Chapter 14

A/N Another day in captivity for Damon. Will Warren consider helping him?

Now, by the time he heard someone coming down the stairs in the next room, he figured it was the next day. He had slept in the silence of the place, hearing only the creaking that an old house made. He knew such noises were more common up in the rooms than down here in the basement. He remembered the noises of the house he grew up in, especially as the wood cooled in the evening and warmed in the morning's sunlight.

Somewhere in the Whitmore basement was the furnace. He knew from the past that it could be heard in winter, but apparently it was not turned on at this time yet. Also, when people were staying in the house, water moved in the pipes and in the sewer drains. In the time he had been in the cell this time, he had rarely heard such sounds, so he felt he was all alone in the place over night.

He was pleased to see that his visitor was Warren and not Maxfield.

"Good morning," he said to the red-headed man, who carried a bag of blood bank blood.

"Brought you breakfast," Warren said and he slid the bag between the bars.

"Nice of you," Damon said as he took the bag, cold from a refrigerator, and he bit the top off one of the ports. He took a swig of the liquid and felt it quickly disperse from his stomach to the rest of his body. Only blood did that, while regular food and drink stayed in his stomach and intestines to be processed. This blood felt good, but nothing like hot blood right from the living source.

"I tried to contact Dr. Fell this morning," Warren said. "Her secretary said she is out of town for a couple of days. I made an appointment to see her. I told her Luann and I are having trouble conceiving, which is true because she had to have a hysterectomy right after Brittany was born."

"I suppose that makes Brittany twice as special."

"It does. She is the sweetest kid. And brave. She endures all the treatments."

"Maxfield told me he inherited this house," Damon said, changing the subject. He took another draw on the bag. "That seems strange since there's still another Whitmore out there."

"That's true; there's Aaron. The place really belongs to him, but he's still a minor. As I'm sure you know, he's a college student. Smart as a whip, but a socially shy kid. Wes is his cousin and his legal guardian. Both of them live here, but Aaron has been staying at the college now."

"Hm. Does he know what Wes does, besides teaching, I mean?"

"I'm not sure. He never comes down here. Not as long as I've been helping Wes."

"Which is how long?"

"A while now. He's gone through three vampires."

"I know what happened to Jesse. What happened to the others?"

"The woman's blood wasn't doing what he thought it would, so he did other experiments. One was to take out her heart and then put it back."

"Did it heal back in place?" Damon asked, worried.

"The first time. He put it right back within seconds of removal and the heart healed in place. The second time, he waited over a half a minute and it was too late."

"Augustine did the same experiments. Didn't Maxfield read the results?"

"Wes doesn't have all the paperwork and records from Augustine's work. There was the fire in the fifties and also one in the seventies. That one was started by a careless person's cigarette and it destroyed mostly Augustine's office and many records before it was put out."

"So Maxfield is duplicating experiments on his own. That's just great," Damon muttered, remembering some of what was done to him and others.

"Unfortunately for your kind, yes."

There was a sound in the other room and both Damon and Warren heard it. Warren moved to the door and stopped there, watching as Wes Maxfield slowly and painfully made his way down the stairs.

"Wes, what are you doing here? You should be in the hospital!" Warren said, moving to meet the doctor.

Damon could hear the man's limping gait and the light tap of his cane. In a moment the man came into the cell room. He looked pale, sweaty and in pain.

"What I need is vampire blood to heal this damned wound," he growled. He came to stand about two feet in front of Damon's cell, the cane in his left hand, while the fingers of his free hand gripped the bars. "Are you going to let me have some or are we going to have a struggle over it?" he demanded of Damon.

"Don't you have vampire blood in your refrigerator? Seems like you had some in the school lab," Damon said with a smirk. He was glad the man was suffering and he was pleased that he, Damon, was the cause of it.

"It's old now and has drugs in it," Maxfield said. "I need it fresh and pure. Vervain won't make any difference, so if I have to vervain you, I will. Again. What's it going to be?"

"Well, I don't feel particularly generous this morning, especially toward you. I guess it's going to be vervain. Too bad. Right now my blood is as pure as it ever is. Pure and strong. The elixir of health. Pain free. You hurting, Maxfield?"

The vampire lashed out with a foot and caught the doctor's fingers that were around the bar. The man yelped, withdrew his injured hand and swore at him with rage and pain.

"Vervain it is," Maxfield growled. "Come on, Warren. Help me get the dart guns."

Damon looked at Warren, who looked back with an expression of alarm. In fact, the man shook his head as if to ask 'Why did you make things worse?' Damon had mixed feelings about the kick. Perhaps it had been stupid. Perhaps if he had said he would co-operate, he would have had a chance to escape when they opened the cell door. Well, it was probably too late now. He moved to the back wall of the cell.

In a couple of minutes, the two men returned. They each carried a gun made to shoot drug darts, syringes filled with sedatives. In this case, vervain solution. Maxfield carried his awkwardly in his good hand, while he held his cane with his thumb and the one good finger of the other hand.

"Look, I think I changed my mind," Damon said, trying a different approach. "I really don't want to be vervained again. I'll give you the damned blood."

"Too late, smartass," Maxfield snarled. "Warren, I'll shoot first. If I miss, you take a shot. We'll keep going until one of us hits him."

Damon figured the doctor was too shaky to hit him, especially with the pain of a couple of broken fingers. Warren, on the other hand, was probably good at doing this sort of thing. The only thing to do was to keep moving in a blur back and forth. At present, Damon had the strength to do it, and when Maxfield took aim and fired, Damon wasn't in that spot anymore.

Warren fired and missed also. Damon grinned at them as they reloaded. They had several darts each ready to go. Again Maxfield fired and missed. Warren anticipated Damon's move and likely new location and hit him in the left chest. Damon yanked the dart out and threw it back at Warren, but, of course, the damage was done.

The drug zapped through Damon's body by way of his nerves. It hurt as it always did and he collapsed to the floor, sitting with his left leg folded under him. The dosage was not enough to truly paralyze him or to render him unconscious. He weakly leaned on his arms to keep from falling over on his face. He expected to be hit with another dart to put him down completely.

Maxfield didn't shoot again and he signaled Warren not to do so. Instead, the doctor took a set of keys from his pants pocket and unlocked the door. "Don't shoot him again unless he looks like he'll put up too much resistance," he said to his assistant.

"He's only half subdued, Wes. Be careful."

"I don't want a large dose of vervain in the blood. Help me draw the blood from him. Grab his right arm."

Damon was too weak to lift his head much, but he could see the men's shoes as both of the men entered the cell and came up behind him. Wes reached for his right arm and pulled it out to the side. Since Damon was wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt, whoever had the syringe had access to his good veins.

"My hand is too injured, Warren. You'll have to draw the blood and you'll have to inject it into me," Maxfield said.

Although Damon could wiggle a bit, he was not able to prevent Warren from sticking the needle into a vein and taking the blood. When both men stepped back to let the assistant inject the doctor, Damon let himself down onto his side on the floor, his back to them. Once again he felt defeated. He hated that feeling.

Maxfield gasped and moaned for a moment.

"That hurts?" Warren asked as he injected the blood.

"Not really. In fact, it causes quite a rush. Unfortunately, it's gone as quickly as it hits," the doctor said.

Damon lay quietly on the floor. What else could he do? Once the vervain dispersed through his body, it no longer hurt, but the weakness was disturbing for a person who was used to being strong. He listened to the two men behind him talk as they waited to see how much healing took place and how long it took.

"Man, that hurts my fingers!" the doctor grumbled, his words hissing through his gritted teeth. "He broke a couple of my fingers and the blood is making the fingers align properly."

"So, it's doing what it's supposed to do," Warren said. It amazed him every time he saw the ability of the vampire body to heal itself and he was just as amazed that the blood healed humans. For a moment he prayed that Dr. Fell would be able to give good blood to Brittany and cure her. "How does your leg feel?"

"As sore as before, but something is happening there. I can feel it. I can put up with soreness if the artery heals properly and the damaged tissue begins to heal. The surgeon had to evacuate a large blood clot from the area. Pick Damon up and carry him to the other room. I might as well do a couple of tests while I have him under control."

"You ought to rest your leg for a few minutes."

"We need to get Damon on a table and start an IV so I can give him more vervain. The dose he just got will wear off in a few minutes. Go ahead and pick him up."

Warren moved to Damon and rolled him onto his back. "You with us, Damon?"

Damon glowered at him. "Where the hell else would I be?"

"Yeah, you're right. Okay, let me get you up off this floor." Warren was not as big and bulky as Bull, but he was in good shape and strong enough to easily lift Damon, getting him under his knees and shoulders. As he lifted him, he brought Damon's head up to his shoulder and Damon had the strength to keep his head from flopping backward. It came to rest on Warren's shoulder.

"I'm getting tired of people picking me up like this," he muttered.

"It's better than being dragged across the floor, isn't it?" Warren said, a touch of humor in his voice.

"It'd be even better if you carried me outdoors and drove me home."

"Dream on."

Damon wiggled in Warren's arms, adjusting the position of his head a bit. It was not by accident that this position put Damon's mouth an inch from Warren's neck. Without even thinking, and almost by reflex, Damon let his fangs come down and bit into the muscles at the back and side of the neck. He hit no blood vessel, but he sucked hard and muscle blood filled his mouth. He swallowed and the very feel of it rushing throughout his body made him shudder with pleasure.

Warren let out a yelp and yanked Damon's head away and threw the vampire away from him, much as Bull had done. Damon landed on his back, hitting his head hard. He didn't have the strength to crawl away to the open cell door, but he relished the hot blood he had had the chance to swallow.

"He bit me!" Warren shouted, putting his hand to the back of his neck. It came away bloody. "Damn it, Damon, why'd you bite me?"

"I couldn't help it. You put me next to your neck," Damon said with a smirk. "Not a good move when you have a hungry vampire in your hands. Use some of my blood to heal the wound. Either swallow it or rub it into the bite marks."

"There's still a little blood left in the syringe, Warren," Maxfield said. "You want to swallow it or rub it in? Swallowing it is better, although there isn't much."

"I'll swallow it. Damn it, Damon!" Warren said. He took the syringe which only had a couple of milliliters left in it, removed the needle and squirted the red stuff into his mouth. He made a face and swallowed it.

"If it doesn't help, we'll draw more," Maxfield offered. He took a clean tissue from his pocket and wiped the blood away from the side of his assistant's neck. After studying the wound, he said, "The punctures are closing. You have quite a 'hickey' though."

"Great. I'll have to explain that to Luann."

"You told her we have a new vampire?" the doctor asked with a frown.

"I did. What difference does it make?"

"None, I suppose, as long as she tells no one."

"She won't tell."

Damon noticed that Warren didn't mention that he had brought both Luann and Brittany to see the vampire. Warren was keeping secrets.

"Let's get his clothes off," Maxfield said.

"Why? I mean, a couple of minutes ago we were going to leave him dressed."

"I've changed my mind. I'm sure he feels more vulnerable naked. And who

knows what I might decide to do to him now?"

From down on the floor Damon glowered at him and said a few choice words, for which the doctor kicked the side of his head, hitting his ear. For a moment he saw stars and had ringing in his head, but then that went away. Still, the side of his head hurt, as did his ear.

Undressing Damon took several minutes because he was uncooperative, refusing weakly to let his arms be raised and crossing his ankles and trying to keep them that way. He grinned at Warren who had the task of getting the clothes removed, while the doctor just stood by watching.

"Quit that!" Maxfield snapped at Damon's lack of cooperation. "If you keep on resisting, I'll get a knife and slash those jeans right off you. Then you won't have them to wear."

Damon grudgingly relaxed and let Warren pull the jeans off his legs. He also didn't resist as Warren peeled the underpants off him. He couldn't win the battle. He just wasn't strong enough. He finally lay on the floor naked. Again.

"Pick him up again. We both will. I'll take his feet."

"Are you sure you're up to it? You don't want to tear that artery open again or hurt your hand."

"I have faith in the power of vampire blood," Maxfield said with a crooked smile. He flexed the healed fingers. "Let's get him into the other room. I want to try something."

A/N More trouble for Damon. Some of his choices of action are not helping him. Hope you all liked this chapter. More to come.