"We'll help you," he added when she began to shake her head, and then he snapped with impatience, "At least try, dammit! You might as well walk back into the next room and use one of my tools to slit your wrists if you won't try."
She ground her teeth together at those blunt words. He was right, and she could do this, or at least she could give it a damned good try. Dani had never been a quitter, firmly believing that the only failure was not trying. That belief had seen her through medical school and the grueling hours she'd worked as an intern afterward. She'd made it through all that; she could make it through this stupid window too, Dani told herself firmly. And if she didn't, it wouldn't be for lack of trying.
Relaxing a little, John helped her forward to stand in front of the window. They paused then, and John reached out and undid the rusty old hook-and-eye fastening. He swung the old-fashioned window out and up to slip the hook through a second eye in the low ceiling, holding the window out of their way.
The lower ledge of the window was about level with Dani's chin. It was about two feet wide and two feet high and was three quarters underground. She found herself looking out at a metal window well with grass poking up over the top and the star-filled night sky visible above it from where they stood.
"We'll need a chair or something to get out," Hazel said, and turned to rush out of the room.
Dani eyed the window and said unhappily, "I'm going to slow you down."
"We have a little time," John said with a shrug. "We're a good ways out in the country. It's half an hour to the nearest fast-food restaurant."
Dani didn't bother explaining that wasn't what Leo had meant by fast food.
"Here."
John turned and then stepped back, taking Dani with him as Hazel rushed in carrying one of the chairs from the workshop. She set it down in front of the window and then turned to eye them both uncertainly.
"You climb out, Hazel," John said. "And then I'll help the girl up and you can pull on her from outside."
Hazel nodded and scrambled onto the chair. She was spry for her age and size, Dani noted, watching as the matronly woman managed to wiggle herself through the window and huffed and puffed her way out into the well.
When Hazel paused on her knees and turned to peer back at them, John said, "Get out on the lawn. If you lie on the grass and reach down you can pull from above while I help the girl from this end."
"My name's Dani," she murmured as they watched Hazel heft herself out of the window well.
"Nice to meet you," John responded absently as he watched his wife with concern, and then he urged Dani to the chair. With his help, she managed to climb to stand on it and brace herself against the ledge. Hazel's hands immediately appeared from the top of the well, and Dani reached to clasp them, holding on as John grasped her lower hips and put his shoulder to her behind, and she began to move up. There was a lot of grunting and panting, and Dani was sure at least two layers of skin were scraped from her stomach when her T-shirt rose up, but after what seemed like forever she found herself crumpled in the bottom of the well.
"You're gonna have to try to stand to help Hazel get you out, girl," John said breathlessly, and Dani turned to see him standing on the chair inside the window. They were all out of breath from the effort expended, but his face was alarmingly red. Her eyes slid to his forehead where blood was drying around the wound there, and she felt her stomach dance, and then Dani groaned as pain knifed through her again, a terrible agony. If she could just get a little blood, just a little, she knew it would ease. Just a taste. Maybe she could just lick his forehead as Leo had done his wife's face, just a lick.
"Dani?"
She shook her head and raised her face to peer at Hazel. It was dark out, but the light seeping around John's form from inside was enough for her to see the sudden alarm on the woman's face.
"You've gone terribly pale, child," she said, sounding shaky. "Are you all right? Can you try to stand?"
Shame rolled through Dani as she realized what she'd been thinking, and she briefly closed her eyes. She needed to get out of there and get as far away from these people as she could. From any people. She needed to get to help, but not just any help. Someone who knew what was happening and could stop her. She needed-"Decker,"
"What was that, dear?" Hazel asked.
"We have to move," John said, prodding her leg. "You have to stand."
Dani drew her knees up in front of her, placing her feet flat on the ground. She reached for the top of the window well and felt Hazel's hands close over hers. As Hazel began to pull, Dani stopped fighting the pain eating at her and instead used it to find the strength to push herself upward. She rose, at first vaguely aware that Hazel was pulling and John doing what he could to push her, but she was doing most of the work herself, forcing her muscles to move. The action made the pain in her stomach spread outward, shooting into her limbs like acid and hitting her brain like a hammer. The agony forced everything else from her thoughts as she crawled out of the well. The moment she felt the cold grass beneath her hands and knees, Dani flopped to the ground and rolled away from the window well, curling into a ball and clutching herself.
She was barely aware of the sounds from behind her as Hazel helped John climb out. He muttered, "I'll go see if the car will start. Try to get her up." And then Hazel was leaning over her, asking her if she was all right. Dani could hear the woman's heartbeat above her ear, could almost hear the rush of blood running through the woman's veins, and found herself rolling over.
Hazel slipped her arms around Dani, raising Dani's head and shoulders to rest in her lap. Hazel then lowered her face to peer at her.
"You're so pale." The words were anxious and carried the faintest hint of blood with them.
The still-functioning part of Dani's mind told her that it was from the bloody lip Leo had given Hazel, but she didn't care, the scent started her body screaming with want.
Moaning, she turned her head to the side, her eyes landing on the crook of the arm Hazel had slid beneath her head. The creping skin was thin with age, and in the soft light coming from the window well, Dani could see the spidery blue veins creeping up her arms. Veins that carried blood, her mind told her, warm sweet blood that would take her pain away. Just a little, enough to take the edge off...
Dani thrust herself away from the temptation, rolling up against the wall. Feeling the brick, cool and gritty against her face, she raised a hand and began to claw her way upright, digging the fingers of one hand into the small indents between bricks and pushing at the ground with the other.
"Let me help you." Hazel was at her side again, taunting her with her smell. Without thinking, Dani caught her by the front of her blouse and dragged her closer so that she could inhale the scent.