His obvious grogginess scared me. Was he sick? Drugged? Just what on earth had they done to him?
“Are you all right?” My voice pitched shrilly with worry, all thoughts about my own shitty situation vanishing. When he didn’t respond, I slapped him across the face and gently shook his shoulders with both hands to make sure he didn’t slip into unconsciousness. “You gotta stay with me, okay?”
Slowly, both his eyelids cracked open this time, revealing nearly black eyes with just a ring of blue, so much were his pupils blown.
“Shh, little one.” He slowly lifted a hand from his knee and wrapped it loosely around my right wrist. Gently, he pried my hand off his shoulder before he let go again, his hand falling bonelessly back down in his lap. “Have to sleep… a little longer. Until… sunset.”
Bewildered, I moved back a little so I wasn’t breathing right in his face, but I stayed in my low crouch so I could study his blank features for clues. His hand had been very cold against my skin, and even though we were in a basement, it worried me. He clearly wasn’t feeling well, and just what was everyone’s obsession with sunset around here?
His pale face and the fact that he was hardly breathing made me worry he was seriously, fatally ill, and I somehow doubted the creeps who had locked us both in this cage would care to call an ambulance.
I rubbed my face in frustration and tried to recall what I’d learned about caring for possibly-dying people on my one and only first aid course nearly eight years ago. It was then that I realized he wasn’t breathing at all.
“Omigoddess!” My pulse sped up to warp-speed as adrenaline kicked in, but it turned out my instincts were on point even if most of my conscious brain was busy freaking out.
With a swifter movement than was usual for me, I tackled my cellmate to the ground and pinched his nose shut before I put my lips on his and blew air into his lungs.
This time, his eyes opened wide as a cough shuddered through his body.
“Oh, thank the stars!” I gasped as I placed a hand on his chest, relieved beyond belief to feel his chest moving again. “You stopped breathing! You…”
But his chest wasn’t moving.
I glanced from my hand against his completely still torso to his face. His eyes were still open, looking at me as if he couldn’t quite comprehend that a stranger had just tried to perform CPR on him.
But he wasn’t breathing.
And his heart wasn’t beating, either.
It was in that moment that my brain finally decided to arrive at the party.
Sleeps until sundown, cold to the touch, doesn’t breathe…
“Motherfucking fuck!” I flew backward and scrambled away from him until the bars at the other end of the cage pressed against my back, unable to take my eyes off his still form even as his eyes slid shut again.
Mother above!
I was locked in a cage with a… a vampire!
2
I’d always known vampires were real, of course.
Everyone did.
After they revealed their existence to humans in ‘72, everyone had been painfully aware that the undead walked among us.
It was just that I, like most people, had never seen one. And we counted ourselves lucky for it.
I stared at my once-again sleeping cellmate, unable to calm my racing pulse.
Suddenly, my kidnappers’ snide remarks made gruesome sense. They’d tossed me in here to feed him. I was a goddamn snack!
Mother of all things holy, what was wrong with those people? Sure, I’d known they were crazy—kidnapping random people off the street kind of gives off that vibe. But this? Feeding live humans to their… their pet vampire? Who even thought about keeping a pet vampire? And why were they feeding him humans?
I desperately searched the cage for something—anything—to defend myself, but there was nothing. They’d made sure there was nothing in there but him and me. And two hours until sunset.
I’d like to say that I spent the last two hours of my life MacGyvering a makeshift weapon strong enough to take on a vampire, or even meditating over my life’s accomplishments, but I’d be lying.
I spent the entire time pressing my body up against the bars and quivering like a leaf, I don’t want to die! running on repeat in my panicked brain while I stared at my dark-haired killer-to-be.
It was both the longest and the shortest two hours of my life.
When the vampire’s dark eyes opened once again, there was a different sort of awareness in his gaze than when I’d forced him awake earlier in the day. Probably the difference between a vampire before and after dark.
Neat. I get exciting, anthropological knowledge of vampires before I die! I didn’t manage to clamp down on the hysterical giggle before it bubbled out between my lips, shattering the silence between us.
The vampire raised a single, dark eyebrow in question.
I made a vague gesture between us, inexplicably compelled to explain my behavior. He was probably more familiar with uncontrollable sobbing. “S-sorry, it’s just… Everyone always want to know more about vampires, and here I am, getting some quality one-on-one time. I’ll be the envy of the entire Internet!” Another shrill giggle escaped me.
“You’re an odd one, aren’t you?” His face never changed from the blank expression, but his tone was tinged with curiosity.
I flailed a hand in the empty space between us again, offense taking over my hysteria. “Well, excuse me for not knowing the right etiquette for getting eaten alive. It’s not exactly something I do every other Saturday.”
He sighed, seemingly losing interest in me as he swiveled around to stare blankly into the room behind the bars without getting up from his seated position. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Oh.” I blinked. “Aren’t you hungry?”
The vampire turned his head to give me an incredulous stare.
“I mean, I’m not offering!” I quickly amended. “I’m just pretty sure I’ve not been tossed in here to be your Bridge partner, is all.”
He gave a snort of amusement, the faintest hint of a smile touching his lips. “Nevertheless… I will not harm you, little one.”
“So... You’ve eaten recently? Do they toss women in here often then?” Oh my goddess, why are you still talking? You don’t want to know about his diet, for crying out loud! Shut up!
“They do not.” His tone was flat, but he didn’t turn back around to stare at the basement again, his eyes taking in my still-quivering form with something akin to curiosity. “You are the first. May I ask why?”
I blinked. “You’re asking me why I got kidnapped and used as a vampire snack?”
He gave a single nod, a patient expression on his solemn face.
I opened my mouth to explain how I’d been minding my own business, reading a book, when the oafs took offense to my choice of literature, but managed to stop myself in time. Suddenly, when faced with an actual nightwalker, confessing to enjoying the occasional smutty vampire romance seemed more than a little embarrassing.