Seras didn't know whether to reply or not. His actions were so capricious that speaking might invite a tender response or increased cruelty.
"Are you hungry?"
She was hungry. She was terribly hungry. She had lost a lot of blood when Walter had caught her with his wires and had lost more since Walter had decided to use her as his canvas. "Yes, Walter, I'm very hungry."
Maybe he would bring her some blood and she would have at least a brief respite from his attentions. She wasn't feeling very hopeful.
"What will you give me if I bring you some blood?" His voice in her ear made her shudder.
"You have all the power here. What can I give you that you can't already take?"
"I can't take your cooperation. There are a few things I have in mind that would benefit from knowing that you won't attempt to castrate me. I've seen vampires regenerate from wounds that grievous, but I don't want to have to."
Her eyes widened as the implications of what he was saying sank in. "You want me to cooperate while you rape me?"
"Such an ugly way to put it, but why lie? I want you to cooperate with my sexual desires and in return, I will feed you." He leaned in to watch her closely. She turned her head away from his red eyes and stared across the ugly room.
I'm in hell. I've died and I'm in hell and Walter is Satan. This will go on forever and there is nothing I can do about it.
"Did you know that despair has an aroma, Seras? I didn't, but I can smell it on you now." Walter was speaking against her neck. The vibrations of his voice made the fine hairs on her nape stand up. "Despair and blood…irresistible."
She bucked against the chains when Walter sank his teeth into her neck, but only for a moment. Then a blissful sensation spread out from the bite and she sank back on the table. She relaxed into it like a lover's kiss. Maybe he'll kill me. This wouldn't be a bad way to die. Everything was getting more distant, more academic as Walter continued to take what little blood she had left.
He stopped when she made a whispered sound of pleasure. She watched him through heavy-lidded eyes as he licked a small smudge of her blood from his lip. When he kissed her, she did not fight it. She kissed him back, trying to retrieve any lingering trace of her blood from his mouth.
"Does it really feel that good, Seras?"
"I could bite you and you'd find out," she responded dreamily. She was too weak and too high on blood loss and vampiric euphoria to feel feisty.
"An interesting proposition we'll table for another time. I want you hungry right now. Now, will you cooperate? I will bring you blood when we're finished."
"Bring me blood now or I won't be able to cooperate," she mumbled.
"No. I'm going to release you from the chains and I don't want a fight from you. It's easier for both of us this way. You won't be tempted to do something stupid and I won't have to kill you slowly and horribly." She could see that he had an idea, though. He kissed her bruisingly and walked away without a word.
She could smell it before she could see him. He was bringing blood with him. He returned carrying a cup. She didn't need to see its contents to know what was in it.
"Is that for me?" She was afraid to hope.
"It is for you. After we're done. I thought it might serve as an appropriate incentive." He took a sip from the cup and set it down well away from the table. He kissed her and she hungrily searched out the blood still in his mouth.
"Will you cooperate? Remember, I can think of many things to do that don't require your cooperation which you would probably enjoy much less."
He could. Seras had no doubt that the Angel of Death had seen enough things in his long life to be able to make whatever was left of hers an even greater hell. She couldn't bring herself to say it, so she just nodded.
Walter beamed at her. He looked at her with the pleasure she remembered from happier times. She resolved to think only of those times. She had to admit that she'd wondered about Walter in intimate ways at least once or twice. He'd been handsome even as an old man, and if she allowed herself, she could see this younger version of Walter as very attractive.
It's hard to find someone attractive who has used your body as his own personal carving board. She pushed those thoughts away. She stretched as Walter removed the chains. She felt very weak and her arms and legs were terribly heavy, but it was a relief to have the burning metal off of her at long last.
Walter watched her carefully as she stretched. He took her by the arm and helped her off the table. He seemed pleased when her knees buckled. He picked her up and cradled her in his arms. Seras looked wistfully over his shoulder at the cup that was still out of her reach.
She turned her large eyes to meet his. "Do you think… do you think that someday, when you've been a vampire longer, that you might feel less need to be cruel?"
"I haven't given it any thought. The future does not seem particularly relevant to me. If the fat man has his way, who knows how much future there will really be? Now is much more interesting, with a lovely young woman in my arms, the taste of her on my lips and the pleasant expectation of knowing her so much more thoroughly very soon." He held her close and buried his face in her hair. "You smell of war and fear and pain and your delicious blood."
Walter plucked the cup off of the table with the hand behind her back and walked out of the cold lab with her still in his arms. They passed through mostly empty hallways, but occasionally they saw soldiers who gave them curious glances, but did nothing to stop them. Seras wondered how many mostly naked women carried by evil British butlers they saw around here.
He stopped at a closed door. "Do help me Seras. My hands are quite full." He leaned over and she was able to open the door for him.
The room was not very cozy. The bed looked like a sleeper bunk on a train with the notable difference that sleepers don't have doors that close them as tight as a coffin. It wasn't surprising that there were no windows. Not on a ship full of vampires. There was a bare desk with an uncomfortable-looking wooden chair and a wall locker. All in all, a very military room.
He set her in the bed's cubby and placed the cup on the desk. Her stomach lurched because she knew the time for "cooperation" was upon her. She ran through her options again and found that she had few. Most of them ended in her messy death; cooperation at least gave her the hope of sustenance. Escape was impossible if she was too weak to even heal the relatively minor injuries from Walter's scalpel.
Seras Victoria might seem like everybody's Kitten, but kittens are not entirely defenseless. She had not given up in Cheddar, she had not given up against Jolene and she would be damned before she'd give up for Millennium and the evil tricks they'd played on Walter.
While she'd been absorbed in her thoughts, Walter had come to stand in front of her. He caught her hair and pulled her face up to look at him. "To make this easy for both of us, I shall define 'cooperation' for you. You will not, at any time, attempt to bite me and you will comply with all requests I make of you. Those are very simple guidelines. In return for your cooperation, when I am finished with you, you may have the blood in that cup."
"It sounds to me like you get the better part of the deal, Walter."
"I'm not obligated to be fair, Seras. I'm not obligated to be anything, in fact. I'm making this deal with you out of expediency. It is the simplest way to get what I want, but if you don't want to uphold your part of the bargain, I have other interests I can better pursue without your compliance."
"I'm going to cooperate. You can stop trying to scare me."
"Very well. Let us begin."
A/N Everything from here on will be posted at adultfanfiction.