Vlad couldn't take it anymore. He stood up from the wall and walked over to the large door on the other side of the room. He'd previously tried to push the door open with no result, but he never tried the wall next to the door. Without any hesitation Vlad punched the wall with all his might.

"Whoa! What the hell are you doing?!" Henry exclaimed, getting up from his seated position by the sink.

"I saw it in a movie once, when there's an unbreakable door try the wall next to it. It could just be a regular wall." Vlad shook his hand, knuckles slightly bloody, and poised himself for another punch. Henry grabbed his hand. "If it didn't break the first time you punched it, I doubt its going to break on the second or third one. All you're going to do is break your hand, and trust me on this one, it doesn't feel too great."

Vlad looked at Henry's hand on his. It was so warm and so close. He jerked his hand away a little too harshly, it was bad enough that he had to be stuck in this small room with the sound and smell of Joss and Henry's blood, he couldn't handle feeling it pulse, too. As it was he was having a hard enough time looking Henry in the eye and not the neck. "Henry, I need to get out of here." He said trying to pour as much meaning into his tone and gaze as he could muster. Henry stepped back wordlessly, hands up slightly, whether it was to give Vlad space to punch the wall again or out of self preservation it wasn't clear.

With a shout Vlad punched the wall again, the cracked tile giving up and falling to the floor in pieces with a clatter, behind it was the expected cinder block, solid as ever. Vlad punched the wall again and again, and one last time with a cry of desperation that echoed in the small room. He turned his back to the wall and sank to the floor again staring hopelessly at his bloody and broken hand, eyes watering in frustration and pain.

It was bad enough that they were all trapped in here, now he went and broke his stupid hand. The fact that it was broken wasn't the real issue here, in fact it was already starting to heal. The problem was that the exertion he used doing all that just made him all the more hungry. He didn't care at the time, he just needed out. Now he was wishing he had listened to Henry.

-:-

Vlad awoke sometime later to his stomach growling for the umpteenth time. He had no idea how long they had been stuck in here or how long he had been asleep, he didn't even remember falling asleep for that matter. Nothing had changed during his nap save for his two friends sound asleep in the corners opposite him. Henry was pressed into the corner near the sink, head lolling down, and Joss was in the corner nearest the door with his back against one wall and his head leaning on the other. Vlad's eyes couldn't help but to be drawn to Joss's exposed neck. Out as he was he wouldn't notice Vlad's staring anyway so there was no real harm to it. He could stare. Stare at the subtly pounding vein along the side his throat. He could smell his A positive blood from here. He could feel it in the air like ripples in a pond. He could imagine how it would taste. Sweet. Tangy. So close. So...

"Vlad? What are you doing?" Vlad didn't even realize he had stood up until Henry had spoken. He now stood poised over Joss, mouth agape, a mere foot away from him.

Realizing what he was about to do, even subconsciously, he jumped backward in disgust and horror with a loud gasp stumbling and falling the rest of the way to the floor. The noise awoke Joss who was staring in sleepy confusion at the quickly retreating Vlad.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean- I didn't- I wasn't-" At Vlad's stammered apologies Joss now realized what he woke up to.

"What the hell, man? Were you going to bite me just now?" Joss said angrily gesturing toward Vlad's extended fangs.

Vlad ran the tip of his tongue over his exposed fangs, when had they come out? Probably when I started staring at Joss's neck. Stupid! "No! I wasn't! I swear!" Vlad had no idea what he was swearing to, if Henry hadn't spoken up when he did Vlad would be all over Joss right now. Vlad's eyes found their way to Joss's neck again. He forced his face away, determined to stare at the wall instead.

Joss reached out and gripped the stake that lay almost forgotten next to the door and fixed Vlad with a distrustful gaze. A beat passed in uncomfortable silence. "So I guess O positive is too common huh?" Henry tried with a weak smile. "'Cos that's what I've got," he finished lamely. Vlad looked at him miserably for a second before curling himself tightly in the corner and laying his head over folded arms, his stomach growled loudly again.

-:-

"No!"

"Henry-"

"No! We are not chaining Vlad up like some animal!"

"Henry we need to. I don't want to, but it doesn't seem like we have much choice here."

Vlad sat quietly on the floor, trying to ignore the way they were talking about him like he wasn't there. His fangs hadn't shrunk back since he almost bit Joss and his stomach was constantly growling now. He closed his eyes. He could hear their thundering angry pulses from where he sat, could feel it in the air softly pounding against him. God he was hungry. "Henry." Vlad's voice came out a little husky from disuse. He opened his eyes and locked his gaze with his best friend. "Henry, you've got to lock me up. I don't know how much longer I can just sit here and not-" He broke off, not wanting to go into detail for his own sanity's sake. He swallowed thickly as his eyes flicked down toward Henry's throat and back.

"Vlad we don't even know where the keys are, so if we do lock you up we can't get you back out." Henry argued, voice quieter than it was.

Vlad gave him a long-suffering stare. "Henry. We're running out of options."

"Why don't you just take some from me?" Henry offered, exposing his inner forearm to Vlad. Vlad's eyes locked onto his arm and his mouth watered. Everything in him screamed yes!

"Henry!" Joss yanked Henry's arm back to his side and Vlad forced his eyes away with a grunt and a shudder of longing. "Are you nuts?"

"He's my friend and he's starving! I've got to do something!" Henry countered defiantly.

"No, Henry." Vlad said quietly, cutting off whatever Joss was going to say next. "I don't- I can't, I don't have enough self control right now, I would hurt you. Or worse." Vlad looked down at the floor between his feet. It was quiet for a beat and then Vlad stood up and walked calmly to the chains on the wall. He didn't know how long they'd been in there or when they'd get out, so precautionary measures had to be taken. They were about four feet long each and connected to a ring on the wall about four feet off the ground. On the end of each chain there was a heavy looking manacle that reminded Vlad of medieval handcuffs, one side was jagged edged that locked into the other side with a hinge.

"This is stupid! We're not going to chain you up, Vlad." Henry said uselessly as he and Joss watched Vlad click the locks into place around his own wrists. Vlad looked down at his wrists and back up to Henry and Joss in turn. "Its not so bad," he lied. The chains clanked noisily against the wall as he slid back down to a sitting position and rested his hands on top of his knees. He laid his head back and gazed up at the ceiling trying to not to think about how hopeless he felt.

It was about that time the panel on the bottom of the door slid open and pushed another tray through. Vlad leaned forward and tried to see through the opening, to see if maybe he could catch a glimpse of whoever was on the other side, but it slammed shut in that same instant. He leaned back with a huff and saw that the tray held the same two sandwiches and bags of chips and some bottled water, still nothing for him though.

-:-

Vlad was on the verge of sleep when the Voice sounded again. "Let's speed things along here, shall we?" At that the bottom panel opened again to reveal someone holding a blood bag. Vlad immediately stood up and made to reach for it when the chains went taught against the wall. The person holding the bag then reached in with a second hand, uncapping it and squeezing it all over the floor.

The smell hit Vlad like a tidal wave. It was like it lit a fire in him. He needed it. There was nothing else in the room but him and the blood on the floor. Desperate, he began to pull at the chains holding him back, now regretting putting himself in them in the first place. Why did I do that?! Distantly he heard Joss and Henry's voices telling him to stop, to calm down. When did they get here? But he couldn't. Why couldn't they just see that? With a cry of deep longing, Vlad tugged harder at his restraints, becoming furious when they didn't seem to budge an inch. When a blood smeared empty chip bag was tossed his way, it was like it was in slow motion, Vlad just reached up and snatched it out of the air. Without pause he licked it clean, a moan blooming from him as it hit the back of his throat. It was euphoria. As soon as it was gone his throat felt parched, dry and scratchy. More. He needed more.

With a grunt he threw himself against the chains again, this time something moved. A piece of the wall cracked a small bit where the chains were bolted. In a rush of fury Vlad planted his foot on the side of the wall and pulled again, crying out in desperate exertion. Two tiles surrounding the loop loosened and fell to the floor, breaking violently on impact. With one last shout Vlad ripped the chains from the wall and turned hungrily to the pool of cold blood on the floor. Down on his knees he quickly scooped up as much as he could with cupped hands and greedily swallowed mouthful after mouthful. It had started to dry a little around the edges where it was thinnest leaving a large macabre smear in the middle of the floor.

Joss and Henry watched frozen, mouths agape in equal parts disgust and fear as Vlad licked at his hands. A thought then occurred to Joss: this wouldn't be enough for him. Their captor dumped out less than half of the bag. He would need more and he was quickly running out of what remained on the disgusting floor. Joss's eyes found the stake, tossed haphazardly next to the sink after Vlad chained himself up, just out of his reach. If he moved, would Vlad attack him? Is this even Vlad anymore or is this the hunger that ruled his kind?

Joss took a small step to the right, toward the stake, and glanced back at Vlad. He didn't seem to notice. He took another small step, just a few more feet. He looked up and met the hungry eyes of Vlad. Only this wasn't the Vlad he knew, this was more animalistic predator than his friend. Vlad was still crouched over the mess on the floor, blood smeared all down his face and arms and down the front of his shirt, but now his eyes were glued on Joss, a feral look about him. He wasn't moving. Joss didn't realize how loud all of that just was but now that no one was so much as breathing the silence weighed down on him.

He didn't dare move. Maybe if he waited, Vlad would snap out of it. He would understand and stop. Joss's eyes flicked to the stake and back to Vlad. Should he just grab it? Then what? Would he attack Vlad? Would he kill him?

Joss lunged for the stake.

Wow. So its been another year, so sorry about that guys. I haven't been actively trying to ignore you guys or this story, real life just gets in the way a lot. I won't go into it on here too much, there's more on my profile if you're interested. I'll try to keep my profile up to date on where I am with new chapters and stories.

I appreciate anyone who is still reading this and for every review during my absence, seriously they keep me going guys. As always, thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this latest installment and will let me know with a review. See you next chapter :)