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FLEMING

THE third night I aeak, cold, and shaking, with the hunger like a gunshot wound in an was upstairs snoring, a short, heavy rasp, as though even in sleep he breathed faster than nor abruptly ceased After a s squeaked, and he paced unsteadily back and forth

Last night he&039;d fallen into a pattern of first feedingaway -four or five times He kept up the assurance that this would speed his transfor an effect on hiy thruive out He took that as evidence his procedure was succeeding

I&039;d continuedact and hoped it would remain an act He was careful to replace ood shape considering the situation

Plodding down the stairs, he put the light on, and it took time for my dazzled eyes to adjust What I saw scared me

Now I looked at my left wrist, which was covered with many more thin welts where he&039;d cutoff blood while I slept That hy I was so sick

Dugan looked the way I felt He was unshaved and drawn, his sweat-sheened skin had a yellow tinge, and that rotten-fruit smell was h his wide-open eyes were not flushed wholly red the way , they were bloodshot and ers nervous He looked exactly like an alky caught short on booze

My blood had to be killing hi him

"I&039;ve kept upanother ht from the Stockyards-less than an hour old"

My corner teeth were out I was hurting for it I&039;d have taken anything then, including hu donor

Solicitous as a nurse, he lifted lass he&039;d filled I finished it quick, but the belly pain didn&039;t cease

"You&039;re drainingthe day," I said

"Only to speed my transformation process Have more, have all you want I went to considerable trouble to obtain this for you"

I shut up and finished that bottle and the second one he fetched

Dugan had been careless, letting me knoere less than an hour&039;s travel from the Stockyards That covered a lot of area, of course, but I filed the inforleaned about my location, which was definitely the basement of a house I was able to pick up certain noises unique to a hoerator, the ru, and soht

I heard no traffic, but being belowground reat insulation froht, I&039;d paid attention to each sound, trying to distractOnce he put on the radio to listen to a news show, giving a snort of disdain whenever he didn&039;t like as said The rest of the tie by the frequent scratch of his pen If he had so et a damn typewriter?

As the blood saturated my body, the sickness slowly faded, but I de it?" he asked, surprised

"Losing ground"

"What?"

I glanced toward ive me time to heal I need more than you take just to recover More than that to stay alive"

He almost sounded defensive "I didn&039;t do it that often"

The day feedings terrified ht not wake up toh to kill roan and subet another bottle," he said and left He stuht himself, and shot a quick, self-conscious look back My eyes were h ood I had him worried

He letready before doing his little cut-and-drain operation Tonight, he gulped the beakerful with alar subsided, his eyes were fever-bright and one

Maybe he was turning into a vaht to er," he said, swinging his aretic I&039;d been looking forward to acquiring the ability to influence weakerwould be so greatly augmented"

He sniffed at the untouched bottle of cow&039;s blood, took an experirimaced Apparently it wasn&039;t to his taste yet

"I should be fully changed by now," he said "Perhaps you were right about it taking longer I&039;m very sorry, but you&039;ll have to reo out, and though it was cloudy, I wasn&039;t at all coh it is rather short of the coestion, I wondered

I mumbled foroals once his little experio andup in the world First he&039;d have to deal with his criitive, and that had to be fixed

"The police and court papers should be easy enough to destroy Then I shall talk with everyone concerned with the case I&039;ll persuade thelish friend won&039;t recall anything of it Neither will that wo I kidnapped She&039;d be better off without such a burden, you know" He sounded speculative "So s to do once I have your abilities I shan&039;t waste thenificantly because of ht Say he went to Washington and started doing an evil-eye whah its influence wasn&039;t perh history to know that one s For good or ill was up to the ine how bad things could get

How I hated his voice I looked around for the other me He was out of view Dammit, I wanted his company He could listen to the idiot; I wanted to hide in that su hot air to entertain hi once to it, I also understood he would kill me despite his promise to the contrary I&039;d known that from the moering delusion He couldn&039;t set up anywhere and feel secure withhow he&039;d carry it out He could drain me completely by accident or do it on purpose Or would he resort to the traditional stake and ha just to be sure?

Bobbi would think I&039;d walked out on her because of her going to Hollywood She&039;d never know

Escott would think I&039;d gone off ain and run away to kill er appeared just then, scowling down "You going to feel sorry for yourself or do soestions

"You knohat to do" He talked right over Dugan&039;s blather

A better hint, please

He pointed at ht arm

It&039;s hard to pretend to be at death&039;s door while at the sa on around you I kept ht ahead and unfocused, but still an turned his back Not that there was lassful of blood, which I drank I was feeling full now, but an poured another While he was busy, I let my head loll to one side

The L-shaped rod was still in place, the handle pointing in the salihtened back so he wouldn&039;t notice

I finished the next glass Thelook "Tell me about that female of yours How do you feed froan&039;s eyes flashed a I shouldn&039;t have reacted at all Dear God, if he went after Bobbi I wanted to rip free and strangle hied the expression of the iain There was no hu than before

He backed away Good, I&039;d scared hihter die and shut etically upstairs and slah for a bath The sound just

I checkedthe day ahad taken place, and the dried blood had concealed it The skin was no longer adhering to theto mesh to it, but had shrunk back froh, alh a woer in scale

The i was that the wound had closed, and I was no longer bleeding

I&039;d had the right idea last night when I&039;d tried to rip free, just not the strength or a reserve of blood to draw on It had been too soon My body needed ti away and had to be acco the threads a little at a time It ard, and my muscles cramped I told them to shut the hell up

My ar the bone over the angle, but I got enough leverage to start bringing the end of the rod around It caradually swiveled into place, pointing at , and it burned like blazes, and suddenly I was pulling

No need to breathe, but I was panting, half fro atit was another hallucination The hole was ugly as sin I wasn&039;t crazy enough towas painful I&039;d not done hts Every joint was brittle and popped, but I made myself roll over to the left My other arm was still pinned, the skin sealed to the rod, but I had rabbed the handle and pulled it sharply straight up The threading provided friction forsnapped and ca left ar until I s