Chapter Fifteen
"Welcome back."
Rachel winced at those words as she blinked her eyes open. For a moment she wasn't sure where she was, but then Pudge's face came into focus before her and her memory returned. Following his gaze to her chest, she grimaced at the sight of her shirt hanging open to reveal her bloodstained lace bra.
"I took the stake out," Pudge explained, his gaze roving the smooth skin with fascination. "You healed like crazy. First the bleeding stopped, then the hole closed, then even the scar went away. It was mag, man!"
Rachel turned her head wearily away from his excited face. Mag. But now she desperately needed more blood. She couldn't sustain and recover from a wound like that without using a lot of it. Her body was in an agony of want, cramping and crying out for the fluid of life. She could actually smell the blood inside the man standing before her, and thought she might even be able to hear it pulsing through his veins. If he moved closer, Rachel wouldn't trust herself not to simply take a bite out of him despite her best intentions. With her body screaming for it, she was definitely feeling capable of the feat.
Rachel gave her head a shake and mentally berated herself for even thinking that way. She wasn't some soulless bloodsucking demon who couldn't control herself. Etienne had assured her she wasn't. She could fight it. She just had to convince the incompetent little stake-happy geek to go rob a blood bank and bring her nourishment. She wasn't biting him.
A moan from across the room made Pudge glance behind him, then he moved away. Rachel was so relieved that he had taken his blood-filled scent away that she closed her eyes and didn't pay attention to what he was doing until he returned. The scent returned with him, stronger than it had been before.
"Here you go. I thought about just killing her but decided to save her for you. You need blood. Bite her. Give her the vampire kiss."
Rachel moaned and turned her head desperately away as Pudge pushed a pale and still woozy Mrs. Craveshaw at Rachel until she was practically beneath her nose. The woman had apparently been unconscious the whole time, which could only be a good thing, Rachel supposed. At least the woman hadn't witnessed her "mag" healing. The problem now was that the older woman had a cut on the top of her head from where Pudge had hit her. The blood had poured out into her hair and made a trail down her neck to soak in the shoulder of her flowered blouse. The scent was intoxicating, tempting, damning. She felt her control slipping, then glanced down at the woman's face when she whimpered. Mrs. Craveshaw wasn't looking at her; she was eyeing Pudge in a frightened manner that made it clear she thought he was quite mad. Who could blame her? Rachel thought wearily. There was no such thing as vampires.
"Come on, bite her," Pudge whined, sounding impatient.
Rachel merely closed her eyes and shook her head, turning her face to the side in an effort to escape the tempting scent. She'd die before killing another being and very much feared that if she did bite the woman, she wouldn't be able to stop until she'd drained her dry. She wouldn't risk it.
"Not hungry enough yet, huh?" Pudge sounded disappointed. "Well, I'll just keep her here until you are. Oh!"
That exclamation drew her wary gaze back. Much to her relief, Pudge was urging the woman back across the room. She could still smell the blood, but it was fainter, less tempting. But the bright expression on his face as he glanced back made her wary.
"I bet you're tired, huh?" Pudge said as he tied the woman up. "I hadn't thought of that, but it's daytime and all that, and you're probably suffering that vampire weariness where you can hardly stay awake and you're really weak and stuff."
Rachel didn't bother to correct him. She didn't think it would be good for him to know any more than he already did about vampires.
"Come on." Moving back to her, he quickly undid the manacles around her neck, shoulders, and waist, then bent to undo the ones around her thighs and ankles too. Rachel stared down at his head as he worked, thinking mournfully that if she weren't so weak, this would be her opportunity to escape. But her body was seriously lacking in strength, her muscles rubbery with weakness. She wasn't even sure she could hold herself up much more than a moment, let alone knock the little jerk on his butt and make a run for it.
"You can sleep in my coffin," Pudge announced, straightening to quickly undo her wrists. He was obviously aware of her weakness, or she didn't think he'd have left his crossbow behind, but apparently he was putting it down to it being daytime rather than the blood loss due to the injury. But she hadn't bled out a lot, and he didn't know that the blood would have been used up to repair the damage.
"Originally, I intended to kidnap Etienne and keep him prisoner here," he said chattily as he helped her to the large coffin she had noted earlier. "I thought that way I could make him give me all his computer ideas and maybe, you know, bring around the people I don't like for him to bite. There are a lot of people I don't like. I could have kept him quite a while. But then I realized he was too strong to risk that."
He tugged up the lid of the metal coffin and pushed it all the way open to reveal a red satin lining. Rachel stared into the huge space with bewilderment. It looked like two or three people could easily fit inside.
"I had it made special," Pudge told her. "I wanted it big enough for me and my vamp babes when I got turned."
Rachel shook her head at this information. Her thinking was growing muzzy with the need for blood, but she realized that this guy was beyond help, over the edge.
"In you go," Pudge instructed.
Rachel was exhausted and really wanted to lay down, but there was no way she was getting willingly into that coffin. She'd rather sleep on the concrete floor. "No."
The word slipped so faintly from her lips that Pudge didn't hear her. "Come on, in you go."
"I'm not sleeping in that coffin," Rachel managed a little more strongly.
"Yes, you are," he insisted. "Get in the coffin. You'll sleep better."
She managed a shake of the head and glared at him, not surprised when frustration immediately crossed his face. Then his expression cleared.
"Get in the coffin or I'll kill Crabbyshaw."
Rachel's shoulders slumped in defeat at that threat and she admitted, "I don't think I can--"
It was as far as she got. Pudge scooped her up and dumped her unceremoniously inside. Rachel wasn't sure if it was irritation or simply that he was too weak to hold her for long, but she landed hard and was left gasping as added pain radiated through her. While she was thus incapacitated, Pudge snapped a new manacle around her ankle.