"But I have to feed you," he complained, but lowered the animal to the ground and wound his leash around the stair railing as he muttered, "How else are you going to learn to trust me?"
Rachel watched with interest as he muttered to himself. It seemed obvious to her that the man spent way too much time on his own. He was obviously quite used to doing so, as he mumbled, "It's just the neighbor's yappy dog. He's always taking a crap on my lawn, the little barker. I don't know why you can't just eat the damn thing and get it out of my hair. I--"
"I am not eating anyone's fluffy little house pet," Rachel interrupted his mind's meandering abruptly.
He glanced at her with interest. "How about a rat? I have them delivered every week for my snake, but--"
He paused when Rachel shuddered and shook her head. She was beyond commenting on this one. Eating rat? Dear God.
"Man, you're a fussy eater," he said with exasperation. "If I'd known you were going to be this much trouble--" His irritated words died as a chime sounded through the house.
Rachel glanced around, unsure what the sound was until Pudge moved to turn on a television that sat in the corner. An image of the front door of a house, presumably this one, immediately popped into view. Pudge was into hi-tech gizmos just like Etienne, Rachel realized as she peered at the potbellied behemoth in the beer T-shirt now leaning against the doorbell with one hand and pounding at the door with the other.
"My brother." Pudge sounded glum at first, then suddenly he brightened and turned to her. "You could feed on him. I don't really like him. And you wouldn't even have to turn him. He's a big bully pain in the butt anyway."
"I am not biting your brother," Rachel gasped, shocked at the very idea. Jeez, what did he think she was? His very own assassin sent to get rid of any creature who annoyed him? She had never bitten a real live person before and didn't intend to start now. Well, except for Etienne, of course, but that had been rather... er... intimate in nature. Different. She had no intention of starting to bite complete strangers.
"Well, you have to eat something." He was looking irritated again.
Rachel decided she had to put an end to this. "I'm not hungry. I'm not biting anyone. Or anything."
"Well, hell!" Apparently deciding not to deal with his brother if she wouldn't bite him, Pudge turned away from the TV screen and paced the room as his brother continued to ring and pound. Just when Rachel thought the racket was going to drive her bonkers, Pudge's bully brother gave up with one last kick at the door and moved out of camera shot.
Some of Pudge's tension left him when his brother gave up and went away. He stopped pacing and paused before what appeared to be a large metal coffin to sit on its lid, then stared at her with displeasure. Rachel was getting the feeling that she was a major disappointment as a vamp chick. Too bad she couldn't work up any regret over that, she thought, and finally took a look around the basement. She had only got a glance around on the way downstairs, and then she hadn't taken the time while she had been trying to free herself. Now she saw that it was a haven of cheesy vampire paraphernalia. Half of it appeared to be filled with weapons to kill vampires, the other half of things vampires might need: the coffin, a cape hanging from a hook, fake teeth on a counter, every book on vampires ever published. Rachel had an image in mind of him wearing the cape and fake fangs and pretending to be a vampire. She shook her head. The man really was cuckoo.
"So when will you get hungry? And what exactly will you eat, since you're so fussy?"
Rachel glanced back to her captor and decided to be honest in the hope that he would stop offering her his relatives and pets to feed on. "I'm a little hungry now, but I've never bitten anyone. I don't think I can."
He looked surprised at this admission. "Well then, how have you been feeding? You must have been feeding since Etienne turned you. That was more than two weeks ago. You--"
"Bagged blood," she interrupted.
"Bagged blood?" He looked shocked at the thought. "You mean cold bagged blood, like in the hospital?" When Rachel nodded, his face screwed up with disgust. "Ewwwww."
She rolled her eyes at his reaction. Apparently, he saw biting people as a better alternative to drinking blood like wine. Oh, he'd be a great vampire. One of those rogues Etienne had mentioned. She definitely wasn't ever biting him. Setting him loose on mankind would be a bad thing to do.
"Well, we're gonna change all that. You--" He paused in saying what she suspected was going to be something she didn't want to hear and glanced toward the television screen when the door chimes rang again. Rachel followed his irritated gaze to see a short, round little gray-haired lady there, shouting at the door as she pushed the doorbell and rapped her knuckles on the wood.
This time Pudge grabbed a remote and turned the volume up to hear what the woman was yelling. Her staccato words burst into the room full of indignant fury. "Open the door this instant, Norman Renberger. I know you're in there, and you have my Muffin! I saw you snatch him out of the backyard. You open the door this instant or I'm going right home to call the police."
"Shit," Pudge muttered and stood to stomp upstairs.
Rachel turned her attention back to the television, a little worried as she waited for Pudge to answer the door. He hadn't taken the dog with him and suspected this wasn't a good thing.
She saw the door open and Pudge smile an oily smile at the furious woman.
"Hello, Mrs. Craveshaw."
"Don't you hello me, Norman! Where is my Muffin?"
Rachel winced as Muffin heard his mistress's voice and began to bark. Pudge had left the stairway door open, and apparently the sound carried, for in the next moment Mrs. Craveshaw cried, "Muffin!" and shoved her way past Pudge into the house. She was immediately out of sight of the camera.
"Where is she? Where's my baby? Muffin? Muffin!" Now the voice wasn't coming from the television but from upstairs as the woman followed the sound of the barking. "Muffin!"
The voice had reached the top of the stairs and the woman filled the doorway. Her eyes lit up when she spotted Muffin leashed to the rail, barking like mad.
"Run! Call the police!" Rachel cried, but it was too late. The woman had eyes and ears only for her Muffin. She barreled down the stairs at breakneck speed, cursing at Pudge, who was following her. She had reached the bottom step and was trying to untangle the leash from the post when Pudge hit her over the head with the crossbow. The action launched the stake it was armed with. Rachel jerked and flinched to the side as it shot at her. Unfortunately, she had nowhere to go to escape the stake. Her manacles held her in place. She cried out in pain as the stake slammed into her heart.