Everything hurt.
Her knees were long past the point of pain; she couldn't even be sure if they existed anymore because she couldn't move her head to check. Her arms were on fire from where she couldn't lower them, and the silver ate into her wrists and throat like acid through bone.
Bishop hadn't been lying when he told her not to move, Claire had quickly found that out. He'd rigged up some kind of contraption behind her that meant if she lowered her head or her arms past a certain point, a fine silver powder was released from above her.
She had no idea how long she had been kneeling in that room, there was no clock, and no entryway for any form of daylight. It felt like days, that was all she knew.
When she thought she heard a door opening, she didn't look around, she'd learnt her lesson enough times. It was probably nothing anyway, she thought, no one was coming for her, why would they?
If she closed her eyes and ignored the pain in her limbs, she almost thought she could hear Michael's voice, calling her name. In a way, it was comforting, Michael was like that, she mused, comforting. He had a sort of presence around him, a way of acting, that calmed her; comforted her; made her feel like everything was going to be alright. Maybe that was why she thought she could hear his voice instead of Shane or Eve. She needed calming.
It didn't matter either way, Claire supposed, even if they came for her, there was no point, she was a vampire now, she didn't deserve to be saved.
But what about Michael? A soft, nagging voice in her head asked. Sam? Myrnin? They're all vampires and you love them, you think they deserve saving, so why not you too?
Claire?
Funny, she thought, that almost sounded like Richard. Bizarre for her to imagine his voice, but he was comforting too, in his own way, she thought. He was the police, or he had been, she couldn't remember anymore, she was so tired. Maybe she could rest, just for a little while?
Claire nearly let her head droop forward before she regained her senses and snapped it back up, the fine powder in the room hadn't long settled from the last time she'd accidentally moved; she really didn't want to set it off again.
She could have sworn that she heard the sliding door to her left open, but she couldn't look around to confirm it, and, honestly, with her new hearing, she had no idea what anything was that she was hearing.
Eve and Shane's mingled calls of her name made their way into her confused brain, and she would have dismissed them if not for the pair of leather booted feet that made their way into her dazed view.
Myrnin. The name drifted to her slowly, as if carried by a faint breeze.
Quickly, other people filled her field of vision and her clotted brain struggled to put names to the faces looking back at her.
Most of them hung back, allowing Richard and Oliver to come forward and assess Claire's position.
"She doesn't look good." She heard Eve mutter. "What do you think he did to her?"
Claire managed to note Amelie raising a slender eyebrow in the direction of her housemates before meeting Claire's eyes. It was funny, Amelie almost looked…sorry.
She knew, Claire thought, she could tell, but, for whatever reason, her friends couldn't.
"Silver." Oliver muttered with a heavy sigh, he must know as well, no way he could have been that close to her and not noticed. "Mr. Morrell, if you would." He gestured Richard forward to the chains and darted over to share a few hasty words with Amelie.
Richard advanced on Claire, carrying a pair of bolt cutters.
Quickly, Claire felt the length of chain holding her head up fall slack, the same happening with her arms a few moments later.
Richard crouched in front of her and cast a sympathetic smile her way. "This is going to be awkward," he murmured, "but I need to get it off of you."
He knew too, Claire thought as he moved behind her and gingerly placed the bolt cutters around the chain on her neck. As he cut through it, she let her head fall forward and her straight spine slackened in relief. Interestingly, the only sound she could hear was a soft rhythmic thumping, despite what should have been the loud clanging of Richard cutting through chains, but the thumping seemed to get louder and louder the more that she tried to ignore it.
Richard didn't bother cutting the chains on her wrists, he moved straight onto cutting the cuffs off as quickly as he could, Oliver coming to his side to assist him.
One arm fell to the floor, and then the other, and then Claire wasn't Claire anymore.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she registered that the thumping she could hear was Richard's heart. Somewhere else she vaguely registered that Richard Morrell was her friend, but the only thing she could think was that she was just so damn hungry.
In a blur, she whirled, lunging for Richard's throat, she landed a hand on his shirt and heard the bolt cutters clatter to the floor in shock, but, no matter how fast Claire was, Oliver was faster.
He tackled her, sending both of them hurtling to the other side of the room. In a blur too quick for any of the humans in the room to see, the vampires struggled with each other, Claire desperately trying to tear away and take a chunk out of the neck of any human in the room, and Oliver determined to keep her from doing just that.
After a few long seconds, Oliver pinned Claire to the floor and forced his freshly bitten wrist into her mouth. Claire stopped struggling against him, instead she began gulping down the blood flowing into her mouth with vigour.
When he saw Claire's eyes fade from a burning red to her normal brown, he relaxed slightly, but he didn't think about releasing her until he saw understanding fill those same eyes.
"Oliver?" She whimpered, appalled at her own behaviour and feeling her eyes well with tears.
He looked at her a moment longer before letting her go and moving to his feet in one fluid movement, offering her his hand to help her up. She took it hesitantly, noticing the burns on her wrist fading before her eyes.
Oh, right, she was a vampire now.
Looking at the direction of the other occupants of the room, she noticed that, although they were all stood in one group, Myrnin, Amelie, Sam and Michael stood in front of Eve, Shane, Richard and Hannah. Protecting them. From her.
"Richard, I'm so sorry." Claire gasped, how could she have done that? "I didn't mean-I-"
"I know." Richard smiled at her. "It's okay, Claire."
Ironically, he was about the only one who looked like it was remotely okay. Amelie looked calm, but Claire wasn't sure that Amelie even knew what emotions were. Everyone else wore varying degrees of shock, horror and grief on their faces.
Myrnin's eyes seemed to scan her small frame, searching for something, but she wasn't sure what. He quickly removed the stunned look on his face and smiled at her softly, reassuringly.
Even more ironically, Oliver was the one to place his hand between Claire's shoulder blades and guide her from the room, telling her that she would be okay.
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Thank you to those who reviewed last chapter, its nice to hear that people are actually reading and enjoying this :) Please let me know what you thought! What do you think is going to happen next?!