TITLE: When Chaos Reigns
RATING: M for language, graphic violence and mature themes
PAIRING: Pam/Tara
SYNOPSIS: A continuation from the 5x12 bonus scene where the gang, minus Eric and Sookie, try to escape
DISCLAIMER: True Blood and its characters do not belong to me. I'm just borrowing them for my own amusement.
A/N: So I'm thinking that I might just go insane wondering what the frickin' hell is going to happen to Sookie and co. post infiltrating The Authority. Since summer of 2013 is ridiculously far away, I'm going to have to sate my curiosity by penning out potential scenarios. Hope y'all enjoy.
"I'm coming for you, Warlow," Jason growled murderously under his breath, as he trained his gun up the darkened stairway.
Behind him, Nora's face clouded over with shock and confusion. "Warlow? What do you know about Warlow?" she asked, her voice pitched with thinly-veiled suspicion.
Jason stiffened, his entire body going stock still. Turning to face Eric's sister, the question "what?" had barely managed to form on his lips when chaos exploded all around them.
A spray of bullets, wooden and silver, spat at the rag-tag group of vampires and human with deadly accuracy, causing them to scatter. That had been The Authority's guards' plan. Divide and conquer. And it worked.
Jessica, who had taken refuge inside the elevator, vamp sped out and grabbed Jason by the elbow, giving the man no time to argue as she hauled him up the stairs and into the black abyss that waited.
Nora hissed like a scalded cat and darted forward, her actions taking the first line of guards by surprise. They all met the True Death with stupefied looks on their faces.
Pam, driven by primal instinct, vamp sped towards Tara and yanked her into a dark corner of the tunnel on the left. Pinning her progeny against the wall, she cocked her head, listening for the sound of heavily booted feet along with the cocking of guns.
"Get the fuck off me!" Tara growled as she fought against the iron-clad hold Pam had on her wrists.
Shut. Up." Pam snarled, any trace of humor she had shown in the elevator dissipating in line of recent events. She listened as the sound of boots grew ominously closer and knew then and there that she had to make a decision. "Listen to me. Listen," she hissed as Tara continued to struggle. "I'm going to distract them. Clear you a path. Then I want you to get the fuck out of dodge."
"No." Tara shook her head vehemently. "No. No fuckin' way. Don't you go and play the tragic hero. Don't." Her voice broke at the end of the sentence and she sucked back a ragged sob. Using every last vestige of strength, she broke free of Pam's hold and cupped the blonde vampire's face in her hands. "Stay with me," she pleaded, her voice hoarse with emotion. "Stay."
Pam used their close proximity to crash their lips together. The kiss was desperate, bruising and chock full of promises neither was sure they could keep. Tara released a pained cry when Pam broke what could possibly be their last kiss and fumbled to grip at the front of her maker's corset.
Pam trapped Tara's fumbling hands with her own, squeezing them tightly. "I'll find you," she vowed. "I promise." She leaned forward and pressed one last fleeting, desperate kiss onto Tara's mouth, hoping to convey everything she felt in that moment with that simple act. "Don't fuckin' die," were Pam's last words to her progeny before she blurred out from the corner, sending a cacophony of guns going off.
Tara bit back a scream of pure agony and despair and reached for her gun, which was strapped securely to her thigh. Swallowing hard, she forced the raging sea of emotions into the far reaches of her mind and swiped the back of her hand across her eyes to rid them of the bloody tears she didn't know she had shed. Resolve hardening, she utilized her vampire instincts, her gun trained expertly in front of her.
Silence. She edged to the corner of the wall that would lead out to the main tunnel, making sure to keep her body out of sight. She released a needless breath, counted to three and sprang out from the corner. A hail of bullets greeted her and she simultaneously fired back a deadly round before tucking and rolling to the space under the stairs.
Visibility was dim to zero in the poorly lit tunnels but Tara was a vampire. She could see as clearly in dark as she could when the sun was out. Peering out from her temporary hideout, she noted the puddles of steaming vampire and smiled with grim satisfaction. Further down the tunnel, the walls were caked with blood and the floor slick with entrails. The young vampire hoped to God that none of it was Pam.
Pam. She pressed a hand to her heart, felt the hum of the maker/progeny bond and sighed with relief. Her maker was okay. Now all she needed to do was find her. Leaving this god-forsaken place without Pam was not an option, never mind the fact that Pam had told her to escape. Tara reloaded, settled the gun snugly in the palm of her hand and ventured down the tunnel.
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Pam was surrounded. Snarling, she let her fangs pop and took all but a millisecond to strategize before putting her plan into motion. She faked a left then darted to the right, the hiss of bullets following her every move. Lucky for Pam, this group of guards was merely human and she wasted no time in eviscerating all five of them, leaving a trail of dead, mangled bodies in her wake.
The sound of a something zipping through the air caused the blonde vampire to turn but she moved a fraction too late. A silver throwing star cut through the air with alarming speed and embedded its razor sharp edges into her shoulder. Immediately, the smell of burning flesh assaulted her nostrils and Pam hissed in agony. However, despite her injury, she blurred forward, grabbed the human guard by his throat and squeezed. The sound of bones cracking sent a shiver of satisfaction to course through the blonde vampire's veins and seconds before she killed the man, she bent her head and plunged her fangs into his carotid artery. Ripping open muscle and flesh, she allowed the rich thickness of warm blood to burst into her mouth even as she ravaged the man's neck to nothing more than a pulp of meat.
"Drop dead," she sneered as she released her grip on the now dead guard. He fell to ground with an unpleasant thump but Pam paid him no mind. Instead, she relieved him of his semi-automatic, patted him down for magazines then tucked the spare he carried down the front of her corset. Shouldering the gun, Pam ran a hand across her mouth to clear away the blood but her actions only resulted in smearing the red liquid even more. It sat on her lips like macabre makeup but Pam knew this was not the time to worry about her looks. She reached up and grasped at the part of the throwing star jutting out from her shoulder and then proceeded to all but spit with rage and pain as the silver bit into the pads of her fingers, searing her flesh. Gritting her teeth, she yanked out the offending item and sent it spinning into one of the dead bodies. It hit a fallen guard with deadly accuracy between the eyes.
She waited the few seconds it took for the gaping wound in her shoulder to close before she vamp sped down the seemingly endless tunnel, hoping for a way out.
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Tara was fighting back to back with Nora. Both the pair and the guards that surrounded them had run out of ammunition. It was down to stakes and good old fashion hand-to-hand combat. Tara preferred the latter. Behind her, she heard the slightly hiss of a stake being pulled out from Nora's shoulder holster and that one action was all it took for the guards to close in on them like a pack of rabid wolves.
Nora was a virtual blur as she jumped from guard to guard, staking as she went. It didn't matter if they were human or vampire; Eric's sister simply didn't differentiate between the species as she drove stake after stake into the hearts of each guard. Some exploded, spraying Nora and the nearby guards with blood soaked gristle and goo whilst others, the humans, collapsed and gurgled for a mere few seconds before they went forever still.
Tara, having less experience, both in combat and as a vampire, wisely let Nora take the brunt of the attack. Nevertheless, in front of her stood three burly guards who looked as though they bench pressed trucks in their spare time. Tara snarled venomously at them, her fangs dropping in response and then rushed forward. The guards came down on her like a swarm of bees and Tara pushed all of her fighting skills to the forefront of her mind.
The guard closest to her was the one on her right. Spinning, she lashed out with her left leg, catching the man in the throat. Lucky for her, this guard was human and the vampiric force that fueled her kick caused the human guard's throat to cave in on itself. He dropped to ground, clutching at his ruined throat as wordless screams poured out from his open mouth. Tara spared him no mercy as she stomped down hard onto his chest, sending shards of broken ribs to pierce his heart. He died instantly.
The next two guards were vampires. The moved in perfect synchronicity and trapped her between them, their fangs glinting off the sickly yellow light that illuminated the tunnel. Tara sneered and jumped up, doing a split in midair, which caused each of her booted feet to come into contact with each guard's heavily muscled chest. They barely stumbled backwards but Tara used the brief window of surprise and time to roll off to the side and away from between the two.
"Tara!"
Tara heard something whoosh through the air and instinct had an arm reaching out to snatch the object. The feel of cool metal touched her palm and Tara spun where she crouched and emptied a round of bullets into the two vampire guards. They combusted on sight, drenching Tara with blood and stringy flesh.
"Disgusting," Tara groused as she shook the gore off her arms and toed odd pieces of vampire off her boots.
Nora came up to her; her lustrous chestnut hair matted to the sides of her head with blood. She held out a hand and Tara took it, allowing the petite vampire to pull her to her feet. "Are you alright?"
"Peachy," Tara muttered as she pulled a piece of vampire out of her hair. "Thanks for this," she added, waving the gun for confirmation.
"You're welcome," Nora replied. "I'm afraid I've only managed to find one last magazine for it though," she continued apologetically as she handed the last round of ammunition to Tara. "But I did procure this delightful little baby from that idiot guard over there who thought he could sneak up on me." Genuine disbelief colored her tone as Nora spoke, as if she couldn't believe that the guard had actually tried that maneuver on her.
"People are stupid," Tara offered nonchalantly as she reloaded her gun with a swift click. She took the wicked looking silver hunting knife from Nora's outstretched hand and tucked it into her boots. "We should go."
"Indeed. Follow me."
Together, they blurred left and down a tunnel that would lead them out of the basement of the building
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Pam threw Jessica a half loaded Glock she had wrangled out of a dead human guard's hand before turning back to face the half-giant of a vampire that was boring down on her like a menacing black cloud.
"Bite me," she sassed before she jumped up, wrapped her hands around the pipe that hung off the ceiling and kicked out at the guard with both feet. The vampire guard stumbled backward, curses streaming from his mouth to turn the air blue. However, he recovered quickly enough to grab at Pam's exposed legs, pulling her down from her perch. He swung her into the wall with a mighty force and her head met its hardness with a sickening crack that had Pam groaning in pain, her hair splayed out around her in a mess of blood-matted curls.
"Yeah, that's right, bitch. Scream for me," he leered as her loomed over her, lips pulled back to reveal sharp fangs.
Pam head-butted him in response, breaking his nose and sending a stream of blood to gush out of both nostrils. The guard yelled out in pain but Pam didn't give him the luxury of a reprieve. Instead, she vamp sped out from in front of him, came to a halt behind him and grabbed both sides of his head. With a strength and force that could only come from being a vampire, she pulled the guard's head clean off his shoulders, immediately causing his body to disintegrate into lumps of muscle and blood.
"Asshole," she hissed at his steaming remains. "Nobody fucks with my hair." She wiped her hands down the sides of her ruined black pants to rid them of the slickness of blood. A shriek had her turning to where Jessica was. The ginger haired vampire was backed into a corner, a knife sticking out of her stomach. The flesh around it was smoking and the young vampire was trembling in anguish.
Pam zoomed toward her, wrapped lean fingers around the handle of the knife, wrenched it out and slid its sharp blade clean across the guard's throat. Blood spilt like ruby rain from the broken skin, splattering Jessica. The guard dropped to the ground like a sack of bricks. Human.
"You ok?" Pam asked.
"Not really," Jessica whimpered as she pressed a hand to the wound on her stomach. The blood was staunching but the wound had been deep and the flesh around it was an angry red, the skin puckered like a pair of swollen lips.
"You'll heal," Pam said curtly. A sudden movement caught the corner of her eye and with a practiced flick of her wrist, she sent the knife she was holding whizzing into the dark space to the left of the pair. The sound of a heavy body dropping to the ground was all the confirmation Pam needed to know that any imminent threats were momentarily thwarted.
"We need to go," Pam announced. She threw an arm around Jessica, forcing the girl to lean against her. "Keep that goddamn gun trained in front of you." Holding onto the younger vampire, Pam led them out to the exit at the far end of the room, her hawk-like gaze monitoring every corner.
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"Eric!" Nora all but leapt into his willing arms as she caught sight of his blond hair glinting off the moonlight. She greeted him with a hard kiss, which he returned gladly before setting his sister back on her feet. "Are you well?" he asked in Old Swedish.
"Yes, brother," was her simple reply.
Eric turned to Tara who was hovering protectively in front of Sookie who looked more haunted than the young vampire had ever seen her. However, Tara had problems of her own, the most pressing being that she had combed the tunnels for her maker and had come up empty. Now she was outside, with one half of their group but the person she needed to see most was absent. Tara's heart howled in displeasure, sending sharp pangs of hurt to vibrate out from her chest. The young vampire flinched and ground her teeth together in response.
"Where's Pam?" Eric inquired. He scanned a critical eye down Tara's face, almost daring her to lie to him. When Eric had released Pam, he had also broken the maker/progeny bond between them. As such, he couldn't actively feel his progeny anymore. It was a loss that the Viking vampire would mourn for the rest of eternity.
"I. Don't. Know," Tara managed to grit out between clenched teeth. Her grip on her gun tightened to an almost unbearable degree. She had to release the pressure she was putting on the handle of the weapon when she heard it crack slightly.
Eric noted the young vampire's anxiety, caught the terror in her eyes and his unbeating heart clenched at the desperate look tattooed across her face. "She's fine," he reassured her. "Pam's feisty," he continued, hoping to diffuse the tense situation with humor. When Tara failed to react, he switched back to a serious note. "She'll come back to you." Eric's voice was forged with conviction. Pam was a fighter and a strong one at that. He had no doubts at all that she would emerge from this hellhole alive and relatively unscathed.
"She better," Tara muttered. A flash of black caught the corner of her eye and it was followed by the glint of metal. Tara barely managed to yell "RUN!" before a rocket launcher exploded their way.
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Pam, Jessica and Jason were thrown backwards as an explosion erupted outside. Jason, having caught up with the pair as they began making their way out, was surprisingly the first to recover. He leapt to his feet, curses spewing from his bloody lips in quick fire succession. When a scream echoed from outside, Jason's face drained of color.
"SOOKIE!" he yelled, dread wrapping around his neck in a choke-hold. He took off as a second scream wafted through the open doors, the sound marred with undiluted shock and pain. "SOOKIE!"
Pam's heart seized in her throat. She grappled for the maker/progeny bond…and felt nothing. Uncontrollable panic flailed through her veins like a hot wire and she hauled both Jessica and herself to their feet before zooming them out of the building and towards the smoking wreckage.
The scene that greeted both vampires could only be described as chaos. Pure, utter, unashamed chaos. Blood painted the area around the hole that had been blown into the ground by the rocket launcher. Residue smoke and fire obscured Pam and Jessica's visions but as the wind began clearing away the smoke, they could make out bodies.
Oh god," Jessica gagged. She took a hesitant step forward, and then changed her mind, turning instead to look at Pam for guidance.
"Tara," Pam whispered, her voice strangled with fear. She pressed a hand to her heart, searching for even the slightest sign of life from her progeny. There. A flicker. It was faint but it was there. An exclamation from Jason had her zooming towards the sound of his voice. "Shit," was the first word that dived out from her full lips as her eyes took in the mess before her.
Tara was lying on top of Sookie, her face almost burnt beyond all recognition. One of her hands had been pulverized and it now resembled nothing more than a collection of ground meat and bones. A large gash ran down her back, deep enough to reveal the white of her spine and a jagged piece of shrapnel was embedded in her side. Blood gushed from seemingly everywhere and Pam was paralyzed with abject terror.
A sudden movement had her spinning around. Eric was holding a human guard by the throat with one hand. In the other was a rocket launcher, which Eric dropped uncaringly to the ground. Without so much as a sound or warning, Pam sprang to her feet, grabbed the guard and tore his throat out with her teeth. The arterial spray of blood gushed over Eric and herself but Pam ignored it in favor of hearing the guard's heart turn sluggish in its beats before it slowed to a barely there crawl. Then there was silence.
Pam spared the briefest of glances at Eric. Half the side of his face was burnt but healing rapidly. He nodded to let his progeny know that she was okay before moving towards another part of the smoking wreckage to where Nora was presumably.
Pam refocused her attention back on Tara, who lay unmoving on the ground, blood vomiting out of the wound on her back. During her act of revenge, Jason, with the help of Jessica had pulled Sookie out from under Tara. The half-fairy had been knocked unconscious and save for a minor cut on her head that leeched out small lines of blood and a myriad of bruises peppering the side of her face, she was fine.
"Goddamn it, Tara," Pam hissed as she knelt next to her progeny. Her anger had stemmed from the howl of terror that was still sending shockwaves throughout her body but the notion that Tara had so very nearly met the True Death just minutes ago, infuriated Pam beyond belief. "What part of 'don't fuckin' die' didn't you understand?" she growled as she lifted to cradled Tara carefully in her arms.
She turned her progeny face-up slowly, mindful of the injury on her back. Once Tara was nestled against her, Pam reached down and tugged at the piece of shrapnel that had found a new home in Tara's side. Blood began leeching from the open wound as Pam carefully pulled it out before flinging it as far away from her as she could. Setting Tara more firmly against her Pam lifted her wrist to her mouth. Her fangs popped out with a subtle click and she bit down on wrist, dragging the sharp incisors down its length to open the veins. When her blood began flowing out of the twin wounds in earnest, she held her bleeding wrist to Tara's mouth.
"Come on, baby, drink." Pam's voice was no louder than a mere whisper, her voice haggard with worry. When Tara failed to ingest the blood that was starting to pool in her open mouth, Pam shook her progeny's unconscious body with impatience. "God-fuckin'-damnit, Tara! I said drink!"
"Isn't vampire blood kinda useless to us?" came Jessica's timid voice. The redhead was sitting a few feet from Pam and she was glad for the distance between them because the elder vampire had a wild crazed look in her eye that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand erect.
"We can still feed off each other. It's just not as effective," Pam gritted out. She pushed her wrist further against Tara's mouth. "Come on, darlin'," she enticed, her voice taking on a saccharine tone. "Just a sip, baby. That's all I need you to do."
Silence pervaded the air around them and Pam found herself almost growling with despair. She was about to start spitting curses in every language she knew when a soft suckling emanated from Tara. Looking down, Pam caught sight of Tara's mouth latching onto her weeping wrist, her throat moving slightly as she swallowed the red liquid.
"That's it," Pam encouraged. Relief sang through her like a siren's song, soothing frazzled nerves. She reached out and began stroking a hand down Tara's blood-matted and tangled hair. "Good girl. Drink."
Tara took in the sweet taste of blood into her mouth, tasting remnants of Pam's unique scent mixed in with it. Lavender and honey. She suckled harder as her strength started returning to her bones and shifted uncomfortably as her various wounds began stitching itself up and the skin on her face crackled slightly as it began to mend.
When Pam could offer no more without endangering herself, she regrettably removed her wrist and rubbed her blood over the ragged lines made by her fangs. The wounds closed almost instantly. She looked at Tara who was lying almost bonelessly in her lap. "Don't you ever fuckin' do that to me again," were the first words that tumbled from her mouth. Her eyes, a clouded mix of steel-blue and winter-gray flashed down dangerously at Tara.
Tara turned and pressed a kiss to Pam's clothed covered stomach. "Sorry," she husked, her voice contrite though the smirk on her face stated otherwise.
Pam rolled her eyes but otherwise remained silent. She held Tara, one hand carding fingers almost absentmindedly through her progeny's hair as she assessed her surroundings. Jessica was hovering by Jason who had Sookie in his arms. The boy was muttering nonsensically under his breath as he held his sister in a surprisingly tender embrace. Just as Pam's thoughts turned to ponder where her maker and his sister were, a van roared up in front of them.
Jessica and Pam immediately hissed, their fangs protruding from their gums and Jason instinctively reached for his gun, training it on the van. Tara attempted a struggle to sit up but Pam's hand clamped firmly down on her shoulder, effectively keeping her in place.
"Don't shoot," Eric's lazy tone drifted over to the seated group. He emerged from the driver's door and rounded the side of the van to slid open the side door. "Your carriage awaits my good people," Eric announced with a mocking bow.
"Dick," Jason muttered. He gathered a still unconscious Sookie into his arms and bundled her into the van. Jessica followed, taking great precaution to choose a seat away from Jason.
Pam returned her azure gaze back to Tara. She ran a visual sweep down her progeny's body and gently but firmly turned her slightly around to assess the wound on her back. It was still there but slowly healing. Nodding in satisfaction, Pam stood, cradling Tara preciously in her arms.
"I can walk," Tara grumbled, her pride shining through.
"Shut it," Pam responded, the timbre of her voice returning to its natural dry drawl. She clambered onto the van and took a seat at the very back to give them some privacy. In front, Eric had slid the door shut and was back behind the wheel in less than a blink of an eye. The van shuddered slightly as the Viking vampire put it into gear and then they were off.
Pam held Tara to her, quite unwilling to relinquish her hold on her progeny. Tara snuggled into in the cool cradle of her maker's arms in response, pressing a soft, almost shy kiss to the delicate skin above Pam's collarbone.
Pam ducked her head, her hair creating a curtain around them. Tucking two fingers under Tara's chin, she lifted the younger vampire's head to allow their lips to meet. It was a kiss of reaffirmation. Lips moved against, over and between each other. The kiss ranged from soft and achingly sweet to deep and needy as tongues dueled and teeth nipped. Finally, Pam tapered off the kiss, moving from wet, open mouth kisses to the simple sliding of kiss-swollen flesh against kiss-swollen flesh. She finished by placing delicate pecks around Tara's mouth before rearing her head back up and leaning it against the headrest, eyes closed and a satisfied smile tugging at her bruised lips.
"So," Tara began, her voice no more than a husky rasp after that quick but intense make out session. She rested her comfortably head against Pam's shoulder and a small smile played across her lips as she prepared to voice aloud her question. "Where would you like to go on our first date?"
THE END