A/N: Here is the third and final installment of Shatter. Special thanks to all of those who read AND reviewed, I appreciate you guys so much! And I hope you all enjoy the conclusion. Happy Reading!
The scent of her Child's tears filled Pam's nostrils as she entered Fangtasia and it was instantly like a sucker punch to her gut. Out of the two of them, though she was loathe to admit it, Tara was always the last to cry. Pam would have probably already cried a small lake before her hardy ass progeny would shed a single tear so she knew, in that moment, that their little tiff had done some collateral damage to their bond. Tara was shielding from her. But the trail of tears was potent enough for her to know that the dark skinned vampire was in their bedroom. She said a silent prayer for their bedspread as white sheets and blood tears did not mix at all before making her way down to the underbelly of their club.
The sound of music hit her as soon as her heeled foot hit the first step. She paused for a moment, letting the lyrics wash over her in hopes to assess the mood that her progeny was in. She recognized the song almost immediately. She and Tara had quite a similar taste in music as far as music went. After all, she had been made vampire just a little after the turn of the twentieth century and had heard ragtime become jazz, jazz become blues, blues become rock and roll, and rock and roll become soul. Mind, being a human in the Victorian age had also helped acquire her tastes for classical music, waltzes and reels and such and she would rather have heard a Tchaikovsky concerto poring from their room rather than the raspy baritone of Harold Melvin being accompanied by the Blue Notes, but at least Tara had stopped crying.
"So, I take it you're assuming that I don't know you by now?" The blonde deadpanned in an attempt to break the ice as she stepped into the room. She was fully aware of the instant Tara sensed her presence. Her progeny sat up straighter in the arm chair across from their bed, yet did not to turn to acknowledge her Maker.
"I didn't think you'd be back so soon," came the soft response before the music was cut off and the room was engulfed in a thick silence, "I assumed you'd take your frustrations out on some overly willing human or something."
Pam rolled her eyes, stepping deeper into the room until she stood in front of her brooding progeny. "Well, you know what they say about people who assume things. I went to Eric."
"Of course you did," Tara griped with a scowl, her obsidian eyes meeting Pam's, "And what did Swedish Fish tell you? Did he whisper sweet things in your ear in an attempt to lick your wounds? Or did he do you one better and just go on and lick them for you?"
"Careful darling, jealousy hardly becomes you. And if memory serves me correctly, any wounds that I might have need licked would have been caused by you and your aim with a couple of liquor bottles." Pam placed a hand on her hip and glared at Tara. "Just so you know it was Eric who told me to come back here."
Tara's dark eyes flashed with anger and hurt, "Right. And you always do what daddy tells you to do. Look if you don't want to be here, then go."
The blonde sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose out of habit rather than actually trying to stave off a headache. "For someone so intelligent you sure do sound unbelievably stupid when you're in a shitty mood, you know that? It was you who decided to throw a tantrum and trash the bar."
"Well, you threatened me," Tara countered but even to her own ears it sounded like she was grasping at straws.
"And you compared me to your meat sack of a human mother!"
"You choked me!"
"I think I've done more physical harm to you once or twice with my mouth between your legs and while you did beg, it was never to stop," Pam drawled with a smirk.
Had Tara's flawless, melted chocolate like complexion allowed it, the blush the warmed her cheeks in that split second would have been visible. Just the same, the gesture only incensed her further. "Why do always do that? Try to fucking sex your way out of everything?"
"And why do you get so fucking enraged at even the smallest things, Tara, and then expect someone to kiss your ass when it's you who fucked up in the first place?"
That gave the younger vampire pause. She eyed her Maker and for all the years they had been together, Pam had never seen her Child look so vulnerable. It was almost enough to make her take the words back, but she didn't.
"I'm...sorry," Tara murmured in such a soft tone that had the blonde not been equipped with her superior vampire hearing, she might not have heard her, "You're so fucking right, so fucking right. And I'm sorry."
"I mean," Pam said her own tone pitched higher than it had been moments before, "I fuck up too. But how can you expect us to make it through this endless eternity in one piece if every time we disagree we're at each other's throats? It makes no sense."
Damn Eric and his propensity for logic when Pam didn't even want to be logical. But she definitely was her Maker's progeny. Just as Tara was hers.
"Let's make a deal. Next time we get into it, let's try to talk about it before bottles get thrown and throats get crushed, okay?"
Tara nodded. "Deal."
Pam felt her shoulders relax a bit as the tension in the room started to lessen. Good. They were done with their feelings for now. Thank God.
"Now please, come to bed. So I can kiss that look off your face and make you...well, I guess you're not in the mood for any of that huh?" The smirk playing on Pam's lips actually brought a smile to Tara's.
"Make me beg for more? That's what you wanted to say, right?" said Tara, slowly easing herself out of the chair and sashaying to their bed with an exaggerated switch in her hips that made her Maker's pupils dilate.
"Something like that."
"Come do it then."