Disclaimer: I don't own a damn thing from True Blood. I don't make a damn penny off this story. Don't sue me. KThanks!

Author's Note: Here is Chapter 10! Kinda wanted to jump into P and T's journey to Nawlins, but I just couldn't skip all this stuff :P. Action coming up next. Loads of action, so brace yourselves. Shit's getting real. PLEASE do review. I love them and live for them, haha. I'll try to get the next one up my the middle of this week, but no promises. A 50 hour work week at a brutal ass job awaits me, so If I don't find the time to write, y'all may have to wait until the weekend. I'll sure try though, haha. I love this stupid story. Okay! Enjoy! Review!

Ch. 10

"Ugh," Pam muttered as they neared the end of their tunnel and approached the main room, "It smells like dog. It smells like a lot of fucking dog."

"You're fucking racist, Pam," Tara whispered, shaking her head a little and chuckling under her breath.

"No. I hate most weres like I hate most humans; and vampires...and shifters and fairies. It's a well distributed loathing," Pam told her quietly, her nose crinkled and her eyes narrow as she looked towards the end of the tunnel.

"Ah," Tara whispered again, "Equal opportunity hate."

"Pretty much," Pam drawled, grinning back at her progeny. Tara chuckled again.

They crept onto the walkway that led down into the large cavern. The light in the space was much brighter and warmer than it had been when they'd left the night before.

The witches; Elaine, her quiet twin sister Eleanor, their tough wife Dolores, Carmen, Mercedes, the cheerful Tess, and the child Sylvia; all sat cross-legged, their bodies forming a circle in the center of the room. Their hands were linked together and their eyes were closed. They seemed to be completely detached from everything that surrounded them. Sylvia chanted the words from the incantation her father had written before he died. Her voice was strong and serious, despite its age and natural sweetness. A shining silver mist floated several feet above their heads, filling the air in the center of their circle. Sylvia's mother Lisa sat directly behind her child, her legs were also crossed and her hands rested on her knees, palms facing upward. She was in deep meditation.

Another group of witches sat in a circle to their left. There were five of them; two men and three women. Their heads were covered by hoods attached to long, thick woolen black cloaks, which pooled on the floor around their crossed legs. Their faces were mostly hidden from view. Their bodies were naked underneath their garb. They were all completely focused on quietly repeating the incantation that little Sylvia chanted. The same silver mist appeared above their covered heads in small formations every few seconds and floated away from then to join the larger cloud.

Colin sat at the bottom of the steps that descended into the space, his elbows braced on his knees and his chin resting on his entwined hands. He watched the witches intently and his expression was troubled. He held a bloodstained white handkerchief in his hands and faint tracks of dried blood colored the area just beneath his ears and down his neck. Eric stood leaning up against the stone wall to his right. He turned to look at Pam and Tara as they approached. His expression was grim. Pam met his gaze and she gave him a small nod before turning her attention to Colin, obvious concern settling on her face.

"Colin?" she called to him quietly, "You didn't sleep?"

He turned to look at her and smiled weakly.

"They are my family," he told her, "This has been taking a toll them," he paused and turned his attention back to the witches, his eyes focusing in on the little girl who led them, "She's tired," he whispered.

"Sookie?" Tara asked Eric. He shook his head.

"Not yet. Colin said they almost had her the first time around, but," he paused before continuing, a grin teasing the corners of his mouth, "Someone sneezed."

"Dolores," Colin said, turning back to them. his weak smile warming, "She's already been thoroughly chastised by the rest of them."

"They tried again, but they were all exhausted at that point and decided to rest for a few hours. Eric continued, "This is their third attempt. They've been at it for nearly two hours now. I awoke to find them like this."

"They are getting close," Colin said before turning back to the witches.

Pam placed a hand his strong shoulder and she squeezed it. He lifted his own hand to meet hers and he held it firmly for several seconds before they both pulled away. Pam glanced over at Tara, who had watched their exchange. She smiled at her maker. Pam glared at the younger woman and looked away quickly. Tara's smile widened.

"I smelled wolves," Pam huffed.

"Yes," Colin nodded, "Brandon and Dinah are nearing with their pack. They should be here momentarily."

"They've brought phones that I will be sending with you and an extra car," Eric told her evenly, "You can go once we've retrieved them."

Tara gulped, the reality of what she and her maker were about to embark on slowly crept into her gut. Pam turned to her, an eyebrow arched and questioning.

"You can still..." Pam started, but Tara shook her head, her eyes hardening and her jaw jutting out stubbornly.

"Nope," she whispered. Pam rolled her eyes a little and turned back to Eric.

"You'll travel through Austin and Houston. You'll stop in Beaumont," he told her, handing her a map with a route drawn onto it.

Pam examined it closely. Tara inched up behind her, resting her hands on her maker's waist lightly and peering around her shoulder to get a look at the map. Pam's eyelids started to flutter at the sudden nearness of their bodies, but she quickly settled herself and hoped that Eric hadn't noticed.

He had. His eyes shone at her and she narrowed hers at him in turn.

"There will be a group meeting you there. They will go with you the rest of the way," Eric continued with a slight grin, "The New Orleans house,"

"The one on Esplanade?" Pam murmured absently, studying the name and phone number of the Beaumont contact he had given her.

"Yes," Eric answered her, "You will meet another contact there and travel with them to their headquarters. They have already been hard at work. They will brief you, but they've been instructed to follow your lead."

Pam nodded and sighed, folding the map and their contact's information into it, before turning to tuck it into a side pocket of the bag that Tara carried. She met the younger woman's for eyes a second as their faces nearly touched.

Tara gulped again, but not because of fear this time. She collected herself quickly as Pam turned to Eric again. She knelt down behind Colin who still watched his witches.

"I thought they had two covens coming?" Tara whispered to him. He nodded slightly.

"The second never showed and Dolores wasn't able to reach them again," he told her quietly, "The perimeter is being patrolled. I fear they were intercepted."

"Did they know anything?" Tara asked him then, frowning.

"No, sister. We call. They come. Vice versa," Colin told her, turning to look at her. He smiled when he met her fierce dark eyes, "I wish we would have had more time to get acquainted, Tara. I trust that our maker will keep you safe, however. She likes you. There was a time when I would have been envious," he paused, his eyes clouding over as memories returned to him that he had not thought of in quite some time. He sighed then.

"And now," Tara asked him a little reluctantly. She wasn't sure that she would like his answer, but his smiled widened at her.

"And now," Colin said before taking a second to consider his next words. He leaned his head in to whisper into Tara's ear, "I'm relieved. I've worried about her. I'm incredibly curious about this person that she has claimed as her...treasure," he continued. Tara dropped her eyes to the floor at his last word, not truly believing that she could mean that much to anyone, despite everything she had experienced in the last few days. Colin continued, "I'm mostly hoping that she doesn't fuck it up. Don't let her. She deserves to be cherished."

He pulled his lips back from her ear and locked eyes with her then.

"Maybe one day when this nightmare passes we'll find each other again, sweet sister. We could...hang out? I could ask Sylvia to do Kung Fu for us, it's immensely entertaining," he told her, his eyes sparkling with genuine delight.

"Maybe, brother," she whispered into his ear then, placing her hand on the shoulder that Pam's had just recently graced.

They watched the witches silently for several seconds, Tara's hand on Colin's shoulder and his gripping the cloth that was covered in his blood. Pam looked down at them. While her expression remain composed, her eyes warmed. While she was sure that their brilliance as vampires had very little to do with her own blood, and everything to do with the bit of Godric's she had given them...the bit of Eric's; she couldn't help the pride that flowed through her.

Eric watched Pam as she stared down at her progeny. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders then and pulled her lean body into his. She let him, having missed him every day and painfully since the bond that had existed between them for over a century had been severed. She leaned into his chest and he whispered in his mother tongue.

"Stay safe, my child," he ordered her gently.

Pam nodded and rested a hand on his chest. She slowly pulled away from him after a few silent moments. Her eyes met his firmly.

"You too," she told him quietly, "Guard that girl."

He nodded and raised his eyes to look up at the girl in question. Jessica sleepily plodded down the steps towards them. She stopped just before completing her approach. Fours sets of eyes turned to look at her.

"Um...hey y'all," she muttered, awkwardly, feeling as though she had intruded on an intimate family moment.

"Good evening, Jessica," Eric greeted her calmly, "Would you be so kind as to run and wake my sister?"

"Oh, um...yeah. Sure thing," Jessica nodded, turning to head back up the stairs and towards the tunnel that led to Nora's sleeping quarters.

The rest of them turned their eyes back towards the main room. Brandon was slowly emerging from the area behind the thrones. Dinah appeared behind him and several bodies stood behind her, waiting to be led into the space. Dinah turned to them and silently signaled for them to stay as quiet as possible. They made their way towards the vampires, hugging the wall just beneath the walkway.

Colin rose to his feet to greet the wolf pack. There were eleven of them besides Brandon and Dinah, and all of them were black or dark brown. There was one child at the rear of the group a young girl who looked to be about nine or ten years old. She was watching the witches closely, her wide eyes scanning the women in the circle, eventually focusing on little Sylvia. The rest of them, six men and four women, stared at the vampires, their expressions vicious.

Colin nodded to Brandon quickly. He extended his hand past him to the group's leader.

"Joshua," Colin smiled at the older man who took his hand after a moment's contemplation, "Thank you for coming."

"My kids have filled me in. We brought what was asked of us. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you bloodsuckers have gone and..." he started, growling quietly, but he paused, checking his temper, "Well, as long as you lot are working to get make it right."

"They are, papa," Dinah assured him, taking his hand in hers and holding it tightly.

"Right, well," he started, turning to a young man who stood at his right. The boy was no more than seventeen years old and a younger, skinnier, much more pleasant looking version of Brandon, "Gimme them keys, son...and the case."

The young man reached into his pocket and he pulled out a pair of keys hanging on a rabbit's foot chain. He handed them to his father along with a hard metallic briefcase. Joshua gave the keys to Colin before opening the case against his belly.

"There's four phones. Just phones, none a' that frilly smart crap. My boy went ahead and set numbers into the speed dials in each. Once you get above ground you'll be able to use 'em," Joshua informed them.

He handed the phones to Colin, who passed them off to Eric. Eric handed one to Pam and one to Tara. He kept the other two.

"I called your buddy in Beaumont. They're just waiting on whoever's meeting 'em and trying not to die. They sounded...stressed. It's rough out there," Joshua told them flatly.

"Thank you, sir," Eric said, looking over at the old wolf as he took the keys from Colin and handed them off to Pam. He looked back to Joshua then, "The car?"

"Back yonder," he told her, gesturing towards the opening in the stone from which his group had just come, "We got it in the barrier, so y'all can get to it easy enough. I'd try getting out through the north before you head on east. Be ready for a fight."

"I'm always ready for a fight," Pam purred at him, her eyes hard.

"That's nice. Try to bring the car back in one piece," Joshua grumbled, unimpressed with her, "Forgot to tell the ole' lady I was borrowing it for awhile."

"LoJack?" Tara asked him, arching an eyebrow.

"Nope," Joshua answered her quickly, smirking, "Changed the tags."

"I'll see what I can do," Pam drawled, grinning back at him.

Jessica and Nora emerged from Nora's tunnel then, Jessica looking shaken and Nora incredibly annoyed. Eric met the younger vampires eyes and she glared at him.

"You. Owe. Me," she mouthed silently. He grinned at her.

Nora stepped towards Eric. She lazily ran a hand through her brown hair and tried to straighten the clothes she had thrown on hurriedly as Jessica waited for her.

"The fairy?" she mumbled at her brother.

As the last syllable left her mouth, a loud crack echoed through the chamber from the area where the witches had positioned themselves. All eyes turned towards them. The thin silver mist that had collected over their heads morphed into a small pink ball of light, which grew bigger exponentially every millisecond that passed, until it blinded every eye in the space. The witches were quiet then, all of them squintily gawking up at the thing they had manifested.

A small blonde body fell from it onto the rug covered stone floor at the center of the larger circle. The light immediately disappeared.

Sookie shot up to her feet a second later, on guard and ready to defend herself, not knowing where she was or why.

She had felt the witches summons on and off over the last several hours and she had spent a large portion of that time trying to figure out if their's was a friendly call. Claude was eventually able to assure her that those summoning her meant her no harm, better able to tune into the energy behind the call, but after everything she had been through in the last few years, she was reluctant to trust trust it. Sheer dumb curiosity and the fact that she knew that her fairy friend would rush to retrieve her if she found herself in danger were what finally convinced her to go towards it.

She looked around her, meeting strange wide eyes at every turn, before she found familiar faces staring down at her from the walk way.

"Eric," she breathed stepping towards him immediately, through the witches who still sat on the ground and in her way, but who's hands separated to allow her a small path towards the Viking.

She rushed into his arms and he practically lifted her off her feet. Their mouths met in a passionate kiss, their longing and worry for each other over the last two days palpable and emanating towards their onlookers unrelentingly. Most turned away, or looked down to the floor, allowing them what little privacy they could offer given the situation.

Nora looked...pained.

Jessica beamed at them shamelessly.

Pam just rolled her eyes.

"Aaand that's my cue," she drawled, turning to Tara, "You ready?"

"Yeah," Tara nodded at her hesitantly, looking over at her former best friend and really wanting to say something to her before she left, but not quite finding the words, or an opportunity.

Jessica's smile faded and she turned to Tara. She moved towards her immediately and she captured her unsuspecting fellow baby vampire in her arms. Tara stumbled a little, surprised, but she instantly returned her young friend's forceful embrace.

"Be careful," Jessica whispered in her friend's ear urgently, hugging her tightly. Tara nodded, her expression growing serious.

"You too. Watch your back," Tara told her. Jessica loosened her hold and she quickly turned to Pam.

Jessica wrapped her arms around the older woman before she could protest. Her bright blue eyes filled with tears that threatened to fall at any moment. She sniffed. Pam held her arms out awkwardly for a moment before slowly wrapping them around Jessica, one hand patting the her thick red hair for a just a second before she pried their bodies apart. She grabbed Jessica's upper arms and held her in place a few inches away. She stared at the teenagers face for several silent beats before she released her and turned to leave, Tara at her heels.

Pam hadn't said a word and her face betrayed nothing, but Tara could feel her maker's grief through their bond. Pam glanced at Colin briefly as she walked through the cavern. He had moved towards the witches and was standing at Sylvia's side now, his hand petting her head as she celebrated her successful incantation with the women who still sat at either side of her. Colin caught her glance and he nodded at her slightly, silently wishing her well. She kept on walking past him, lowering her eyes.

Jessica's tears fell as she watched them leave. She turned away from the remainder of the group and hid her face.

Eric and Sookie's lips parted slowly. They gazed into each other's eyes, lost in each other for several moments, before Sookie noticed in her periphery that Tara was leaving. She turned to look at her then; the best friend who had saved her life twice; the best friend who had died for her. Her mouth hung open for a second, but it made no noise.

"Tara?" she choked out finally. Tara paused and turned to face her immediately. A sad smile formed on her dark lips.

Pam stopped in front of her, looking straight ahead, half expecting Tara to change her mind and stay now that the girl she had grown up with, the girl she had given her human life for, was acknowledging her.

"We have to go, Sook," Tara told the halfling quietly, before gesturing towards Eric with her chin, "He'll fill you in."

She turned back towards her maker then and they walked towards the thrones. Tara rested her hand on the small of Pam's back as they disappeared into the hidden tunnel.

Sookie watched them leave. She turned to face Eric.

"I...?" she stuttered, "What's going on?"