A/N – I took some liberties in regards to what creatures there may be in the True Blood universe. But hey, if there are vampires and werewolves and shifters and telepathic waitresses there can be other things that go bump in the night, right? Happy reading and have a good weekend.

Part III

"What the actual fuck is that?!" Tara hissed in a panicked tone as she scooted further back away from the advancing creature, pulling Pam along with her. Twin orbs of midnight were imitating that of a deer caught in the headlights as they latched onto creature lurching towards them. When Tara's back hit a wall, she struggled to her feet, forcing Pam to hers as well.

The creature that lumbered towards them looked like some sort of humanoid/animal hybrid. Standing well over six feet tall, the creature was a walking block of muscle, every square inch of it bulging with a rippling musculature that made it look like a the poster child for steroids. It was its face though, that gave it away as being something less than human. Glowing yellow eyes with inky-black slits for irises glared out at them from a misshapen face that was heavily scarred and garnished with ridges and bumps. Accompanying those ghastly eyes were two pairs of fangs that protruded from its upper lip, one pair slightly longer than the other, both glistening with saliva.

The creature snarled at them and as it moved closer, Tara fought the urge to gag as the overpowering stench of putrid eggs and sulfur busied the air around them. She pulled Pam urgently behind her, using her body as a physical shield as the creature continued to lumber forward.

"Demon," Pam muttered, shaking away the cobwebs that clouded her head. The creature had clocked her a good one and she was still feeling the effects of its meaty paw connecting with all the grace and force of a freight train against her temple.

"What?" Tara's voice had reached a decibel that was decidedly unnatural, so high-pitched it was. Terror oozed off the younger vampire in waves, adding to the already repugnant atmosphere that coated the tunnels.

"Demon!" Pam croaked hoarsely into a nearby ebony ear, finally recovering from the unsavory blow to her head. She tugged frantically at the back of Tara's jacket as the creature raised a fist that looked like one of those oversized dumbbells. A dumbbell that was lined with savage looking claws.

"Duck, Tara!" Pam yelled as the creature swung his meaty fist in their direction. Pam threw Tara to the left even as she tucked and rolled to the right. The blonde changed trajectory mid-roll, twisting her body back towards the creature and snapping out a leg only for the heel of her boot to connect violently with its shin. Something splintered beneath her boot and Pam smiled viciously as the creature howled in agony.

"Pam!"

The vampire in question looked up. She caught sight of Tara blurring behind the creature, watched her progeny slide feet first like she was at a baseball game to where her semi-automatic lay discarded in a shadowy corner, the weapon having been dislodged from her person as she was thrown unceremoniously through the air.

The second Tara's fingers closed around cool metal, she hurled in her maker's direction, trusting Pam's vampiric reflexes to catch the weapon.

Pam caught the sailing semi-automatic with ease, her fingers daintily plucking it from the air. Pale fingers closed around the weapon, a finger automatically landing on the trigger and she began squeezing off a deadly and precise round straight at the creature towering before her.

The creature screamed, an awful sound that pierced unpleasantly at Tara's eardrums. She ran back towards the melee, opening fire on the creature's back as she ran. To her utter dismay, their silver and wooden bullets didn't seem to affect the demon at all and as Tara came to a stop within touching distance of the creature, she noticed that as quickly as the demon was being strafed with round after round of bullets, its body just as quickly spat them out, along with a sickly yellow-green ooze that was most likely its blood.

"It's not working!" Tara shouted in frustration as she reloaded, ejecting and tossing aside the empty magazine clip only to smack a new one in place. The younger vampire didn't have time to open fire, however, because the demon suddenly pivoted, turning its attention onto Tara. It lunged at her, lips pulled back into an ugly snarl and Tara suppressed the urge to scream as its claws raked across her shoulder, ripping through her leather jacket and shirt only to score deep grooves into her flesh.

"Tara!" Pam was on her feet the second she felt that blinding white-hot flash of agonizing pain sear through the bond from Tara's end. Pam squeezed off another round at the retreating demon's back, plugging the lumbering creature with bullets. She chewed off a litany of violent curses as her eyes bore witness to the way the bullets leeched back out from the entrance wounds. "Fuck!" she growled even as she continued to fire into the apparently indestructible creature.

Tara clapped a hand to her bleeding shoulder, trying to staunch the blood even as the creature continued to advance on her. It eyed her in a manner that made her want to tuck tail and run but she wouldn't. Not when Pam's life was in just as much danger as her own. Girding her mental loins, she changed tactics, tucking the Glock back into her pants and resorting to hand-on-hand combat.

Tara's punches came hard and fast as she put vampiric strength and speed behind each precise blow. Satisfaction coursed through her as the demon's hefty weight forced it to stumble back. It wasn't above retaliation though and Tara gritted her teeth against the pain as the demon slash three claws across her face, the wounds so deep that it revealed the white of bone beneath her flesh.

Behind the demon, Pam was still firing and she continued to fire until her ammunition ran out. Needing to reload, she ducked to side, allowing Tara to take point as she hastily loaded her one and only magazine into the semi-automatic. An agonized scream made her heart jump into her throat and she looked up just in time to see Tara complete an impressive flying roundhouse kick to the demon's face only for its putrid yellow-green blood to spurt forth from its split lips and onto Tara.

Pam felt the bottom of her stomach drop out as smoke began emanating from Tara's face and arms, the acrid stench of burning flesh assaulting her nostrils. She completed her reload at vamp speed then blurred over to Tara, pausing only to kick the demon's legs out from under it before pulling her progeny into a shadowy corner and buying them precise scant seconds of time.

"What the fuck happened?!" Pam growled over the crashing sound of the demon's body hitting the ground, snarling and growling as it went. The blonde's cerulean blue eyes darkened dangerously as she reached for Tara's face only for her progeny to recoil like Pam had struck her.

"Don't touch me," Tara gritted out from between clenched teeth. "Its blood is like fuckin' acid or some shit," she informed Pam brusquely as the blonde once again tried to reach for her.

Pam swore as slate colored eyes assessed Tara's charred and smoking cheek, the deep furrows spewing out blood in her other cheek as well as the melted and bubbling flesh on the backs of Tara's hands and upper arms where the demon's blood had gnawed through her red leather jacket. Not knowing what else to do and knowing that they were wasting precious seconds, Pam brought her wrist to her mouth, dropped fang and bit down viciously. She tore twin ragged lines across her wrist, ripping open vein and flesh.

"Drink," the blonde commanded, shoving her bleeding wrist against Tara's mouth, giving her progeny no choice but to obey.

Tara took two healthy pulls of Pam's sweet blood, enough to speed up the injuries she sustained but before she could take another, a clawed hand snapped out from the dark and yanked Pam bodily away from Tara.

"PAM!" Tara cried out as she heard the resounding thud of her maker's body slamming into a nearby wall.

"Cut off its head!" came the garbled reply.

"What?!" Tara ducked the fist that came dangerously close to smashing into her face then rammed her fist viciously into the soft part of the demon's belly. Her maneuver proved useless; it was like putting her fist through Jell-O, viscous, dense Jell-O that wobbled beneath her knuckles, absorbing the impact of Tara's punch without fatal consequence.

Except for further pissing off the demon of that is.

The creature roared in rage, picked Tara up and flung her further into one of the tunnels, spitting curses as she went.

"Cut. Off. Its. Goddamn. Head!" Pam yelled as a light went off in her mind and she recollected the crucial piece of information needed for killing demons.

"And how the fuck am I supposed to that?" Tara hollered back, her voice all shades of agitated as she picked herself up, shook away the stars that fandangoed in front of her eyes then resumed trading blows with the creature.

"Improvise!" Pam spat out as she hoisted the gun against her shoulder, trained it at the demon's veiny and bulging neck then squeezed off a deadly round.

Tara was quick to catch on. Jumping into the air, she launched herself feet first at the demon, used the momentum of both her boots striking the demon's wide chest to propel herself into a backwards flip. As she spun through the air, she reached for her gun, opening fire at the demon's neck as she landed with a cat-like grace on her feet.

The demon screamed, the sounds echoing off the narrow tunnel walls and assaulting both Tara and Pam's ears like nails on a chalkboard. Bits of its flesh were being flayed off as both vampires continued to bombard its neck with relentless bullets. The creature was still hunkering over Tara but Pam's relentless onslaught on it was making it second guess which vampire it should go after first.

Pam inadvertently made the decision for it when she ran out of ammunition. The creature pivoted and slammed its fist into Pam's stomach, the blonde once again sailing through the air, blood retching from her lips as her insides became pulverized. As her back smacked carelessly into the wall, she slid down it, face scrunched up in agony as she coughed up the blood that had leaked into places in her body it had no business being in.

Tara felt her maker's pain, felt the bond choke with Pam's hurt and it only served to fuel her determination and rage. She took off at a run, sprinting headlong into the demon's path, shooting as she went. The demon snarled at her but before it could swipe her with its claws, Tara jumped into the air, tossed her gun aside, grabbed for the overhead pipe and used it to swing herself forward, feet first. Her boots connected with the demon's face, both Pam and Tara's bullets doing enough damage for her kick to loosen the flesh and muscle that held the demon's head to its body.

Tara wrapped her legs around the demon's neck, ignoring Pam's warning shout as the demon raked its claws down her back. Pain flared through her as the creature's razor-sharp claws tore through her jacket to open the skin on her back but Tara worked through the loud aria of pain. She grabbed for the stake strapped to her thigh, slammed into the side of the demon's neck then proceeded to repeatedly stab and tear through sinew, muscle and bone. When the demon's head was half hanging off, Tara stuck the stake into its shoulder, grabbed the demon's head between both her hands and pulled with all the strength she had left in her.

There was the terrible sound of ripping flesh, followed by a wet plop and a pain-filled shriek as the gaping wound that Tara made in the demon's neck vomited sickly yellow-green blood all over the younger vampire. It sluiced down Tara's arms, splashed her face and seared her neck.

The now headless demon's body jerked spasmodically, motor functions ceasing to exist as the body swayed on the spot before pitching forward. Tara barely had time to dislodge herself from the demon's shoulders as the headless body fell, gravity aiding its heavy weight as it descended inevitably to the ground.

Tara attempted a tuck and roll but she was so blinded by the pain gnawing at her nerves and the demon's blood eating away at her flesh that she crashed shoulder-first to the ground, dislocating it and fracturing her clavicle.

"Tara!" Still clutching at her stomach, Pam ran to her fallen progeny, pausing only to savagely kick at the demon's head like one would a soccer ball. Reaching the younger vampire, Pam couldn't stop the horrified gasp that escaped unbidden from her lips as she took in the sight of Tara's mangled body.

Blood leeched in dark crimson streaks from her back, the demon's claws raking through her flesh so deeply that parts of her spine was exposed. Her hands were unrecognizable, the flesh that covered it all but melted off. Bits of ebony-hued skin on her cheeks and throat were similarly smoking and bubbling as the demon's blood ate away at it. Her right arm hung limply at her side, the bone being ripped mercilessly from its socket rendering the appendage useless.

"Jesus fuckin' Christ, Tara," Pam whispered more harshly than she intended as she pulled the younger vampire carefully onto her lap, careful not to jar her own still healing internal injuries. "What the hell were you thinking?"

"That I did good?" Tara flashed a cheeky grin up at Pam though it presented itself more of a grimace as the act pulled at her acid-eaten flesh on her cheek. "Fuck, that hurts," she mumbled, half-delusional from the pain lurching through her body.

"Reckless, petulant, child," Pam hissed vehemently as she glared angrily down at Tara. Tara simply shrugged her good shoulder in turn causing Pam to roll her eyes. "I'm going to pop your shoulder back in," Pam warned as she settled pale fingers gingerly against Tara's dislocated shoulder.

"Go for it," Tara mumbled again, her voice slurring together as she fought to stay conscious. She braced herself but couldn't stop the agonized scream that burst forth out of her mouth as Pam popped the bone back into its socket. "FUCK!" Tara screamed as her arm tingle with fresh notes of pain. "Motherfucker, that hurts!"

"Shh," Pam soothed. She let her fangs drop with a subtle click, tore open her wrist once more then held it against Tara's mouth. "Drink," she instructed the prone vampire softly.

Tara latched onto Pam's weeping wrist, her eyes almost rolling to the back of her head as her maker's blood starburst onto her tongue and slid down her throat like well-aged wine. Traces of Pam's unique scent spiked her blood and Tara couldn't help but suck down harder as she tried to isolate each unique flavor that was Pam.

Honeysuckle. Lavender. A hint of vanilla.

"Mmm," Tara mumbled as she closed a newly healed hand over Pam's forearm. Her body was slack where it lay across Pam's lap, mind hazing over with ecstasy as she drew more of her maker's blood into her mouth.

"Enough," Pam murmured though her features were regretful as she eased her wrist away from Tara's cocoa lips. Rubbing her own blood over the ragged lines her fangs had made over her wrist, Pam waited until they closed before she tongued away the last traces of blood that marred her alabaster skin. Done, she turned her attention onto Tara, first tugging off her acid-eaten, claw-shredded jacket then checked her progeny for any residual evidence of injuries. She sighed with patent relief when she found that Tara's back had reverted back to its flawless smoothness beneath her blood-stained tank top as had her hands, face and neck. She trailed a lone finger over Tara's previously fractured clavicle, noted that the bone had reknitted back into alignment then rotated the arm that Tara had dislocated moments ago.

"Don't hurt no more," Tara said softly as Pam continued to reassure herself that her progeny was in one piece with her roaming eyes and hands.

"Don't pull such a dumbass stunt like that again," Pam growled fiercely as she released Tara's arm. She scowled down at Tara when the younger vampire chuckled in a resigned fashion. "I mean it."

"I make no promises," Tara remarked cockily but her face sobered when Pam's expression didn't change. "You were hurt," she reminded the blonde in a tone that brooked no argument. "I did what I had to do."

Pam looked down at Tara, blue eyes flashing dangerously but when Tara returned her enraged glower with an unflinching, steady gaze of her own, Pam felt her resolve waver. She sighed then; let a pale hand rest on Tara's cheek, caressing the smooth skin before reaching down to brush her lips against Tara's. "I always knew you were going to be a handful," she murmured against Tara's mouth, a smile of her own tugging at her lips when she felt Tara grin. She kissed Tara again, a simple brush of lips against lips but when Tara finally took the initiative to sit up and straddle Pam's legs, the kiss deepened until both parties were moaning and panting into each other's mouths.

"Tara," Pam husked as she turned her head to deposit kisses down the side of the younger vampire's jaw. "Tara." The blonde's voice was equal parts aroused and terrified even as she continued planting kisses up Tara's cheek.

"I'm here," Tara returned softly, feeling Pam's fear like a jolt of lightning through the bond. She buried a hand into curled blonde hair, cupped the back of Pam's head and used her hold to reunite their lips.

For a few blissful minutes, both maker and progeny reveled in each other, taking the time to let their hands, lips and tongues reassure their troubled minds that the other was okay and alive, so to speak.

Tara sighed into Pam's mouth as she felt her maker's hands inched under her tank top then roam up her back, its movements less to incite arousal and more to reassure Pam that her progeny was indeed alright.

'Safe,' Pam thought, as her fingers continued to map out a mental blueprint of the musculature of Tara's back.

Safe. Whole. Mine.

Pam flinched slightly as the last thought crept unbidden to the forefront of her mind. She then tensed in the circle of Tara's arms, now terrified more than ever of what she was coming to feel for the woman in front of her. The blonde trembled slightly when Tara turned her head to press a soothing kiss to her cheek, having felt her maker's turmoil through the bond. Cocoa lips lingered against soft skin, intermittently dropping sporadic kisses until Pam relaxed back into her touch.

"Pam…" Tara murmured softly. She pressed another fleeting kiss to Pam's cheek, reached up and brushed ebony fingers up Pam's neck. "Pamela…"

A whisper of a sigh escaped Pam as she heard her full name escape past Tara's lips for the first time. She tilted her head, grazed a kiss to the side of Tara's jaw then buried her head into the nook of Tara's neck.

For long moments, they stayed in each other's embrace, needing the closeness, treasuring each other's presence, each other's touch.

Pam had just snuck a hand under the hem of the front of Tara's shirt, pale fingers barely skimming over prominent abdominal muscles when suddenly, a deep ominous rumble caused cracks to streak alongside the walls and plaster to rain from the ceiling. Another low distant grumble followed and Pam looked up just in time to see all the lights that lit the tunnels wink out…

TBC