A Bit of Warm Comfort (A True Blood - Sam/Tara Fic)

Chapter 9 - Truth or Die

Chapter 9 - Truth or Dead

It was after hours when Lafayette and Sam finally arrived at Fangtasia.

"Dammit!" Sam said, staring at his cell phone for the tenth time in the last thirty minutes. "Tara's still not answering her phone. Where the hell is she?"

"If anybody knows, it's probably Eric, especially if he's had her blood," Lafayette said.

Looking out at the nearly-deserted parking lot, Sam's heart sank. "It's only a few more hours 'til dawn. "It doesn't look like anybody's here. Maybe Eric's already left."

Lafayette stared intently at the entrance of the club. "Nah, that motherfucka's here alright."

"How do you know?"

Lafayette closed his eyes as if he were meditating. "I can feel 'im. The closer he is, the stronger the connection."

"What connection?" Sam asked. He hoped it wasn't anything like the blood bond he'd once shared with Bill Compton. He had been unable to sleep for weeks after ingesting Bill's blood. He cringed, thinking of the sexually explicit dreams—or what he considered nightmares.

"It's a long, fucked up story," Lafayette said. "The less you know about it, the better. C'mon, let's go 'round back."

Sam got out the car and followed Lafayette to the back of the club. A few cars were parked in the designated employee parking area. Lafayette pounded twice on the steel door then three more times in quick succession, using some type of Morris code.

The door opened slowly. A large, stern-looking Asian vampire with short cropped hair, wearing a black suit stared out at them.

"Wassup, Chow," said Lafayette. "I need to speak to Eric."

The vampire's steely dark eyes skipped from Lafayette to Sam.

"This is Sam," Lafayette explained. "We both got business with Eric."

Chow's frown deepened, then without a word he shut the door in their stunned faces.

"Do you believe that shit?" Lafayette exclaimed. "I can't stand that ugly motherf-."

Before, he could finish his sentence the door opened again.

This time Pam appeared, dressed in her work uniform, a black leather corset with red lace and a long skirt made of black chiffon.

Startled, Lafayette jumped backwards away from the door.

"If it isn't Sam Merlotte and my favorite pathetic drag-queen, Lafayette. What? No pint-size humans or crazy maenads on your tail this time?"

"Where the fuck is Eric?" Sam asked, getting right to the point. He was quickly losing his patience and didn't have time to deal with Pam's snarky attitude.

"Busy," she said.

"I want to talk to him right now, and I'm not leaving 'til I do."

"Oh my, let me just rush right in and get him for you" she said, looking bored. "Not!"

"Look, a woman came here last night named Tara Thornton. She's my …" Sam hesitated, wondering about the real nature of his relationship with Tara. Was she his friend, girlfriend, sometime lover, employee? "She's important to me," he said finally. "And I don't appreciate that fucker feeding on her against her will."

Pam rolled her eyes. "Believe me, Eric has a smorgasbord of fangbangers lining up to be his next meal. If he fed from your female, she volunteered willingly and undoubtedly loved every minute of it."