Escape:

Escape:

When she awoke, she could not for the life of her remember where she was. Her eyes sliding open slowly, brushing across cold ground, she grimaced for a small moment, her eyes skirting the hard surface under her cheek. And then, feeling every memory sink into place, she sprang up, gasping. A moment after that she was overcome with a strange dizziness and she faltered, leaning her weight down on both hands as her arms struggled to hold her up.

A presence beside her startled her but she did not pull away as she was washed with the scent and feeling of Mick.

"How do you feel?" he asked her, his hand coming down to cup the back of her neck gently.

She hesitated before answering. "A bit dizzy but ok," she replied and she turned her head to look at him, her expression strained. "How are you?"

He gazed at her for a long moment in silence. And then his face gave way to a lighthearted smile. "I'm perfect," he answered, his hand sliding sideways and up a bit to wrap around her face, his thumb brushing aside a lock of blond hair.

She returned the gaze, her smile faint. "Good."

He chuckled at her response, his wavy hair settling across his temple and it only did that when he had been banged up, when he had been through something physical beforehand. She had never realized until that point how he tried to keep his appearance until that very moment. Right then and there he looked battered and bruised. But not beaten. And for that she was thankful. And her smile widened even more so, merely gazing at him.

"We have to get out of here," he said to her then.

She felt herself fall back down to Earth. "Yes," she said with a nod and she lifted herself to sit up straight, settling on her rear as Mick rose and examined the bars of the cell.

"Silver coated," he murmured, most likely to her. He didn't bother reaching out to double check it and she realized it was probably because he had already done it once, before she had been tossed into his cell, no doubt. Her eyes followed him as he peeked out of the cell silently and then floated over to the only window in the room, moonlight filtering in. He gazed out thoughtfully, his eyes narrowing. "We're facing the back from this window."

Beth stared at him wordlessly.

"These are also silver coated," he continued, his eyes falling to the bars lining the back window. "And the bars themselves are silver. I can't bypass these."

Beth lowered her eyes away, thinking furiously past the dizziness. The room was meant to hold vampires. They would have to escape via a mortal mistake. Or an immortal mistake. She reached a hand out silently, her eyes closing as she contemplated escape. He took her hand a moment later, startling her for a moment as she had not been expecting his warm grasp even though she had been reaching for it. Her eyes came open, meeting his, and there was a moment of utter silence between them, her lips parting.

He came back toward her a step, his face unreadable for a slight moment. But she could guess as to what was there, hidden in his eyes. What he feared. It was what she feared.

"We're getting out of here," he said to her softly, firmly.

She gazed at him, as he took another step forward, her hand lifting with the gesture in his grasp. "I know," she replied quietly, her blue eyes shining. And she pulled on his hand, dragging him closer to her.

He went silently, coming to stand before her, his hand caught around hers. When she tugged gently yet again he fell slowly to his knees in front of her, his eyes fixed on her face and the sight of him in such a way before her made her heart flutter. The expression on his face as he kneeled in front of her. As if he had come to worship. She stared at him in silence, her fingers curling in his grasp.

And she spoke, softly and urgently, through her dizziness as a desperate plan formed in her head.

It was hours still before someone came to their cell. She had made him feign unconsciousness to the point that, even in the quiet gloom of their prison, they had found their situation almost laughable. He'd ask how long she thought he would have to stay face down on the floor, especially if the sun rose. She'd told him to move out of the moonlight a bit so as to conserve some strength for when the sun came, if they were still in the same predicament. Laughter in the face of fear.

"It's a story to tell the grandkids one day," she had murmured and he had fallen silent then. But she had known, had sensed it in the air.

He would have given anything to have been able to tell any story to his grandkids.

The guard that came seemed more mercenary than anything else. Someone paid to do a job. Slightly jumpy for a vampire, yes. But still, nothing but a hired hand.

"He won't feed on me," Beth said to the vampire guard as he inched near, his eyes sweeping into the cell and washing over Mick's seemingly unconscious body in the middle of the cell. Curled beside the silver bars, Beth looked up at the guard with an imploring expression, her voice tremulous.

Mick congratulated her inwardly on her display of emotion. More than just an online journalist, he smirked against the cold floor.

"Well, wake him and force him," the vampire ordered and he reached out to the bars as he spoke roughly.

Beth's eyes flew to his gloved hands as his fingers wrapped around the silver bars. They were immediately coated in the fine silver dust as he shifted them across the bars angrily. "I can't," she said to him. "He won't do it. You don't know him like I do, he won't-"

"I know enough to know that if he's hungry all he needs is a sniff of you," the vampire growled at her and he bent, reaching through the bars and taking hold of her by the chin. Beth grimaced, immediately attempting to pull away from him but he yanked her head toward him, cracking her head lightly against the bars. She winced and her eyes opened to glare at him, her jaw clenched. "Now," he hissed against her ear, sounding like a slithering snake. "Go over to him and wake him up."

Beth swallowed, feeling his words like a disease running through her and when he shoved her away she stumbled back, her hand catching her frame on the floor. With a look, she turned from the vampire at the cell door and crawled over toward Mick, reaching a hand out slowly toward his shoulder dubiously.

"Mick?"

He didn't respond, his lips parted against the floor, dark hair curling against his temple.

Tightening her lips into a firm line for a moment, Beth curled her legs under her and then reached out with the other hand as well, wrapping one hand around his shoulder, the other around the back of his neck. "Mick, please wake up," she said quietly, leaning over him and coming close enough to press her cheek to his back, just between his shoulder blades. "Please."

He still did not respond, his body limp in the half light of the moonlight that filtered in gently.

"Mick?" she asked again faintly and she jumped when the guard at the door suddenly stomped furiously. She twisted her head up at him and felt a momentary stab of terror when he reached into his pocket and pulled forth a set of keys.

Don't freak out. He's doing exactly what you want him to do…

She felt the moment Mick tensed, her fingers still cupping the back of his neck. As the key was driven home and the cell door slid open with a clang, she backed away fearfully, refusing to let go of Mick even as the guard stormed in, fangs leaping to a point in his open mouth. With a hiss, the vampire took hold of Beth and for a moment his pale eyes strayed to her neck, hesitating. Only for a moment. Long enough to catch on the two fang marks healing there. The light eyes snaked up to her neck and as he understood, fury coursing through him, he shoved her backward roughly. Beth crashed onto her back, barely managing to miss cracking her head on the floor.

With a growl Mick was suddenly up, one hand snaking out and taking hold of the vampire under the chin. The other took hold of his arm as it flailed, surprise flitting across the vampire's face at finding himself caught.

"I would be very careful touching her," Mick said to him softly, almost gently. "I wouldn't want to piss me off." And with one forceful gesture he threw the vampire backward, immediately following as the vampire slammed against the cell bars. Hissing, baring sharp canine teeth, Mick caught him once more as he slid down across the bars and he forced the vampire's head to face the bars, flipping him and holding him there.

A monstrous snarl issued forth from the vampire as his face came in contact with the silver, as he inhaled pure silver dust. Beth rose onto her rear, staring fearfully and she was the one who caught the long slender object strapped to the side of the vampire's leg. Rising quickly she scrambled over to the pair of struggling vampires, ripping the ornamental stake from the vampire's leg.

"Do it," Mick said to her as she looked at him and he backed away from him enough to leave her an opening, still holding the vampire's face to the bars as he shrieked in pure animalistic anger.

With a wince, Beth shifted the stake in her hand and stabbed blindly, feeling sick to her stomach as it entered the vampire from behind.

She had done it only once, this cruel method of detainment. And she had done it to Mick's ex-wife.

"Good shot!" Mick said with a wide smile as the vampire immediately stiffened, eyes widening against the cell bars.

Beth didn't even know how to respond to that.

A moment later she didn't care as Mick threw a hand out and pulled her backward as the vampire teetered for a second then fell stiffly onto his back, fingers curling into his body rigidly. They stared down at him for a long silent moment, Beth barely able to breathe. She had rammed the stake with such fear that it had stabbed clear through, a bit of the edge puncturing the vampire's chest.

"Oh my God," she uttered, a hand lifting to her mouth.

Mick reached down behind himself, picking up the set of keys the vampire had let fall to the floor and he looked at her for a moment, his hand reaching out blindly. "I'm thrilled you're on my side," he said to her in what she could only think of as an affectionate tone. A moment later he was yanking her after him as he raced through the doors of the cell and out into the hallway, heading back the way the vampire had come.

"We can't go-" Beth said to him, her heart pounding as they flew down a long hallway, passing several more cells along the way to the door at the end of the dark corridor.

Mick threw her a look of disbelief over his shoulder. "Yes, we can," he stated, hair curling around his cheek as they ran. "We absolutely can."

"We can't!" Beth cried as they reached the door and Mick gave it a tug. "We have to find out who is doing all this, who is after Josef! We have to-"

"No!" Mick shouted at her firmly, causing her to recoil slightly in surprise. "There is no way I am going to sneak around in here to find out who this guy is. Another way. Not like this. Not with you here." He looked through the keys for a moment in confusion and then just began to try one after the other, five in total.

Beth gazed at him, willing him to understand. "Mick, this is your best chance. He's here, somewhere, this vampire that wants Josef. You can find him! You can stop him-"

"He's too strong," Mick said softly, bringing her to a stop in mid-sentence. He had found the key but now he hesitated, having released her hand to try the keys and now just resting one against the cold iron door, the other holding the key in place. "He's too strong, Beth. I can feel it. In the visions. I can feel how…angry he is. And it makes him stronger. Too strong." He turned to look at her over his shoulder, his dark eyes straying and catching on hers. "And I can't do it with you here. I won't."

Beth gazed at him. "I'll wait here then," she whispered to him. "I'll stay out of the way. I'll wait in the cell. Anything. Just please. Find out who he is and stop him. There are people dying-"

"No."

And with that one word Mick unlocked the door, took hold of her hand and headed out in the darkness of the warehouse.

They had made it to the roof. Somehow, in the blackness of their prison, they had staggered up flights of stairs, sensing no life anywhere. Nor undead life. Just nothing. They had crashed through one last door that had led out onto the last flight of stairs right before the roof.

And only then had he sensed the vampires coming. Many of them. His frame had tensed in that moment as he and Beth had hesitated on that silent landing, looking up at the door that beckoned them to their freedom.

"They're coming," Mick had whispered and she had made a small sound at his statement, drawing close to him. And so, with vampires chasing them, they had raced up that last flight, had burst through out into the moonlight and he stopped at the edge of the roof, looking down.

"I can't make that."

"When we do this I'm either going to dislocate or break an arm. Which means you-"

She was beautiful. She was so beautiful. Moonlight washing over her pale and bruised face.

"I trust you."

"This is nothing." Said with a small smile, meaning to comfort her. To stop her from ever being afraid because it broke his heart to see her ever be afraid.

"This is everything," she had whispered, tears shining there in her blue, blue eyes, her blond hair shimmering in the light of the moon as she had ducked against him in fear. But in trust.

And he fell backward, off the edge of the roof.