Bill Compton

Bill Compton is the first vampire Sookie meets when he enters Merlotte's bar where she works. Bill, unlike most vampires, holds onto memories of his life as a human, and this is the main reason he attempts to mainstream, what vampires call living in peace with humans on a diet of synthetic blood.

In Dead Until Dark, Bill has just moved into the town however, it was his original home when he was human before he went to fight in the Civil War. He moves into the house that belonged to his late relative. At first, Sookie believes this to be the reason he came back to Bon Temps, however it is later revealed that the vampire Queen of Louisiana, Sophie-Anne Leclerq ordered him there to deliberatly make a friend of Sookie.