Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Based on the characters created by Stephanie Meyer, in her Twilight Saga series of books

WARNING: This story will contains scenes of domestic violence, strong language and other forms of physical violence, up to, and including death.

Chapter 20

Escape and Evade

Thane smelled the rain before he opened the side door. He took advantage of the afternoons' overcast sky to search, again, for his prey. He returned to the stretch of beach where he had lost James' trail the previous night, and searched for the place where he may have come out of the water. Christopher was on duty, so he had no fear of leaving Alice. Christopher was afraid of the cellar, and seldom ventured down the steps unless under specific orders. Thane searched the shore, and the tree line, looking for any sign of frequent usage, or scent of his prey. He knew he was trying to track a fellow tracker, so the task he had set before him was doubly difficult, but he was methodical in his search...and determined.

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Alice spent her day packing only her necessities. Choosing her clothes carefully, to keep the load light, she wrapped the few mementos she wanted to keep in the folds of her precious dresses. She kept none of her books, they would have been much to heavy. She did keep the diamond and pearl necklace and earing set Thane had given her for the Ball, when she was 15, and wrapped them carefully in the beautiful Ball gown itself. She secured the brush and mirror set Helen and the girls had given her, for her 18th birthday, and the hair combs Thane had gotten for her, in the ruffles of a warm winter dress. When she was sure she had packed as lightly as she could, the ball gown being the one exception, she dressed in a comfortable summer dress, and sturdy boots, then sat on her bed waiting for night, and Thane, to come.

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"Come on," Christopher's gruff voice echoed down the hall. "She's in the last cell. Just get her, and let's go. I hate it down here."

"Is that why you don't take care of those confined to this...cellar?" It was a smooth, musical voice. Alice stiffened, as she thought she recognized it, but she wasn't sure.

"Huh! I do what I'm paid ta do," Christopher huffed. "Just grab her. She don't like ta be touched, so you, trainee, get ta catch her up," he chuckled and opened Alice's cell.

As the door opened, Alice saw the source of the smooth voice, and her screams were silenced by the sudden lack of oxygen caused by the constriction of her throat. James stepped through the doorway, and smiled at her. He was dressed in the uniform of a hospital aid, but still wore his blue tinted glasses.

"Well, my little prize," his voice oozing with charm and foreboding. "The doctor has decided to stay late, just to make sure you receive your treatment tonight." James strode quickly across the room.

Alice turned toward the wall. Her eyes, wide with fear, never left James. She clawed at the wall, as if trying to crawl up, or into it, to escape him. Her screams froze in her throat, as nothing more than hoarse whispered gasps escaped her lips. Fear possessed her completely, as James wrapped his cold hand around her forearm, and began pulling her from the room. The visions began instantly, and she convulsed, as she fell from her bed, and collapsed into her captors waiting arms.

"Well," James smiled down at her limp body, "nothing unusual here," he chuckled to himself.

"They say she's a witch," Christopher said, as James easily hoisted Alice over his shoulder. "That she sees visions. Sometimes the future. Sometimes the past." James listened intently, as they left the cellar and made their way to the treatment room. "They say that's why she don't like ta be touched. She can see what ya' done in the past."

"Interesting," James hummed to himself. "You may be more of a prize than I thought, little one."

"In here," Christopher brought James from his thoughts, as he opened the door with the large black '4' on it. "Do ya know 'bout these chairs?"

"Never seen one," James placed Alice in the chair, then walked around it, studying it intently. "It seems to have an overabundance of leather straps."

"Nothin' slides 'round in this baby. Now, watch how I strap her in, and you can do the next one." James watched as Christopher confined Alice in the large chair, as she still convulsed from the horrendous visions stemming from James' touch. "The Doc wants ta' catch up tonight, so we gotta' do two more a these, after the girl here."

"Are we ready gentlemen?" A tired, but pleasant voice spoke from behind a window at the back of the room.

"One more strap," Christopher called over his shoulder, before continuing his explanations to James. "That's the control booth, in the back there. There's a door ta' the main hall on the other side. When she's all strapped in we'll step back there until the treatments done...And done," he said over his shoulder, as he buckled the final restraining strap. He stood up straight, then led James to the control booth. "Ready Doc," Christopher informed the tired looking, middle aged man at the controls. The control board consisted of a knob that controlled the speed of the chair's rotation, and an on/off switch. The doctor flipped the switch to the 'on' position, and edged the knob to a moderately fast position.

"We'll leave her here for a few minutes, and allow the chair to do it's work," the doctor smiled, as he looked through the window, at the quickly rotating chair. The three men stood in silence, as they concentrated on Alice, and her treatment.

With his vampiric hearing, James was the first to hear the sounds from the main hall. They had started in the recreation room, at the end of the main hall, and had slowly moved toward the front doors. No one would be able to get past the gate that blocked to front doors from the hall, but it appeared from the sounds he was able to hear, several patients were making an attempt to escape through them anyway. As the fighting neared the door to the treatment room, his companions were able to hear it as well. When the banging from the fighting began to cause the door to groan against it's hinges, the realization that the rioting patients could burst through at any moment finally penetrated the doctor's mind. He immediately reached into a drawer under the control panel, and pulled out a thick cloth and small bottle of chloroform.

"You two," the doctor nodded to Christopher and James, "follow me," and he opened the door behind him. Christopher followed him immediately, grabbing patients as he went, while the doctor filled the cloth with the fluid, and placed it over the mouth and nose of the restrained patient. James gave Alice one final look, then, with a wicked smile, turned the dial all the way up on the chair, before following along with the others. With his help, the riot was quickly put down, and the staff began to drag the sedated patients back to their rooms. James was delegated to patient removal, while Christopher returned to the treatment room.

"No!" the doctor huffed, as he switched the chair off. He looked through the window at Alice's unconscious body. Her hair had flown free, and she had vomited repeatedly. Her hair, dress and the walls were covered in her vomit. Blood streamed from her nose and ears, and streaked across her face and neck, mingling with the vomit in her hair. "Nurse!" the doctor called out the door. When one arrived, he gave her his orders. "Clean her up and return her to her room. You may have to cut her hair. It looks to be in too great a mess to clean," then he turned to leave the room. "And have this room cleaned. We'll finish with the others tomorrow," he said over his shoulder, before closing the door behind him.

"That's right," she huffed as the closed door. "Just leave the mess to us," and she reached into one of the drawers of the control desk, and pulled out a large pair of scissors. She approached Alice, and motioned Christopher over, with a nod. "Release her head, so I can get it all at once," she instructed him. When he did as he was told, she began cutting off huge hunks of Alice's long flowing hair. "Such a shame," she muttered as she hacked away at the vomit coated black mass. "It was so beautiful, and long. No time for fine trimming now," she said, as she finished chopping off Alice's black coiffure, close to her head. "Alright, get her out of here, and I'll meet you in the showers. Just leave her there. I'll finish her up when I'm done here."

Christopher unbuckled the rest of the straps confining Alice, then carried her to the communal showers. He laid her on the floor of the shower room, then cleaned himself off before locking her in, and returning to his duties. Alice had not regained consciousness by the time the nurse arrived to clean her. She turned on the water, then placed the bundle of towels and clothes on a chair on the opposite wall from the shower heads. She went over to a lever and pushed it to the left, transferring the flow of water from the showers to the hose. She stripped Alice of her clothing, then laid her out on the cold tile floor. She sprayed her down, then used a soaped brush to scrub her clean, then sprayed her down again, to rinse off the soap. When she was done, she turned the water off, and toweled Alice dry. She dressed her in an old dress, and replaced her wet stockings and boots that she had also sprayed clean. When she was done, she called for an orderly to take Alice back to her cell. James made sure he was the first to arrive. He glared down at Alice hungrily.

"She's done," the nurse told him. "Take her back to her cell, and leave her to sleep it off." She watched as James scooped Alice off the floor, and threw her over his shoulder. "You could take it a little easier on her," she told him, with her hands on her hips. "She is just a child," she glared at him.

"You want to take her back?" James snarled at her. The nurse blanched, as shock and fear suddenly consumed her more drastically than the earlier riot had.

"Just be careful with her," she whispered as James passed her, and left the shower room.

"I'll be careful with you, little one," he whispered to Alice's unconscious form, as he patted her gently. "You are my prize, as soon as I finish my little game of hide-and-hunt with your master," he chuckled to himself. He made his way to the cellar, and dropped Alice onto her bed. James stared down at her, for several minutes, before leaving her cell. He locked the heavy metal door, then turned to the door across the dark hallway. James let himself into the smaller cell, and stared at the pathetic woman huddled in the corner. She made no sound, but as he approached her, she began to gibber and whine.

"It's pathetic, the way he sips at you," he tilted his head until it appeared to be resting on his right shoulder. "Come to me, human." Holding out his hand, he called to the deranged woman, drawing her out of the corner of her cell. "Come, and tell me how he tastes you, yet leaves you to continue to exist in this wretched filth." James watched her closely, as she shuffled toward him. He ignored her mumbled words, and frequent cries, as her fear escalated. When she finally screamed, and turned away from him, James suddenly rushed to her, to stand at her back. He wrapped one arm around her waist, while the other came around her to rest on her breast as his hand caressed her chin and throat. "Shhh," he hisses in her ear. "Nothing to fear now," he chuckled lightly. "To late to fear."

She began a cackling laugh, as James ran his nose along the side of her filthy neck. Her arms stretched out in front of her, as if she is were reaching for an invisible rescuer. Screamed, incoherent pleas escaped her throat, but no one heard, or cared, as James opened his mouth and allowed his tongue to taste her flesh. Venom began to drip from his sharp teeth, to the dirty skin covering her carotid artery.

"Shhh, human. Time to leave this place. Time to leave a message for your master."

He pulled her chin to the side, allowing him greater access to her neck and bloodflow. He couldn't have stopped the smooth laugh, and gentle smile, if he had tried, as his teeth pierced her skin, and her blood filled his mouth. His eyes rolled back, as he began to suck deep and hard. He hummed joyfully, as his hips moved against her back. He became stimulated by the taste of her warm blood. He tightened his hold on her waist, pulling her firmly against his groin. He felt himself falling into the rapture her blood provided; the ecstasy that always accompanied the blood of a woman, and the power a full meal bestowed upon him. As she grew weaker, her cries silenced, and her arms dropped slowly, lifelessly to her sides. James persisted in holding her until her heartbeat released it's final whimpered thump. He continued to grip her tightly, rocking his hips against her, as he released her throat and licked at the final drops of blood that surrounded her wound. He moaned in elation, then he lifted his face to the ceiling, smiling and laughing.

"No," he hissed, looking back down at his kill. "I'll save myself for the little one." He dropped the bloodless woman in his arms, and forced his hips to still. "She shall be my masterpiece. And I shall enjoy taking her," he wiped his mouth with the back of one hand, while the other rubbed at the front of his uniform pants, "in every way." James laughed loudly, as he raced for the stairs to the ground floor. He made his way, quickly, to the locked gates, and used his key to escape out the front door of the hospital. Within seconds he was into the trees, leaving only the sound of his laughter behind him.

Minutes later, the side door to the cellar opened, and Thane entered. He immediately growled, as he inhaled the scent of his prey. Thane smelled the fresh blood and rushed to the cell of the drained woman. Never before had he felt fear. Never in all his inhuman existence had he been gripped with the onslaught of emotions that now controlled his every motion. He flashed to the door that covered the entrance to Alice's cell. He reached for the small window in the door, and placed his fist through the thick metal bars that cover the opening. He gripped the window frame and pulled the door from it's hinges. The metal groaned and scraped against it's frame, as it pulled free, and was then flung across the hall to rest, embedded in the stone wall opposite Alice's cell.

Thane flew to Alice's bed. He heard the steady sound of her strong heartbeat, and gave a small sigh of relief. Gently, he picked up her unconscious body. He smelled the blood from her nose and ears, as well as the vomit from what was left of her hair. The scent of his prey permeated her clothing, and his lips curled back exposing his sharp white teeth.

"What have they done to you, my little one?" he lamented as he held her limp body close. He looked around and spotted her packed carpetbag. Thane gently placed Alice back on her bed, and raced to his room. Quickly, he threw his cloak over his shoulders, and extracted his coin purse from it's hiding place on top of his wardrobe. He tucked it into a pocket inside his cloak, and returned to Alice. He wrapped her in her blanket, creating a warm cocoon for her to rest in. Once again, he gently picked her up from her bed, and held her tightly, as he sped out of the cellar through the side door. Strategies flashed through Thane's mind, as he headed, at top speed, west, toward Gulfport. He cradled Alice against his body, as he flitted among the trees while keeping the shoreline in sight.

He ran through the night, periodically attempting to wake Alice, but never slowing his frantic pace. Speed was the only thing that would save her now. Speed and distance. As he approached the small harbor town, Thane slowed, and angled toward a small pier containing several dinghies. Gently placing Alice into the bottom of the sturdiest of the small boats, he tossed in her carpetbag, his cape and his coin purse. Then, he stripped off his clothing and added them to the collection of belongings in the bottom of the boat. Thane untied the moorings and threw the bowline out ahead of the boat. He pushed the small craft out, away from the pier, as he silently slipped into the water. Maneuvering to the front of the boat, he wrapped the bowline around his waist, and began to swim. He kept his pace slow, as he left the view of the small harbor, merely as a precaution, but soon picked up speed, as they entered the open waters off the coast of Mississippi and Louisiana. The drag created by Alice's transport, was a minor inconvenience to Thane. And, although he could not swim quite as fast as he could run, the 10 mile trip to Ship Island was completed long before midnight.

Once again, sorry this took so long. I can only hope the next chapter will not take near as long.

Please let me know what you think. Your opinions are important to me.