who shared her lot. Even now, she could hear similar noises coming from the room next door, only louder and as it appeared, more violent. She felt a kindred spirit to the other women, knew what they were going through, and her heart wept for them, because it was unable to weep for herself. No, she couldn’t allow self-pity, or she would lose her resolve and her strength.
The leech’s hands started to become less focused, veering off their aim, the way a drunk’s movements eventually became uncoordinated. Soon, he’d let go of her. Soon, her ordeal would be over.
A crackling from the walkie-talkie suddenly broke through Ursula’s consciousness. Then a voice came through.
“Red room, I need help. Now! The client is going apeshit on the girl! Reinforcements now!”
Dirk jumped from his couch, cursing. “Shit! On my way.”
He ran toward the door and unlocked it, when a scream came from the other end of the hallway where the red room was located.
“Fuck!”
Then the door was slammed shut and Dirk was gone.
Ursula waited a couple of seconds, listening intently, but there was no other sound at the door; he hadn’t locked the room on his way out.
Was this her chance?
3
Ursula tried to shift ever so carefully underneath the large vampire, testing at the same time, how responsive his movements were. She took one of his arms and lifted it, noticing how willingly he let himself be guided by her.
“Oh, yeah,” she moaned, “more, take more.”
He needed to drink more of her blood so she could overwhelm him. She’d seen the effects of her blood on several other leeches. When the guard hadn’t intervened in time, or more often when the leech was new and unaccustomed to her blood, he’d passed out like a drunk. She hoped to make this particular leech succumb in the same way.
But it had to happen fast. Dirk wouldn’t stay away forever, and whatever was going on in the red room would eventually be resolved. Then he’d return, and her chance of escape would vanish in a flash.
In an effort to urge the vampire on to take more of her blood, she pressed her pelvis against him and clamped her hand over his ass, squeezing hard. She knew enough about vampires by now to know that their sexual drive was intimately connected to their drive to feed. The more she turned him on, the harder he would suck on her vein, the more blood he’d take. And the more she could drug him.
Why her blood and that of the other girls did that to them, she didn’t know. And at this moment, she didn’t care. All she cared about right now was how fast she could drug him.
“That’s good, more!” she encouraged him and heard him groan in response.
His hand came up as if he wanted to stroke her face, but it fell limply onto the sofa cushion instead.
Another scream from down the hall sent a shock through her body. Then she heard footsteps in the corridor. No!
Please let it not be Dirk!
She held her breath, but to her relief the footsteps went past the room and grew fainter again. It was now or never. Once another guard was helping in the red room, Dirk wouldn’t be needed any longer and would return.
Suddenly, she felt the vampire go slack. As carefully as she could, she took hold of his head and eased it away from her, careful not to be injured by his fangs. But she wouldn’t have had to worry: his fangs had already retracted. However, he’d passed out before he could lick her wound, which continued to bleed. Had he licked it, his saliva would have sealed it, stopping the bleeding.
Using all her remaining strength—and it wasn’t much since she could already feel the effects of the blood loss—she rolled him to the side so she could slide out from underneath him. Breathing hard, she sat up, but she had no time to catch her breath. Dirk would be here any second.
Getting up, her knees nearly buckled, but with sheer willpower, she soldiered on, one hand pressed against the bleeding incisions of the vampire’s fangs, the other stretched out in front of her to lend her more balance. Knowing that there was no escape through the two windows, because she would break her neck jumping from the fourth floor, she stumbled to the door and yanked it open.
The hallway was empty. Closing the door behind her, she ran back the way she’d walked earlier. There was