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"Welcome back"
Rachel winced at those words as she blinked her eyes open For a e&039;s face ca his gaze to her chest, she gri open to reveal her bloodstained lace bra
"I took the stake out," Pudge explained, his gaze roving the smooth skin with fascination "You healed like crazy First the bleeding stopped, then the hole closed, then even the scar went away It was , man!"
Rachel turned her head wearily away fro But now she desperately needed more blood She couldn&039;t sustain and recover fro a lot of it Her body was in an agony of want, cra out for the fluid of life She could actually sht she h his veins If he moved closer, Rachel wouldn&039;t trust herself not to simply take a bite out of hi for it, she was definitely feeling capable of the feat
Rachel gave her head a shake andthat way She wasn&039;t so demon who couldn&039;t control herself Etienne had assured her she wasn&039;t She could fight it She just had to convince the incoo rob a blood bank and bring her nourish hilance behind him, then he moved away Rachel was so relieved that he had taken his blood-filled scent away that she closed her eyes and didn&039;t pay attention to what he was doing until he returned The scent returned with hiht about just killing her but decided to save her for you You need blood Bite her Give her the vampire kiss"
Rachel e pushed a pale and still woozy Mrs Craveshaw at Rachel until she was practically beneath her nose The woman had apparently been unconscious the whole ti, Rachel supposed At least the wo The problem noas that the older woe had hit her The blood had poured out into her hair and made a trail down her neck to soak in the shoulder of her flowered blouse The scent was intoxicating, telanced down at the woman&039;s face when she whi at her; she was eyeing Pudge in a frightened ht he was quite ht wearily There was no such thing as va impatient
Rachelher face to the side in an effort to escape the te and very much feared that if she did bite the woman, she wouldn&039;t be able to stop until she&039;d drained her dry She wouldn&039;t risk it
"Not hungry enough yet, huh?" Pudge sounded disappointed "Well, I&039;ll just keep her here until you are Oh!"
That exclae was urging the woman back across the room She could still s But the bright expression on his face as he glanced back e said as he tied the woht of that, but it&039;s dayti that vampire weariness where you can hardly stay awake and you&039;re really weak and stuff"
Rachel didn&039;t bother to correct hiood for him to know anyback to her, he quickly undid the manacles around her neck, shoulders, and waist, then bent to undo the ones around her thighs and ankles too Rachel stared down at his head as he worked, thinking mournfully that if she weren&039;t so weak, this would be her opportunity to escape But her body was seriously lacking in strength, her muscles rubbery eakness She wasn&039;t even sure she could hold herself up much more than a moment, let alone knock the little jerk on his butt and e announced, straightening to quickly undo her wrists He was obviously aware of her weakness, or she didn&039;t think he&039;d have left his crossbow behind, but apparently he was putting it down to it being daytime rather than the blood loss due to the injury But she hadn&039;t bled out a lot, and he didn&039;t know that the blood would have been used up to repair the dainally, I intended to kidnap Etienne and keep him prisoner here," he said chattily as he helped her to the large coffin she had noted earlier "I thought that way I could ivearound the people I don&039;t like for him to bite There are a lot of people I don&039;t like I could have kept hi to risk that"
He tugged up the lid of the metal coffin and pushed it all the way open to reveal a red satin lining Rachel stared into the huge space with bewilderment It looked like two or three people could easily fit inside
"I had it h for ot turned"
Rachel shook her head at this infor uy was beyond help, over the edge
"In you go," Pudge instructed
Rachel was exhausted and really wanted to lay down, but there was no way she was getting willingly into that coffin She&039;d rather sleep on the concrete floor "No"
The word slipped so faintly froo"
"I&039;ed a little ly
"Yes, you are," he insisted "Get in the coffin You&039;ll sleep better"
She lared at him, not surprised when frustration immediately crossed his face Then his expression cleared
"Get in the coffin or I&039;ll kill Crabbyshaw"
Rachel&039;s shoulders slumped in defeat at that threat and she adot Pudge scooped her up and dumped her unceremoniously inside Rachel wasn&039;t sure if it was irritation or si, but she landed hard and was left gasping as added pain radiated through her While she was thus incapacitated, Pudge snapped a new h for you to get out and feed on old Crabbyshahen you get hungry," he explained "But not long enough for you to get away Sleep well!"
The lid sla darkness She reached up weakly, her hand co of the coffin Panic tried to overwhelm her She had always had a touch of claustrophobia, but it see herself to breathe deeply, Rachel let her hand drop weakly back to her chest and tried to calroup, and when he left, she&039;d slip out and
Her thoughts became fuzzy there Slip out and what? Would she even be able to slip out? Without blood, she wasn&039;t likely to regain her strength Instead she would groeaker and weaker and Dear God, where was Etienne? Why wasn&039;t he here getting her out of thishe was left in his office where blood was readily available; the least he could do was co hard to breath There didn&039;t see it all up She would suffocate and die in here
Rachel forced herself to cal herself it was just her claustrophobia She wouldn&039;t die No one had mentioned lack of air as one of the ways they could die She just needed to stay callanced toward the door He wasn&039;t sure, but he thought he&039;d heard so thewith for what seemed like hours, he stood and ainst it
"Etienne" The nah the door, barely audible, but there nonetheless They&039;d arrived Relief welled through him but was quickly followed by confusion as he wondered why his brother hadn&039;t just tried to use thoughts to speak to him The moment he wondered that, he beca histo reach hi with the cohts
Etienne? Are you all right?
What happened?
We can&039;t get the door open
The thoughts flooded his nized that Bastien, Lucern, and his e wrecked the door panel He sent the thought back I&039;et the door open
How? The as clear but accoe and concern for Rachel Etienne considered the question briefly If he were out there he could probably get the door open himself, but the rest of his family wasn&039;t very technical He could probably talk theed, but without that, the fastest as--
You&039;ll need an acetylene torch You&039;ll have to cut through the steel around the door lock He waited to be sure they had understood and that one of theo in search of the needed torch, then asked, What time is it?
A little after six, came the answer, and Etienne closed his eyes He wasn&039;t positive, but he thought it had been around noon when Pudge had broken in
That meant he&039;d had Rachel for ht
It was loud rock music that woke Rachel up She opened her eyes and stared into unrelenting darkness Her breathing immediately seeone Panic swaain This ti it gave her the strength she needed to shove the coffin lid up Rachel was so weak she only ed to lift it a couple of inches; then she had to leave her hand between the top and the coffin itself to prevent it closing She winced at the pain as the lid pressed down on her hand, but it orth it to have the added air that was now slipping in to her Gathering her strength, she eased up, forcing the lid of the coffin upward until she could see out into the roo she saas Mrs Craveshaw tied up and leaning against the wall The wo at the far end of the roolimpse was an open door The position of the coffin didn&039;t allow her to see e anywhere Half-dragging herself and half-pushing, Rachel began to cli her firstin Etienne&039;s house, and the way he had sat up and leapt sth to do that right now but considered herself lucky to be able to cli her, Rachel suspected She needed blood She had to get out of there
A grunt slipped froh over the edge so that gravity took over and she tu of the chain attached to her ankle see froave herself a chance to catch her breath, expecting Pudge to co up and ruin her escape at any moment
Rachel opened her eyes and peered toward Mrs Craveshaw The woaze between Rachel and the other end of the room Rachel didn&039;t knohether the look on the old woman&039;s face was fear of her or fear for her but knew she had to , Rachel crawled to the wo the chain behind her "Are you okay?"
Mrs Craveshaw ed a shaky sone quite mad He seeaze to the door in ti cape she&039;d spotted hanging on the as now billowing around his body Fake white fangs flashed at his ust, as Pudge suddenly stopped and whirled back the way he&039;d coe of the cape up to his chin with one hand as he leered into what Rachel presuht in the room
"I vant to suck your blood, baby," she could just barely hear him say over the reed "Crazy as a loon"
"We can&039;t call the police What would we tell them?"