The first kill was hard.
What was harder, though, was watching Nancy leave his sight.
Ned walked in unarmed, trying to keep his expression normal, but the utter surreality of it kept interfering. His heart was pounding.
Remove the head.
He had never in his life taken someone's head off.
He had to wait ten minutes for David to walk out of the inner office, and then shouldered inside. Everyone seemed slow, lethargic in the predawn gloom, and Ned felt that same impulse to find shelter pulling at him. He patted his jeans pocket; the tube of sunscreen waited there. He hadn't wanted to raise any alarm bells by putting it on early.
He dug through the jumble of keys until he found two sets that matched the make of the van and slipped them into his pocket. When he glanced up, Will was standing in the doorway.
"Looking for something?"
Will's eyes were sharp. Ned smiled. "Just putting my keys back," he said, holding them up. "Don't we do that, leave them all in here?"
Will shrugged. "It's a sign of good faith," he said, his eyes still on Ned. "But you coming back... yeah. You here for good?"
"I think so." Nancy was waiting, alone, exposed. "Let me go get my bag..."
Ned scooped up his keys again and ignored Will's lingering gaze as he walked back to the car. He had parked near the white van, the trunk away from the building; Nancy's expression would have been sardonic if they both weren't so fucking jittery with adrenaline.
"Give me ten minutes," he said, handing her the two sets of keys. "It's one of these. It better be one of these. I'll check to see if you're out there before I start."
She nodded and Ned picked up his bag, headed back inside. Every single instinct he had was screaming for him to leave now, to get the hell away from this place with her and never look back.
But, no matter what, he would always feel the guilt of not doing this, if he walked away now. Leaving the girls here to a fate he could barely imagine.
Ned entered the stairwell, closed his eyes, and the world blurred around him as he sped to the third floor. For the split second he was on the second-floor landing, he held his breath, hoping, praying that Ian wouldn't choose that moment to leave his lab. He met no one on the way, though, and waited at the door, watching for the guards.
Two voices. Two people.
He hadn't found anything so convenient as a sword or a scythe. He had found a large butcher knife in the kitchen, though.
The first one was just turning when Ned stopped behind him, the knife raised. The hesitation almost got Ned killed.
While Ned was fast, the other man had fed more recently, and he was stronger. He grasped Ned's wrist, keeping the knife away from him, and lashed out. Only a quick shift of his weight kept Ned from getting his legs knocked out from under him. Ned drove his palm into the other man's chin, snapping his head back as he slammed him against the wall.
The blood. There was so much blood, but nothing so damnably seductive as the blood of an uninfected human.
It took such force for Ned to drive the knife into the other man's spine, severing his head. He was shaking with adrenaline.
They aren't really there anymore. This is the only way.
But they were, they were still human underneath this—
And the second guard was upon him before he could wrench the knife out of the first corpse.
If you don't do this they'll go outside and find her and kill her. Torture her. Experiment on her.
That gave Ned the strength he needed, to do it. He managed to grasp the other man's head and snap his neck hard, then stab him, into his spine.
When it was finished, he was covered in blood, panting harshly in the silence of the corridor, and the dawn was creeping closer but he was shaking. Numb.
What are we, what have we done.
Nancy.
He went to the window, ripping a board off, and made out the dim shape of the white van at the lower entrance. He waved, and knew that she had seen him.
Now the hard part was just beginning.
After sneaking around for so long, Nancy couldn't believe how damn wonderful it felt to be walking around freely. She went through the door Ned had left open for her and sped up the stairs, leaving him to deal with the men she could feel below, waiting.
Then she saw the bodies of the two men Ned had left decapitated in the hallway. Her blue eyes widened, and she felt distantly sick.
No. No. This isn't...
She shook her head, moving past them to the first patient room. She had almost broken in when she turned and glanced back at the bodies.
If someone came upstairs, they would be an obvious red flag. And probably upset the girls, too.
She found a janitorial closet and stuffed them inside, letting the darkness hide the bloodstains on the wall. With any luck they would be gone before anyone came upstairs—with even better luck, no one would be left alive to come upstairs and see what had happened.
Nancy only realized how long it had been since she had fed when she opened the first door and saw two girls handcuffed to beds on opposite sides of the room. They moaned and turned away when they saw her, and she saw the needlemarks, how pale they were—
Oh God, how they would taste.
She snapped the cuff on the first girl's wrist, leaning over her. "I'm here to get you out," she told her, and when the girl looked up at her, blinking in the darkness, she gasped.
Nancy's fangs. That was what the girl was reacting to. Just the thought of blood had brought them to prominence.
Nancy shook her head. "It's okay," she said, as the girl shuddered, trying ineffectually to squirm away from her. "Can you stand? We need to get out of here."
The other girl was slower to rouse, and when she woke the two prisoners looked at each other, then back at Nancy, the slimmest thread of hope showing in their eyes.
"I'm going to take you to the hospital," Nancy murmured. "There's a van outside. We have to be so quiet, okay? Those guys might still be around."
The fire escape was old and rusted, and squealed when the three of them stepped foot on it. Nancy cringed, glancing down to the bottom story, waiting for someone to come out and spot them, but no one did. Taking the fire escape would alert everyone in the whole damn place, though.
She sighed. "Okay," she murmured. "New plan."
A few of them ran. Only a few, though.
Ned had every intention of going after Ian next, but when he headed down the stairs, Will saw him, and Ned knew the scent of blood, even if it was infected blood, was on him.
And from that moment, he was outside himself, watching what his hands were doing, what he knew needed to be done.
It would never stop. This nightmare would never end, not for them, not for him, until they were gone. And the blood, God—he was covered in it, slick over his hands, down his front. They were so fast, and they wanted to live, but he was doing this for her, for his own conscience, and that gave him a speed they didn't have.
There was no way Ian didn't know what was going on by the time Ned headed upstairs, the first floor of the hospital turned into the blood-drenched set of a horror movie, a fresh knife in his hand. He had broken the old one.
He could feel it, distantly beating at him, the growing horror at what he was doing. He pushed it back. There would be time to deal with it later. For now he just had to make sure that she made it out safely. Nothing else was important.
The sky was lighter now. He took a precious few seconds to smear himself with a thick layer of sunscreen.
At first, when he opened the lab door, he didn't see Ian, and a wave of ice water filled his stomach, crept up his spine. He should never have left Nancy alone like that. Ian had heard her, gone upstairs and found her—
A car was just pulling out of the parking lot, wheels spinning. Ned ran to the side entrance, hoping to catch even a glimpse of it so they would have something to trace—
And that was when Ian caught him.
Even underneath it all, he still depended on what was left of him that was human, and his stamina was flagging a little. And Ian was savage, brutal.
His fist caught Ned in the neck, hard. Ned staggered back a few steps, choking, and when Ian rushed forward to take advantage of the opening, Ned swung the knife up from below, aiming for a spot just beneath Ian's ribs.
"So did he find you?" Ian asked, a manic grin on his face as he swung out of the way. "He knows he'll have to be the one. To send an underling—"
Ian made another feint at him and Ned backed up, fighting the urge to go back to the window and tip Ian off by checking to see if the white van was still parked outside. Maybe Nancy had left for the hospital by now. Maybe she would be safe.
He could feel the dawn breaking outside. Just a little longer. Just a little while longer.
He wished that he'd told her he loved her just one more time.
"You're not worth more than an underling," Ned taunted him, adjusting his grip on the knife. He was crouched down, waiting.
Ian's eyes narrowed. "And you're disposable."
He was. Just not for the reasons Ian was thinking.
From the third floor they started hearing the cries, the muffled thud of bodies hitting the floor, and the girls became even more agitated. Nancy had taken all the boards off the windows, as a precaution, and rapidly smeared herself with sunscreen. If at least one of the girls was coherent and strong enough to drive them to the hospital, as long as she gave them a chance, it would be worth it. She wouldn't mind so much, feeling sunlight on her skin again. Even if she wasn't like Ned. Even if she felt herself begin to burn.
Morbius had been right. This was no life, and even if he did manage to find a cure, all the horrific things she would have to do to survive to that point would make a cure like a nightmare. And Ned...
She knew that what he was doing, he was doing for the both of them, to get the girls out of danger, but it was so much blood...
One girl wouldn't rouse, even when Nancy lifted her to sitting. She checked her pulse and it was thready, and she didn't move when Nancy pushed up an eyelid. For a moment Nancy wondered if she was playing dead. Most of the other girls had immediately shrunk back from her on waking, recognizing Nancy for the threat she would have been to them. This girl, though, didn't respond at all. She was smaller than the rest, and chalk-pale, her lips chapped. Too much blood lost.
Nancy brought the other girl into the hallway. The first dim blue light of dawn was coming through the window, and Nancy watched carefully to see if any of the girls were reacting to it, shrinking back. If Nancy herself had turned despite all warning that women wouldn't survive the infection, if one of the men taking blood had slipped and given in to temptation, the van could turn into a nightmare before they even reached the hospital.
But none of the girls appeared to be shivering or cowering away from the sunlight specifically. "One more room," she whispered. "Be quiet, okay?"
A muffled thud sounded from downstairs. The girls grouped into tighter circles, arms around each other for comfort. Some of them had known each other before this nightmare started, probably, and being chained to a bed while vampires bled them was sure as hell a great bonding experience. With any luck the memories of it all would fade, once they were healthy again, turn into vague memories therapists would help soothe away.
She envied them that. At least their nightmare was almost over.
Something slammed downstairs and Nancy felt the floor shake in answer.
Ned.
No matter what he said, and she knew exactly how he felt about it, there was no fucking way she was leaving him here. As soon as the girls were safely on their way to the hospital, she was going to make sure he was all right.
The sounds from the floor below had become more violent by the time Nancy broke into the last room. Her heart seized for a second when she saw the figure on the second bed.
Savannah.
Nancy rushed to her side and broke the cuff, hoping against hope that she was still all right, that the baby was still all right. Savannah's eyes widened when she saw Nancy, but in recognition, not in fear. Haylie was cuffed to the other bed; Ronni was in the hallway, slumped down with her back against the wall, her gaze fixed to the window. How long had it been since she or any of them had seen the sun?
Nancy roused Haylie and together they helped Savannah maneuver off the bed. As soon as she was seated at the edge, though, Savannah reached for Nancy's arm, grasped it hard.
"Joe?"
Nancy couldn't find the words for a moment. "Savannah, I'm really sorry—"
"He was here!" Savannah insisted. Her eyes were tired, the skin beneath turned to smudged half-moons, but almost feverishly bright. "I saw him! He's not with you?"
Nancy shook her head. "When... when did you see him?" she asked cautiously.
Savannah shook her head in answer. "I don't... I don't know... but I know he was here. We have to find him..."
Savannah faltered on her first step, the way the rest of them had. Together Nancy and Haylie walked her out into the hallway, and the din of their whispers was rising.
"All right," Nancy said quietly. "I'm going to go down the inner stairs and make sure no one's waiting for us, and then we're going to head for the van, very quietly. Is there anyone here who feels like she can drive?"
Three of the women raised their hands. Nancy remembered Ned saying that snacks were in the kitchen.
"Okay. I'll be right back. Stay here, and for God's sake, be quiet. I don't know how many of them are left."
Nancy headed downstairs as quickly as she could, and did her best not to look at the tumbled bloodied bodies on the floor. She would think about it later. Maybe. Maybe she would. Maybe this entire day would just become a terrible blur.
Maybe she wouldn't live to see the end of it.
She found a bag in the kitchen and, moving as quietly as she possibly could, she shoved all the snacks, the cookies and crackers, sugary sodas, into a bag. She saw a small box with cards inside and grabbed that too. Once she was back upstairs, she distributed everything, and they seemed much more awake and aware after a good jolt of caffeine. A girl with short, dark hair and a long healing scratch down one arm was the best candidate to drive the van, and she and Nancy led the group very quietly down the back stairwell, to where the van waited. They didn't run into anyone on the way, but Nancy could still hear the fight going on upstairs, and she had to bite her tongue to keep herself from rushing the girls. They were weak and tired, and moving as fast as they could.
It would be worse, when the sounds of the fighting stopped, when she had to wonder whether Ned was still alive.
Savannah turned to Nancy as she climbed up into the van. "Please," she said, her voice desperate. "Please find him."
Nancy swallowed and nodded, hoping that she wouldn't have to tell Savannah where her husband had been buried. Girls huddled between the seats, in the floorboards, tight together in the cramped space.
Nancy went up to the driver's side door. The sun was visible in the sky now, and she kept waiting for her skin to start tingling in warning, but it hadn't happened yet.
Between them all, the debit and credit cards would be enough to get them gas, food, whatever they needed, she was sure. "Are you absolutely, fully okay to drive?" Nancy asked the dark-haired woman, who had identified herself as Stacy. "I mean it. If you aren't, I can."
Stacy swallowed. "I should be okay," she said, and nodded at the citrus soda in the cupholder. "That's helping a lot. If I feel bad we'll stop at a gas station and get some energy drink."
Nancy nodded. "Drive carefully, and when you get to the hospital, tell them that you were all abducted and escaped. You need blood."
Stacy nodded. "Thanks," she said. "I'm sorry I..."
Nancy shook her head briskly. "Go," she said, patting the side of the van.
Stacy turned the key in the ignition and, with a glance back at Nancy, put the van in gear. Nancy watched it head to the highway, turning toward the hospital.
Then she sprinted back into the old hospital, the dim sunlight catching in her hair.
Ned and Ian were bleeding from a handful of wounds each. Early in the fight they had still been healing, but now that they were exhausting each other, and it was taking longer.
The longer the fight stretched on, the smaller Ned's chance at survival had become. Ned knew it, and Ian knew it too. As long as Nancy was safely away from the hospital by the time Ian killed Ned, she would be all right. She would go back to her father, and she had always been strong; she would have a chance.
But Ian wasn't letting Ned walk away. Not a chance in hell. Not now.
Ned shoved a lock of hair off his forehead, his other hand in a fist around the handle of the knife. Ian had a length of hollow metal in his hand that he was using as a club, and the fight had brought a flush to both their faces. Ian's fangs were out, and Ned knew his own were. Biting Ian wouldn't do him any good, but using his fangs to rip out his throat, some crucial muscle...
As much as the thought horrified him, he knew that Ian wouldn't hesitate if he found an opening.
Ned had been noisy, hoping that any small noise from upstairs would be covered. Ian's lab equipment had been mostly smashed, IV stands fallen to the ground. The entire place looked like a blood-spattered crime scene.
Please let her be safe.
Ned took a deep breath before he swung for Ian again, his body hunched protectively away from the other man.
Ian swung with his makeshift club and Ned stabbed at his fingers. The action had the intended effect; Ian swung back immediately, trying to protect himself.
Then Ian swung out with his foot, faster than Ned could compensate, and caught Ned firmly on one knee. He didn't quite succeed in knocking Ned's legs out from under him, but Ned shifted his weight, slamming the full force of his heel into Ian's stomach. They scrambled together and Ned used the hand with the knife to break his fall, releasing it in the process. Ian swung around again and Ned caught the club, and they grappled over it, lashing out at each other.
Ian lunged suddenly, and Ned didn't realize that he was going for the knife until it was too late.
"Ned!"
Neither of them had heard her, in the heat of their fight. Still batting at Ian's hand, Ned followed the sound of the voice, his heart sinking.
Nancy was standing there in the doorway, her blue eyes wide.
Ian sucked in a breath. "Fuck. So that's what you were hiding."
Steeling himself, Ned redoubled his efforts, his knee catching Ian on the point of his chin. Nancy ran into the room, reaching down to sweep up an IV stand.
Ian wrapped his arm around Ned's neck, and brought the tip of the knife blade right over his heart. "Stop right there," he told Nancy.
Nancy stopped, panting. Her gaze was locked on the knife.
"You're coming with me," he told her. "Or I stab him right now."
"Nancy," Ned said warningly.
I couldn't let you die. I could never let you die.
She leaned down and slowly put the IV stand on the ground, leaving her hands empty.
Ian nodded. "That's right. Slow. Very slow. So you turned yesterday, did you?"
Nancy didn't answer. She looked at Ned, and he held her gaze, using every bit of his will to try to force her to leave. She was quivering.
"Get out of here," he whispered, and he saw her eyes begin to gleam. "Please. Please, baby."
Ian's voice turned darker. "Get over here."
Nancy blinked once, her hand tightening to a fist at her side.
"Please," Ned whispered.
Ian used the point of the knife to open Ned's shirt, to show her the place he would stab him.
"Where's Joe," Nancy said, her voice so quiet it was almost inaudible.
"What?" Ian replied irritably.
"Joe," she said softly. "The guy who came here the night before I did. Is he still here?"
"He wasn't downstairs," Ned said softly.
"Is he dead?"
Ian scowled. "Get over here, I said," he repeated, his brows drawing together.
Nancy's other hand tightened into a fist.
She hadn't gone on a spree downstairs. Her energy was barely depleted.
Ned saw only a blur of motion and then a band of sunlight struck them, and Ian let out a shocked, angry cry as she ripped the other boards down off the lab window.
And then Ned felt it. A stab straight through to his heart.
Nancy drove a splintered board directly at Ian's head, and Ian was sent sprawling across the room. She followed, slamming it harder, and Ned saw the blood fucking pour out of the wound in Ian's neck, even though Ned was beginning to see spots at the edge of his vision. The handle of the knife was sticking out of his chest. He could feel it.
Oh God. Oh God, it hurt.
Ian scrambled to his feet and Nancy, her blue eyes glowing with rage, threw the board as hard as she could. Ian jerked open the door of the lab and was gone.
"Go after him," Ned said, his voice barely above a whisper.
Nancy looked back at him and immediately, before he could take another breath, she was beside him. Her hands trembled as she reached for his chest.
"Ned," she whispered.
"Go after him, Nan," he said. "I love you, baby. Go."
And then there was only darkness.
