Brenda found the pain to be the most bearable when she was unconscious. She preferred to remain unconscious for as much time as possible, so that she was not forced to dwell as consciously on her predicament, the horror she'd been subjected to, and the agonizing pain in her rib cage.

It was difficult for her to guess at the passage of time as she slept as much as she possibly could. She was fairly certain that her captor did not intend to return. He'd left her there to die, either from her injuries, starvation, or the shivering, wet chill that had become almost numbing. It was a slow, cruel way to murder a person. She was lying in a shallow pool of rank water, and in desperation, she drank some of the water she rested in, figuring it would either help to hydrate her, or perhaps, if it was toxic, speed up the inevitable.

She lost count of the number of times she'd vomited afterward. The air around her stank of it, as well as of urine. Once, she woke up to find herself choking, and turned her head to the side to let herself vomit properly, and then she wondered if she'd made a mistake. She remembered having heard somewhere that starvation was an excruciatingly painful way to die. Yet she'd heard the same thing about drowning.

The truth was, despite everything, she wanted to live. She just couldn't fathom how she could achieve such a thing in her situation. If death was to be the end result, surely a swifter one would be preferable, but what if dying prematurely caused her to miss out on a rescue attempt?

She wanted to believe that she would be found, but the part of her that hoped for that had died at some point while her captor was fucking her. That was when she'd been forced to understand that he had all of the power. He could do whatever he wanted, and no one would stop him. She was powerless. She was lost.

As the sound of wet, echoing footsteps came to her ears, ideas raced through her mind. The first thought, surprisingly, was that she was about to be rescued. But she quickly realized that it was more likely her tormenter returning to either torment her further, or perhaps simply kill her. She could see a dim light coming from the direction of the sound, and didn't recall her captor using any light. But she couldn't be sure. She lay still, hoping he'd somehow forget where he'd left her and fail to find her.

"I sense that she is this way," said an accented voice that was familiar to Brenda. It was Sanji.

The footsteps came closer, and she waited for him and whoever he was with to find her, but could she be sure that they would? She needed to call out, to alert them, but she was so dehydrated that she wasn't sure she'd be able to find her voice. She drew in her breath and tried to yell, but found herself choking instead, and then coughing. After a fit of coughing, she tried again, the sound coming out unintelligible, but it came out loud, and that was what mattered.

The footsteps came closer, and in a moment, a light shone on her, and she could see two silhouettes behind the flashlight. One of them rushed to her side, and as the flashlight swept over her naked, shivering, filthy and broken body, she saw Simon bending over her, a look of horror on his face as he drew in his breath sharply. It was almost a gasp, and Brenda felt a chill run through her seeing his reaction. It felt as if she wasn't a person now, but a victim.

"I fear we are too late," said Sanji from several feet away.

She stared into Simon's blue eyes beyond the lenses of his glasses. "I need a hospital," she said slowly, painstakingly, never taking her eyes away from his.

"We cannot move her," Sanji said. "She will not survive."

Brenda swallowed and felt herself beginning to tremble. She wanted to say more, to argue, but it was so difficult to speak, and it hurt.

"I'm sorry," Simon said, now crouched before her. "We won't be able to get you to a hospital. You won't make it. If you want to live, there is something I can do. But you'll be forever changed. The decision is yours."

Forever changed? She didn't know what the hell he was babbling about. She already was forever changed. One didn't come out of an ordeal like this one intact. She nodded her head, not wishing to try to use her voice any more.

"Very well." Simon reached into his pocket and pulled out a cloth. He reached out and wiped at her neck, where the blood had dried on, where her captor had bitten her.

She lay still, watching him curiously, silently grateful that he was cleaning her up a little. It was a small thing, but it was important to her, restoring a tiny fraction of the dignity that she'd lost. As he leaned toward her, however, she was startled by this and she tried to pull away. She wasn't sure he even noticed her recoiling from him. She felt his lips on her throat, then, in the same place she'd been bitten before.

But then, much like before, came ecstasy as he bit her. It wasn't entirely like before. It was somehow sweeter, perhaps because she didn't feel the revulsion for him that she'd felt for her captor, and that she was somehow unafraid of Simon. She closed her eyes, awash in the sensation, unaware of anything else, only the sweetness as he drained her. She could feel herself growing weaker there beneath him. She could feel that she was being drained, but the pain and misery she'd felt before were entirely gone, banished by the most intense pleasure she'd ever known. It was every bit as wonderful as her previous experience had been horrifying.

She could hardly keep her eyes open as Simon at last drew back from her. She was so weak and tired, but mercifully, the weakness was so intense that it numbed her previous pain. She watched him in awe, struggling to retain her awareness as he lifted his wrist to his lips, which seemed to glisten in the dim light. He bit into his wrist and held it toward her. She could see blood beginning to well forth from the wound. "You need to drink this," he instructed.

Drinking his blood was one of the last things Brenda wished to do, but she had little choice as Simon pressed his wrist against her mouth, and she felt the blood trickle between her lips.

The taste sent a shock through her, and she opened her mouth wide to cover more of the wound, to let it into her mouth. What she tasted could not be described as anything less than life itself. She tasted her salvation. She drank this life-giving liquid without regard for anything else, sucking at it and swallowing each drop voraciously. It was strength that she was drinking. It was everything she needed. She needed all of it, all that he would give her.

It seemed far too soon that his wrist was torn away from her greedy lips and she began to come to her senses. She was sitting upright, and in terrible pain. With hardly a conscious thought, she called upon the blood inside of her to mend her injuries, and felt the pain gradually beginning to subside. As she did so, she began to feel a growing thirst, so she forced herself to stop before it was too late, fearful of what might happen if she did otherwise.

At last, Brenda felt aware enough to remember her modesty. She went to wrap her arms over her breasts, but only found herself jerking at her handcuffs so hard that she nearly toppled forward.

Sanji stepped toward her then, and she saw that he had what appeared to be a blanket. He draped it in front of her, wrapping it around her shoulders as Simon rose and walked around behind her.

"I don't suppose you know where the key to these are?" he asked, fingering her handcuffs.

"Probably still in my apartment," she said.

"Just give me a moment. I'll get them open," Simon assured her.

She still felt a bit dazed, but thought perhaps her mind was working better than before. She'd been bitten, now by two men. She'd drunk blood, and it had revived her and made her strong. As impossible as it seemed, there was only one explanation for it all. And as quickly as she realized what Simon was, what she'd become, she also decided she didn't care. She wanted to live, and it had been the only way. She might never have believed it if he'd explained it to her before the deed.

After fumbling with her wrists for a few minutes, Brenda felt one of her wrists released from its hold. She reached out with that hand and gripped the blanket Sanji had given her. "Can you get the other one?" she asked, wishing to get as far away from those hand cuffs as possible.

"We cannot waste any more time, or we risk your captor's return," Sanji said, pulling Brenda to her feet.

Brenda nodded, feeling a new surge of fear course through her. She'd hoped that her captor been arrested by now. She'd considered herself out of danger once Sanji and Simon had arrived, but that was ridiculous. She wrapped the blanket more fully around herself as she prepared to follow Simon and Sanji out of this wretched place. "The man who had me here . . . " She needed to tell them, needed to know if they could tell her anything. "He bit me, like you did," she said turning to Simon. "Do you know who he is?"

"A vampire," Simon said. "Like we are. We figured out that the person you've been after was a vampire, because Sanji remembered me buying incense I never purchased from him. Some vampires have the ability to appear like someone a person is expecting to see, rather than as they truly are," he explained.

"But do you know who he is?" she repeated as Sanji led them both through dark tunnels. Brenda's feet made soft little splashing noises as she walked. Simon made hardly any noise at all.

"No. I'm sorry."

She nodded, unable to think of a reply. He was still out there. He might come after her when he discovered she was gone, that she'd been rescued. She pulled the blanket more tightly around herself.

"It's not a good idea for you to return to your apartment," Simon said.

Brenda began shaking her head vehemently, still unable to find words to express the horror she felt at the prospect of returning to her apartment. Her apartment was not safe. She could never be safe there again. It had been so easy for her to be found there, to be taken from there. She wanted to hide.

"You can stay with me for now," Simon continued. "You're going to need to disappear," he said apologetically.

She simply nodded. She was too frightened to do anything but disappear. She couldn't let that monster find her again.