Disclaimer: I own most of the characters especially those like Katy, Maria, Paul, Gina, and Anastasia.
CHAPTER 10-BLOOD, SWEAT, AND TEARS
Paul forced his eyes opened and took a look around, shocked by what he saw. Expecting to be locked away in a boiler room or some other enclosure that would resemble a cell or other means of confinement he instead found himself in a richly furnished den. Though he was chained to a large metal post by the wrists and ankles the floor was covered with thick pillows and many exotic scents wafted through the air. As his eyes became more accustomed to the dim light in the room he could make out several figures either lounging around or sleeping within ten feet of him. Most of them were women and from the looks of them and their attire part of Anastasia's pack. Chucky was passed out in a chair at the furthest reach of Paul's sight, three empty whiskey bottles on the table beside him. If he listened closely Paul could hear a few grunts and moans coming from another room. He didn't dwell on what the sounds meant as he already had a pretty good idea. He took a mental second to check himself over, feeling without moving to see if he had been injured anywhere or just knocked out.
When he didn't feel like anything was broken Paul lifted his head back up and tried to shift his weight and body around so that he could get a better look at his shackles. He kept one eye out on all of the vampires that were lounging around in the are while training the other on seeing if there was a way to break himself free. He managed to get one of his hands almost free before he was forced to stop as a creaky door opened, half rousing Chucky from his slumber. Expecting to see Anastasia in all her glory he was instead surprised at the sight of one of the dancers that he had seen perform back in Florida before he caught up with Katy and the others. He had seen her walk in the sun with his own eyes, she hadn't burned up, and yet here she was looking completely at ease surrounded by vampires.
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"This is just perfect, I finally meet a guy and," Katy started to grumble with an unhappy scowl on her face as she stormed out of the room that Maria and Diane had taken Raquel to before hearing her story.
"He's going to be fine, Anastasia hasn't hurt him yet," Maria replied with an optimistic look of hope on her face as she lightly patted Katy on the back.
"How do you know," Katy snapped back with an angry and scared tone to her voice as she quickly pulled away from Maria and whirled around, her hands clenched tightly into fists.
"Because if she had then she wouldn't have left her alive with a clue to help us find her…that's how," Maria replied softly with an awkward smile on her face before she slowly turned and nodded her head back in the direction of Gina and Raquel.
"I hope you're right, but really what do we know about her, she says that she doesn't remember anything about what happened last night…and to top it all off she's wearing his clothes," Katy replied with a frustrated and anxious look of fear on her face as she did her best to stay calm and not think to badly of what might have happened between Raquel and Paul.
"I could tell you what I'd do if I had her for the whole night," Diane chimed in with a hungry grin on her face as she turned halfway around and stared straight back at Raquel, who understandably looked more than a bit nervous.
"We don't want to know about your fantasies Diane, if you insist you can talk about them all you want with Shandra, I'm sure that she'd love to hear them," Maria groaned back with an unhappy and slightly disgusted frown on her face as she started to pull Katy away back towards the room.
"I've already told them all to her, we've even done a few of them, but now we have to suck it up and find Paul," Diane said with an impatient and not very pleased scowl on her face as she glared over at Maria as the trio reentered the room.
"I don't know where they took him, the last thing that I remember before waking up in that alley is my friends and I were celebrating getting into the biggest sorority on campus, then we bumped into these strange women and," Raquel stated with a confused and fearful look on her face as she recounted the last thing that she remembered about the last few days.
"So you don't remember Paul at all," Shandra asked with an unconvinced frown on her face as she leaned back a bit and crossed her arms.
"She said that she did," Maria added with a concerned expression on her face as she shut the door.
"I remember that he was nice to me, he let me…or it…take a shower, I did it but it was like I wasn't in control of my body, I think that I…oh God," Raquel began to reply with a slightly stuttering pace to her words before she recalled flashes of what had transpired between herself and Paul and she grew very embarrassed at the memory of how much of her he had seen in such a short time. She blushed guilty, wrapped her arms tightly around herself, and seemed to try to shrivel up as she stared at the ground, letting a few tears fall as she struggled to make sense of it all.
"Don't even say it, you and Paul did not," Katy started to exclaim with a panicked tone to her voice before Raquel forced herself to look up and shake her head.
"No…thankfully he was cool about it, he gave me…it, some clean clothes and helped me out, nothing happened," Raquel managed to stammer out with a slight look of relief on her face before Diane walked back into the room with Raquel's bloody clothes stuffed into the trash can.
"Wanna tell us where all of this blood came from then," Diane asked with a pointed look in her eyes as she delicately picked up the first piece of Raquel's clothes that she could that had a patch on it that wasn't covered in blood.
"I don't…oh God, my friends, they killed them, they made me watch them do it," Raquel started to mumble out with a look of total horror on her face before she dissolved into a fit of tears.
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He was still surprised at how eerily calm she was as she stayed in the large room, pulling a pair of headphones on and sitting on an old couch while listening to music. Paul debated in his head whether or not to try to get her attention, wondering if it'd do any good or if she would even remember him. He perked up a bit when he saw one of Chucky's men bring her a dark red box that he later saw to contain an outfit of some kind as the woman picked some of it up out of the box to examine it. She looked up at the vampire questioningly before being handed a large wrapped wad of cash. The look of concern on her face vanished and was replaced by a smile as she slid the wad into her pocket and momentarily left the room more than likely to change. When she returned moments later Paul's only thought was that he wondered how Katy, and secretly Gina, would look in the outfit. The outfit consisted of more skin than fabric, leaving little doubt in Paul's mind what would happen next. He watched the woman walk confidently into the room where he guessed that Anastasia and Stacy were holed up in before he returned to trying to free himself.
It felt like only a half an hour later before the door opened again and the woman stumbled out, at first looking like she was drunk. But thanks to the dim light in the room it took Paul a few moments to ascertain the real reason for her odd behavior. When she stepped closer to the light he noticed that her hair was a mess, she could barely keep her eyes open, and she was holding most of what was left of the outfit in both hands. By how little was left he guessed that it had been violently torn off of her body. He thought about calling out to her but stopped when she leaned heavily on the desk beside Chucky and let her head fall back. Two sets of fang marks were clearly visible on her slender neck, with small rivulets of blood running down her neck and over her collarbone. Paul grimaced and shook his head at the thought of what had happened before Anastasia proudly walked out of the room and stared down at him.
"Quite the tasty little treat, I'd make her mine…but I already have all that I want, except for a certain slayer," Anastasia quipped with a highly amused and aroused smile on her face as she walked over to where the woman was trying to stand, ran her hands up and down her body, and then licked up some more blood off of her neck.
"You bitch, what did you do to her," Paul growled back with a surprising anger in his voice as he managed to get up to his knees as Anastasia finished licking the blood off of her lips.
"Relax my boy, it was just a taste test, I didn't turn her if that's what you're thinking, though now I'm wondering if she'll be able to resist coming back for more, the experience can be quite intoxicating, or so I've heard, I'm sure that Katy will love it when it's her turn, I can just picture her now," Anastasia replied with a relaxed smile on her face as she started to speak before she closed her eyes, tilted her head back, and let a hungry and overly excited smile spread across her face.
"You're even more insane than I thought if you think for a second that Katy would ever," Paul started to snap back with a very angry sneer on his face as he glared straight ahead at Anastasia before she waved him off like he was a fly.
"I've conquered far stronger women in my day boy, I'm not as young as you think I am, I've been around for awhile, I'm not going to give the lovely Katarina an option, I will get to play, who knows maybe I'll keep the rest of you around for her first meal after I turn her, that might be entertaining," Anastasia stated back with a very confidant and arrogant smirk on her face as she slowly walked away from the bleeding woman, who now had found a semi clean rag and pressed it to her neck as she struggled to stand up and limp out of the room, and straight towards Paul.
"Like that'll ever happen," Paul snapped back with a furious glare on his face as he struggled against the chains.
"We shall see, after my friend helped me use Raquel to lead you to me I made sure that your friends would find her and learn just enough that'd draw them right into my trap, I'll have them right where I want them, and you won't be able to do anything about it, hope you like the show," Anastasia replied with a bored half smile on her face as she looked like a young girl on Christmas eve waiting to open her presents, before she surprised Paul and landed a kick to his temple, hitting just hard enough to knock him out but not to kill him.
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"Do you know where you're going," Diane asked with an impatient and nervous frown on her face as Katy skidded around a corner in the bus and roared off down the street.
"Yeah…well more or less," Katy exclaimed back with a very serious and scared look on her face as she stepped a little harder on the gas pedal
"We shouldn't just rush into this Katy, Anastasia will be expecting us, we should stop and think about this for a little while," Maria started to say with a nervous and anxious expression on her face as she began to make her way towards the front of the bus before Katy spoke up again.
"The longer we wait the more time she has to hurt Paul, he'd do the same for me," Katy shot back with a very determined and heartsick feeling in the pit of her stomach as she couldn't help but dread the idea of what Anastasia was doing to Paul at that very moment.
"You're right…he would, but he won't benefit from us doing something as stupid as rushing in unprepared," Maria answered with a very firm and determined expression on her face as she turned away from the back of the bus and stared straight ahead at Katy.
"Uh Maria, how exactly does one get prepared for this kind of thing, it's not every day that a hot lesbian vampire wants to make sweet love to you before she turns you and makes her immortal love slave," Diane joked with a confused and amused smirk on her face as she slid down the aisle and stopped just beside Maria, who did not look thrilled at the joke.
"Is it wrong that part of that doesn't sound to bad," Shandra asked with a nervous smile on her face as she hesitantly raised her hand and tried not to show her embarrassment.
"You guys are crazy, we're going to save Paul and that's the end of it, we can talk about all of this later," Gina said with a very determined look on her face as she looked up from rifling through one of the weapons bags.
"Do you even know how to use any of those," Shandra asked softly with a skeptical frown on her face as she made her way back to where Gina was.
"Not really but I can't be any worse at it than you…besides we have to save Paul right, so I'll get good," Gina replied with a slight hint of sarcasm in her voice as she continued to dig through the bag, shifting her position a bit after awhile, giving Shandra something to stare at before Gina noticed and quickly stood up. "Eyes towards the front," Gina grumbled with an impatient and unhappy scowl on her face as she turned around to face Shandra while pointing towards the front of the bus.
"Okay got it…God I gotta say that I'm surprised at you," Shandra groaned back with a surprised and none to pleased frown on her face as she took a step back and turned towards the front of the bus.
"How's that," Gina asked with a skeptical expression on her face as she pushed a lock of hair back behind her ear before she squatted back down next to the bag of weapons, making sure to keep the back of her shirt down far enough.
"A stripper that gets uncomfortable when someone looks at them like…," Shandra started to reply with a slightly unsure tone to her voice before Gina looked up and stopped her.
"I only danced when I needed a little something extra for the rent or stuff like that, and when I wasn't at the club I only wanted to be noticed when I wanted it to happen, I'm a completely different person outside of the club than I am inside," Gina stated with a very firm and clear tone to her voice as she stared up and over at Shandra before turning back around and finding a sword that she liked.
"I hear ya, I was just saying that after how hard you hit on Paul in the club the whole wallflower attitude was a surprise, especially with that body," Shandra replied softly as she sat down in one of the closest seats and leaned over a bit, speaking just low enough that Katy and the rest at the front of the bus wouldn't hear her.
"Don't make me repeat myself," Gina grumbled softly under her breath as she stood up and then turned back towards the back of the bus where Raquel sat, wrapped in blankets trying to make sense of everything that was happening around her.
"Where are we going," Raquel asked softly with a scared look on her face as she brushed some hair out of her eyes.
"To save Paul, remember him," Gina grumbled with an unhappy and nervous frown on her face as she lightly glared at Raquel before turning around and heading up towards the front of the bus.
"Don't mind her, she's just worried about Paul…Katy to, neither will admit it but both of them have their sights set on him, such a waste to…when there's always other…options," Shandra said softly at first with a relaxed wave of her hand before she turned back to Raquel and began to look her up and down, grinning at the bits of skin that she caught sight of in between the folds of the blankets.
"Go flirt with someone else, I don't swing that way," Raquel stated with a bored and slightly angry frown on her face as she turned away from Shandra and pulled the blankets fully around her body so that only her neck and head were exposed.
"Suit yourself, just don't come crying to me if you change your mind," Shandra replied with a somewhat cold tone to her voice before she stood up and followed after Gina to the front of the bus.
"There it is, that's where they're holding Paul," Katy announced with a very energized and invigorated tone to her voice as she did her best to stop the bus as close to the curb and as quickly as possible before shutting the engine off and tossing the keys back to Maria.
"Wait a minute Katy, we can't just rush in there, they might have already spotted us," Maria exclaimed with a very nervous look on of concern on her face as she acted quickly enough and jumped in front of Katy as she tried to get to the buses door.
"Get out of my way Maria, we have to save Paul," Katy grumbled with an unhappy scowl on her face as she reached back and grabbed a hold of the handle of the axe that she had picked out earlier.
"I am not going to move from this spot until you hear me out, look…I want to rescue Paul almost as much as you do, but if we fall into Anastasia's trap and rush in there then we'll all end up as her slaves," Maria stated back with a very firm tone to her voice as she pushed on Katy's stomach to get her to back up a bit.
"So then what do we do, sit and wait until she comes out to us, from what Raquel said Stacy is in there to, I can't leave until she pays for what she did," Gina added with a determined frown on her face as she stepped around the last seat and stood beside Katy, changing the odds.
"As long as we save Paul you can stake as many vampires as your little heart desires, out of the way Maria," Katy started to say with a very serious frown on her face before she angrily shoved Maria out of the way and then forced the door open. Maria was just getting back to her feet with Diane's help when Gina raced off after her cousin.
END OF CHAPTER 10