Chapter Nineteen
The click of a heavy door aroused my senses, a putrid smell ventured up my nostrils and I became aware of a bright light once my eyes had started to open. My breathing was restricted, I discovered, as my arms were above my head, hands tied together, fingers touching something cold and metallic. Everything felt so heavy as I lifted my head slowly, letting out a raspy groan when it ached, and my eyes burnt from the light constantly beating down in to them.
"What have they done to you?" I heard Harry mumble, the sound of feet shuffling closer to me as hands moved up my arms to where my wrists were bound together tightly.
"Wait." I heard Dougie hiss. "She's still connected to the machines."
"Then take her off them." Harry snapped. Upon these words, there was a pain in the back of my neck and stomach, something being removed, sliding out like a needle.
"Don't hurt me, Doug." I wheezed. "Not again."
"Shh. Claire, it's all been a dream. A bad dream. Stay awake for me, okay?" Harry attempted at soothing me, the palm of his hand on my cheek as I whimpered.
The rope holding my wrists was released and I fell forward, two arms catching me before I hurt myself anymore. Lay down on the comfortably cool stone floor, two heads blocked the light filtering in to my tired eyes. I turned my head sharply as Dougie's fingertips brushed at my cheek.
"Claire, it's me." He smiled. "It's Dougie."
"Get away from me." I coughed, my gaze fixed on the tall metal frame beside and above me, worn rope dangling in the middle where the four poles joined. Had I been hanging from there? I didn't remember that.
"Listen to me, Claire." Harry moved in my view as Dougie shuffled backwards. "We don't have time for explanations. We cut the power so they'd be confused. We came to get you out of here."
I nodded dumbly. I hadn't a clue what he was talking about. He pulled me up form the floor, hooking his arm under mine, making sure Dougie did the same on my other side. There was sudden sound from my right. A TV had turned on. It took a few seconds for me to focus on the flickering still frame shown. The clear image of Dougie tearing up the paper.
"That was the last thing you saw before we cut the power." Dougie spoke as the two boys lifted me with ease, carrying me from the room. "None of that was real."
"Doug, carry her. I'll scout ahead." Harry breathed quickly, watching to make sure Dougie held me carefully. He lifted my arms up, locking my hands behind his neck when it was discovered I didn't even have the energy to do this on my own. I couldn't begin to understand this. I'd been in the park. There was the attack. Patricia's death. Being bound. How was none of that real?
How?
"A month." Dougie said as Harry closed the rear door of the van on us before walking around to sit in the drivers seat. I shakily sat up as the key turned in the ignition, facing Dougie who sat opposite, looking overly unsure of what to say. "You've been gone for a month."
"How?" I croaked. "Where did I go?"
"Hunters broke in to Tom's house when you stayed there. Tom and Nat did their best, but it wasn't enough. Everything since you were sedated that night was a computer programme." He never broke eye contact. Dear god, I do hope this is a bad dream. Ironic. "I thought you were dead until Harry found something in an old book."
"Why would an old book have helped?" I questioned. This was not sinking in any time soon.
"It was a prophecy." Dougie smiled a little, moving across the van to sit beside me. "They took you because you're pregnant, Claire. The baby is valuable to them."
"I'm not!" I exclaimed, protesting, wiping my face, seeing the dirt rub off in my hand. Dear, lord, what must I have looked like? "You said it wasn't real. That wasn't real."
"Claire, you have to believe me." I couldn't deny that his eyes shone with sincerity, his voice pleading in desperation. "They couldn't harm you until the baby's born. They had to keep you sedated, believing you were out of danger. They're frightened of us, Claire. That's never happened before. This is big!"
"The binding wasn't real?" I muttered. He shook his head. "But.. I..." I had no more words left in me as I fell in to him, tears cascading down, probably trailing dirty rivers in my face. "How… how can it be a month?"
"I don't know. I didn't even know for a week that you'd been taken." He stroked my hair slowly, not knowing how much this small gesture was in fact comforting me. "One attacked the house. Harvested me for the blood you'd need for the next nine months. I woke up a few days later"
The distress in his voice spoke more to me than his words did. This was the truth, and it sounded like there was plenty more to be said. A lot had happened in my absence.
"I knew there was something wrong about you." I mumbled, more to myself then to Dougie who'd now pulled away a little. "The Dougie before. In the er... you know what I mean."
"I missed you." He whispered. "I thought I'd lost you, and we'd never get to have what we wanted."
"What we wanted?" I was even too weak to raise my eyebrows at him. I felt pathetic. It must have shown; Dougie's arms snaked around me, hands rubbing up and down my back, wincing when it appeared I was bruised up and down there.
"I'm your partner. We're meant to be bound, Claire." He smiled, glancing at the back of Harry's head briefly. "believe me, he wasn't too impressed with me when he found out we'd already done the honey moon period the night before."
I pushed myself up slowly, pressing my lips against his, slow to react when we remained comfortable just being connected, touching each other. I shivered, his tongue meeting mine for the first time in a long while. The movement was gentle, steady, affectionate as he pulled me on to his lap, one hand stroking at the lower part of my stomach, while the other moved up to rest at the back of my head, fingers tangled in my messy locks.
"So I guess Jessi isn't a vampire then?" I broke away from him reluctantly, the questions building in side me needed answering.
"How did you know that?" He asked, eyes widening in alarm.
"It happened in the… dream." I replied, still having trouble telling myself that the day I'd experienced was spanned over a month, and was concocted by hunters and a machine. "Danny turned her."
"I think we should wait 'til we get back." Dougie pulled me closer to him once more, avoiding the subject. "You need to sleep."
Being helped from the van on to the gravel some three hours later, I found I'd never laid eyes on this place before. A large house in a clearing, surrounded by trees. A forest. I removed Dougie's hand from my waist, supporting me, pretty sure that I was now capable of moving, walking myself. I looked the country house up and down, the garden had grown wild and untamed, without any care or attention to it. Vines had travelled up the stone walls, leaving only gaps for the door and windows, dusty with age. There was a flicker of net curtains from a ground floor window, a nose pressed up against the glass before disappearing again.
"Claire!" Gabrielle shrilled, the front door flying open, left wide as she ran towards us, still beaming. The fourteen year old halted right before me, grinning. "How was it? Danny made me stay home. What did the hunters look like? How's the baby? Is it a boy? Please say it's a boy. Jessi bet me my last fiver that it'd be a girl." She paused for breathe, about to continue, failing to do so when Dougie placed a finger to his lips. "Oh. Um. I'll go get you a drink. We have blood or water. Tea and Pepsi ran out two days ago."
"Just water." I squeaked. She nodded, the smile never leaving as she turned and ran back inside the house.
"They brought her back!" came the yell of her voice as she turned out of sight.
"Where are we?" I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding, the question now aimed at anyone in particular. An answer would have suited me just fine from anyone.
"This is where Danny and Gabrielle lived with their parents." Harry explained, leading the way through the door. "We moved…"
"Everyone?" I questioned. "Why?"
"It's complicated." He replied dismissively. I followed him in to the room I guessed was the kitchen.
"Complicated?!" I exclaimed. "Harry, I've just spent a month hooked to a machine, pumped full of pills to keep me asleep because some sicko's want my baby Tell me, what's more complicated?" The sudden outburst cleared my head a little. Now I'd said it out loud, I felt a little more… Well… I wasn't as confused as before.
"Patricia gave information to Timothy Kennelly. He's more or less the head of hunters nationwide. Seems she was still bitter about her husband and Dougie's mum." Harry spoke slowly. This all sounded familiar. "And when they attacked Dougie…"
"They killed Patricia too?" I wasn't sure of what I was saying. I continued never the less. "And they nearly killed Jessi. But Danny saved her. Because she had a… dormant gene. The vampyric gene."
"How did you-" Harry frowned.
"That machine showed her a twisted version of what happened, I think." Dougie interrupted.
"Hunters didn't kill her." Jessi spoke up quietly from where she was standing in an open doorway across the room. "I did."
"What did I say about throwing her in at the deep end?" Harry ground his teeth together, frustrated at Jessi's interruption.
"She was already wounded." Dougie said. "Patty was taking my blood, and the next thing I know, she's screaming, there's a knife in her back, and Jessi's holding it."
"What did I say?" Harry roared furiously.
"Shut it." Jessi snapped. "Did it ever occur to you that telling her that the past month is nothing more than a daydream, that she's pregnant and that we're living in a different part of the country, did you ever think that, that might me throwing her in at the deep end?"
Harry sighed, defeated. Jessi had a point. Things couldn't get much more deeper than they already were. And it was going to take a hell of a lot to get me back on track. I was silent. I didn't want to say anything, nor to ask anymore questions. For now, anyway. I was home. Another new house. But I wasn't a stranger to new places. I could adapt. I could deal, for now.
"Dougie will show you to your bedroom." Harry turned to leave the kitchen. "I'd tell you no funny stuff, but if you'd have listened to me in the first place, we wouldn't have been in this mess anyway."
"That was uncalled for, Harry!" Dougie called after him, his palm resting at the lower of my back as I walked through another hallway to where there were a set of carpeted stone stairs. "Dick'ed." Dougie mumbled, closing the bedroom door behind us, resting up against it momentarily.
I wandered away from his grasp, towards the tall open window, net curtains moving gently in time with the breeze from outside. I leant on the ledge, arms supporting my weight as I looked out across the landscape.
"I picked it." Dougie said. I'd noticed his tone had become quieter and softer, he was nervous. "The room. I wanted you to see the view. I thought you'd like it."
"You didn't give up, did you?" I turned back to face him. He shook his head shyly, staring down at his battered Etnies. "Why?" He looked up sharply, a blank look across his face.
"I didn't want to give up!" He spluttered, immediately regaining his composure again, walking over to and sitting on the large double bed, before beckoning me to join him. "I didn't want to think that I'd never see you again." He mumbled, fingertips grazing over my bruised knuckles, eyes drinking every detail my skin bore. "And I've been waiting for fcking ages to have you here with me."
"You're a bit of a romantic really, aren't you Doug?" I smiled, consciously tucking a stray strand of hair behind my ear.
"I think one of your abilities must be turning me in to a gibbering wreck when I'm not around you, and a romantic fool when I am." He whispered, lips meeting mine after every other word. "You have no idea how I felt knowing I had no way of protecting you. The both of you."