Disclaimer: I own nothing of True Blood or its characters. Yet. I'm saving all my loose change and should be ready to make an offer in say… a decade or two.

AN: Thank you to everyone who is still reading and reviewing. Heart you all! Warning for violence in this chapter. Not just a PWP anymore folks! I actually have a whole plotline in mind. Wahoo!

One For The Vault

Chapter 5

With a twist of the nozzle, the cold spray of the overhead shower pounded down against Caroline's naked body. She let out a deep groan at the sudden cold water, but made no move to adjust it. Standing immobile, with her head thrown back, the spray poured down against her front. Goose bumps soon covered the skin that was still untouched from the spray, and her nipples stood erect with a shiver.

It was heaven.

In the past two months, since Caroline had been with Pam, she'd quickly grown accustom to the temperature of the vampires skin. Her summer electric bill was almost nonexistent in comparison to past years, as her constant running of the air conditioner had ceased almost completely. Caroline almost considered removing the eye sore from her window altogether. With Pam at her home each night, keeping her cool and comfortable with just a touch, the machine was of no use.

Closing her eyes from the view of her ceiling, she imagined that Pam was with her now. That it was her presence that was the cause of her shiver, not the cold spray beating against her breast and stomach. The memory of their first night together crept into her thoughts. Everything from that night; from the image of Pam on her doorstep, to the memory of their several rounds of passionate fucking… all added fuel to her building arousal. Caroline had truly felt alive that night. Which she found ironic since… Well, since Pam wasn't alive.

But that tiny detail, so far, hadn't become an issue for the pair. Thankfully.

Submerging her head beneath the water finally, Caroline's hands traveled against her soft body as she let the memory replay behind her closed lids. Touching her body just as Pam had, she quickly rose to a high peak of pleasure. So high in fact, that she hadn't heard the bathroom door creak open or the sharp tapping of high heels on the tiled floor. Caroline only startled out of her sinful trance when her shower curtain was suddenly pushed open.

She gasped and her hands flew to shield her breast, covering them in reflex.

"You'll get hypothermia one of these days," Pam told her as she held the curtain open with a muddy hand.

The chill from the from the open shower curtain added to her body's pleasure, but Caroline disregarded the reaction to it as she looked over Pam with shocked eyes, "Pam, what happened to you?"

"A fucking maenad," she growled and began to undress.

Caroline didn't know what a 'maenad' was, but she'd be sure to Google it tomorrow.

Because whatever it was, it had truly done a number on Pam. Her pink silk top and matching tweed pencil skirt were stained with dirt and grime. Pam removed her clothing and threw it all into the far corner of the room. Each piece of material landing with a hard toss and a thick sound of annoyance from the vampire. With her movements dried bits of leaves and broken tree branches fell from her tangled curls and landed on the floor, just beneath her torn stockings and dirtied pumps. The vintage shoes were ruined, with one of the heels broken and ready to fall off.

She knew better than to offer Pam condolences for the destroyed pumps. It being a much wiser decision to ignore the pitiful gaze her vampire spared the shoes as she dropped them into the trash bin, and to only offer her a steady hand as she stepped over the rim of the tub.

Caroline pulled the curtain shut as Pam moved past her and bent to twist the temperature nozzle. Steam slowly engulfed them and vanished the chill in the air. Caroline pouted into the mist, but brightened when Pam pulled her forward to share the spray with her. "You are a strange human."

"I just like the cold," Caroline responded. She pressed closer to her lover, proving her point by hiding from the warm water in Pam's strong arms. "You've only made it ten times worse, you know. Now, all I want to do is be pressed up against you like this every second of the day."

"We'd get nothing accomplished," Pam teased and looked down at her with bright eyes, while pushing the wet strands of Caroline's hair from her face. She didn't kiss her like Caroline hoped for, hadn't since that first night. Pam only handed her the body wash from the shelf and smiled, trusting Caroline to wash away the stress of her night and to comfort her in her loss.

They had been her favorite pumps.

Caroline poured the scented gel into her palm and began massaging it against Pam's body. "I wouldn't say that we'd get nothing accomplished…" Her smirk matched Pam's growing expression and the fog of arousal quickly filled the small space.

"Quite the nymphomaniac as well I see."

"That didn't start until you," Caroline defended with a laugh. "And I haven't heard any complaints yet."

"None what so ever, peaches."

After that night, the next few days turned out to be hell for Caroline.

The maenad, who according to Caroline's strange Google search, was a follower of Dionysus who inspired a state of ecstatic frenzy through a combination of dancing and intoxication.

That didn't really explain to her why Pam had looked like she'd lost a fight with a swamp, but whatever this maenad was, it was certainly fucking up her personal life. Caroline didn't need to dance or get drunk to be in a state of 'ecstatic frenzy'. She only needed her lover. Ever since the maenad had come to town Pam had been kept away, hunting it and running Fangtasia as Eric was preparing for some sort of important trip to Texas.

Caroline could really care less about Texas and crazy dancing drunks. She just missed Pam and wanted her back damn-it.

"You son of a bitch," she growled at her computer screen. It was noon and Caroline was still dressed in only her robe. She was in the midst of a bidding war on EBay and was quickly running out of the time she needed to finish getting ready for her afternoon and evening shift at Bernadette's.

But now, as her previous bid was outnumbered once again, Caroline was also losing the battle on the popular auction website. She looked longingly at the picture of the item. A pair of vintage pink pumps, which looked exactly like the favorite ones Pam had been forced to throw in the garbage the last night Caroline had seen her.

Taking her pent up sexual frustration out on her keyboard, she harshly typed in her maximum bet and entered it on the webpage. Hoping the other bidder wouldn't best it, since any larger dip into her bank account might affect the amount of meals she ate until her next paycheck, she stole a glance to her clock. Caroline still had five minutes until the auction ended and so, with a parting glare to the monitor, she stepped away to rush and finish getting dressed for work.

Clothed in record time, she put on the minimal amount of makeup and rushed back to her computer with a minute to spare. While staring at the countdown on the screen, she pulled the hair tie from her wrist and threw her dark curls back into a simple pony tail.

Pam seemed to have a great fascination with Caroline's hair. The vampire was constantly playing with the curls, tangling her fingers into it while they fucked, or caressing it softly whenever they were close enough. So, she'd stopped getting it cut and had only seen positive results since that decision. Of course Pam loved it, and she told her so often, but now Caroline did as well. It was now long enough to easily tie back, giving her extra time for bidding wars for overpriced high heels for her girlfriend.

Girlfriend.

That word had been haunting her.

Caroline knew there was more to what she had with Pam then just great sex. It wasn't like they fucked all the time. Well, yes… but they did other things as well. Just because they had sex every night, at least twice, didn't make what they shared any less significant. Pam listened when she talked, answered when she questioned, comforted when she needed it, and said nothing when she needed space. The vampire put up with Caroline's endless questions of France, even though it had been decades since Pam had last traveled there. Her expressions were never cruel or condescending when she spoke of her grandmother, and of her love for her. And she had never touched or spoke to her with the cruelness Caroline's past boyfriends often had.

She also made Caroline laugh.

Pam's bitter, sarcastic, and blunt remarks had easily squeezed their way into Caroline's heart and always left her with a chuckle.

Caroline had been a fat child, and so her taste in movies was 'atrocious', and her eating ice cream from the carton was reminiscent of a pig in its trough… 'How the hell do you always manage to spill it on yourself?' ...and wow, she really had been a fat child.

Caroline pulled her gaze from the photograph on her desk, of her and her young cousins, to look back to the computer screen. Seconds left now and her bid had still not been beat. She wanted so badly to win the shoes for Pam. Because, to a girl like Pam, a great pair of vintage pumps said the same thing that flowers, chocolates, and romantic dinner dates said to a normal girl… girlfriend.

Girlfriend?

"Yes!" Caroline shouted and jumped out of her seat. She'd won the auction and was fucking ecstatic. If an eight hundred dollar pair of shoes didn't scream that she was girlfriend material to Pam, well then Caroline didn't know what would.

She rode the high over her auction win all during her drive to work, and could not erase the smile she wore. It was her first smile in days and she only wished she could share it with Pam. So, she wanted a vampire to be her girlfriend? And so that said vampire had only ever called her 'pet'. The fact that Pam always put a possessive 'my' in front of the word was damn well good enough for Caroline.

For now at least.

It wasn't as if she was in love with the vampire…

Caroline gasped and froze in her seat. Her smile disappearing as her car slowed to a stop on the shoulder of the road. She was parked close to the entrance of the strip mall next to Bernadette's. So, close to the job that she was now late to, but Caroline couldn't move. Her gaze turned to her left and she stared at the distant red door of Fangtasia with wide eyes.

"Am I?"

She tore her gaze from the building and her head fell backwards against the driver's seat. "Fuck," she groaned into her hands as they rose and covered her mouth. "I am an idiot."

How could she have let herself fall so completely for a vampire?

They'd never even gone a night, when they were together, without having sex. Never had there been one night where they'd just been together… without being that together. How had she convinced herself that she was anything more than a 'fuck toy' or 'pet' to Pam?

"My pet…" Caroline laughed bitterly as her hands fell to her lap, even more furious with herself as salty tears pooled against her lashes. "Fuck this," she growled before shifting her car into drive. She was going home, packing, and getting the fuck away from Shreveport and Pam as fast as she could. Caroline had never once called out of work or taken a vacation day, so she had plenty of paid time off. She just now finally had a reason to use it.

She needed to get away and let whatever spell Pam had put on her ware off.

Very far away.

Slapping her blinker on, she waited for traffic to pass to that she could pull out and make the u-turn that would take her to her home. Her last parting glance at Fangtasia was meant to be a bitter and quick one, but movement on the side of the building trapped her dark eyes.

An unfamiliar pick up truck was parked on the side of the building, in the employee lot. Not in a space, but positioned diagonally and blocking the side entrance to the petite woman trying to make her way into the building. Caroline watched with a frown, as three men crowded around Ginger and kept her from passing into the safety of her workplace.

Caroline jolted into action after one of the men finally shoved the blonde hard enough so that she stumbled backwards and to fell the ground. His strength, and the height of her heels, caused Ginger to land hard on the dark pavement and she winced as her palms and knees were cut and burned.

The tires of Caroline's car skidded on the worn pavement as she sped through the turn that brought her into the club's side lot. She stopped just behind the truck and jump out of her vehicle without even bothering to shut her door or turn off the car. "Hey! What the hell do you think you are doing?"

"Just get on your way lady," the closer of the three men warned her as his two buddies turned back to a cowering Ginger, not finding Caroline to be a threat.

"Like hell I will," Caroline snapped back at him, slamming her door shut. "Get the fuck away from her."

"Fuck off," the fattest of the men hollered at her. "We caught us a fangbanger and now we gonna' play with it for a bit and teach her a lesson. Fuck. Off."

"Fuck you. You rednecks aren't doing anything to her but helping her up and letting her pass," she shouted back and took an angry stomp forward. Caroline only tore her harsh glare from the men to look down at Ginger with a softer expression. "You alright Ginger?"

"Y-yeah," she answered still on her ass, the palms of her hands facing the sky and bloodied from her fall.

"Looks like we caught us two fangers boys," the fat one grinned as he looked back and forth between the women, realizing they knew each other. "Two dirty sluts that like cold dead bloodsuckers instead of a real man."

"Damn straight," Caroline bit back and put her hands on her hips. The voice in the back of her head reminded her that she had just been about to run away from her own 'bloodsucker'. She shut it up quickly. No need for these three idiots to know that little detail. "And you haven't caught shit, boys. So, let her up and let her pass by or I'll show you why most of your gender is terrified of a woman with PMS."

"Danny, will you shut her up," Fatass ordered the closest to Caroline. "She's louder than my fucking wife."

"At least you can hit her, Pete," the skinny one in the back laughed.

"You're right, Ray," Pete smirked towards his friend. "This bitch don't have a daddy to run home cryin' to, that'll bust my balls every time I put her in her place."

As Danny approached her, Caroline bent to the ground and picked up a decent sized rock. Aiming as she stood, she chucked it hard at him before he was close enough to lay his outstretched hand on her. She nailed him in the ear and he wailed in pain. Clutching a hand over the throbbing spot, Danny hadn't even opened his eyes from the first attack before Caroline had found another stone and sent it sailing towards his nose.

Over Danny's painful curses, and the angry shouts from Pete and Ray, Caroline shouted towards the blonde still immobile and looking stunned by her actions. "Damn-it Ginger, run!"

Pete and Ray didn't even spare Ginger a parting glance as she scrambled to her feet and darted around the back of Fangtasia and towards the alley that could take her to Bernadette's dumpster and backdoor. The men only had eyes for Caroline now and they ran towards her quickly. She spun on her heels and made a dash for the street. Screaming out for help, she hoped someone from the road or one of the shops along the strip mall would come to her aid.

She didn't make it far.

Danny stopped her movement forward with one of the stones she had thrown earlier. It hit Caroline hard, at the base of her head, and she saw stars from pain for the first time in her life. The hand she brought down from the bump thankfully wasn't covered with blood, but it had left her disoriented and given the men the chance they needed to catch up. Pete caught her around the middle and hauled her backwards kicking and screaming.

Thrown to the ground roughly after being slapped across the cheek by a few hands, Caroline's hip and elbow collided against the pavement painfully. "It's time to teach you a lesson fangbanger," Pete hissed down at her as the three crowded around her. "And since you let your friend get away, we're all gonna' hafta' play with you."

Fists and boots descended on her and the bright stars of pain from before continued to appear in her vision. As they beat her into submission, she tried to pull her body into a tight ball. Now able to block some of their efforts, Caroline screamed out in pain and for help. A thick hairy fist wormed its way between the arms protecting her head, punching her in the jaw with a resounding crack. Her shouts ceased then, the blood in her mouth warm and a challenge to speak through. It spilled down her chin as the blows kept coming.

Through the fog of their strikes, the three hissed every insult one could think to say about vampires and the 'whores' that fucked them willingly. She started to black out when Ray began shouting on about how he and his buddies were doing 'gods work' and Caroline actually started to wish she'd gone to church more. Maybe it would have dulled the pain?

When they finally paused to catch their breaths, the hard gravel was painted with her blood. Caroline breathed with much difficulty, and looked up to her attackers with defeat. Bones were certainly broken and she was sure there was something wrong about how much it burned when she inhaled. She was too weak to speak. Too weak to escape or to make any more attempts at self defense, she wasn't even sure if she had the strength to raise a choice finger in Pete's direction as he stared down at her and wiped the sweat from his brow.

Some fucking work out.

Pete flicked the droplets of moisture off his hand and his sweat landed close to the eye that was quickly swelling shut. He admired their handy work for a moment longer, before turning away to pick up the stone that was still red with the blood from Danny's broken nose. As he heaved it in the air, posed and ready to strike, Caroline's last conscious thought was of Pam. She hoped it wasn't her vampire that found her cold dead body.

Girlfriend or not, she didn't want Pam to have to see her like this.

Pam's dark BMW slowed to a stop in front of Fangtasia and she was greeted by the glare of flashing lights. The three police vehicles scattered around the parking lot pissed her off immediately. She dramatically rolled her eyes before she cut the engine and stepped out into the ciaos.

"What now?" she asked Eric with harsh annoyance, as she took her rightful place at his side. "We don't even open for three fucking hours. What the hell could we have done while we were sleeping for god sake?"

Eric wanted to smirk at his child's outburst, as he usually found comfort and amusement in her constant sarcasm and disdain for humans, but he was troubled. The heavy thoughts plaguing him had dulled his humor and the normal spark of playfulness that was in his eyes when his child was behaving as such. "Apparently, Ginger was bullied on her way into work this afternoon," he responded in a dry tone.

Pam raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms, looking unconcerned. "Is she dead?"

"No," Eric answered and turned his gaze back to the uniformed men still taking statements from the group that had responded after their barmaid had escaped. "Some breather passed by at the right moment. Ginger wasn't even harmed."

"So, we can open then. No deaths. No closed doors."

"Unfortunately, no we can't." He would have sighed with annoyance if there had been air in his lungs. "The human who helped recieved the brunt of the attack after our Ginger got away. The breather isn't dead. Yet, at least. But it was brought to the hospital this afternoon and I know nothing more on its condition."

Pam frowned in aggravation, thinking of the mounds of paperwork and bad press this would cause their club. "Shouldn't you be packing for Dallas?" she asked suddenly, remembering her earlier thought after she'd received his text to come to the club right away.

"Yes, but I awoke to this," he flung an annoyed palm in the direction of the officers, "And couldn't rightfully leave this mess for you to clean up alone."

"Go Eric. Godric is more important."

"He is," was Eric's soft reply and only a human would not have noticed the half an inch his shoulders sunk under the heavy worries over his maker's disappearance.

"Go." Pam repeated sharper, pulling his gaze back to her steeled blue eyes. "I can handle this alone. I'll sift through the bullshit tonight and have us opened for business on time tomorrow evening."

"I know you will." His only hesitation to leave coming from what he could possibly find in Dallas, rather than from his confidence in his child's abilities.

"You will find him, Eric." Pam lowered her voice as soft as they both could tolerate, reading his fear clearly. She spoke a few comforting words in Swedish and then let her tone return to normal. "Now, go catch your plane. I have some police officers to intimidate and insult, and I can't have you in the background receiving their desperate looks for help. It gives them false hope."

Eric watched her stomp off, pitying the men she was quickly approaching, but trusting her to handle the situation. He left with a small smirk at his child's back. Departing seconds before he would have witnessed Pam's shocked reaction to the familiar scent of blood staining Fangtasia's parking lot.

TBC