A/N: Sorry about the wait for this chapter guys. School's back for Liyorah and I'm approaching my finals in Australia, so we're both really busy. It's a wonder we even have time for 'Held'! I guess we just love it so much!

Chapter Seven

Thinking, perhaps stupidly, that she wouldn't try anything silly while I was gone, I wandered downstairs to find her something to eat. I knew enough about humans to know that, with the stress she was under, she would need to eat. But, then again, controlled starvation never killed anyone... or, not anyone who I didn't want to kill, anyway. I would give her just enough to fill her up, but so that she would be hungry again within a few hours. It was the perfect balance and another step in breaking her. I wasn't entirely sure, but I thought it would humiliate her to have to ask, or - more accurately - beg, for food.

I went through the family's cupboards, trying to find something simple I could cook. Not that I could cook very much, or very well. In my human years, cooking had been women's work and, since I'd been turned, I'd had no need to learn. Cooking and vampirism could exist quite freely of each other with no problems at all.

Eventually, I found some strange, dried substance that proclaimed itself to be 'Two Minute Noodles' and didn't require much preparation. I filled a jug and set it boiling and tipped in the dried flavour and vegetables. How could humans eat like this?

From upstairs there was a loud crash, like glass breaking. What on earth had that damned girl done now?

I ran back upstairs at my normal speed and stopped outside the bathroom door. I could hear Victoria breathing hard. Her heart rate was up and I could smell the intoxicating scent of adrenaline. I inhaled deeply; glad I had stated myself completely on the family who had lived her previously before kidnapping this girl.

"Pet," I called softly through the door, deciding to give her a chance to escape punishment. "Pet, come on out now."

When I got no response I smiled to myself. She really was a treasure.

"Let's not play hide-and-seek, sweetheart," I told her. "I'm really rather good, and I have a feeling you don't like to lose."

Hide-and-seek. That could be interesting. Let her run away and then see if I could catch her. Maybe I would do that... but later. Now I had to get her out of the bathroom before she did something stupid!

I heard movement from behind the door, but she was retreated from it, not going the way I wanted her too.

"Using my rules against me." I chuckled. "Alright, let's see what's behind this door."

I caught the knob and turned it, meeting very little resistance from the locked door. I stepped into the bathroom and noticed two things. First of all, the crashing sound had been the mirror breaking. Second, the sun was out, it was coming in through a high window and dancing off the broken shards of mirror. Damn! I didn't want Victoria to see my skin this early!

Then I noticed Victoria. She was standing at the far end of the bathroom, a broken shard of the mirror in her hand.

"S-Stay back!" she ordered, holding the broken bit of mirror in front of her like a sword. "Stay away from me!"

I chuckled again. "Oh, pet. Oh precious, precious pet," I patronized. "Do you really think that a little shard of glass is going to hurt me?"

"Let's find out," she said and she ran at me. It was amusing, just how slow she seemed to come at me. I stepped forward to meet her, the sunlight hitting my face, causing it to shimmer like the broken mirror on the floor. She stopped dead, the glass still in her hands.

"You, you..."

But I wasn't listening. She was bleeding. Just a tiny cut to her finger. Small, insignificant... and oh so tempting. My glittering, stone hard hand shot out to grab hers and she screamed. From somewhere far, far away I heard bone crunch.

"You're hurting me!" she shrieked from down a long tunnel. "Please James! You're..."

The rest of her words blurred into nonsense sounds as I looked at the single red drop on her finger. I brought it to my mouth and gently licked the blood from it. She tasted so good!

From where I was, lost in the red haze of bloodlust, I heard a sound, like a gasp. I wrenched myself back to the present just in time to catch Victoria before she hit the white tiles of the bathroom floor. I didn't want her to bleed anymore.

I carried her out of the bathroom and back into the bedroom. I put her down on the bed as gently as possible. I'd already broken something in her hand, I didn't want to break anymore of her. Not yet, at least. Once she was on the bed, I looked down at her hand. I hissed in annoyance. Every bone in her right hand was broken, badly too. It looked as if someone had beaten it with a blacksmith's hammer!

I cursed, realizing that it would need a splint and I needed to hunt.

Weighing everything up, I decided that a hunt would not only be much more entertaining than splinting Victoria's hand and watching her sleep, but was also much more necessary for her physical safety. Besides that, waking up in pain would be a good lesson for her. She couldn't beat me, no matter how hard she tried. I would win every time.

I went downstairs and picked up the soggy bowl of 'Two Minute Noodles' and a spoon. I carried them up to the bedroom and put them on the bedside table. I wrote her a note as well and stuck it on the side of the bowl. She would see it when she woke up. Finally, I cuffed her ruined hand to the bed, using a lockable metal cuff so that she couldn't undo it with her free hand, and put a blanket over her. It wasn't that I didn't want her to be uncomfortable, but I doubted that cold would help with shock.

I bent down and gentle pressed my lips to hers. "I'll be back for you soon, my sweet."

The scream was loud, terrified, pain-filled and immensely satisfying.

I moved my hand from where I'd broken my victim's arm and smiled kindly at her.

"There's really no need to make so much noise," I said gently. "After all, there's nobody around to hear you and, even if there was, they couldn't help you." My voice turned dark and I chuckled. "No one can help you now."

The terrified, agony-ridden girl sobbed pathetically, blood oozing from the cut I'd made with my nail down her breast bone. Her hands bound helplessly with her own belt to a branch above her head. My morning, already going exceptionally well since I had tasted my sweet Victoria, was getting better with each shriek from my trapped prey.

"Can I ask, little human, does this hurt at all?" I moved my hand down her ribcage and pinched one of her ribs in half. She screamed.

"I assume it does," I told her conversationally. I broke a few more ribs for fun before I decided that enough was enough. I was thirsty and she was losing blood fast from that cut to her chest.

I brought my lips to her ear. "I'm going to hang your corpse from the tree by your throat when I've finished with you," I told her. "The humans will undoubtedly attribute your death to suicide. Such a shame, a young vibrant girl like you, so full of life... why would you want to kill yourself, sweetie? Don't you know suicide's a sin?"

I bit into her neck and she gurgled pathetically. When I had drained her completely I looked down at my jacket. While I'd drunk from her, the bleeding from the cut on her chest had slowed, but not so much that my jacket didn't have a red smear all down the front of it. That was one bad thing about being a vampire, my clothes always got bloody. Oh well, it would serve as another reminder to Victoria. After this morning's episode, she would have undoubtedly figured out what I was.

I turned and began to run back to what I was now thinking of as our house.

I was passing, at a much slower pace, through the small town where the house was located when I stopped. There was a newspaper stand outside a newsagent's. The headline and accompanying photograph had caught my eye. I walked over, unable to believe it. On the front page of the newspaper was a picture of a smiling Victoria, her arm looped casually around a young man I recognized as her former boyfriend - Luke. I picked up the paper and smirked as I read the headline: Daughter of Judge feared to have been kidnapped.

I brought the paper, enjoying the way the pasty newsagent trembled as I paid her a little less then I was supposed to. The blood on my jacket and her natural in-built fear of my kind kept her from asking for the rest of the money.

"H-Have a good day, s-s-sir," she stuttered as I left. I smiled darkly. Oh, I was counting on it.

I ran the rest of the way back to the house. I strolled casually through the front door and stole silently upstairs. I could still smell the revolting stench of the human food as I neared the door. Victoria was breathing harder than normal, I put it down to pain from her ruined hand and fear of my imminent return.

Her voice then sounded as I put my hand on the door. She was talking to herself.

"I'm never getting out of here," I heard her whisper and I opened the door and went into the room.

"No," I agreed conversationally and her head snapped around to the door to watch me enter. "You aren't, pet."

Her eyes lingered on the red stain on my jacket and I saw her cringe away from me. I sat down on the bed beside her and the words I'd been longing to hear for the whole week fell from her lips.

"I know what you are."

I smirked. "You do?" I asked her, reaching over in mock kindness to brush a strand of hair out of her face. She jerked back from my touch and turned away. Her hand was still cuffed to the bed and I wondered if it was paining her. No matter, I would split her hand after the little entertainment session I had planned.

"You're..." she gulped, struggling with the word. A word that, up until now, had, for her, existed only in horror movies and folklore.

"You're a vampire," she choked out. Then her whole posture changed. She turned her head back to face me, self-assurance written all over her beautiful face. Her eyes were hard, daring me to deny it. Yet, behind the hardness, I saw a slight desperation. She wanted to be wrong.

I chuckled. Sorry to disappoint you sweetheart.

A vampire? But, that can't be! They don't... I'm not...

Again I shook my head, cursing my perfect memory. I re-focused on the task at hand. I was going to have some fun. And Victoria could do nothing about it.

"Very good pet," I patronized. She scowled at my tone. She was getting fiery. She seemed to get like this when she began to figure things out about me. No matter, I had the perfect bucket of cold water to throw over her.

"I have to admit, it certainly took you long enough," I went on, putting my feet up on the bed. I cocked my head to the side, an old habit from my human days, and watched her more intently. She was definitely in pain, but perhaps not as much as when I'd first broken her hand.

"And I know," she broke off for a moment before she went on, "you're going to kill me."

She tried to keep her voice steady, to stay strong, but the prospect of her impending mortality made her choke. I decided to play her game.

"Eventually," I agreed, nodding. "When I get bored of you."

I remembered the taste of her blood this morning and swallowed back the venom that pooled in my mouth. Not now, not yet. Thinking about it, she was going to be a tough nut to crack. We could be at this for a while...

I reached towards her. She made no move to stop me as I put my fingers under her chin and draw our faces close enough to kiss. "But you've got nothing to worry about, precious. I can see us going for years before that happens."

I saw he lips tremble and my stomach jumped in excitement. Cry in front of me, little Victoria, I thought. Expose yourself to me at your weakest.

My wish went unfulfilled. She pulled away from me, once again in control of herself. But she couldn't quite erase the horror from her eyes as she said: "And you're going to rape me."

Her voice was calm, resigned. Even as I watched, she closed her eyes and her breathing slowed. Was she excepting the inevitable, or building up the energy to try and fight me off when the time came?

"That's such a nasty word: rape," I told her. "I much prefer to think that I'm going to 'have' you, whether you want me to or not."

"In my world," Victoria said, her voice flat, "that's called rape."

I shrugged. "Maybe, but we'll save this conversation for later, alright? I have something I think you'd like to see, pet."

I reached towards the bed to pick up the newspaper I dropped on my way in - she hadn't even noticed - and handed it to her. "I want you to read this article."

She took the paper in her left hand, her right was obviously still causing her a lot of pain, and read the headline: "Daughter of judge feared to have been kidnapped."

Her breath caught in her throat and she stopped dead. I chuckled. We couldn't have that.

"Continue, won't you?" I mocked her. "You have such a pretty reading voice."

"Please, don't make me," she begged, the scared little girl making her presence known again. "I don't want to hear it."

"Well fine then," I said, taking the paper from her. "I'll read it for you, sweet."

Very dramatically, and even more unnecessarily, I cleared my throat and continued to read: "Victoria Sutherland, 20, is still missing and police now fear for the college student's safety." I stopped for a moment, chuckling. "Now, why would they think that?" I asked rhetorically. "I'm taking such good care of you."

She squeezed her eyes shut and turned her head away. She could look away, pretend I wasn't here. But she would never be free of the sound of my voice.

I continued.

"The student disappeared from her shared apartment between ten and eleven pm two days ago and police now fear that she may have been kidnapped.

"Miss. Sutherland was last seen at her apartment at ten pm by friends Lucas Stone and Florence Chu. Mr. Stone and Miss Chu left Miss Sutherland at her apartment where she was studying for a university test. Mr. Stone and Miss Chu walked four blocks to the video store where they rented four movies before coming back to the apartment.

"Miss Chu, who shares the apartment with Miss Sutherland said that the lights had all been turned off when she and Mr. Stone arrived back.

"'Everything was dark' Miss Chu told the paper 'So I thought Vicki (Victoria Sutherland) must have been asleep, so me and Luke (Lucas Stone) stopped yelling and I went to turn on a light so that we could watch the movies'

"Miss Chu says she turned on the light and then went to check Miss Sutherland's bedroom and didn't find her there.

"'She wasn't asleep and it didn't look like she'd gone out. Her books were still on her desk, the bulb of her desk lamp was still warm... nothing had been touched. If it weren't for the fact the lights were out I would have thought she'd just gone to the bathroom"

"'We thought she must have just left for some reason' Mr. Stone told reporters 'It was weird but we didn't think anything of it, (Victoria) Sutherland can be pretty weird'

"When Miss Sutherland had not returned by three am when Mr. Stone left the apartment Miss Chu became worried.

"'I said to Luke (Lucas Stone) to turn his phone on in case she called and I gave her a ring. It went straight to voice mail and Vicki (Victoria Sutherland) never lets anyone go to voice mail'

"Miss Chu notified the police yesterday morning after Miss Sutherland failed to come to her class for a test.

"While police first listed her as simply 'missing' there are now fears she may have been kidnapped.

"Senior Sergeant Dylan Lloyd told reporters that 'When we were questioning Miss Chu about Miss Sutherland's disappearance, Miss Chu recalled seeing Victoria dancing with a stranger at a night club, later that evening Miss Chu saw the same stranger outside her apartment window.

"'Miss Chu described the man as extremely muscular with long dirty blonde hair tied back in a ponytail. He was dressed in worn jeans and a backpacker's shirt and a pair of dirty trainers" Senior Sergeant Lloyd said."

I chuckled again. Victoria's little Eurasian friend was a perceptive little thing. This would add a whole new level of fun to my game. "Hmmm, what a smart little girl," I told Victoria. "She's certainly made things more interesting now that the humans know what I look like. Anyway..."

"'We're not sure of a motive yet, it could just be a thrill crime, alternatively it could have been a well planned, well orchestrated kidnapping'

"Miss Sutherland's parents, Massachusetts High Court Justice Phillip Sutherland and Massachusetts State Coroner Denise Sutherland, have spoken out for the first time since hearing of their daughter's disappearance, asking for anyone with information to come forward.

"In a heartfelt plea Mrs. Sutherland begged anyone with even a scrap of information to contact the police

I ran my thumb along the underside of her chin. "This is my favourite part." I took a dramatic and unnecessary breath.

"'This is our baby girl whose vanished' she said from her home in Massachusetts yesterday 'Phillip (Justice Sutherland) and I want you to think about if this was your child who had gone..."

"Stop," Victoria begged me, her voice a whisper. "I don't want to hear. I don't want to hear anymore."

Too bad for you then, Victoria. "Oh but we're almost done!" I said playfully and I continued reading from where she'd interrupted me.

"...missing. If you know even a scrap of information about what has happened to our girl them please contact the police'

"The police are appealing, like the Sutherlands, for anyone with information to contact them.

"'You can even contact us anonymously" Chief Swan said "We don't need to know your name or how you know the information, just tell us'"

I finished the article and looked up at Victoria. Unshed tears were glistening in her eyes and I threw the newspaper aside and reached towards her. She tried to pull away from me, but I ignored her. I simply reached for the metal cuff chaining her to the bed and snapped it. I took her broken hand inbetween both my palms and amused myself for a minute by letting her fret over what I was going to do. I brought her mangled hand up to my lips and kissed the back of her knuckles.

"Would you like me to split this for you now, pet?"

She nodded, refusing to give me a verbal answer and I darted away to get the first aid kit I'd seen in the bathroom. I was back before she had time to blink. I took her hand in mine and pressed it down on the bedside table. I must have pressed slightly harder than I meant to because I heard her whimper a little.

"You'll feel much better after this," I told her as I worked. It took me all of two seconds to splint her hand properly so that it wouldn't hurt her.

Once I'd finished I sat back on the bed and let my eyes rove over her. She was so beautiful, so tempting and so hard to adjust to. I would have to change my plans.

"It's getting harder to wait," I murmured. I was unsure if I was talking to myself, taking to her, or a bit of both, regardless, I kept going. "I wanted to adjust before I took you..." I trailed off, imagining the scene.

"I'll never adjust," Victoria spat. "So you'll always be waiting."

For someone naked and helpless with her right hand in a splint, she was certainly brave. Fortunately for me, my lust need not wait until she adjusted to her position.

"No, it'll be soon," I told her. I leaned in towards her, my eyes clouding over with lust. What was to stop me from taking her now? I could have her cuffed up in an instant, she was already stripped...

I checked myself, pulling back. I wanted to wait, I wanted her to be on edge and nervous.

"I don't see why you're complaining," I told her, chuckling. I reached up to stroke her collarbone, enjoying the warmth of her skin on mine. "Pet, you were practically soaking with just the slightest of touches back at the cabin." I moved my hand down her chest, cupping one of her breasts and running the pad of my thumb along her nipple. She shivered. "I thought by now you'd be begging me to take your sweet little virginity away."

Something changed in her eyes and she smacked my hand away. She didn't hit hard, nothing broke, but I saw the skin on her palm smart red. She appeared not to notice.

"Shut up! Just shut up! You have no idea what you're talking about!" She stared me straight in the eye, her lips quivering with rage. "I love my boyfriend! My heart belongs to him! It's not even yours for the taking."

I felt a surge of possessiveness rise up in me. Really? We'd see about that!

"We promised and I will give it to him! Not you! You don't own me and you never will!"

She finished her little rant and I hissed through my teeth.

"Maybe," I told her, checking my anger. "Maybe not. Regardless of what you believe, you're stuck here with me until the day I kill you and that day is not coming soon! Now, lie down, shut-up and stop yelling! There's no one to hear you."

She spat at me again and I sighed. "You don't learn, do you?"

Bandaging her back half an hour later after another whipping, I noticed that she was somewhat less vocal.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed. Chapter eight will be up shortly.