Dani stared back with silent horror at the very possibility, and shook her head.
"Yes," he assured her as he moved back to catch her by the arms and lift her up into her chair. He paused then, bent over and face-to-face with her as he added with delight, "It will take less than an hour for the need to get so bad they start looking like a couple of big juicy steaks on legs." He straightened and then continued, "Not long after that you won't be able to control yourself. The pain and hunger will be so strong you'll start gnawing on them."
Leonius grinned at her expression and gave a little shiver. "I can hardly wait and only wish I'd thought to get a camera to film it for you to watch afterward." He sighed. "All this talk of food has given me the munchies. Those two gals from the restaurant weren't very filling yesterday, and I'm afraid in all the excitement today I neglected to feed myself."
His considering gaze turned back to the farmer's wife. As the woman shrank back into her chair, Dani said quickly, "You said she was mine."
Leo turned back, eyebrows rising again, but this time a wry smile joined them. "You're only saying that to try to save her, but you'll understand the irony of that in an hour or so. I, at least, have a knife. You will be tearing into her with your teeth."
When Dani shook her head again, he smiled and shrugged. "However, I did say she was a gift to you. Besides, I'd just have to run out and grab you another. You'll need at least two to get through the turning. So..." Swinging away, he headed for the arch and the stairs beyond. "I guess I'll just have to run out and pick up some fast food. I do want to be back in time to watch the fun when it starts, and, unfortunately, Lucian did choose a spot to hell and back for this new headquarters of his. I might take a bit of time, but I promise I'll get back as quickly as I can. Do try to wait for me so I can watch, won't you?"
Leonius paused at the stairs and turned back. When she merely stared, face expressionless, he let his eyes slide over her and added, "Perhaps I'll find myself a nice plump little blond like yourself." He smiled. "Watching you and Decker earlier today has put me in the mood for some fun and games, and I haven't bothered with that in a very long time. But I promise I'll save that until I get back so that you can join in too if you like." Turning away, he continued upstairs, calling, "Back soon."
The door closed behind him, but Dani waited, listening to the footsteps cross the floor above. The moment she heard the yawn of the screen door opening, then the clack of it slamming shut, she got swiftly to her feet and moved to the farmer on legs that were a bit shaky. Kneeling beside the unconscious man, she examined him quickly, assuring herself that nothing seemed to be broken. Other than a head wound, he appeared uninjured, though he would no doubt be bruised and battered by the abuse he'd taken.
She set his head gently back on the floor and started to glance toward the wife, but paused and raised her hand to her forehead as a wave of dizziness swept over her. The smell of blood immediately overwhelmed Dani and she stiffened and pulled her hand back. The shallow cut on her wrist was no longer bleeding; Leonius had sucked every bit of blood out of it that he could. However, a stain of fresh red liquid covered her palm from her examination of the farmer. The blood glistened on her skin in the fluorescent light in the room, its smell oddly sweet and rather pleasant.
Horrified as that thought wafted through her mind, Dani pushed herself to her feet. The room spun, but, desperate to get away from the bleeding man, she stumbled across the workshop and up the stairs to try the door. It was locked, of course.
Panic immediately overwhelmed her, but Dani leaned her head against the wooden panel, forcing herself to take deep breaths in an effort to calm down. She was panicking about nothing. The dizziness was the result of stress and the wound on her wrist. She couldn't be turning this quickly, Dani assured herself, and then Leonius's words whispered through her head. It will take less than an hour for the need to get so bad they start looking like a couple of big juicy steaks on legs... Not long after that you won V be able to control yourself The pain and hunger will be so strong you 'II start gnawing on them.
She closed her eyes on a moan. She had to escape and get the couple as far away from her as she could, Dani thought, and turned away from the door to start back down the steps, alarmed at how shaky her legs had grown in so short a time. Doing her best to ignore it, Dani glanced around the laundry room, but since there didn't appear to be anything she could use to pick the lock, she moved into the workshop.
The husband was still unconscious and the wife was looking at him with worry, but one glance at the woman's bloody lip made Dani avoid her and instead head toward the pegboard with its lined-up tools. She grabbed a hammer, then a pry bar, and started to turn back, her eyes running over the archway into the boiler room as she did.
A glimpse of what appeared to be the corner of a door made her pause. Dani peered at it for a moment, then set the tools on the corner of the workbench and moved to the archway. Sure enough, there was a door there, half hidden on the other side of the boiler. She moved closer before opening it, and found herself staring into darkness.
There was a light switch on the wall and she flicked it up, blinking as a bare light bulb winked on overhead. It was a strange room. Two feet deep and running the length of the basement. It smelled damp and felt chilly. A pump and water softener were at one end, and empty shelves took up the other, suggesting that it had at one time been used as a cold storage room, but the wall across from her was covered with sheet after sheet of hard Styrofoam insulation boards. There was no exit.
Disappointed, Dani stepped back and closed the door, then turned away, only to sway and grab for the boiler as the room spun around her. She closed her eyes, assuring herself yet again that this had to be because of the blood Leonius had taken. Surely the turning couldn't start affecting her this quickly?
Then why are you avoiding the couple? Why haven't you dared get close enough to untie the wife? some part of her mind asked tauntingly, and Dani moaned unhappily as she acknowledged that they were in real trouble. Leo had forced her to drink his blood and presumably she was turning, becoming like him.
A no-fanger, she thought unhappily. Even though Dani still really didn't know what that was, the possibility that her being one might make Decker despise and apparently want to kill her was gut-wrenching. While she hadn't been sure if she'd wanted to make a life with him before this, having that possibility taken away was enough to sweep aside the uncertainty. It certainly would have been preferable to what she was now faced with.
Leonius had ruined her, she accepted sadly. He had utterly destroyed her and might as well have killed her, because it was the only acceptable end she could now see for herself. Dani was not going to allow herself to become like him, killing innocent people to revel in their blood. She had become a doctor to save lives, not to destroy them.
Becoming aware of an unpleasant acidy feeling in her stomach, Dani closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and forced herself to think calmly. She needed to find a way to get this couple out of here so that they were out of both her and Leo's reach by the time he got back...
and then she had to figure out how to kill the no-fanger and herself. She'd rather be dead than a monster.
Her mind made up, Dani opened her eyes again and moved carefully back to the archway. She was about to head back to collect the tools she'd set on the workbench, hoping to use them to force the upstairs door open, but paused at a moan from the farmer. Her gaze slid to find him rolling onto his side. Dani started to go to him, but had taken only one step when the acidy feeling in her stomach increased to a brief stabbing pain. Sucking in a shocked breath, she stumbled, bumping into the arch. She grasped it, and then slid down its length when pain stabbed through her again. By the time the second one passed, she was on her hands and knees, panting heavily.
Finally she lifted her dazed eyes to find the farmer now grunting and making other sounds trying to get her attention. The man was also squirming on the floor, appearing to be trying to move closer to her, his head bobbing. It took her a moment to realize the head bobbing was a silent gesture meant to get her to come to him. Her eyes slid to the blood still dripping from his head, and Dani shuddered as she recalled Leo's claim that in less than an hour the couple would look like big juicy steaks to her.
They didn't have much time. She had to get them out of there, Dani thought faintly. She had to .get them untied so they could help her find a way out. Even if they couldn't come up with anything, it would be better if the couple were untied and could at least fight her off if she did lose control of herself.
Determination coursing through her, Dani started to shift to stand, but groaned and fell back to her knees as the action brought the stabbing pain again. Whimpering, she took a moment to wait for it to ease and then crawled across the floor to the husband. Tears were bleeding from her eyes by the time she reached him, but she ignored that and untied his hands. The moment she'd accomplished the task, he brushed away her clumsy hands and took over the job of freeing himself.
Dani fell back with relief, finding the sight and smell of his blood disturbing. She rolled away from him, curling into a ball on the floor and hugging herself around the waist. She heard him grunt and a rustle she suspected was his getting to his feet, but didn't look. Instead she pressed her hands into her stomach, wishing she could dig out Leo's blood and stop all the pain.
The farmer moved past her, coming into her line of vision again as he moved quickly to his wife. Dani watched him untie the rope that bound the woman to the chair, but when he set the rope aside on the floor, she said, "Tie me up."
The farmer and his wife both turned to glance at her with surprise.
"Tie me up," she repeated. "You'll be safer."
They exchanged a glance, and then he returned to untying his wife, concentrating on the rope around her wrists now.