before being called into work. Upon arriving at his place, she meets 3 tawdry and bawdy Vamps (named Diane, Liam and Malcolm) who's personalities she finds to be quite distasteful. They are lurid and open about sexuality in general and have 2 humans among their little entourage. After some banter, Sookie exposes the male human with the Vamps as having AIDS, which is transferrable but does not always kill them (too many drinks of an infected human can cause death, but a limited exposure generally results in weakness for about a month, making them vulnerable to stakings or to drainers. They call Vamp AIDS Sino-AIDS but how the term was derived isn't explained). Jerry, the infected human, is seeking vengeance on Vamps in general b/c his previous human lover left him for a Vamp. Upon being exposed, he attacks Sookie, choking her half out of her senses. He is forcefully removed from her. The 3 vamps then leave, taking Jerry forcefully and the other human (a woman named Janella Lennox, the Vamps pass-around party favor/snack) in tow to punish Jerry for his attempt at infecting them. Sookie regains her composure and takes her leave shortly after them.
End of Chapter 2 (approximately 38 pages)
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