A/N: I was a little apprehensive about posting this so soon and leaving it on the shorter side. But Pam was ready to have it out. Who am I to tell her no? I tried very hard not to leave you all hanging because everyone has been so wonderful with reviews. But be aware, I have to work all weekend so the next update may be a few days. Again, I thank you so much for all your kindness and encouragement.
* I don't own any of the characters described below, Charlaine Harris does.
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Chapter 4.
Pam felt her key give in the back door of Fangtasia. With ease the door turned and she pulled it open with the anticipation of battle. She felt her fangs run down as the door shut quickly behind her. The atmosphere was electric, she could feel the fine hairs on her graceful neck rise and meet the magnetic pulse in the air. Everything, from the darkened hallway to the gentle hum of the coolers seemed alive of it's own volition. Eric was here and he was waiting.
Even in the blackness of the hallway, she knew which way she was going. Two doors down, past the supply room and the human restroom on the right lay Eric's office. Once there, she would either meet her final death, or she would have her answers from her beloved Master. Either way she was ready. She stalked the narrow corridor like a feral animal. She was thankful that she was dressed in her "home" attire rather than her Fangtasia night wear. The padded soles of her loafers made barely a sound as she made her way closer and closer to the office door.
She stood outside the closed office door and listened. Just as she knew with absolute certainity that Eric waited on the other side, he knew she was out there. A wave of saddness rolled over her.
What am I doing? This is Eric, my Maker, my Master. The twinge of regret was undeniable. She was torn between her loyalty to Eric and her loyalty to Sookie. A loyalty that he himself had placed in her on both accounts. She could no less allow him to level everything he had built with his own self-destructive streak, then she could allow him to continue to torture Sookie's spirit with his absence from her life and lies that may lead to her death. This had to end now.
With iron resolve, Pam pushed the door to the office open with wild abandon. She thought she had found it empty.
"Eric?", she began to question. He voice was choked off in an instant. He was on her, throwing his entire 6'5 frame into her smaller one. She was knocked to the floor by the collision. She had always known that her master was the stronger one, but she had never truly tested it until now. She scrambled wildly to her feet, stanched and poised for another attack, fangs fully extended. Eric with all his strength grabbed her tightly around the throat and raised her to his eye level effortlessly. His piercing blue eyes boring holes into her. His fangs also fully extended. He growled, coming in nearer to her face. Pam's eyes grew large, she struggled in vain to turn her head from his stare. She found herself kicking violently against the musculature of his thighs. He shook her head back to face him. He wants to look into my eyes as he kills me, she thought.
She longed to speak, but his massive hand around her throat prevented it. She mouthed his name, begged with her lips and her pale blue eyes for him to stop. He broke his steely gaze from hers and dropped his glorious blond head for a moment. Pam felt her body relax. She stopped her violent assault on his legs and even though his grip on her throat was still over-bearing, he allowed her just enough release to lean her head back against the solid wall behind her. Her reprieve was brief. Within seconds, Eric's grip tightened again. She found their eyes locked again in that timeless dance of predator and prey. He brought his forearm to her face. She thought he intended to strike her. Instead he turned his wrist to her mouth, covering her lips with his would be pulse point.
"Drink". he demanded.
She again felt her eyes widen. Drink? Was she so wounded from this exchange that he thought she needed extra strength? She apparently delayed too long in her query.
"DRINK", he growled. She searched his face, questioning his motives, finding no answer only raw regret in his eyes. She pondered all possible meanings of what it meant to drink from another vampire. None of them fit.
He spoke to her again, calmer this time his eyes returning from the fire rimmed sapphire daggers to their normal, albeit gorgeous, depths of cerulean blue.
"My child, drink of me and know the truth".
Though terrified at the possible outcome, Pam opened her mouth and allowed her sharp fangs to graze the sensitive skin. Eric leaned his head back and hissed loudly. Pam took her cue with ease and fell into Eric's direction. She bit...hard. His blood flowed out like a great river washing over her tongue and filling her with his taste. She allowed her delicate hands to come up and pull his arm in closer and she pulled in harder with her mouth. She was awash in the ecstasy that was her Master's blood. She knew nothing, felt nothing but him. They had both drank from each other before, minuscule drops in times of passion. But never this much. Probably not even this much when he took her mortal life and replaced it with his own. With each pulsating pull of her mouth she was sent to a new heightened emotion. She began to see flashes of light, memories of a life not her own filled her vision. She gasped, she must stop...must stop...NOW!
Eric now panting released her and she fell into a limp clump at his feet. Her mind was spinning, the visions still swirling and taking form.
- A snow covered village beneath a majestic mountain bordered by a crystal, frozen lake. People scattered, going about their daily lives. Walking toward her, her master. clothed in narrow fitted pants and a blue tunic embroidered with gold threads covered his wide chest. His hair the same, yet different, iridescent against the shining of the sun held intricate braiding near his scalp. He walked, he smiled and nodded at the people who bowed their heads in reverence to him. He laughed in revelry while a group of young boys pretended to ambush the great warrior with swords made from timber. He fell, feigning to swoon backwards when a timber sword found it's mark. A young girl, perhaps 11, ran to him shouting with childlike glee. He rose and scooped the tiny beauty with the same iridescent sunlight colored hair to his chest and cradled her head in his hands, bending his face to hair and breathing deep. She pulled back from him to place her small, full lips on his cheek and he smiled at her, full of admiration as they walked together. She could feel his deep pride in the young girl, his raging sense of protection. His unconditional and fierce love of the child was awe inspiring.
The image twisted and turned again.
-Her master was fighting. His broad sword swung high over his head, the lithe muscles of his arms pulled taunt in anticipation of the killing blow. He was surrounded by men, all circling her master like wolves, salivating at the prospect of a kill. A lone man watched, his eyes and mind were heady with the fragrant aroma of spilled blood. Her master was scared, fearful for the child he would never again see. Fearful of the thing he would become. Even in fear, he would not break easily. She saw the men subdue her master, each one holding a powerful arm or leg, positioning him into the frozen earth. She saw the man's fangs come done and watched in terror as her master's shining life left him. He cried out, not from pain but defiance. Mortal life slipped from him as silently as a spring breeze.
Pam tasted her blood stained tears as the fell ragged from her eyes and dripped across her mouth. She squeezed her eyes tighter and the image flashed like a lightening strike.
-She saw herself, walking after dark. The swoosh of her many petticoats rustling under her dark purple gown making the only sound. It was the dress that she had died in. She saw her master from the shadows of the dimly lit street. He gazed after her lovingly before falling in stride beside the living version of herself. He had been watching her for some time, intrigued by her beauty and delicate features and also by her blatant disregard for Victorian values placed upon woman. She saw herself through her master's blue eyes, chosen. She would make a worthy child, his first and only. He would never be taken from her. She watched as he ever so gently looked into her eyes and calmed her fears with the blue depths of his own. She felt the pang of not remembering how gentle he had been as he drank from her. Draining the life blood from her fragile body and then replacing it with the enormity of his own. She watched as he lay beside her lifeless form, gently caressing her face and smoothing her silky blond hair. He whispered to her, even in time between death. He had loved her when he made her. That love, though changed, had not wavered.
Pam turned toward her master, she didn't think it possible, but heavy sobs wracked her immortal body. He simply nodded in her direction. The journey would continue, she had demanded it without knowing, without caring for the personal cost to both of them.
-She saw Fangtasia as it had been that night of Sookie's introduction. She saw the girl whom she had come to befriend and dedicate her loyalty to in various incarnations and in all, her master was ever present. She felt his urge to possess the girl. Primal, undeniable at first. But then she felt the emotion change into something much more palpable: an ache, a need, a love like no other before it. She felt his heart swell at the thought of her. Felt his agonizing loss time and again as she denied herself to him. She saw her master sitting in a chair before the girl as she lovingly tended to the deep cuts in his feet, she wrapped blankets across the wide berth of his shoulders and she warmed him with the heat of her body. She was privy to every time her master had gently made love to the girl, laying every emotion as bare as their skin. She watched as he placed feather light touches across the contours of her body in reverence to her. He was worshipping her and she him. She felt again the searing pain of loss when he longed to go to her, to leave everything behind and cleave himself unto her only. This girl who haunted even his day time sleep. This woman whose very soul called out to him. But he had not gone to her, he had not.
Pam shook herself free from her visions and found herself leaning against Eric's strong torso. His magnificent arms held her tightly as her thoughts became her own again. The pain and loss from all of Eric's vision was still trembling inside her.
"Ssshhh, child", he whispered into her ear, "It was the only way."
Pam calmed herself enough to question him, "How is that possible, Eric? I've had your blood before, I've never known these things, seen these things."
Eric loosened his hold on her arms and spoke, " You have. When a vampire becomes a maker, all of his memories flow into his child. It is what makes a young one able to survive should their maker abandon them or be taken from them. Although it is rare to remember all the events of the maker's life, it is possible. You never had that worry. You never had to survive on your own and so my many memories were pushed to the back of your mind. I simply gave you enough of my blood to trigger those memories. I needed you to see Pam, I needed you to know that I have not, nor will I ever lie to you. You are my beloved child. I could no less harm you than I could myself."
He smiled at her waiting for her response. She turned her head towards him, still ensconsed in the safety of his arms and spoke,
"Eric, you must go to her" she said fervently.
It was his turn to smile. "You are quite taken with our Sookie, aren't you?" he half teased her, "Enough so that you threatened your maker and almost met your final death."
Pam sat up straight pulling out of his embrace, "I am not taken, Eric," she put extra emphasis on his name driving her point home. "She is brave and loyal and good. I am proud of her and humbled by her. She saved my life at great peril to herself and she has asked nothing of me but honors me with her friendship. I have come to love her as I would love my own child. I would kill for her." she said with a touch of finality.
"Then we understand each other?" Eric asked poignantly
"Yes, master, at last we do."
TBC
