Tara was deathly pale when they arrived at a small modest flat. Pam held onto Tara as they maneuvered out of the car and up the stairs. There was very little day left, but Pam wouldn't share the responsibility of holding her. She didn't trust anyone else to make sure she wouldn't fall.

Lafayette knocked on the door. No answer. He knocked again this time the door swung open. No one was at the door to answer it. He leaned in with his feet firmly planted outside on the doorstep.

"Go," Pam ordered.

Lafayette pursed his lips, "says the white bitch to the black motherfucka who gets it first."

Shouldering passed the dark man she went inside practically dragging Tara in now. This shit was creepy, but this had been the address Eric told her to meet him.

"Eric!"

"As impatient as ever," he started from the shadows to his progeny.

She glared at him adjusting Tara's weight. Her heartbeat was becoming completely slow now. The taller blond smiled endearingly at his childe and then curiously at her cargo.

"We should go to ground," Eric stated. Pam shook her head wiping blood from her eyes.

"Not yet." She caressed Tara's cheek closing the tender hand into a fist, when she realized she was being watched intently by an audience she preferred didn't know how deeply she cared for Tara's well being.

"You're no good to anyone with the bleeds," Eric coaxed her to follow him with a hand at her back leading her deeper into the basement where he had two coffins ready for them.

Pam looked back at Tara one last time.

"She's not going anywhere."

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"What. The. Fuck. Is. You. Doing?" Lafayette glared at the long man with a black bag and dark clothes as if her were a doctor or an undertaker. Fortunately he was the former. Tara and Lafayette didn't often see eye to eye, but she was still family and he didn't want to see her dead.

"Admiring her," he breathed heavily. He'd been admiring for over thirty minutes after a thorough examination that involved taking off her clothes. He wanted to undress her completely, but the part club owner didn't like the idea of the doctor getting his jollies 'examining' his cousin.

There were ingrained markings on her flesh where the bullets hit. There was so much blood that hadn't been cleaned yet, but the doctor insisted that her wounds remained untouched. Pam wouldn't like seeing her like this when she woke up. He yawned covering his mouth, but he wouldn't sleep until he knew someone he trusted was looking over her.

An hour later Pam was up ready to hear good news. There was none other than the fact Tara was still breathing, albeit shallowly.

"Who the hell is this hack?" she slept for a few hours. Lafayette was keeping vigil over Tara's body as the stranger she questioned looked too delighted at having Tara in nothing, but her underwear on a slab.

The doctor ripped off his glasses his hand out for her to shake, "Dr. Dougary, Dr. Doug, Dr.D, I'll go by almost anything as long as you don't take away my doctorate."

"Doctorate?" Lafayette groaned disbelivingly.

He nodded vigorously retracting his hand when Pam didn't make a move to take it. "In mythical science. It's a fairly elite field with very little funding, but it's garnered some attention over the past few years with the exposure of supernatural entities."

"I've never seen anything like it," the doctor perused Tara's prone form.

Pam circled the doctor warily, "she's not a fucking it." She turned her gaze to Eric who had gotten up not long after her.

The wiry man stood abruptly sensing he had offended the dangerous woman, "of course. I was just…I've never seen anything like her before. I...she is fascinating."

"She's dying." Her tone was irritated and her expression was expectant. Why is Tara still covered in her blood? Now it was crusted and giving off a horrendous odor.

He leaned over Tara again shaking his head, "oh no, she's not dying. She can't die," he stated proudly.

"She's not fucking hibernating," Pam paced. Eric amused watched his progeny take special care handling and protecting this stranger.

"What the fuck does that mean?" Lafayette spoke up. The doctor had been talking in circles since they lay Tara on the slab.

"I mean," he looked up practically jumping from excitement, "immortality has its costs. For vampires they sustain life by drinking blood. Other immortals eat souls, this one," he pointed downward without taking his eyes off Lafayette, "is a very unique specimen."

"If I have to tell you one more time a four inch heel with be the last fucking thing you examine out of your chest. She isn't a it or a specimen she's—"

"A Lansing," he enunciated as he stared at Pam pointedly, "with some very interesting magic to bind her to this human form."

"You fucking lost me," Lafayette stood stepping closer to his cousin.

"Lansing's are usually larger and hairier and smellier, but they are great companions when you get passed the grotesque smell and look. They are extremely loyal and ferocious when what they care about is threatened," a knowing smile lit up his face, "you know something about that don't you?"

Pam glared.

He shrugged, "you don't have to say. You're wearing the same ring."

Pam glanced indifferently at the simple jewelry. "This old thing."

"Yes that very ancient and magically binding old thing," he stood smugly pushing up his glasses.

Magically binding? The blond vampire wanted to rip his head off. Human's irritated the hell out of her, especially the smart ones, his cheeky accent didn't help.

"Have you tried to take it off," he nodded toward the jewelry. Pam looked down at her hand. Glaring she braced her fingers around the ring to make a point. The slight tug she started with didn't help. Clenching her jaw with bored eyes she ignored the doctor's smile and turned slightly as she used all the strength she possessed to pull it off.

While she was working on the ring he thought it was as good a time as any to share what he knew she didn't. "Lansing's mate for life. Would you like to guess how they choose?"

Pam glared down at her hand tugging one more time before she dropped her hand frustrated. He held up her finger, "there's not fucking way," Pam refused to listen. "We barely knew each other for a second before she put this thing on me," she growled.

"And you let her?" Lafayette's brows hiked.

"Yes," she growled, "it's a long story."

"That you'll be able to share with the world for eternity. You're hers and she is yours whether you like it or not."

She held her head in her hands. Her fingers massaged her temples, but she figured it wouldn't be leaving any time soon. "She was fine before the amulet was broken," she murmured, "and the bullets."

Dr. Doug's smile dropped, "amulet, what amulet? No one said anything about an amulet."

"That Harold had," Pam stated, she couldn't share anything more about him other than he was a fence for special interest items for anonymous employers.

"What were you doing with him Pam?"

"Last night we were attacked by humans with big guns and dangerous bullets. I'm assuming Godric's Journal is incredibly valuable with all the commotion to get a hold of it."

Eric's arms uncrossed when he heard his maker's name. "What does his journal have to do with anything?"

"They want his fucking journal Eric. Don't ask me who they is and the only person that might know is lying here unconscious, no thanks to Dr. Doolite."

Dr. Doug held his finger up, "I believe he spoke to animals. Though one could make the argument that Lansings are barely human," he caught Pam's testy look, "but she is a very very human like woman, who coincidentally isn't going to stay this way for long unless she is bound again. The amulet kept her in this form. Understandably she wouldn't want to walk around like a hulking monster."

"You're just a well of good fucking news aren't you?"

He held his hands up, "there's good news too," he stated.

Pam looked at him expectantly.

It was time for a sleep deprived Lafayette to interrupt. "Not only do we got to worry about beauty," he pointed to the temperamental Pam, "and the beast," he nodded to his cousin. "But anonymous motherfuckas who wants to kill us for a fucking diary."

Eric shook his head, "little girls with grade school crushes have diaries. Godric's journal is several volumes of history there's no telling what is inside and how valuable someone might consider them if they got their hands on them."

Pam leaned over Tara.

The doctor wiped at his glasses as he waited for the next move. He got paid by the hour, he didn't mind how much time it took.

"It's safe to say she's comatose now right?" she looked at the wiry man.

He looked up pushing his glasses back on nodding, "a form of it yes. Her human body is weak and when that dies she can take her true form."

"Anyway we can stop it?" the blond pursed her lips. Spending an eternity with a hairy, smelly, beast didn't seem all that appealing.

"Fairies," he stated simply. "Their blood has the same healing qualities for the supernatural as vampire blood is for humans," he explained.

"Fucking fairies."

They couldn't do anything about it until the sun went down, but Pam had a pretty good idea where she could find herself the blood of a fairy or at least half of one.

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