Chapter 12
Waking up used to be a good thing. Back before I was locked in a cell for who knows how long. Actually Zeke knew, and he updated me every time he came back, but I never would have known otherwise.
Six days. It had only been six days. What did it seam like? I'm not sure, but longer than that.
Lucky for me Zeke was a good friend. He stopped by twice a day, always bringing food. He'd been true to his word and brought a few books, all vampire fiction stories. Zeke loved reading them, he said it was hard to find something that was really fiction, unless you read the vampire stories. About all they got right was the crosses and sunlight.
So I had read my way through interview with a vampire, which I had read before, the first three books in the Anita Blake Vampire series, and several other miscellaneous novels. I was tired of reading, though. Zeke said he would have brought a radio but any music might effect the other prisoners, which he didn't want happening. So I was stuck in silence.
Well, not complete silence. Every so often the guards came by to retrieve or drop of some body, either dead or bloody, sometimes both.
I had accepted all of that on the third day though. Right now I was just getting angry. Not at Zeke or any of the other vampires, but at my head and the stupid dreams that kept plaguing me.
I couldn't remember them. I woke up every morning with the feeling that I just dreamt the same exact thing, but I couldn't remember a thing. Not even a fragment of what happened. I would live with it without problem if it wasn't for the fact that they were giving me headaches, literally. Some how I knew the constant aching was related to the dreams I couldn't remember.
It really, really sucked.
Yesterday I had asked Zeke to bring some painkiller with him when he brought breakfast. He said he'd see what they had. After all they were vampires, what do they need pain killers for? They don't have dreams that give them headaches while not telling them a damn thing.
I looked around the room. There was nothing to do and I was getting grouchy. Without knowing what time it was I couldn't guess when Zeke would be here.
The silence was getting annoying. It closed in around me, making we want to stop up and down screaming just to show that there could still be noise. That would have been childish, though. Not to mention it would show that they were getting to me. Which they were, but they didn't need to know that.
Not much later than that I heard the clomping sound of the guards. I knew that I could hear them much sooner than I saw them, but it was awkward waiting. I had found myself trying to guess on whether or not they'd bring someone back or take someone away. It gave me something to do.
I didn't remember them taking anyone off lately, they might have when I was sleeping, but they normally kept them longer than that. I had begun to estimate the approximant amount of time each person stayed away. Some were gone longer than others, all left for at least twelve hours. Over the course of six days you pick a few things up, if I was here a few months imagine what I'd learn. I really didn't want to know.
The men came into sight, they were dragging a body. So much for my guessing. They dragged it through the hall, leaving a bloody trail in their wake. I watched them walk past my door, staring on my tiptoes so that I could see, curious to which room this one was going into. I was really that bored.
To my surprise they stopped one cell over from me, I heard it more than saw it. Actually I didn't see it, I saw the men pull the body in the general direction and them all standing about looking nervous. Unless there were two doors really close over there the new prisoner was one door down.
I heard a thud and a curse, the voice sounding horse and dry and very much in pain. My guess was that the body was still conscious. Looking at the blood it left behind I was wondering how much longer that would be. I guess it depended on whether it was human or not. While I never got a good look at anyone, several had come back that weren't human. We don't have scales, horns, or other such demonic things.
The guards muttered to themselves while shutting and bolting the door. I hear three bolts and a lock. The bad guys weren't taking any chances. I wondered who was in that cell. Obviously the guards were scared of him. I hadn't once seen them look nervous or fidget. They only talked when absolutely necessary. But right now. . . the guy with the sword was clutching it, as if he thought whatever was in the cell would break down the door and come after them. They wasted no time in leaving.
Normally when someone was dropped off here they groaned a bit and just lied there, unmoving. They showed no signs of being alive or caring whether or not they were alive. This one was different.
I heard him hiss as he dragged himself along the floor, I could hear him sliding. Or at least I thought that's what it was, back to me not being so good at identifying noises, but I was trying. After a moment there was another thud, and another curse, still in the raspy voice. The sound echoed in the silence. I wondered if the noises I made echoed, too.
There was the sound of someone rustling about, then silence. He'd stopped moving, I didn't blame him. Anyone who was hurt as badly as he was wouldn't want to be moving. At least he could move, that was more than the others could do, and it gave me the first opportunity I had to talk to someone, no one else had answered, he might be different.
"What're you in here for?" I asked casually, the same thing I had been asked the one time I went to detention. The teacher had left and we were alone, some guy thought he'd strike up a conversation. It was the only thing I could think of to say.
There was no response. I thought the guy might not answer, but waited anyway. There was nothing else to do. Finally he answered, "Who are you?" The voice was starting to even out so that it didn't sound so rusty.
"The prisoner who's not being tortured," I stated bluntly.
There was something that sounded like an attempt of laughter. "Lucky for you then."
I nodded, realizing he couldn't see me. "Yeah, lucky for me," I didn't exactly sound like I meant it. Not that I wanted to be tortured, but being bored wasn't my cup of tea, either.
"You never answered my question, why're you here?"
More silence for a few seconds. "Ran into some old friends. How about you?"
"Same thing," I stated, "or something close."
"Zeke?" He asked, and I froze. He knew me, I should know him, and his voice was so screwed up I couldn't recognize it. Fortunately the options were somewhat limited, made things easier to figure out.
"So this is where you went to, eh Alucard?"
He chuckled again, this time the sound was clearer. When he talked I could identify his voice, even though it sounded as if he had a bad cold. "Yeah, this is where I ended up. I sure made it hard for them to get me here, though."
I nodded again, and then frowned at myself, once again reminding myself that he couldn't see me. "Good," was my only answer.
"How'd you get suckered into this?"
"Went out dancing," I stated.
Alucard answered, "You? Sorry, but you don't strike me as the dancing type."
"Which was why I watched from above as the girls had fun. Then Zeke happened to be there, with back up. There was the whole 'if you don't come with me I'll kill them' speech. So here I am," I explained.
I no longer had any thoughts about Alucard betraying us. He wouldn't have done that just to get captured and tortured. I hadn't seen him in here all week. Was this the only place they kept the prisoners? If it was then where was he? Being constantly hurt by the vampires? That thought sent shivers up my spine. If it was true. . . Alucard shouldn't be able to talk and walk around, he should be just as useless as the other creatures they'd thrown in here.
Maybe that was why the guards were scared.
"So you were out with the girls," Alucard murmured. "Get dressed up and everything?"
"More or less," I stated.
"Sorry I missed it," he said, I could hear a hint of amusement in his voice. "I'll never skip a chance to go out with a bunch of scrumptious girls. Bet they would have tasted good."
I glared at the wall separating us, not appreciating his joke. "You're not touching them."
This time he laughed full out, his voice almost back to normal. But the laugh was fake, almost fearful. There was no joy to it.
"We're never getting out of here," he stated, suddenly calm, serious. "Or at least I'm not. They'll turn you into a vampire and you might even help them kill me."
I couldn't say anything to that, I didn't know what to say. So many thoughts came to mind, all sparked from that statement. He had given up hope. He didn't think he'd die here, he knew it. And he knew it would take a very long time. Another shiver went through me. If I could I'd get him out of here, even if he were an evil vampire who wanted to kill me. At least I'd stake him, give him a clean death.
"What are you thinking, Slayer?" Alucard asked. I couldn't remember him calling me that before. It had always been Liz.
"Why do you want to know?" I asked, sounding calmer than I felt. I wonder if he was doing the same, pretending to be calm.
"I'm curious. How does the Slayer feel when she knows she's going to be changed into a vampire?"
"I say that I haven't given up hope yet."
"Ah, you're being brave. That's good."
"You're not, that isn't."
Again he laughed, but this time it sounded like it hurt him. I heard him growling from frustration, not at me, but at himself. "I'd love to be brave, but there's not a damn thing I can do." He wasn't complaining, just being honest.
"Well, I'm going to find something that I can do. And I'm going to do it, then I'm getting out of here," I said it bluntly, as if it was the only possible thing that could happen.
I had the feeling he was smirking at me. That was fine. He set himself up to get beaten. While I thought I was going to get beat, as well, it didn't matter. That wasn't the point.
Laughter trickled around the cell, it wasn't Alucard's. I heard locks opening, from my door and from his, or so I was guessing.
Someone pulled my door open. It wasn't Veronica, but she was the one staring at me when it opened, all high and mighty in a black dress that showed off more than it hid.
She stood there, looking beautiful, dangerous and sexy, all three I'd admit to, none of them actually meant anything to me. Now the vampires she'd brought with her, they meant something. I glanced around the room, the stake was on the other side. If I ran for it they'd stop me, maybe hurt me. I decided to stay still.
"Well, what have we got here," Vicky purred, walking slowly into my cell. She grinned to me, all too happy with herself. "Zeke's Slayer and her pet vampire." She knocked on the wall between us and Alucard. He didn't say anything.
"Hello Veronica," My voice sounded a lot steadier than I felt, no squeaks or trembling. I was doing good.
Vicky knelt in front of me, staring at my eye level now. "I thought it might be fun to stop by and say hello," I didn't so much as blink as I stared into her eyes. Her grin widened, as if my silence confirmed my fear. Gently she stroked my face with a finger, I didn't move away, but I sure as hell wanted to. "Zeke said I couldn't hurt you." I nodded. "So we came to play with Alucard." She grinned for a moment, flashing fangs at me as she switched to her vampire face, then back, quick as a blink.
"Thanks for the invite, but I'll have to decline the invitation," Alucard called out, his voice sounding worse than before. Was he faking it?
Vicky frowned at me. "Did you here that?" She asked. "I don't think he likes me." she showed me puppy dog eyes, looked almost sad, then she shrugged, suddenly happy. "But it is going to be so much fun. We have to bring somebody." Her eyes twinkled, and she grabbed my hand, pulling me to my feet and dragging me out of the cell, I kept up with her so that I wouldn't fall. She stopped right outside the cell and I could see into Alucard's, his door being opened, too.
He looked like crap. His cloths were in rags, torn, slashed and stained with blood and dirt. His face was bruised and beat, along with the rest of his body. There were no major gashes on it, though. A few scratches, but not too much blood there. No, the blood had come from the rest of his body, all the many parts that had been cut into or pulled out. Even as I watched though, I could see him healing.
Vicky grinned at him with a giggle. I think I wanted to slap her. No, not slap, punch, kick, stab, something more violent then a mere slap. Besides, slapping was something she would do. I just couldn't see her in anything other than a catfight.
Alucard looked out at us, I couldn't read any expressions he might have. His eyes focused on Vicky though, those I could see clearly. They were nice and empty, emotionless, and very deadly.
His voice wasn't, though. It fit in perfectly with Vicky's little charade of having fun. "Come now Vicky, she wouldn't be much fun, she'd barely last ten minutes with your style at work." I think he was talking about the way she tortured people.
Vicky shrugged, looking like she was having a hard choice. "But you're already bloody, she's fresh," her eye glanced at me. She looked hungry. I did tremble then, she laughed.
"Fine, but if you want her dead, that's your problem. Zeke's going to kick your ass," He paused a moment, his face twisting into what must have been a grin. "Actually, I'd rather like to see that."
Vicky smirked. "He won't hurt me." She was so confident, it was pitiful. Her smile wasn't, it was terrifying. "Besides, I really want her dead."
Something flashed in Alucard's eyes, could it have been fear?
"Damn, and here I was looking forward to a party," he almost sounded disappointed. Almost.
Vicky looked at him, her eyes narrowing. "If I didn't know any better I'd say you were offering to go in her place." No one said anything for a moment.
I glanced back at my stake. It was too far away. If it had been someone else I would have tried to get it, but Vicky wanted me dead, her men wouldn't think twice about killing me.
Turning back to Vicky I saw a smile spread on her face. She walked towards Alucard, the proper sway to her hips. She knelt next to Alucard, bending over enough that he was probably getting a good view of her chest. He wasn't looking though. He just stared at her face as she whispered words that my human hearing couldn't pick up. I watched them speak to each other for a few minutes before she stood back up, a smug smile on her lips. She walked out of the cell and nodded to one of her men.
He went into the cell to grab Alucard, backed up by three other vampires. One of them grabbed my arm and shoved me forward, not letting go of me. He also had three guards helping him. If I so much as stepped out of place they'd be on me.
We didn't have to walk far this time. Just down three hallways then the second door on the left. Not far at all.
Inside was exactly what you'd expect in a torture chamber. A lot of devices with chains, blades, ropes, you know, the usually. I looked around until I found the rack. The room just wouldn't be complete without it. That's all you really needed to make it a torture chamber, that and something sharp. The rest was just to scare us.
It was working.
The guards lead me over to a wall, I didn't bother fighting. They'd drag me if they had to. They were dragging Alucard. They chained both of us to the wall, I had to stand on tip toes so that I wouldn't hang.
Vicky walked over to the both of us, smiling sweetly. It was the look she used with Zeke. He wasn't here right now. I wondered what she was up to. Then I remembered, she was here to torture us. No wonder she was happy.
She took three long steps to Alucard, standing so they were almost touching. "Do you like my party?" she purred, sounding too happy. Alucard didn't say anything. "I was wondering where to start," her eyes glanced at me before returning to him. "I was thinking maybe an appetizer."
Alucard looked at me, understanding what she meant. "I'm not really hungry yet." It sounded like his voice was getting worse. I think he was faking it.
Vicky was laughing again, her face changed into vamp mode. Slowly she leaned forward into Alucard, Putting her hands on his chest to separate them just a little. "Are you sure?" he didn't answer.
Slowly she dug her fingers into him, forcing them into his skin. Alucard jerked and she giggled, slowly pulling her fingers down, taking his skin with her.
"When was the last time you fed?" She asked in a singsong voice. "Three-four days ago? I think you're hungry." She pushed back a little so that she could have a better look at me. "Do you think he's hungry?"
What could I say? He was starving, it was obvious. I just really didn't want him feeding off of me. Couldn't lie to her though, that would make her angry. "Yeah, he's hungry."
Vicky smiled, satisfied. "See, even she thinks so." I couldn't get a good look at Alucard's face, I didn't know what he was thinking. I probably didn't want to know.
"Are you doing this to get back at Zeke for screwing around, or because you don't like the girl?" Alucard asked. There was no emotion to his voice, you could take the question any way you wanted to.
Vicky wasn't sure what he was getting at, she even looked confused as she frowned at him. "If you must know. . . I don't like her."
Alucard laughed at her. "Liar. You're doing this because of Zeke."
Anger flashed on Vicky's face as she growled at him. I was just waiting for her to start screaming at him. After all, how dare any of us disagree with her. She was so much better than all of us.
Oh well, her problem. I agreed with Alucard.
Taking the step back towards him Vicky grabbed Alucard's hair and slammed his head into the wall. "How would you know?" she hissed.
Despite the pain Alucard was smiling. "You don't kill people when you're mad at them. You hurt the people they care about," he answered.
It was like he hit her. She moved away so quickly, furious. "How dare you. . ." she started, glaring at him. Then in an instant her manor changed, and she was smiling again. In her vampire face it was anything but sweet. "Perhaps you're right."
Slowly she turned to me, her eyes glaring into mine as she smiled. It was almost like she completely forgot Alucard as she walked over to me, except that she made sure he had a good view of everything, careful not to get in the way.
"Do you agree with him?" She asked. I nodded. "So you think I'm not mad at you?"
"No, you're mad at me, but you're mostly made at Zeke," I corrected.
She nodded. "And Alucard." Slowly she leaned into me, I had a brief memory of what she did to Alucard, a shiver went down my spine. She smiled, cold and cruel, resting her hands on either side of my head. "Should I make them suffer?" She asked. I think she was asking if she should bite me. I didn't bother to answer. I didn't need to. She pulled back, ready to strike.
"Veronica," the word stopped her. In a second she was off me and in the middle of the room, facing the door, and Zeke, back to her human face.
She smiled at him, as if it would make everything better. He ignored her, glancing at Alucard, and then examining me. He didn't see anything wrong with me so he moved on. I guess Alucard wasn't as important.
"Zeke, I-" Vicky started.
He cut her off with a glance, walking further into the room. "Shut up." His voice was cold as he stopped right in front of her. She started to move towards him and he held out a hand to stop her. Vicky burst into dust leaving Zeke holding a stake in the middle of the room. She hadn't suspected a thing.
As if Zeke had given a signal vampires spilled into the room and spread out, attacking all of Vicky's guards. The guards tried to run but they were outmatched, if not outnumbered. Zeke ignored the slaughter as he walked towards me.
Carefully he opened the chains on my wrist, having to break them because Vicky had the key. He helped me steady myself before backing up, and even then he kept an eye on me. I kept my balance just so he wouldn't catch me, I wasn't sure I wanted him that close to me right now, even if he had saved me.
"I take it you're not unchaining me?" Alucard asked, his voice back to normal. I guess he knew better then to fake in front of Zeke. Vicky might have slipped up, Zeke was careful. He didn't even glance at Alucard. "Fine, that's just great. Leave me with the bad guys to be beat up some more."
That's the idea," Zeke murmured, turning to him. "Boss wants you bloodied up a bit before your meeting. Liz on the other hand, he doesn't want you scratched," he said that to me.
"So his greatness finally decided to show up?" Alucard muttered.
Zeke only nodded, turning back to his men who were done with the other vamps. "Clean her up, then take her up to the Boss, I'll meet you there."
Five of them nodded, tow of which came over and grabbed me. I stumbled at first, and they caught me, being a little more careful while still giving me no slack. Zeke followed us out, leaving another three vampires with Alucard. He stopped my new guards for a moment.
I turned to see why, he was just staring at me, as if trying to find something to say. I just stared at him. What did I have to say? I don't know. There was probably something, but it was too far over my head. I'd let him wonder what I was thinking as I tried to figure him out.
Was it possible for vampires to feel guilty? If it was I'm sure that's what Zeke was suffering from. The Boss was here. It was his job to deliver me to him. I'd get changed into a vampire and join Zeke's side, why should he care? He was a demon, a bloodsucker. He should want this. To him, it wasn't me dying, it was just changing me a little.
Maybe he didn't want the change.
"Liz-" he tried to start.
I cut him off. "I guess I'll see you later."
It was in Zeke's power to keep me here, to make me listen to him, but he didn't. While looking hurt, he nodded, letting the vamps know they could take me away. I almost smiled as I walked away. He was feeling guilty. If nothing else, at least I knew that.
By now I was getting rather tired of the hallways. They all looked the same, and it was bugging me. At least Zeke's vamps weren't dressed in chain mail. All wore fairly modern cloths. Brownie points for Zeke, but I was still mad at him.
On this trip I tried something different, just to kill time. I kept track of where we were going. If we went far I'd never remember it all, but it gave me something to do. My head was filled with rights, lefts and straits as I tried to keep track of them all. Then we came to a door, third on the right. It seemed to soon, I might actually be able to remember the trip. I went over all the directions as they led me inside the room.
It took me a moment to notice where we were, I had been so busy focusing on one thing to look around. Now that I did I wished I didn't. It was a costume room, more or less anyway. Half of the place held the armor the guards had been wearing, the other half was filled with normal, or at least normal for their time, clothes for the rest of us. The vampires around me were all selecting outfits for themselves when one came over with a dress for me.
One look told me it was old, weigh before even my time. The dress was scarlet, not my favorite color to wear, but it wasn't bad. The vampire hung it on a chair and before I knew what was happening hands grabbed at me, taking off the clothes I was wearing and replacing it all with new, or should I say old, clothes. It couldn't have taken them more then three minutes to finish everything, and now all that was left was the makeup, which the one female vampire that had come along was taking care of. At least that was modern.
When everything was finished she twirled me around, I got glimpses of everyone in the room. They were a mixture of people, some dressed as guards, others as nobles, I saw one that looked like a servant or entertainer of some sort. The one thing I didn't see was a piece of wood to stake them all with to get out of this nightmare.
Then again, how I was supposed to fight in this I didn't know. The corset was too tight for much, but they weren't suppose to hurt me, so I might stand a chance. But there weren't any weapons.
I looked around frantically, searching for anything that could be used. There wasn't anything sharp, just a bunch of clothes. The guards outfits had sheaths, but no swords. I had a sneaky suspicion that I could search everything and not come up with anything that could help me. Someone would have had to bring a weapon with them. Which reminded me of something.
I looked around for where everyone had put their cloths. Sure enough they were stacked in a pile not far away. I didn't have time to search through all of the pile though, someone would stop me before long, so I had to think fast. There was a coat on top. Maybe I'd get lucky, if not I was dead. Sounded like a good time to gamble.
I tried to bend over, but the outfit was set up so that I couldn't move very well. Running was out of the picture. I started to take a few steps towards the clothes pile, no one notice.
I was stuck with three choices. I could try to sort of crouch, without bending my back because whatever support they'd used to give me perfect posture wasn't letting me move well , I could kind of bow to it, as if stretching for my feet, that let me bet up quicker, or I could fall, making them think I tripped. It would catch attention, but they wouldn't suspect I was trying to do anything.
I fell, adding in an extra yelp just to make them think it was an accident. The moment I landed I reached for the coat, flipping it over as I tried to make it look like I couldn't get to my feet. It wasn't hard, I really couldn't get to my feet. The trick worked, the vampires were all rushing to help me, and I had found what I was looking for.
Hiding the stake underneath me I tried once again to stand up, one of the vampires was now pulling me to my feet. I let him, but once he let go I turn as quickly as I could and shoved the stake into him. One down, four to go. They all looked surprised, but I couldn't move fast enough to take advantage of it.
The girl was already reaching for my arm. I kicked her away, without falling I might add. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.
The next vampire grabbed me from behind though, and any chance of flipping either of us over the other was out.
"What'd you do to this dress?" I muttered. "It couldn't be meant to be this way. Even medieval people like to move."
"It's made especially for you," he said, I could tell he was grinning. Another vampire reached for my stake again. I braced myself against the vamp behind me and used both legs to kick the one in front, then slammed one of my feet into the shin of the vamp holding me. He flinched, but didn't let go. I noticed, however, he wasn't trying to bite me, or kill me, or really hurt me. Things were looking up.
Kicking him hadn't worked, so instead I wrapped my foot around his leg and pulled while shoving my wait against him, trying to throw him off balance. I didn't think it would work, but he hadn't been expecting it. I got lucky and he fell, letting go of me first.
I turned and kicked him again, wanting him to stay down so that I could get rid of a couple of the others. Two punches and a kick, all done by me, knocked the first vampire back and left his defenses open. I staked him easily.
The next was the girl again, she grabbed my arm, sinking her nails into me. Biting my tongue to keep from making noise I switched hands for the stake, then used my free one to grab her arm and twist it. She punched me, getting me to let go of her arm, then tried to kick my legs out form under me. I jumped to avoid her, and someone caught me from behind. Vampire number three.
He was more my height than the last, I tried a head but, it loosened his grip enough for me to pull away, pushing myself right into the girl, stake first. She was dust. I turned and saw the vampire who first grabbed me, before he could move I dusted him, the last vamp was running. He reached the door and I threw the stake, it landed in his heart.
Now to find a way out, but before that, I had to change.
I wasn't sure how to get the dress off, so I just tore at it. It wasn't my dress, so I wasn't worried about it. Quickly I took off all the undergarments, not worrying about anything. I wasn't sure where my clothes were, though, so I grabbed the first thing I found that was around my size, a light blue dress.
Shoes were a problem, I couldn't find anything normal that was close to my size. Finally I found a pair of boots, I'm not sure which outfit it was supposed to go with, but they fit so I put them on.
Next I looked for a piece of paper and a pen. Lucky for me they were on the makeup desk. Quickly I went over the directions to get here, writing them down as I did so. Making sure I still had the stake I left the room, carefully following the directions backwards. I didn't have any problems getting to the room.
Standing outside the door for a moment I took a deep breath. Three vampires inside. I should be able to take care of them. But was this really a good idea? Alucard could be more trouble then he was worth. Then again, if he knew the way out of here it was worth it. I'd end up running in circles until someone caught up with me.
Once more I took a depth breath. Here goes.
Walking in was easy. Things hadn't changed much, there were a few new cuts on Alucard, but the vampires were just warming up, they hadn't actually done much. They also hadn't been expecting anyone. The moment I opened the door everyone stopped and stared at me. They had literally froze in the middle of what they were doing. It was like something you might see in a cartoon.
Then they remembered who I was, and we were moving.
I ducked, weaved and dodged from attacks, all of us did, with the exception to Alucard who was still chained up. I think my least favorite part of fighting is when we all stand about exchanging punches, and yet it always happens. You can't go into a fight without taking turns hitting each other, or at least I couldn't. I'm sure some people are much better than I am at this sort of thing, but for me, we exchange punches, then one of us gets lucky, and the other one falls down.
I fell down.
One of them reached for me, I grabbed his arm and let him pull me as he tried to react. He lifted me up a foot or so before realizing he was helping me. When I saw the realization click with him I pulled, bringing me up far enough to quickly support myself while bring him down to my level. He put his hand out to catch himself, which worked, but I was one step ahead of him and had my stake in his back before he got back to his feet.
Now I was standing again, this time only facing two vampires. I was thinking maybe we could just skip the punching part. They weren't so much for that idea as they came at me with swinging fists. I shook my head. This wasn't the way I wanted to fight, and I didn't have time to waste with them. There had to be something I could use, we were in a torture chamber after all.
I let the vampires force me back past several of the different devices, none had anything that I could use at the moment. Nothing with long wooden sticks. I wasn't expecting much, but there might have been something.
Sighing I jumped up, grabbing a bar that was above me and kicking both of them away. They backed up and I dropped back to the ground. I kicked one of them for a second time, keeping him off of me for a moment. The other was back with the punches. I hit him once, hard, knocking him off balance before staking him. It took me another ten seconds or so to finish the last, I would have let him go if he wouldn't have raised the alarm.
This time I threw the stake down and leaned against whatever I happened to be next to. I hadn't noticed how tired I was until now. The adrenaline was fading and I just wanted to sit down. Was it too early for a nap? How long had it been sense Vicky had pulled me out of my cell? It didn't matter. I still had to get out of here. That meant taking care of Alucard.
Pushing myself off the device I took a second to get my footing, then for the first time since I got back here I took a good look at Alucard. He was staring back, I met his green eyes through his baggy hair that was hanging over his face.
He wasn't frowning, just staring, almost indifferently. I'd almost say there were no emotions, but they were there, I just couldn't read them. Somewhere in his indifference he was speaking volumes. It was all gibberish, but there was a lot of it. Some part of me told me I was probably looking and doing the same thing. Problem was I was also speaking gibberish, and not understanding a damn thing.
We didn't have time to just stare, but I didn't know what else to do. One of us had to say something, but suddenly I wasn't sure of what to say.
Alucard broke the silence for me. "What are you doing here?" he sounded angry. I had just saved him from these goons and he sounded angry.
My eyes narrowed at him, now I knew exactly what I was thinking, but didn't have time to yell at him. "Do you know the way out of here?" I asked, careful not to let too much anger leak through.
He just stared for a moment. "You're here so I can get you out." He said softly his voice once again blank. I only nodded, not knowing what to say. After a moment he nodded. "Yes."
With that said I walked over to him and broke the chains keeping him to the wall. He staggered a little, almost falling, but he would have fallen on me. I really didn't want that, so I helped steady him. He grabbed the wall, pushing away from me. While he was going to measures not to look angry I knew he was. I just didn't know why.
"Come on, we don't have much time," he muttered, using the all for support as he walked towards the door.
I watched him, he was healing faster than anything I'd seen, but it wasn't fast enough. He was inching along the wall, it looked like it hurt. Who ever had first hurt him must have hurt his legs first, probably to make it harder for him to get away.
With a sigh I walked over to him, grabbing his arm, he looked at me, surprised. "You're going too slow, let me help." He hesitated a moment, not sure, then I put his arm over my shoulder and half pulled him out of the room. He could debate it while we escaped, or after, but not now, not when it would slow us down.
He led me through the hallways, never hesitating. Alucard knew exactly where he was going, I had no doubt of that. We reached the first set of stairs, they were longer than they seemed on the way down. Twenty steps, I counted. Climbing them would have been easy if I wasn't almost carrying Alucard on the way up. First flight of stairs and I was already getting sore. This was really a bad thing.
Alucard continued to lead the way, he was slowly regaining his strength, by the time we reached the second flight of stairs he could almost climb them without my help, but it looked like it hurt. When we got to the top of the stairs he leaned against the walls for a bit, trying to get his strength back.
"You okay?" I asked, getting edgy, I didn't like standing in the open.
He glanced at me, looking like he was thinking too hard. "Yeah, let's go," he said. We continued and he seemed to be rushing. He was trying almost too hard to get to wherever we were going. It took a lot longer to reach the stairs this time, I didn't remember walking that long between flights of stairs before, but maybe we were going out a different way.
Alucard hesitated at the stairs. He glanced back at the hallway behind us for a moment. He risked a glance at me. He looked almost desperate, for what I wasn't sure, and I probably didn't want to know. "Wait here," he insisted, pulling away from me. He half ran back down the hallway.
"Alucard!" I called out in one of those loud whispers you use when you're trying to be quite but still want to yell. He didn't even look back at me. Sighing I started after him.
I made it to the end off the hallway before he turned another corner. I ran faster, knowing that he would, too, if he thought I was following. By the time I turned the corner he was gone. It was a dead end, he had to be in one of the rooms.
I slowed down so I wouldn't make any noise, or at least none that I could hear. The vampires could hear my heart beating, that's fine. I couldn't, that's what mattered. As long the noise I was making wasn't getting in my way everything was just peachy.
I wasn't really expecting to hear anything, Alucard was careful about those kinds of things. Honestly I don't think I heard him, but there was noise coming from behind one of the doors. A load rustling, eager voices, I didn't think it was Alucard, but it was someone, and it was the best shot I had to finding him.
Pushing back the fear that it could be some other vampire I opened the door, not stepping inside but looking around to see if the coast was clear.
It was safe to say nothing in the room would hurt me. Half starved anemic humans aren't really a threat to anyone, especially when they're all crazed vampire junkies. Unless I was trying to stop the vampires from biting them they'd leave me alone.
I was more surprised than anything. There had to be at least twenty people in this room, it wasn't meant to hold that many, but no one cared. At the moment each and everyone of them was focused on the vampire in the room-Alucard.
He was leaning over someone, hunched, for a moment my mind didn't quite realize what he was doing. Well, I knew, how could I not know? But I didn't let it sink in.
He was feeding off someone. Granted, the girl was a junkie who'd let any vamp who wanted her do just about anything, but it was still sickening. Normally I'd stake any person I saw doing that, but I couldn't now and it was tearing me up.
I couldn't stake Alucard. He was getting me out of here. I couldn't kill him once I got outside because I was one of the good guys who weren't supposed to double cross. He could feed on the innocent-or the not so innocent as the case may be-but I couldn't.
So I stared, watching him drain her dry, not knowing what to say or even if I should go. He'd know I was here, but I really didn't want him to look up at me right now. Terrible thoughts of him covered in blood filled my mind. I didn't want to see that, not when I couldn't kill him. Maybe he'd do something stupid like attack me, then I could do it, but at the moment. . . I was stuck watching.
Finally he dropped the girl, it seemed like it took forever. He sat, still with his back to me, not sure if he should turn. Carefully he wiped his mouth. He turned to one of the men lying nearby. The man was pleading with him to bite him. He didn't care if he died, he just wanted to be fed off of.
Things began to get dizzy, I had to leave before I threw up here. I would not make an ass of myself in front of him, not if I could help it. I turned to go before I could see what Alucard was planing to do to the man. I didn't hear a struggle as I walked away, I almost wished I had. Over all I was pleased with myself. I hadn't thrown up. Then again I'd watched Alucard feed, so I wasn't quite pleased anymore.
I was leaning my face against the wall when Alucard came back. The wall was cool and I wasn't, I used it as an excuse not to look at him.
"Liz, let's go," He said, his voice firm. I had to look at him now, couldn't stay on the wall.
Nodding I turned to the stairs, trying to ignore him, but he led the way up. The blood must have been enough to finish healing. I watched him carefully. How old do you have to be to heal that quickly? Spike was over a hundred and it could still take days to heal the bigger wounds. Alucard was good as new and he'd been worse than I had ever seen a vampire.
Alucard glanced back at me, his face perfect. He'd cleaned off any blood that might have dripped on to him, even changed his clothes. I wondered which human had given him a new set. Maybe one he had killed. Alucard quickly shifted his gaze, maybe he didn't like what he saw in my face. I couldn't be sure of what it was, but there were a lot of options, all of them unpleasant.
We finished our third flight of stairs and my legs were sore. No, not my legs, only one leg. My knee in fact. The stupid knee I had hurt over a week ago. Count on me to have week knees when we had to climb stairs.
"Shit," I muttered, more to myself then anything. Alucard glanced back to see what was wrong, I just shook my head. I didn't want to talk to him.
After walking through the next floor I was almost positive we were going longer ways. I wasn't sure why, and I didn't want to ask, at least not yet. All questions I thought up would be saved for times when I wasn't so angry.
The fourth set of stairs was longer than the others. The staircase spiraled up, we walked after it. Slowly but steadily I trudged up the stairs, until a sharp pain in my knee made me stop.
Growling to myself I leaned against the wall. This couldn't be happening now. Why couldn't I get hurt when it wouldn't affect my escape? Like in Texas. I could have been hurt when we first went there.
"Liz, are you okay?" Alucard had come back after he noticed I was no longer following him.
Slowly I nodded. If I spoke out loud he might hear the lie, not that he didn't know I was lying, it was just less obvious this way. He was frowning at me though. One of those frowns where they know you're completely wrong, and they know you know it, too.
"I'm fine." I insisted.
Still frowning Alucard shook his head. "You're not." He didn't know what was wrong, just that something was. So if I could prove that nothing was wrong he might leave me alone.
I walked past him, continuing up the stairs while trying to ignore the jolting pain in my knee. Alucard followed two steps behind me, as if anticipating a problem.
The problem came when my knee gave out. Literally it just kind of stopped working when I put pressure on it and just bent. I would have collapsed if Alucard hadn't been there to catch me.
I froze in his arms, suddenly completely still. I would have pushed away but I wouldn't have been able to stand, and he knew it. Pictures of him biting that girl kept flashing through my mind, though. I couldn't feel comfortable like this. Alucard realized that, but he either didn't care or chose to ignore the fact.
"You're not okay," he stated, completely serious. I could only nod. "Damn we don't have time for this," he muttered, more to himself then to me. With a sigh he moved me a little, adjusting my position. I was about to ask what he was doing when he lifted me up holding me in both arms and continuing up the stairs.
Yelping or shouting seemed like good ideas, but they were both loud and I didn't want to be heard. So instead I grabbed him, holding tight for a few seconds, mostly out of fear. People don't tend to pick me up, especially without me knowing they were going to. Well, Alucard had a few times, but that was different. I really didn't want him touching me right now, but I didn't have a good argument for why he should put me down. Saying that I felt uncomfortable didn't really cut it in this scenario. Once again you might say that he was saving my life.
Damn it. I didn't want that.
He began to speed up, almost running up the stairs. When he got to the top we were back in the age of electricity. We past a light bulb and I couldn't help but smile. Light bulbs were good, I understood them. They were much better than torture chambers and torches.
Alucard continued faster, gradually growing faster until things started to blur. I felt my stomach jump as he began climbing stairs and for a moment felt sick. Motion sickness, that had to be it. It was awkward. I had ran this fast before, several times, but being carried this fast was a whole new story. Needless to say, I didn't like it.
"Alucard, slow down," I gasped, trying to keep my stomach from feeling to queasy. I wasn't sure how to stop it, but I figured if I kept telling myself it was fine it might get better. Unfortunately I'm a realist, I felt sick and I told myself such. It didn't work well.
Alucard slowed down as he finished climbing the latest stairway. I wasn't sure how far we'd gone, I had lost track a while ago.
Carefully he lowered me to the ground, holding onto me until I got steadied. I stared firmly at one particular brick in the wall. Focusing on it helped me block everything else out. After a minute I felt just fine.
Alucard motioned me to be quite and slowly lead me through the house. He didn't look worried, only cautious. I had the feeling that someone might be around, but I trusted Alucard to get me out of here.
Finally we reached a door. It was bigger then the others and looked important. Alucard waited a second before opening it, as if he was checking for something. Once it was open he stepped aside, motioning me through. I took a couple steps inside, looking around. It was a tunnel underground. No more bricks, just dirt.
"Follow this up, I'll meet you at the top in a few minutes," Alucard told me, his face was too serious for me to try to argue. I took a few steps backwards, watching him shut the door.
Now I had no choice but to go up. Slowly but surely I kept walking. The tunnel was perfect, nothing got in your way, it was just a steady incline until at last it flattened out.
I walked out of the tunnel and into a basement, or at least it looked like a basement. There were several doors leading out. I considered waiting for Alucard, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to go anywhere without him, but it felt odd just standing here, and I didn't know how long he'd be.
I walked to the nearest door, opened it and walked through. I had two choices, left or right. I went left, following the hallway until it came to a door that was slightly ajar. I pushed it all the way open and walked through.
The room wasn't empty, there were plenty of things in it, but only one thing you noticed. In the center of the floor was a large metal circle with a picture of a goat sticking its tongue out at you. I'd seen the picture before, Buffy had shown it to me. This was the seal of Danthalzar. We were in the school's basement.
"Liz? What're you doing here?" I turned around, Alucard was staring at me, looking almost annoyed.
I glanced back at the seal. It was supposedly evil, I believed that, but at the moment it didn't feel dangerous. Should it have?
"Liz, we have to get out of here," Alucard insisted.
I nodded. "Yeah, sorry, do you know your way out of here?" I had actually never been here before.
Alucard nodded. "Yes, follow me." I did, and we both walked through the door. I closed it behind me.
Alucard didn't say anything. He simply walked silently but quickly, I had to work to keep up with him. He followed the hallway, going through doors that were already opened. All the while he was in a rush to get somewhere.
"Alucard, wait," I said, he glanced back. "What're we running from?"
He looked confused for a moment, but then he smiled, it should have been a nice smile, merely amused, but it wasn't, it was almost unnerving. How could someone make something so simple terrifying? I took an involuntary step back and the smile vanished.
"Come on, the exit's just over there," he nodded to our right, there was an open door leading into darkness. Suddenly I didn't trust him, something was wrong.
I took another step back, this time meaning to. The frown deepened and I took another. Fear was whispering to me to get out of here. Something was wrong. Alucard didn't seem like Alucard. Realizing that I did the only thing I could do. I ran.
I didn't know where I was, but I was retracing our steps. He'd probably catch up to me sooner or later, but I didn't want to be there. The place just hadn't felt right. None of this felt right. So I just kept running.
A door opened right in front of me and I almost tripped over my dress as I stopped myself from crashing into it. I couldn't stop myself from hitting it a little just to slow myself down, I had been going to fast, but at least I hadn't smashed whoever was behind it. Maybe that wasn't such a good thing. It could have been a bad guy.
"What the. . ." I heard Alucard say as he stepped away from the door, shutting it so he could see. He looked at me with surprise, I looked at him scared. "What happened.?" He asked, confused. If he hadn't been confused I would have been worried, but that one look told me I was okay while explaining so much more.
I glanced behind me, no one was there, or at least no one I could see. Honestly there had to be someone there. The first had been leading me into a trap, it needed something to take care of me once I stepped into it.
"I'm fine," I stated, and I sounded like i meant it. "But we should go. Now."
Alucard just nodded, watching me as he began to walk down the other hallway. It was a short trip to the door out of the basement, but Alucard's eyes never left my face. I wasn't sure what he was looking for, so I ignored him, or tried to.
Then we were in the school, and then outside. Then we were walking back to Buffy's, and then at her door. And the whole time I had forgotten what I was going to tell them. Or rather I hadn't bothered to think something up.
We stood on the porch a long time. With me staring at the door and Alucard staring at me. What could I say? Would they believe the truth? What was the truth?
I heard myself sigh and walked to the door. Three quick knocks was all that was needed for someone to answer. Again I wondered what time it was, couldn't be too late if Dawn was still up answering doors.
She looked from me to Alucard and back to me. I glanced again at Alucard, who was looking at me in away that asked, 'what now?'
I said hello, walked into the house, gently pushing Dawn as I did so just to prove I was real. I glanced at the clock. It was about midnight, looking back at Alucard I sighed.
Leaving him outside wasn't an option, but bringing him in could get him killed. I needed a bath, but I didn't have time to take one until after Alucard had been taken care of.
"Dawn, is Spike here?" I asked.
She looked at Alucard again. "Yeah, he just got back. He's in the basement."
"Can you get him and Buffy please?" I asked. Dawn hesitated, not sure what was going on, but finally nodded and went off to find the two.
"What're you doing?" Alucard asked.
I glanced at him quickly, seeing Dawn come back with Spike before she ran upstairs. "I'll tell you in a bit," I said to Alucard before Spike could start his questioning.
"Where have you been?" He started calmly. He looked almost as tired as I felt.
I gave him a quick reassuring smile. "Off almost getting killed. No big deal," I stated. He looked at me like it was a big deal, and we both knew it was.
Spike was about to ask more then Buffy and Dawn were coming down the stairs. He took a step back, giving Buffy center stage. She first saw me, for a moment she looked concerned, then her eyes looked past me to Alucard. Concern was gone replaced by irritance. She wasn't angry, just annoyed. She turned back to me, her eyes asking why he was here while at the same time yelling at me. I didn't back down from my position, but I wasn't up for a fight either.
"What is he doing here?" She finally asked.
Now for the argument. What could I say to convince her to let him in? Where would we put him once he was in? I took a deep breath. "He just got me out of a tight spot, believe me we can trust him. I think he could help us, and you know we need the help," I said. I sounded tired, she knew it. Neither of us wanted to argue about this.
"You do remember that he led you into a trap," Buffy pointed out.
"He didn't mean to. He didn't know about it."
"Can you prove that?"
I hesitated, then shook my head. "Look. the vampires who ambushed us hate him. He knows this, they tricked him to."
"Then were was he after the fight?" This time Spike asked. He wasn't looking too thrilled to see Alucard, either.
"I was dragged back with the vamps," Alucard stated, knowing we hadn't discussed that and I didn't know the answers. "They've been keeping me around for when the Boss showed up."
This Spike could understand. He got the hint that Alucard's stay hadn't been pleasant, and he knew why. Many vampires liked to torture those they didn't like. I wasn't sure Buffy would understand right away, but at least Spike thought the story could be real. That was a start.
"Fine, why is he here?" Buffy asked, skipping to the point.
"Because. . ." I didn't know. Why was he here? He could find another place, the watchers had, and they had other people after them. It would be safer if he left, he could come back tomorrow. That would be the easiest thing to do. Then why didn't I just suggest it? I rubbed my eyes, trying to think. "I don't know. I just feel that he should be here."
Buffy didn't look convinced. "Is that your only reason?"
What could I say? If I answered yes she'd tell him to leave. My head wasn't thinking fast enough to figure it all out. "We could lock him up if we needed to, right? I know we have chains somewhere." I wasn't sure what Alucard would think of that, but he wasn't complaining.
Buffy's eyes narrowed. "Would they hold him? Can you guarantee everyone's safety? Unless you're sure we can't let him in here. He's a vampires, we can't trust him."
Okay, the response to that was obvious. "Spike's a vampire."
"Spike has a soul."
"You let him in here before that."
"He had a chip in his head."
"Was there any point where you would have trusted him without the chip?" This was a long shot, I didn't know the answer.
Buffy didn't answer right away. She turned to Spike, he just stared at her. I'm sure that at one point he wondered the same thing, but he never really asked her.
"Yes," she answered softly, "There was a point I would have trusted him."
Hey, I might just make this work. "Then why shouldn't I trust Alucard? You might not know him, but I'm positive he won't hurt us."
Buffy shook her head. "Sorry, that doesn't work."
"Why not?" I asked, getting frustrated myself.
"Because Spike loved me."
Oh, that was a set back. I just sort of stood there, not sure of what to say. There really wasn't any argument to that, I'd have to try a new approach.
Alucard was testing the limits of this one. "If I said I loved her could I get inside?" It was a joke, it sounded like a joke, but I couldn't help but looked surprised. All of us just stood there, kind of frozen.
Spike spoke first. "If you said you loved her it would be a good excuse to stake you."
Alucard kind of half smirked. "Yeah, you could try."
"I think the point is it wouldn't work," I stated, trying to change the topic.
Buffy was nodding, ignoring the whole comment. "I think the point is that he needs to leave."
I sighed. We were getting nowhere. "Okay, why don't you want him inside?"
"He could kill us," she said it like it was obvious, which it was, but I was going to make her be specific.
"Why?"
Her eyes narrowed again. "Because he's a bad guy, he's evil, he could be working for your Boss guy of even the first."
Okay, now to prove her wrong. "He's not a bad guy, he's been helping me. He's not working for the Boss, they've been beating the shit out of him for over a week, and he's not working for the first," I paused to think of a way to prove it. "I saw the first today, pretending to be him. If he was working for it then the First would have had him lead me into the stupid trap himself." I glanced at Alucard, he knew better than to look surprised, but he was staring at me, letting me know he had questions even if they were hidden.
"You forgot the 'he's evil' part," Spike pointed out. I glared at him for a second. He just shrugged, not caring.
I stole another glance at Alucard, not sure how to disagree. He was after all a vampire.
Buffy seemed to be thinking. I couldn't tell what about. Maybe she was trying to figure out how to argue some more, or how to make me give up, or maybe she was calculating the amount of time it would take her to kill Alucard.
Spike looked at Buffy, then back to me. If I didn't know any better I'd think he was trying to decide which side to take. His eyes finally settled on Alucard, I turned to look at him, too.
Alucard was watching Buffy, but he switched to look at Spike when he saw him looking. They stared at each other for a long moment, and I had the feeling the gibberish was back, but this time they understood. Spike turned to look at Buffy.
"Why don't we just let him stay the day. We've got chains in the basement and if we keep the shutters open he can't come out." had I heard that right? Did Spike just say that? Buffy was looking as surprised as I was so I think he did.
That took the fight out of Buffy. She literally threw her hands up in defeat. "Fine, let him come in, hear that? You're invited."
Alucard smiled and crossed the threshold, nodding thanks to Buffy. Buffy rolled her eyes and stormed upstairs. "Make sure he's in chains!" were here parting words.
"I don't think she likes me," Alucard murmured, amused.
Spike shrugged. "Neither do I, so get downstairs," apparently whatever had caused Spike's moment of insanity was gone, and he was back to his normal self.
I nodded to Alucard. "This way." He followed me without a backwards glance, but I knew he was grinning, I just didn't know why.
Spike followed us in and checked the chains. He locked Alucard up himself, then told me to go away. He'd been living in the basement and he wasn't thrilled to share it. Now he wanted to go to sleep. I left without complaint, I had won the fight only because of his help. He could have some peace and quiet. Not to mention a nap didn't sound bad.
It was almost awkward being back into the house. I kept walking around expecting to see stones. The feeling didn't go away until I went to sleep.
~
Was watching Buffy last night. . . great episode, anyone else have opinions on it? I'm not sure how my story's going to fit in, but hey, I'll figure it out. Next chapter we find out a little more about Elisabeth, chapter after that I think we'll find out more about Alucard. If I can get it to work. *shrugs*
gidgetgirl: Good advice, you're right, I do rely on direct dialogue from the show. This chapter had a little original. Next two chapters will have a lot more. Thanks for the review and your advice!
~rave
Waking up used to be a good thing. Back before I was locked in a cell for who knows how long. Actually Zeke knew, and he updated me every time he came back, but I never would have known otherwise.
Six days. It had only been six days. What did it seam like? I'm not sure, but longer than that.
Lucky for me Zeke was a good friend. He stopped by twice a day, always bringing food. He'd been true to his word and brought a few books, all vampire fiction stories. Zeke loved reading them, he said it was hard to find something that was really fiction, unless you read the vampire stories. About all they got right was the crosses and sunlight.
So I had read my way through interview with a vampire, which I had read before, the first three books in the Anita Blake Vampire series, and several other miscellaneous novels. I was tired of reading, though. Zeke said he would have brought a radio but any music might effect the other prisoners, which he didn't want happening. So I was stuck in silence.
Well, not complete silence. Every so often the guards came by to retrieve or drop of some body, either dead or bloody, sometimes both.
I had accepted all of that on the third day though. Right now I was just getting angry. Not at Zeke or any of the other vampires, but at my head and the stupid dreams that kept plaguing me.
I couldn't remember them. I woke up every morning with the feeling that I just dreamt the same exact thing, but I couldn't remember a thing. Not even a fragment of what happened. I would live with it without problem if it wasn't for the fact that they were giving me headaches, literally. Some how I knew the constant aching was related to the dreams I couldn't remember.
It really, really sucked.
Yesterday I had asked Zeke to bring some painkiller with him when he brought breakfast. He said he'd see what they had. After all they were vampires, what do they need pain killers for? They don't have dreams that give them headaches while not telling them a damn thing.
I looked around the room. There was nothing to do and I was getting grouchy. Without knowing what time it was I couldn't guess when Zeke would be here.
The silence was getting annoying. It closed in around me, making we want to stop up and down screaming just to show that there could still be noise. That would have been childish, though. Not to mention it would show that they were getting to me. Which they were, but they didn't need to know that.
Not much later than that I heard the clomping sound of the guards. I knew that I could hear them much sooner than I saw them, but it was awkward waiting. I had found myself trying to guess on whether or not they'd bring someone back or take someone away. It gave me something to do.
I didn't remember them taking anyone off lately, they might have when I was sleeping, but they normally kept them longer than that. I had begun to estimate the approximant amount of time each person stayed away. Some were gone longer than others, all left for at least twelve hours. Over the course of six days you pick a few things up, if I was here a few months imagine what I'd learn. I really didn't want to know.
The men came into sight, they were dragging a body. So much for my guessing. They dragged it through the hall, leaving a bloody trail in their wake. I watched them walk past my door, staring on my tiptoes so that I could see, curious to which room this one was going into. I was really that bored.
To my surprise they stopped one cell over from me, I heard it more than saw it. Actually I didn't see it, I saw the men pull the body in the general direction and them all standing about looking nervous. Unless there were two doors really close over there the new prisoner was one door down.
I heard a thud and a curse, the voice sounding horse and dry and very much in pain. My guess was that the body was still conscious. Looking at the blood it left behind I was wondering how much longer that would be. I guess it depended on whether it was human or not. While I never got a good look at anyone, several had come back that weren't human. We don't have scales, horns, or other such demonic things.
The guards muttered to themselves while shutting and bolting the door. I hear three bolts and a lock. The bad guys weren't taking any chances. I wondered who was in that cell. Obviously the guards were scared of him. I hadn't once seen them look nervous or fidget. They only talked when absolutely necessary. But right now. . . the guy with the sword was clutching it, as if he thought whatever was in the cell would break down the door and come after them. They wasted no time in leaving.
Normally when someone was dropped off here they groaned a bit and just lied there, unmoving. They showed no signs of being alive or caring whether or not they were alive. This one was different.
I heard him hiss as he dragged himself along the floor, I could hear him sliding. Or at least I thought that's what it was, back to me not being so good at identifying noises, but I was trying. After a moment there was another thud, and another curse, still in the raspy voice. The sound echoed in the silence. I wondered if the noises I made echoed, too.
There was the sound of someone rustling about, then silence. He'd stopped moving, I didn't blame him. Anyone who was hurt as badly as he was wouldn't want to be moving. At least he could move, that was more than the others could do, and it gave me the first opportunity I had to talk to someone, no one else had answered, he might be different.
"What're you in here for?" I asked casually, the same thing I had been asked the one time I went to detention. The teacher had left and we were alone, some guy thought he'd strike up a conversation. It was the only thing I could think of to say.
There was no response. I thought the guy might not answer, but waited anyway. There was nothing else to do. Finally he answered, "Who are you?" The voice was starting to even out so that it didn't sound so rusty.
"The prisoner who's not being tortured," I stated bluntly.
There was something that sounded like an attempt of laughter. "Lucky for you then."
I nodded, realizing he couldn't see me. "Yeah, lucky for me," I didn't exactly sound like I meant it. Not that I wanted to be tortured, but being bored wasn't my cup of tea, either.
"You never answered my question, why're you here?"
More silence for a few seconds. "Ran into some old friends. How about you?"
"Same thing," I stated, "or something close."
"Zeke?" He asked, and I froze. He knew me, I should know him, and his voice was so screwed up I couldn't recognize it. Fortunately the options were somewhat limited, made things easier to figure out.
"So this is where you went to, eh Alucard?"
He chuckled again, this time the sound was clearer. When he talked I could identify his voice, even though it sounded as if he had a bad cold. "Yeah, this is where I ended up. I sure made it hard for them to get me here, though."
I nodded again, and then frowned at myself, once again reminding myself that he couldn't see me. "Good," was my only answer.
"How'd you get suckered into this?"
"Went out dancing," I stated.
Alucard answered, "You? Sorry, but you don't strike me as the dancing type."
"Which was why I watched from above as the girls had fun. Then Zeke happened to be there, with back up. There was the whole 'if you don't come with me I'll kill them' speech. So here I am," I explained.
I no longer had any thoughts about Alucard betraying us. He wouldn't have done that just to get captured and tortured. I hadn't seen him in here all week. Was this the only place they kept the prisoners? If it was then where was he? Being constantly hurt by the vampires? That thought sent shivers up my spine. If it was true. . . Alucard shouldn't be able to talk and walk around, he should be just as useless as the other creatures they'd thrown in here.
Maybe that was why the guards were scared.
"So you were out with the girls," Alucard murmured. "Get dressed up and everything?"
"More or less," I stated.
"Sorry I missed it," he said, I could hear a hint of amusement in his voice. "I'll never skip a chance to go out with a bunch of scrumptious girls. Bet they would have tasted good."
I glared at the wall separating us, not appreciating his joke. "You're not touching them."
This time he laughed full out, his voice almost back to normal. But the laugh was fake, almost fearful. There was no joy to it.
"We're never getting out of here," he stated, suddenly calm, serious. "Or at least I'm not. They'll turn you into a vampire and you might even help them kill me."
I couldn't say anything to that, I didn't know what to say. So many thoughts came to mind, all sparked from that statement. He had given up hope. He didn't think he'd die here, he knew it. And he knew it would take a very long time. Another shiver went through me. If I could I'd get him out of here, even if he were an evil vampire who wanted to kill me. At least I'd stake him, give him a clean death.
"What are you thinking, Slayer?" Alucard asked. I couldn't remember him calling me that before. It had always been Liz.
"Why do you want to know?" I asked, sounding calmer than I felt. I wonder if he was doing the same, pretending to be calm.
"I'm curious. How does the Slayer feel when she knows she's going to be changed into a vampire?"
"I say that I haven't given up hope yet."
"Ah, you're being brave. That's good."
"You're not, that isn't."
Again he laughed, but this time it sounded like it hurt him. I heard him growling from frustration, not at me, but at himself. "I'd love to be brave, but there's not a damn thing I can do." He wasn't complaining, just being honest.
"Well, I'm going to find something that I can do. And I'm going to do it, then I'm getting out of here," I said it bluntly, as if it was the only possible thing that could happen.
I had the feeling he was smirking at me. That was fine. He set himself up to get beaten. While I thought I was going to get beat, as well, it didn't matter. That wasn't the point.
Laughter trickled around the cell, it wasn't Alucard's. I heard locks opening, from my door and from his, or so I was guessing.
Someone pulled my door open. It wasn't Veronica, but she was the one staring at me when it opened, all high and mighty in a black dress that showed off more than it hid.
She stood there, looking beautiful, dangerous and sexy, all three I'd admit to, none of them actually meant anything to me. Now the vampires she'd brought with her, they meant something. I glanced around the room, the stake was on the other side. If I ran for it they'd stop me, maybe hurt me. I decided to stay still.
"Well, what have we got here," Vicky purred, walking slowly into my cell. She grinned to me, all too happy with herself. "Zeke's Slayer and her pet vampire." She knocked on the wall between us and Alucard. He didn't say anything.
"Hello Veronica," My voice sounded a lot steadier than I felt, no squeaks or trembling. I was doing good.
Vicky knelt in front of me, staring at my eye level now. "I thought it might be fun to stop by and say hello," I didn't so much as blink as I stared into her eyes. Her grin widened, as if my silence confirmed my fear. Gently she stroked my face with a finger, I didn't move away, but I sure as hell wanted to. "Zeke said I couldn't hurt you." I nodded. "So we came to play with Alucard." She grinned for a moment, flashing fangs at me as she switched to her vampire face, then back, quick as a blink.
"Thanks for the invite, but I'll have to decline the invitation," Alucard called out, his voice sounding worse than before. Was he faking it?
Vicky frowned at me. "Did you here that?" She asked. "I don't think he likes me." she showed me puppy dog eyes, looked almost sad, then she shrugged, suddenly happy. "But it is going to be so much fun. We have to bring somebody." Her eyes twinkled, and she grabbed my hand, pulling me to my feet and dragging me out of the cell, I kept up with her so that I wouldn't fall. She stopped right outside the cell and I could see into Alucard's, his door being opened, too.
He looked like crap. His cloths were in rags, torn, slashed and stained with blood and dirt. His face was bruised and beat, along with the rest of his body. There were no major gashes on it, though. A few scratches, but not too much blood there. No, the blood had come from the rest of his body, all the many parts that had been cut into or pulled out. Even as I watched though, I could see him healing.
Vicky grinned at him with a giggle. I think I wanted to slap her. No, not slap, punch, kick, stab, something more violent then a mere slap. Besides, slapping was something she would do. I just couldn't see her in anything other than a catfight.
Alucard looked out at us, I couldn't read any expressions he might have. His eyes focused on Vicky though, those I could see clearly. They were nice and empty, emotionless, and very deadly.
His voice wasn't, though. It fit in perfectly with Vicky's little charade of having fun. "Come now Vicky, she wouldn't be much fun, she'd barely last ten minutes with your style at work." I think he was talking about the way she tortured people.
Vicky shrugged, looking like she was having a hard choice. "But you're already bloody, she's fresh," her eye glanced at me. She looked hungry. I did tremble then, she laughed.
"Fine, but if you want her dead, that's your problem. Zeke's going to kick your ass," He paused a moment, his face twisting into what must have been a grin. "Actually, I'd rather like to see that."
Vicky smirked. "He won't hurt me." She was so confident, it was pitiful. Her smile wasn't, it was terrifying. "Besides, I really want her dead."
Something flashed in Alucard's eyes, could it have been fear?
"Damn, and here I was looking forward to a party," he almost sounded disappointed. Almost.
Vicky looked at him, her eyes narrowing. "If I didn't know any better I'd say you were offering to go in her place." No one said anything for a moment.
I glanced back at my stake. It was too far away. If it had been someone else I would have tried to get it, but Vicky wanted me dead, her men wouldn't think twice about killing me.
Turning back to Vicky I saw a smile spread on her face. She walked towards Alucard, the proper sway to her hips. She knelt next to Alucard, bending over enough that he was probably getting a good view of her chest. He wasn't looking though. He just stared at her face as she whispered words that my human hearing couldn't pick up. I watched them speak to each other for a few minutes before she stood back up, a smug smile on her lips. She walked out of the cell and nodded to one of her men.
He went into the cell to grab Alucard, backed up by three other vampires. One of them grabbed my arm and shoved me forward, not letting go of me. He also had three guards helping him. If I so much as stepped out of place they'd be on me.
We didn't have to walk far this time. Just down three hallways then the second door on the left. Not far at all.
Inside was exactly what you'd expect in a torture chamber. A lot of devices with chains, blades, ropes, you know, the usually. I looked around until I found the rack. The room just wouldn't be complete without it. That's all you really needed to make it a torture chamber, that and something sharp. The rest was just to scare us.
It was working.
The guards lead me over to a wall, I didn't bother fighting. They'd drag me if they had to. They were dragging Alucard. They chained both of us to the wall, I had to stand on tip toes so that I wouldn't hang.
Vicky walked over to the both of us, smiling sweetly. It was the look she used with Zeke. He wasn't here right now. I wondered what she was up to. Then I remembered, she was here to torture us. No wonder she was happy.
She took three long steps to Alucard, standing so they were almost touching. "Do you like my party?" she purred, sounding too happy. Alucard didn't say anything. "I was wondering where to start," her eyes glanced at me before returning to him. "I was thinking maybe an appetizer."
Alucard looked at me, understanding what she meant. "I'm not really hungry yet." It sounded like his voice was getting worse. I think he was faking it.
Vicky was laughing again, her face changed into vamp mode. Slowly she leaned forward into Alucard, Putting her hands on his chest to separate them just a little. "Are you sure?" he didn't answer.
Slowly she dug her fingers into him, forcing them into his skin. Alucard jerked and she giggled, slowly pulling her fingers down, taking his skin with her.
"When was the last time you fed?" She asked in a singsong voice. "Three-four days ago? I think you're hungry." She pushed back a little so that she could have a better look at me. "Do you think he's hungry?"
What could I say? He was starving, it was obvious. I just really didn't want him feeding off of me. Couldn't lie to her though, that would make her angry. "Yeah, he's hungry."
Vicky smiled, satisfied. "See, even she thinks so." I couldn't get a good look at Alucard's face, I didn't know what he was thinking. I probably didn't want to know.
"Are you doing this to get back at Zeke for screwing around, or because you don't like the girl?" Alucard asked. There was no emotion to his voice, you could take the question any way you wanted to.
Vicky wasn't sure what he was getting at, she even looked confused as she frowned at him. "If you must know. . . I don't like her."
Alucard laughed at her. "Liar. You're doing this because of Zeke."
Anger flashed on Vicky's face as she growled at him. I was just waiting for her to start screaming at him. After all, how dare any of us disagree with her. She was so much better than all of us.
Oh well, her problem. I agreed with Alucard.
Taking the step back towards him Vicky grabbed Alucard's hair and slammed his head into the wall. "How would you know?" she hissed.
Despite the pain Alucard was smiling. "You don't kill people when you're mad at them. You hurt the people they care about," he answered.
It was like he hit her. She moved away so quickly, furious. "How dare you. . ." she started, glaring at him. Then in an instant her manor changed, and she was smiling again. In her vampire face it was anything but sweet. "Perhaps you're right."
Slowly she turned to me, her eyes glaring into mine as she smiled. It was almost like she completely forgot Alucard as she walked over to me, except that she made sure he had a good view of everything, careful not to get in the way.
"Do you agree with him?" She asked. I nodded. "So you think I'm not mad at you?"
"No, you're mad at me, but you're mostly made at Zeke," I corrected.
She nodded. "And Alucard." Slowly she leaned into me, I had a brief memory of what she did to Alucard, a shiver went down my spine. She smiled, cold and cruel, resting her hands on either side of my head. "Should I make them suffer?" She asked. I think she was asking if she should bite me. I didn't bother to answer. I didn't need to. She pulled back, ready to strike.
"Veronica," the word stopped her. In a second she was off me and in the middle of the room, facing the door, and Zeke, back to her human face.
She smiled at him, as if it would make everything better. He ignored her, glancing at Alucard, and then examining me. He didn't see anything wrong with me so he moved on. I guess Alucard wasn't as important.
"Zeke, I-" Vicky started.
He cut her off with a glance, walking further into the room. "Shut up." His voice was cold as he stopped right in front of her. She started to move towards him and he held out a hand to stop her. Vicky burst into dust leaving Zeke holding a stake in the middle of the room. She hadn't suspected a thing.
As if Zeke had given a signal vampires spilled into the room and spread out, attacking all of Vicky's guards. The guards tried to run but they were outmatched, if not outnumbered. Zeke ignored the slaughter as he walked towards me.
Carefully he opened the chains on my wrist, having to break them because Vicky had the key. He helped me steady myself before backing up, and even then he kept an eye on me. I kept my balance just so he wouldn't catch me, I wasn't sure I wanted him that close to me right now, even if he had saved me.
"I take it you're not unchaining me?" Alucard asked, his voice back to normal. I guess he knew better then to fake in front of Zeke. Vicky might have slipped up, Zeke was careful. He didn't even glance at Alucard. "Fine, that's just great. Leave me with the bad guys to be beat up some more."
That's the idea," Zeke murmured, turning to him. "Boss wants you bloodied up a bit before your meeting. Liz on the other hand, he doesn't want you scratched," he said that to me.
"So his greatness finally decided to show up?" Alucard muttered.
Zeke only nodded, turning back to his men who were done with the other vamps. "Clean her up, then take her up to the Boss, I'll meet you there."
Five of them nodded, tow of which came over and grabbed me. I stumbled at first, and they caught me, being a little more careful while still giving me no slack. Zeke followed us out, leaving another three vampires with Alucard. He stopped my new guards for a moment.
I turned to see why, he was just staring at me, as if trying to find something to say. I just stared at him. What did I have to say? I don't know. There was probably something, but it was too far over my head. I'd let him wonder what I was thinking as I tried to figure him out.
Was it possible for vampires to feel guilty? If it was I'm sure that's what Zeke was suffering from. The Boss was here. It was his job to deliver me to him. I'd get changed into a vampire and join Zeke's side, why should he care? He was a demon, a bloodsucker. He should want this. To him, it wasn't me dying, it was just changing me a little.
Maybe he didn't want the change.
"Liz-" he tried to start.
I cut him off. "I guess I'll see you later."
It was in Zeke's power to keep me here, to make me listen to him, but he didn't. While looking hurt, he nodded, letting the vamps know they could take me away. I almost smiled as I walked away. He was feeling guilty. If nothing else, at least I knew that.
By now I was getting rather tired of the hallways. They all looked the same, and it was bugging me. At least Zeke's vamps weren't dressed in chain mail. All wore fairly modern cloths. Brownie points for Zeke, but I was still mad at him.
On this trip I tried something different, just to kill time. I kept track of where we were going. If we went far I'd never remember it all, but it gave me something to do. My head was filled with rights, lefts and straits as I tried to keep track of them all. Then we came to a door, third on the right. It seemed to soon, I might actually be able to remember the trip. I went over all the directions as they led me inside the room.
It took me a moment to notice where we were, I had been so busy focusing on one thing to look around. Now that I did I wished I didn't. It was a costume room, more or less anyway. Half of the place held the armor the guards had been wearing, the other half was filled with normal, or at least normal for their time, clothes for the rest of us. The vampires around me were all selecting outfits for themselves when one came over with a dress for me.
One look told me it was old, weigh before even my time. The dress was scarlet, not my favorite color to wear, but it wasn't bad. The vampire hung it on a chair and before I knew what was happening hands grabbed at me, taking off the clothes I was wearing and replacing it all with new, or should I say old, clothes. It couldn't have taken them more then three minutes to finish everything, and now all that was left was the makeup, which the one female vampire that had come along was taking care of. At least that was modern.
When everything was finished she twirled me around, I got glimpses of everyone in the room. They were a mixture of people, some dressed as guards, others as nobles, I saw one that looked like a servant or entertainer of some sort. The one thing I didn't see was a piece of wood to stake them all with to get out of this nightmare.
Then again, how I was supposed to fight in this I didn't know. The corset was too tight for much, but they weren't suppose to hurt me, so I might stand a chance. But there weren't any weapons.
I looked around frantically, searching for anything that could be used. There wasn't anything sharp, just a bunch of clothes. The guards outfits had sheaths, but no swords. I had a sneaky suspicion that I could search everything and not come up with anything that could help me. Someone would have had to bring a weapon with them. Which reminded me of something.
I looked around for where everyone had put their cloths. Sure enough they were stacked in a pile not far away. I didn't have time to search through all of the pile though, someone would stop me before long, so I had to think fast. There was a coat on top. Maybe I'd get lucky, if not I was dead. Sounded like a good time to gamble.
I tried to bend over, but the outfit was set up so that I couldn't move very well. Running was out of the picture. I started to take a few steps towards the clothes pile, no one notice.
I was stuck with three choices. I could try to sort of crouch, without bending my back because whatever support they'd used to give me perfect posture wasn't letting me move well , I could kind of bow to it, as if stretching for my feet, that let me bet up quicker, or I could fall, making them think I tripped. It would catch attention, but they wouldn't suspect I was trying to do anything.
I fell, adding in an extra yelp just to make them think it was an accident. The moment I landed I reached for the coat, flipping it over as I tried to make it look like I couldn't get to my feet. It wasn't hard, I really couldn't get to my feet. The trick worked, the vampires were all rushing to help me, and I had found what I was looking for.
Hiding the stake underneath me I tried once again to stand up, one of the vampires was now pulling me to my feet. I let him, but once he let go I turn as quickly as I could and shoved the stake into him. One down, four to go. They all looked surprised, but I couldn't move fast enough to take advantage of it.
The girl was already reaching for my arm. I kicked her away, without falling I might add. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.
The next vampire grabbed me from behind though, and any chance of flipping either of us over the other was out.
"What'd you do to this dress?" I muttered. "It couldn't be meant to be this way. Even medieval people like to move."
"It's made especially for you," he said, I could tell he was grinning. Another vampire reached for my stake again. I braced myself against the vamp behind me and used both legs to kick the one in front, then slammed one of my feet into the shin of the vamp holding me. He flinched, but didn't let go. I noticed, however, he wasn't trying to bite me, or kill me, or really hurt me. Things were looking up.
Kicking him hadn't worked, so instead I wrapped my foot around his leg and pulled while shoving my wait against him, trying to throw him off balance. I didn't think it would work, but he hadn't been expecting it. I got lucky and he fell, letting go of me first.
I turned and kicked him again, wanting him to stay down so that I could get rid of a couple of the others. Two punches and a kick, all done by me, knocked the first vampire back and left his defenses open. I staked him easily.
The next was the girl again, she grabbed my arm, sinking her nails into me. Biting my tongue to keep from making noise I switched hands for the stake, then used my free one to grab her arm and twist it. She punched me, getting me to let go of her arm, then tried to kick my legs out form under me. I jumped to avoid her, and someone caught me from behind. Vampire number three.
He was more my height than the last, I tried a head but, it loosened his grip enough for me to pull away, pushing myself right into the girl, stake first. She was dust. I turned and saw the vampire who first grabbed me, before he could move I dusted him, the last vamp was running. He reached the door and I threw the stake, it landed in his heart.
Now to find a way out, but before that, I had to change.
I wasn't sure how to get the dress off, so I just tore at it. It wasn't my dress, so I wasn't worried about it. Quickly I took off all the undergarments, not worrying about anything. I wasn't sure where my clothes were, though, so I grabbed the first thing I found that was around my size, a light blue dress.
Shoes were a problem, I couldn't find anything normal that was close to my size. Finally I found a pair of boots, I'm not sure which outfit it was supposed to go with, but they fit so I put them on.
Next I looked for a piece of paper and a pen. Lucky for me they were on the makeup desk. Quickly I went over the directions to get here, writing them down as I did so. Making sure I still had the stake I left the room, carefully following the directions backwards. I didn't have any problems getting to the room.
Standing outside the door for a moment I took a deep breath. Three vampires inside. I should be able to take care of them. But was this really a good idea? Alucard could be more trouble then he was worth. Then again, if he knew the way out of here it was worth it. I'd end up running in circles until someone caught up with me.
Once more I took a depth breath. Here goes.
Walking in was easy. Things hadn't changed much, there were a few new cuts on Alucard, but the vampires were just warming up, they hadn't actually done much. They also hadn't been expecting anyone. The moment I opened the door everyone stopped and stared at me. They had literally froze in the middle of what they were doing. It was like something you might see in a cartoon.
Then they remembered who I was, and we were moving.
I ducked, weaved and dodged from attacks, all of us did, with the exception to Alucard who was still chained up. I think my least favorite part of fighting is when we all stand about exchanging punches, and yet it always happens. You can't go into a fight without taking turns hitting each other, or at least I couldn't. I'm sure some people are much better than I am at this sort of thing, but for me, we exchange punches, then one of us gets lucky, and the other one falls down.
I fell down.
One of them reached for me, I grabbed his arm and let him pull me as he tried to react. He lifted me up a foot or so before realizing he was helping me. When I saw the realization click with him I pulled, bringing me up far enough to quickly support myself while bring him down to my level. He put his hand out to catch himself, which worked, but I was one step ahead of him and had my stake in his back before he got back to his feet.
Now I was standing again, this time only facing two vampires. I was thinking maybe we could just skip the punching part. They weren't so much for that idea as they came at me with swinging fists. I shook my head. This wasn't the way I wanted to fight, and I didn't have time to waste with them. There had to be something I could use, we were in a torture chamber after all.
I let the vampires force me back past several of the different devices, none had anything that I could use at the moment. Nothing with long wooden sticks. I wasn't expecting much, but there might have been something.
Sighing I jumped up, grabbing a bar that was above me and kicking both of them away. They backed up and I dropped back to the ground. I kicked one of them for a second time, keeping him off of me for a moment. The other was back with the punches. I hit him once, hard, knocking him off balance before staking him. It took me another ten seconds or so to finish the last, I would have let him go if he wouldn't have raised the alarm.
This time I threw the stake down and leaned against whatever I happened to be next to. I hadn't noticed how tired I was until now. The adrenaline was fading and I just wanted to sit down. Was it too early for a nap? How long had it been sense Vicky had pulled me out of my cell? It didn't matter. I still had to get out of here. That meant taking care of Alucard.
Pushing myself off the device I took a second to get my footing, then for the first time since I got back here I took a good look at Alucard. He was staring back, I met his green eyes through his baggy hair that was hanging over his face.
He wasn't frowning, just staring, almost indifferently. I'd almost say there were no emotions, but they were there, I just couldn't read them. Somewhere in his indifference he was speaking volumes. It was all gibberish, but there was a lot of it. Some part of me told me I was probably looking and doing the same thing. Problem was I was also speaking gibberish, and not understanding a damn thing.
We didn't have time to just stare, but I didn't know what else to do. One of us had to say something, but suddenly I wasn't sure of what to say.
Alucard broke the silence for me. "What are you doing here?" he sounded angry. I had just saved him from these goons and he sounded angry.
My eyes narrowed at him, now I knew exactly what I was thinking, but didn't have time to yell at him. "Do you know the way out of here?" I asked, careful not to let too much anger leak through.
He just stared for a moment. "You're here so I can get you out." He said softly his voice once again blank. I only nodded, not knowing what to say. After a moment he nodded. "Yes."
With that said I walked over to him and broke the chains keeping him to the wall. He staggered a little, almost falling, but he would have fallen on me. I really didn't want that, so I helped steady him. He grabbed the wall, pushing away from me. While he was going to measures not to look angry I knew he was. I just didn't know why.
"Come on, we don't have much time," he muttered, using the all for support as he walked towards the door.
I watched him, he was healing faster than anything I'd seen, but it wasn't fast enough. He was inching along the wall, it looked like it hurt. Who ever had first hurt him must have hurt his legs first, probably to make it harder for him to get away.
With a sigh I walked over to him, grabbing his arm, he looked at me, surprised. "You're going too slow, let me help." He hesitated a moment, not sure, then I put his arm over my shoulder and half pulled him out of the room. He could debate it while we escaped, or after, but not now, not when it would slow us down.
He led me through the hallways, never hesitating. Alucard knew exactly where he was going, I had no doubt of that. We reached the first set of stairs, they were longer than they seemed on the way down. Twenty steps, I counted. Climbing them would have been easy if I wasn't almost carrying Alucard on the way up. First flight of stairs and I was already getting sore. This was really a bad thing.
Alucard continued to lead the way, he was slowly regaining his strength, by the time we reached the second flight of stairs he could almost climb them without my help, but it looked like it hurt. When we got to the top of the stairs he leaned against the walls for a bit, trying to get his strength back.
"You okay?" I asked, getting edgy, I didn't like standing in the open.
He glanced at me, looking like he was thinking too hard. "Yeah, let's go," he said. We continued and he seemed to be rushing. He was trying almost too hard to get to wherever we were going. It took a lot longer to reach the stairs this time, I didn't remember walking that long between flights of stairs before, but maybe we were going out a different way.
Alucard hesitated at the stairs. He glanced back at the hallway behind us for a moment. He risked a glance at me. He looked almost desperate, for what I wasn't sure, and I probably didn't want to know. "Wait here," he insisted, pulling away from me. He half ran back down the hallway.
"Alucard!" I called out in one of those loud whispers you use when you're trying to be quite but still want to yell. He didn't even look back at me. Sighing I started after him.
I made it to the end off the hallway before he turned another corner. I ran faster, knowing that he would, too, if he thought I was following. By the time I turned the corner he was gone. It was a dead end, he had to be in one of the rooms.
I slowed down so I wouldn't make any noise, or at least none that I could hear. The vampires could hear my heart beating, that's fine. I couldn't, that's what mattered. As long the noise I was making wasn't getting in my way everything was just peachy.
I wasn't really expecting to hear anything, Alucard was careful about those kinds of things. Honestly I don't think I heard him, but there was noise coming from behind one of the doors. A load rustling, eager voices, I didn't think it was Alucard, but it was someone, and it was the best shot I had to finding him.
Pushing back the fear that it could be some other vampire I opened the door, not stepping inside but looking around to see if the coast was clear.
It was safe to say nothing in the room would hurt me. Half starved anemic humans aren't really a threat to anyone, especially when they're all crazed vampire junkies. Unless I was trying to stop the vampires from biting them they'd leave me alone.
I was more surprised than anything. There had to be at least twenty people in this room, it wasn't meant to hold that many, but no one cared. At the moment each and everyone of them was focused on the vampire in the room-Alucard.
He was leaning over someone, hunched, for a moment my mind didn't quite realize what he was doing. Well, I knew, how could I not know? But I didn't let it sink in.
He was feeding off someone. Granted, the girl was a junkie who'd let any vamp who wanted her do just about anything, but it was still sickening. Normally I'd stake any person I saw doing that, but I couldn't now and it was tearing me up.
I couldn't stake Alucard. He was getting me out of here. I couldn't kill him once I got outside because I was one of the good guys who weren't supposed to double cross. He could feed on the innocent-or the not so innocent as the case may be-but I couldn't.
So I stared, watching him drain her dry, not knowing what to say or even if I should go. He'd know I was here, but I really didn't want him to look up at me right now. Terrible thoughts of him covered in blood filled my mind. I didn't want to see that, not when I couldn't kill him. Maybe he'd do something stupid like attack me, then I could do it, but at the moment. . . I was stuck watching.
Finally he dropped the girl, it seemed like it took forever. He sat, still with his back to me, not sure if he should turn. Carefully he wiped his mouth. He turned to one of the men lying nearby. The man was pleading with him to bite him. He didn't care if he died, he just wanted to be fed off of.
Things began to get dizzy, I had to leave before I threw up here. I would not make an ass of myself in front of him, not if I could help it. I turned to go before I could see what Alucard was planing to do to the man. I didn't hear a struggle as I walked away, I almost wished I had. Over all I was pleased with myself. I hadn't thrown up. Then again I'd watched Alucard feed, so I wasn't quite pleased anymore.
I was leaning my face against the wall when Alucard came back. The wall was cool and I wasn't, I used it as an excuse not to look at him.
"Liz, let's go," He said, his voice firm. I had to look at him now, couldn't stay on the wall.
Nodding I turned to the stairs, trying to ignore him, but he led the way up. The blood must have been enough to finish healing. I watched him carefully. How old do you have to be to heal that quickly? Spike was over a hundred and it could still take days to heal the bigger wounds. Alucard was good as new and he'd been worse than I had ever seen a vampire.
Alucard glanced back at me, his face perfect. He'd cleaned off any blood that might have dripped on to him, even changed his clothes. I wondered which human had given him a new set. Maybe one he had killed. Alucard quickly shifted his gaze, maybe he didn't like what he saw in my face. I couldn't be sure of what it was, but there were a lot of options, all of them unpleasant.
We finished our third flight of stairs and my legs were sore. No, not my legs, only one leg. My knee in fact. The stupid knee I had hurt over a week ago. Count on me to have week knees when we had to climb stairs.
"Shit," I muttered, more to myself then anything. Alucard glanced back to see what was wrong, I just shook my head. I didn't want to talk to him.
After walking through the next floor I was almost positive we were going longer ways. I wasn't sure why, and I didn't want to ask, at least not yet. All questions I thought up would be saved for times when I wasn't so angry.
The fourth set of stairs was longer than the others. The staircase spiraled up, we walked after it. Slowly but steadily I trudged up the stairs, until a sharp pain in my knee made me stop.
Growling to myself I leaned against the wall. This couldn't be happening now. Why couldn't I get hurt when it wouldn't affect my escape? Like in Texas. I could have been hurt when we first went there.
"Liz, are you okay?" Alucard had come back after he noticed I was no longer following him.
Slowly I nodded. If I spoke out loud he might hear the lie, not that he didn't know I was lying, it was just less obvious this way. He was frowning at me though. One of those frowns where they know you're completely wrong, and they know you know it, too.
"I'm fine." I insisted.
Still frowning Alucard shook his head. "You're not." He didn't know what was wrong, just that something was. So if I could prove that nothing was wrong he might leave me alone.
I walked past him, continuing up the stairs while trying to ignore the jolting pain in my knee. Alucard followed two steps behind me, as if anticipating a problem.
The problem came when my knee gave out. Literally it just kind of stopped working when I put pressure on it and just bent. I would have collapsed if Alucard hadn't been there to catch me.
I froze in his arms, suddenly completely still. I would have pushed away but I wouldn't have been able to stand, and he knew it. Pictures of him biting that girl kept flashing through my mind, though. I couldn't feel comfortable like this. Alucard realized that, but he either didn't care or chose to ignore the fact.
"You're not okay," he stated, completely serious. I could only nod. "Damn we don't have time for this," he muttered, more to himself then to me. With a sigh he moved me a little, adjusting my position. I was about to ask what he was doing when he lifted me up holding me in both arms and continuing up the stairs.
Yelping or shouting seemed like good ideas, but they were both loud and I didn't want to be heard. So instead I grabbed him, holding tight for a few seconds, mostly out of fear. People don't tend to pick me up, especially without me knowing they were going to. Well, Alucard had a few times, but that was different. I really didn't want him touching me right now, but I didn't have a good argument for why he should put me down. Saying that I felt uncomfortable didn't really cut it in this scenario. Once again you might say that he was saving my life.
Damn it. I didn't want that.
He began to speed up, almost running up the stairs. When he got to the top we were back in the age of electricity. We past a light bulb and I couldn't help but smile. Light bulbs were good, I understood them. They were much better than torture chambers and torches.
Alucard continued faster, gradually growing faster until things started to blur. I felt my stomach jump as he began climbing stairs and for a moment felt sick. Motion sickness, that had to be it. It was awkward. I had ran this fast before, several times, but being carried this fast was a whole new story. Needless to say, I didn't like it.
"Alucard, slow down," I gasped, trying to keep my stomach from feeling to queasy. I wasn't sure how to stop it, but I figured if I kept telling myself it was fine it might get better. Unfortunately I'm a realist, I felt sick and I told myself such. It didn't work well.
Alucard slowed down as he finished climbing the latest stairway. I wasn't sure how far we'd gone, I had lost track a while ago.
Carefully he lowered me to the ground, holding onto me until I got steadied. I stared firmly at one particular brick in the wall. Focusing on it helped me block everything else out. After a minute I felt just fine.
Alucard motioned me to be quite and slowly lead me through the house. He didn't look worried, only cautious. I had the feeling that someone might be around, but I trusted Alucard to get me out of here.
Finally we reached a door. It was bigger then the others and looked important. Alucard waited a second before opening it, as if he was checking for something. Once it was open he stepped aside, motioning me through. I took a couple steps inside, looking around. It was a tunnel underground. No more bricks, just dirt.
"Follow this up, I'll meet you at the top in a few minutes," Alucard told me, his face was too serious for me to try to argue. I took a few steps backwards, watching him shut the door.
Now I had no choice but to go up. Slowly but surely I kept walking. The tunnel was perfect, nothing got in your way, it was just a steady incline until at last it flattened out.
I walked out of the tunnel and into a basement, or at least it looked like a basement. There were several doors leading out. I considered waiting for Alucard, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to go anywhere without him, but it felt odd just standing here, and I didn't know how long he'd be.
I walked to the nearest door, opened it and walked through. I had two choices, left or right. I went left, following the hallway until it came to a door that was slightly ajar. I pushed it all the way open and walked through.
The room wasn't empty, there were plenty of things in it, but only one thing you noticed. In the center of the floor was a large metal circle with a picture of a goat sticking its tongue out at you. I'd seen the picture before, Buffy had shown it to me. This was the seal of Danthalzar. We were in the school's basement.
"Liz? What're you doing here?" I turned around, Alucard was staring at me, looking almost annoyed.
I glanced back at the seal. It was supposedly evil, I believed that, but at the moment it didn't feel dangerous. Should it have?
"Liz, we have to get out of here," Alucard insisted.
I nodded. "Yeah, sorry, do you know your way out of here?" I had actually never been here before.
Alucard nodded. "Yes, follow me." I did, and we both walked through the door. I closed it behind me.
Alucard didn't say anything. He simply walked silently but quickly, I had to work to keep up with him. He followed the hallway, going through doors that were already opened. All the while he was in a rush to get somewhere.
"Alucard, wait," I said, he glanced back. "What're we running from?"
He looked confused for a moment, but then he smiled, it should have been a nice smile, merely amused, but it wasn't, it was almost unnerving. How could someone make something so simple terrifying? I took an involuntary step back and the smile vanished.
"Come on, the exit's just over there," he nodded to our right, there was an open door leading into darkness. Suddenly I didn't trust him, something was wrong.
I took another step back, this time meaning to. The frown deepened and I took another. Fear was whispering to me to get out of here. Something was wrong. Alucard didn't seem like Alucard. Realizing that I did the only thing I could do. I ran.
I didn't know where I was, but I was retracing our steps. He'd probably catch up to me sooner or later, but I didn't want to be there. The place just hadn't felt right. None of this felt right. So I just kept running.
A door opened right in front of me and I almost tripped over my dress as I stopped myself from crashing into it. I couldn't stop myself from hitting it a little just to slow myself down, I had been going to fast, but at least I hadn't smashed whoever was behind it. Maybe that wasn't such a good thing. It could have been a bad guy.
"What the. . ." I heard Alucard say as he stepped away from the door, shutting it so he could see. He looked at me with surprise, I looked at him scared. "What happened.?" He asked, confused. If he hadn't been confused I would have been worried, but that one look told me I was okay while explaining so much more.
I glanced behind me, no one was there, or at least no one I could see. Honestly there had to be someone there. The first had been leading me into a trap, it needed something to take care of me once I stepped into it.
"I'm fine," I stated, and I sounded like i meant it. "But we should go. Now."
Alucard just nodded, watching me as he began to walk down the other hallway. It was a short trip to the door out of the basement, but Alucard's eyes never left my face. I wasn't sure what he was looking for, so I ignored him, or tried to.
Then we were in the school, and then outside. Then we were walking back to Buffy's, and then at her door. And the whole time I had forgotten what I was going to tell them. Or rather I hadn't bothered to think something up.
We stood on the porch a long time. With me staring at the door and Alucard staring at me. What could I say? Would they believe the truth? What was the truth?
I heard myself sigh and walked to the door. Three quick knocks was all that was needed for someone to answer. Again I wondered what time it was, couldn't be too late if Dawn was still up answering doors.
She looked from me to Alucard and back to me. I glanced again at Alucard, who was looking at me in away that asked, 'what now?'
I said hello, walked into the house, gently pushing Dawn as I did so just to prove I was real. I glanced at the clock. It was about midnight, looking back at Alucard I sighed.
Leaving him outside wasn't an option, but bringing him in could get him killed. I needed a bath, but I didn't have time to take one until after Alucard had been taken care of.
"Dawn, is Spike here?" I asked.
She looked at Alucard again. "Yeah, he just got back. He's in the basement."
"Can you get him and Buffy please?" I asked. Dawn hesitated, not sure what was going on, but finally nodded and went off to find the two.
"What're you doing?" Alucard asked.
I glanced at him quickly, seeing Dawn come back with Spike before she ran upstairs. "I'll tell you in a bit," I said to Alucard before Spike could start his questioning.
"Where have you been?" He started calmly. He looked almost as tired as I felt.
I gave him a quick reassuring smile. "Off almost getting killed. No big deal," I stated. He looked at me like it was a big deal, and we both knew it was.
Spike was about to ask more then Buffy and Dawn were coming down the stairs. He took a step back, giving Buffy center stage. She first saw me, for a moment she looked concerned, then her eyes looked past me to Alucard. Concern was gone replaced by irritance. She wasn't angry, just annoyed. She turned back to me, her eyes asking why he was here while at the same time yelling at me. I didn't back down from my position, but I wasn't up for a fight either.
"What is he doing here?" She finally asked.
Now for the argument. What could I say to convince her to let him in? Where would we put him once he was in? I took a deep breath. "He just got me out of a tight spot, believe me we can trust him. I think he could help us, and you know we need the help," I said. I sounded tired, she knew it. Neither of us wanted to argue about this.
"You do remember that he led you into a trap," Buffy pointed out.
"He didn't mean to. He didn't know about it."
"Can you prove that?"
I hesitated, then shook my head. "Look. the vampires who ambushed us hate him. He knows this, they tricked him to."
"Then were was he after the fight?" This time Spike asked. He wasn't looking too thrilled to see Alucard, either.
"I was dragged back with the vamps," Alucard stated, knowing we hadn't discussed that and I didn't know the answers. "They've been keeping me around for when the Boss showed up."
This Spike could understand. He got the hint that Alucard's stay hadn't been pleasant, and he knew why. Many vampires liked to torture those they didn't like. I wasn't sure Buffy would understand right away, but at least Spike thought the story could be real. That was a start.
"Fine, why is he here?" Buffy asked, skipping to the point.
"Because. . ." I didn't know. Why was he here? He could find another place, the watchers had, and they had other people after them. It would be safer if he left, he could come back tomorrow. That would be the easiest thing to do. Then why didn't I just suggest it? I rubbed my eyes, trying to think. "I don't know. I just feel that he should be here."
Buffy didn't look convinced. "Is that your only reason?"
What could I say? If I answered yes she'd tell him to leave. My head wasn't thinking fast enough to figure it all out. "We could lock him up if we needed to, right? I know we have chains somewhere." I wasn't sure what Alucard would think of that, but he wasn't complaining.
Buffy's eyes narrowed. "Would they hold him? Can you guarantee everyone's safety? Unless you're sure we can't let him in here. He's a vampires, we can't trust him."
Okay, the response to that was obvious. "Spike's a vampire."
"Spike has a soul."
"You let him in here before that."
"He had a chip in his head."
"Was there any point where you would have trusted him without the chip?" This was a long shot, I didn't know the answer.
Buffy didn't answer right away. She turned to Spike, he just stared at her. I'm sure that at one point he wondered the same thing, but he never really asked her.
"Yes," she answered softly, "There was a point I would have trusted him."
Hey, I might just make this work. "Then why shouldn't I trust Alucard? You might not know him, but I'm positive he won't hurt us."
Buffy shook her head. "Sorry, that doesn't work."
"Why not?" I asked, getting frustrated myself.
"Because Spike loved me."
Oh, that was a set back. I just sort of stood there, not sure of what to say. There really wasn't any argument to that, I'd have to try a new approach.
Alucard was testing the limits of this one. "If I said I loved her could I get inside?" It was a joke, it sounded like a joke, but I couldn't help but looked surprised. All of us just stood there, kind of frozen.
Spike spoke first. "If you said you loved her it would be a good excuse to stake you."
Alucard kind of half smirked. "Yeah, you could try."
"I think the point is it wouldn't work," I stated, trying to change the topic.
Buffy was nodding, ignoring the whole comment. "I think the point is that he needs to leave."
I sighed. We were getting nowhere. "Okay, why don't you want him inside?"
"He could kill us," she said it like it was obvious, which it was, but I was going to make her be specific.
"Why?"
Her eyes narrowed again. "Because he's a bad guy, he's evil, he could be working for your Boss guy of even the first."
Okay, now to prove her wrong. "He's not a bad guy, he's been helping me. He's not working for the Boss, they've been beating the shit out of him for over a week, and he's not working for the first," I paused to think of a way to prove it. "I saw the first today, pretending to be him. If he was working for it then the First would have had him lead me into the stupid trap himself." I glanced at Alucard, he knew better than to look surprised, but he was staring at me, letting me know he had questions even if they were hidden.
"You forgot the 'he's evil' part," Spike pointed out. I glared at him for a second. He just shrugged, not caring.
I stole another glance at Alucard, not sure how to disagree. He was after all a vampire.
Buffy seemed to be thinking. I couldn't tell what about. Maybe she was trying to figure out how to argue some more, or how to make me give up, or maybe she was calculating the amount of time it would take her to kill Alucard.
Spike looked at Buffy, then back to me. If I didn't know any better I'd think he was trying to decide which side to take. His eyes finally settled on Alucard, I turned to look at him, too.
Alucard was watching Buffy, but he switched to look at Spike when he saw him looking. They stared at each other for a long moment, and I had the feeling the gibberish was back, but this time they understood. Spike turned to look at Buffy.
"Why don't we just let him stay the day. We've got chains in the basement and if we keep the shutters open he can't come out." had I heard that right? Did Spike just say that? Buffy was looking as surprised as I was so I think he did.
That took the fight out of Buffy. She literally threw her hands up in defeat. "Fine, let him come in, hear that? You're invited."
Alucard smiled and crossed the threshold, nodding thanks to Buffy. Buffy rolled her eyes and stormed upstairs. "Make sure he's in chains!" were here parting words.
"I don't think she likes me," Alucard murmured, amused.
Spike shrugged. "Neither do I, so get downstairs," apparently whatever had caused Spike's moment of insanity was gone, and he was back to his normal self.
I nodded to Alucard. "This way." He followed me without a backwards glance, but I knew he was grinning, I just didn't know why.
Spike followed us in and checked the chains. He locked Alucard up himself, then told me to go away. He'd been living in the basement and he wasn't thrilled to share it. Now he wanted to go to sleep. I left without complaint, I had won the fight only because of his help. He could have some peace and quiet. Not to mention a nap didn't sound bad.
It was almost awkward being back into the house. I kept walking around expecting to see stones. The feeling didn't go away until I went to sleep.
~
Was watching Buffy last night. . . great episode, anyone else have opinions on it? I'm not sure how my story's going to fit in, but hey, I'll figure it out. Next chapter we find out a little more about Elisabeth, chapter after that I think we'll find out more about Alucard. If I can get it to work. *shrugs*
gidgetgirl: Good advice, you're right, I do rely on direct dialogue from the show. This chapter had a little original. Next two chapters will have a lot more. Thanks for the review and your advice!
~rave