Chained - Zara Novak Page 0,24

and strong, but he definitely had weaknesses, and some of them were the cliché tropes often associated with vampires.

When I was younger, I had loved to read books like that. They were one of my secret sins, the quietest form of rebellion a girl could muster in a household of stifling rules and religious suppression. The library was often my only chance to escape and get away. My internet usage was monitored, I wasn’t allowed to talk to boys on the phone, and the only time I ever went to a friend’s house was to study the bible.

My parents even monitored my library card of course, but a stroke of luck had given me a little anonymity when I’d joined the town library. My father had taken me on my eleventh birthday, after I had spent months hounding them for a library card. He was going to do the application with me, but when a call came in from church, I had to do it on my own.

Printing a library card is easy enough, but the old woman working behind the counter that day seemed to have a tough time working the new computer system. She ended up printing two library cards for me. One for a Rachel Chase, another for Rachel Chaise. The old lady gave me both cards and we laughed it off. I thought it was funny at the time. I made a corny joke about a chaise lounge and I was off on my way.

It didn’t occur to me until much later to try the card, and to my surprise it worked. I now had two memberships. I kept the second card completely secret, and every time my parents logged on to see what books Rachel Chase had been taking out, they found a satisfying list of books relating to religious study.

Rachel Chaise? She read everything she could get her hands on, and she had a period were overtly erotic vampire fiction was her thing. There was one particular author whose books were the exact same size as a religious reference bible. I used to just slip the cover off one and put it on the other.

Somehow my parents, as much as they snooped, never found out. I could have sworn once though that my mother had been lifting the books from my room and reading them in secret.

Maybe she had her own vices too.

Reading those books had been an escape, and they had taught me a whole lot of useless information about things that vampires were vulnerable to. That information had seemed useless at the time anyway, now I was in this living nightmare, and I might actually be able to use some of this information to arm myself.

Vincent had already illustrated some of his vulnerabilities. He couldn’t cross the threshold of a doorway of a private space. He couldn’t stand near crosses or silver for long. Holy water had almost blinded him and burned his face off. A torch on the wall wouldn’t do anything, but I had weapons at my disposal that could actually hurt him.

What about daylight, or a stake to the heart?

Maybe I could get out of here after all.

I went up to the blocked window closest to me and inspected the wood again. The wood was solid and fixed well, there was no doubting that, but the small crack of light gave me a small hope that this fixture wasn’t invulnerable.

Before long my optimistic streak and my resilience had worn thin. I went back to the corner where I had fallen asleep and crouched down on the floor with the tablet on the ground next to me. I hugged my arms around my legs and tried to mess with the tablet some more.

No success.

I dropped my head into my knees and urged anything to happen. I had no idea how much time passed. Minutes felt like hours and hours felt like an eternity. At some point I looked up again and noticed the light around the edges of the window was gone. It must have been night again.

Did he really just expect me to sit in here and rot away, like a mindless animal?

The thought alone made me angry. Even prisoners got a fucking TV. Where did this bastard get off? Did he know nothing of compassion?

For the first time since arriving here I got on my knees and prayed. I hadn’t done this so far because I’d fallen out of sorts with my faith after finally getting away from