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For a second, Claire freezes as panic begins to overtake her. Oh God, it's so dark and I can't see and I'm just sitting here where anything can get me and Oh my God I'm going to die and Shane will freak and… She mentally shakes herself stopping her thoughts mid-rant. That was no way to think, she always found a way out and she would now. Slowly, she crawls forward towards Oliver.
"Oliver?" She whispers when she thinks she must be pretty close to him. She hears a soft groan a few feet in front of her, so she continues crawling until her knees bump into a cold object laying in front of her, Oliver. "Can you walk if I help you?"
"No," He says voice no more than a whisper of wind. "Need blood, silver." Claire can't repress the shudder that goes through her.
"Okay, well I guess we'll get you some. But not mine okay? I'm going to pull you out of here, so don't go and attack me." He says nothing. Claire finds his shoulders and pulls, scooting backwards, Oliver lets out a hiss of pain. Claire ignores it and continues backwards, heart racing, knowing that every vampire there could hear it and could decide to attack her at any moment.
Finally, finally she reaches the safety of the fridge and knocks quietly. "Eve!" She whispers. "Eve let me in!" She hears a bar being slid across the door which quickly opens. Claire doesn't bother standing up, she just scoots backwards still clutching Oliver. Eve slams the door shut the second Oliver's feet are in.
Claire stands up and drags Oliver over to the wall where she props him sitting up. Oh God, he looked awful, no, worse than awful, he looked like he should be dead. There was a silver chain circling his neck, which had two strips leading to both of his wrists that were also chained, from the wrists were to more strands of chains encircling his ankles, the cuffs had been rolled up so the silver would touch his skin, everywhere it touched, the skin was blackened and burned. But that wasn't the worst of it, the injection had spread silver directly through his veins causing black, burned lines all over his body, burning him on the inside. They were even in his eyes. They looked completely black, like he was blind and his lips were blue.
"Blood," He croaks. "Hurry," Claire looks around the huge fridge and sees it's packed with all sorts of supplies; blankets, medicine, food, and…blood. Trying not look too closely at them, she tosses several packets at him and sees his fangs snap out. He guzzles them all down in a matter of seconds, with disgusting sucking; slurping sounds that turn Claire's stomach. "More," He demands, and at least twenty packets of blood later, the black lines have started to recede on his skin and his eyes begin to look normal. "Help me with these chains." He says looking directly at Claire.
"You're not going to eat me are you?" Claire asks warily. Oliver rolls his eyes.
"No, you stupid girl, just release me!" Claire cautiously comes over and begins to look for a lock, but after several minutes through which Oliver becomes increasingly agitated and impatient, she finds none. It looks like there's finger imprints at places on some of the links, so apparently, the vampire had just squeezed the chains together. She tells Oliver this and he snarls in frustration, eyes glowing ruby red. The chains were so short, he had to sit hunched over with his knees drawn up.
"Can't you just snap them off?" Claire asks taking a giant step back, not trusting him at all.
"The silver keeps me too weak to do that! One of you must call for help."
"Fine, I'll text Shane." Claire says pulling out her cell.
"I believe the authorities are better equipped for this situation than your idiotic human boyfriend." Oliver sneers.
"Yeah I know!" Claire says glaring at him. "Called the cops and they're not answering! So you get what you get!" Oliver frowns.
"They must have attacked there first." Oliver says almost to himself.
"Yeah, about that," Eve says crossing her arms and frowning down at him. "What the hell was that all about?"
"They're supposed leader said it was some nonsense about not liking being told what to do anymore and that they were taking over. As if that bunch of morons could take control of a group of children."
"So you know them?" Claire asks.
"The low-lives of Morganville, completely useless." Oliver says voice laced with contempt.
"Obviously they can take you." Eve says with a grin. Oliver snarls at her flashing fang.
"Yeah, well I'm going to text Shane then." Claire says turning away to text: 911 Common Grounds hurry. Crazy vamps. Now all they could do was hope and pray.
About fifteen minutes later, they can hear fighting outside, but it's impossible to tell whose winning. Claire and Eve go around checking on all of the refugees giving them blankets and water. They patch up the few who were attacked as best as they can, but one of them, the boy Claire saved doesn't look good at all. His skin is ashen, lips white, and he's breathing shallowly. He needed help, quickly.
Suddenly, there's a knock on the door, making them all jump. Then Claire hears Shane's voice say her name softly, "Claire? Claire? Eve? It's Shane open up." Claire jumps up and rushes towards the door, but Eve stops her, stepping into her path.
"Wait Claire, it could be a trap. How do we know it's really Shane?" Eve asks grimly.
"Yeah and it could also be Shane trapped out there with a bunch of psychotic vampires!" Claire says angrily. "It's not like I'm just going to throw the door wide open! I'll be careful!"
"Yeah with what weapon?" Eve asks frowning. Claire realizes that she had forgotten her backpack out at the table, great. "That's what I thought. I've got a knife, I'll open it. But if some crazy ass vamp comes at me, I'm blaming you." Eve takes her knife out of the waist band of her tutu and heads slowly towards the door. She slowly pulls the heavy metal bar across, unlocking the door. Then she opens it a tiny crack sticking her face out.
"Shane? Oh thank God! Where's Michael?" Eve says in relief.
"He's fighting off the vamps, come on, I'm here to get you guys out of here. Let me in." Claire hears Shane reply. Eve opens the door a little wider, barely wide enough for him to squeeze through.
Suddenly, Claire can hear the sounds of fighting and of Shane grunting in pain. Eve jerks back in surprise stepping away from the door. "Now, now, we'll have none of that," A deep voice thick with a southern accent chuckles. "Now, young lady you open that door now or I'll snap your friend's neck," He says pleasantly. Eve hesitates, gone even paler than her makeup and Claire freezes. No, not Shane. Please God not Shane. "Quickly now, I'm not a patient man."
"Eve, don't do it you stupid girl!" Oliver shouts, still confined to his chains. Eve doesn't listen; she pushes the door all the way open to reveal the cowboy vamp that had attacked Oliver, the apparent leader, with one hand over Shane's mouth and the other around his waist. Shane's face is bright red from lack of air. There's also a livid bruise forming beneath his right eye and there's four ragged, bleeding scratches that look like they came from fingernails on his right cheek.
"Thank you," The vamp says with a nod. "Now, go and fetch me some rope from those shelves. All of ya'll can go. I promise my friends will leave you alone," The twenty or so terrified people in the room look at him wide eyed and trembling before they scramble to their feet. A few assist the injured, and they scurry out the door. Eve and Claire don't move. The cowboy vamp's eyebrows rise. "Ya'll can leave too; I don't want anything from you," When they don't move, he shrugs. "Suit yourselves. You, Goth girl get me that rope!"
Eve goes over and grabs some thick, heavy-duty rope. "Good girl," He says like she's a dog who did a trick. "Now go and fetch me a chair from out there," Eve looks out into the darkness, wide-eyed and obviously scared. "I promise they won't hurt you, just get me a chair now like a good girl. Now do you have any weapons?" Reluctantly, Eve hands over her silver knife. Eve looks back at Claire who nods and gives her a weak smile. Eve gives a shaky one back and walks out, eaten by the dark.
"Now you must be little Miss. Claire Danvers!" He says turning to face Claire with a manic grin. "I've been wanting to meet you for a while. This your boy here?" Claire says nothing, refusing to answer; it'd only make things worse. He drops the grin, leaving his face blank and cold. "Fine then, if you want to be like that…" He says and puts his hands on Shane's head, a swift twist away from snapping his neck.
"Wait!" Claire says desperately. "Please, don't hurt him! What do you want?"
"What do I want?" The vampire asks raising one brown and chuckling. "Why what any man wants Ms. Danvers. Freedom. Plain and simple, being able to do what I want, go where I want, whenever I want. I just want to leave this God forsaken town. But your friend the founder isn't so keen on that idea. So you can blame her for this little statement of ours."
"What do you expect me to do? I can't tell her what to do!"
"Yes Henry, what exactly do you propose the girl do?" Oliver says coldly, finally speaking. "She has no sway over the Founder's choices and I have very little. What do you hope to accomplish with all of these theatrics? She'll just think you're having a temper tantrum like a child, scold you and send you to bed without supper." The vamp, Henry apparently, scowls.
"It ain't like that Oliver! We mean business and she's gunna know it!" Eve cautiously walks in holding a chair. "Put it back there girl," He says gesturing to the far back corner. Eve carefully places it and then walks back to Claire's side grabbing her hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze. Henry proceeds to shove Shane roughly over to the chair and tie his wrists and ankles to the chair. "Comfy?" He asks with a leer. Shane glares in reply.
"What are you going to do with Shane?" Claire asks trying to keep her voice level and calm.
"Oh I've just got a few questions for him is all," He turns back to Shane who is struggling futilely against his restraints. "You're Frank Collins son aren't you boy?" He asks grinning, showing a hint of fang.
**Shane**
"You're Frank Collins son aren't you boy?" The creep vampire asks with a leer. I almost let out a snarky, comment, and then for once, think better of it. This guy did mean business, and he wouldn't be opposed to ripping my head off and then the girl's if I pissed him off.
"Yeah, Frank was my dad. Why?" I ask, trying not to sound like a smart-ass teenager, although that was usually my goal.
"I was hoping you'd say that," He says grin widening. "Your dad killed my girl, my Lilly, boy and I intend to make you pay for it. The fact that you're the boy of the Founder's little pet is just a bonus." I swallow hard. Leave it to good old dad to leave me to pick up his mess.
"Look man, I'm sorry my dad is a douche, but it wasn't me. I'm not like that, hell, my best friend's a vamp, and his fiancé is like my sister." He frowns, clearly not expecting this.
"Well then I'm sorry kid, this ain't personal," He pauses and grins. "Well maybe a little. But my Lilly was a sweet girl, never harmed a fly."
"And she was a vampire?" Shane can't help not believing that a freaking vampire had never hurt anybody.
"Well I never said she was perfect. Sure she slipped up once or twice, but she always beat herself up over it after. You know what she was doin the night she was killed? She was heading to the store to buy some stuff for dinner that night with our neighbors. Our human neighbors. Everybody liked Lilly, humans and vamps. They found next to her headless and staked body a bag filled with melting ice cream and a can of corn. She didn't even try to fight back and he killed her in cold blood! I was with her for two hundred years and now she's gone! And you're gunna pay for that boy! You're daddy ain't here so you've gotta take the heat and I'm sorry for that but someone has to pay!" He finishes eyes a blazing red, breathing hard.
Shane just stares at him a minute. He remembers seeing something about her murder in the paper, as far as he could remember they had never caught her killer. He thought he'd even met her twice and she was okay for a vamp. That sounded like his dad, stake and behead first, ask questions later.
"Look man, I'm really sorry about Lilly, that's awful. I remember her, she seemed really nice," Shane begins carefully. "But I would never do that! My dad is a cold hearted jerk and most of the time, I hate him too. He was never a great father, he—"Shane pauses taking a breath. "He hit me man, he hit anyone weaker than him. And I know no one deserves what Lilly went through, but that wasn't me! I would help you if I could, but I can't. Do you think is what Lilly would want you to do?" Henry pauses, seeming confused.
"It's not just about that!" He says eyes shining red again. "This will hurt your girl too! Amelie's little pet," He spits out the word. "They're always trying to control us, tell us what to do. We're just supposed to be trained animals in a zoo and I am done with that! This will make a point, this will help, it will." He says sounding unsure of himself.
"No it won't," Shane says cautiously. "You'll just make things worse for yourself. You'll get caught and Amelie won't let you get away with it," Whatever it was and he wasn't even sure about it. "At least my friends won't. They'll come after you if you do something to me." Henry seems to hesitate, but then he grins, full fang eyes ruby red.
"I don't care. I'm nothing without Lilly. I hate Frank Collins and this will hurt him bad. I hate your girl for trying to control me. Like I said it's not personal, you just got caught in the middle of a dangerous war." He says. Shane just has a second to think of what exactly would hurt his before Henry strikes like snake, sinking his fangs in his neck.
Distantly, he can hear Eve and Claire's screams.