human would have been. But I was weak - an apple a day might keep the doctor away, but it's not, by itself, the best diet for optimum performance. After a time that was too short for my ego to be happy, he had me pinned.
He left me aware this time when he bit my neck. It hurt the whole time, either a further punishment or Stefan's bites were giving him trouble - I didn't know enough to tell. When he tried to feed me in return,
I fought as hard as I could and finally he grabbed my jaw and forced his gaze on me.
I woke up on the far side of the cage, and Blackwood was gone. Chad was making noise, trying to get my attention. I rose to hands and knees. When it was quite clear that I wasn't going to get up farther than that, I sat up instead of standing. Chad stopped making those sad, desperate sounds. I made the sign he'd taught me for the "f-word" and finger-spelled, very slowly with clumsy fingers. "That's it. No more Ms. Nice Girl. Next time I scalp him."
It made him smile a very little. Corban was sitting in the middle of their cage looking at a mark in the cement.
"Well, oakman," I said, tiredly. "Is it daylight or darkness?"
Before he answered me, Stefan was there in my cage. I blinked stupidly at him. I'd given up on him, but I hadn't realized it until he was there. I reached out and touched his arm lightly to make sure he was real.
He patted my hand and gave a quick look up as if he could see through the ceiling to the floor above.
"He knows I'm here. Mercy - "
"You have to take Chad," I told him urgently
"Chad?" Stefan followed my gaze and stiffened. He started to shake his head.
"Blackwood killed his mother - but left her a zombie to do his chores until I killed her for real." I told him. "Chad has to be taken to safety."
He stared at the boy, who was staring back. "If I take him, I can't come back for a couple of nights. I'll be unconscious, and no one knows where you are but me - and Marsilia." He bit her name out as if he still weren't happy with her. "And she wouldn't lift a finger to help you."
"I can survive a couple of nights," I told him with conviction.
Stefan clenched his hands. "If I do it," he told me fiercely, "if I do this and you survive - you will forgive me for the others."
"Yes," I said. "Get Chad out of here."
He was gone, then reappeared standing next to Chad. He started to use ASL to say something - but we both heard Blackwood race down the stairs.
"To Adam or Samuel," I said urgently.
"Yes," Stefan told me. "Stay alive."
He waited until I nodded, then he disappeared with Chad.
BLACKWOOD WAS MUCH MORE UNHAPPY ABOUT STEFAN'S presence in his house than he was with Chad's escape. He ranted and raved, and if he hit me again, I was worried I might not be able to keep my promise to Stefan.
Apparently he came to the same conclusion. He stood looking down at me. "There are ways to keep other vampires out of my home. But they are taxing, and I expect that your friend Corban won't survive my thirst." He bent forward. "Ah, now you are frightened. Good." He inhaled like a wine taster with a particularly fine vintage.
He left.
I curled up on the floor and hugged my misery to me - along with the fairy staff. The oakman stirred.
"Mercy, what is it that you have?"
I raised one hand and waved it feebly in the air so he could see it. It didn't hurt as much as I thought it should.
There was a little pause, and the Oakman said, reverently, "How did that come to be here?"
"It's not my fault," I told him. It took me a moment to sit up... and I realized that Blackwood had been much more in control of himself than he appeared because nothing was broken. There wasn't much of me that wasn't bruised - but not broken was good.
"What do you mean?" the oakman asked.
"I tried to give it back," I explained, "but it keeps showing up. I told it that this wasn't a good place for it, but it leaves for a while, then comes back."
"By your leave," he said formally, "may I see it?"
"Sure," I said,