Somehow.
The room itself was lending me no bursts of inspiration. It was mostly empty. A few broken chairs, a few empty bottles and a couple bags of what looked like fertilizer. No helpful items, like a shovel, or a shotgun, or a key to these damn cuffs. My arm was numb from being attached to this stupid waist-high bar, suspended in the air, while I sat on the floor with Teren. I was beyond the tingly It's fallen asleep stage and was in the full-on My appendage is gone stage. I was actually grateful for it. Maybe I'd simply gnaw my arm off, and if said arm was completely numb...maybe I wouldn't feel it. My stomach churned at the thought though.
One hundred ninety...one hundred and ninety-one...one hundred and ninety-two...
Teren twitched beneath me. He'd been doing that periodically, once his body had stopped shaking. I had no idea if that was a good thing, or a bad thing. Sometimes the twitch would elicit a quiet groan, sometimes they were silent. With that last one, he clutched my thigh. I flinched and bit my lip. He'd squeezed really hard and I was bruised for sure. I could take it though. His pain was so much worse. I ran my hand down his back until his body relaxed. He twitched again and then released his death grip on my thigh.
I'd thought about offering him some blood, but I honestly didn't know if that would help him at this point or not. And a part of me was worried that he wouldn't be able to sense when to stop, what with his brain on sensory overload. Plus, I needed all of my strength for when my brilliant escape plan went into effect.
Two hundred thirty...Two hundred and thirty-one...Two hundred and thirty-two...
Still blank. Apparently, I hadn't watched enough horror movies. I had no idea what to do about this little situation, and I was sure there had to be a movie out there somewhere with an ending similar to the predicament I was in now. Of course, the woman in that film probably had a bobby pin tucked up in her hair and would know how to use one to unclasp her cuffs. I neither had one, nor knew how to use one like that.
I exhaled in irritation and watched the barred door at the top of the wooden steps. The man hadn't come back. I supposed he wouldn't until Teren changed over. No point in watching it, really. We were securely locked in here. I was handcuffed to a wall for God's sake. Once Teren changed, and my demise was guaranteed, he'd drive a stake through Teren's beautiful, silent heart, before my blood had a chance to partially revive him. Then we'd both be dead and gone. Well, at least Teren didn't have to worry about a lifetime without me...just a few minutes really.
No...no more Negative Nancy. I was getting us out of here.
Three hundred and twenty-one...Three hundred and twenty-two...Three hundred and twenty-three...
Teren gasped as a large jolt through his body stirred him. He made a strangled cry and I soothed his back again. Once the wave of pain ebbed, he twisted his head to look at me. His eyes had a dreamy faraway look.
"Hi," he quietly said.
I smiled down at him on my lap. "Hey, baby. Close your eyes...rest."
He half-smiled in that crooked, charming way of his. "Since you gave up all your coffee for my shirt...maybe I could buy you another?"
I bit my lip and forced back the tears. He was slipping. The pain was making his mind look for ways around it, and he'd found a pleasant memory to linger in. Well, I'd play along. Delusion was better than screaming.
"I'd love that."
He gave me a wide smile, but then sudden panic filled his eyes. For a moment, I thought his illusion had slipped and he was cognizant again, but when he spoke, he was still in the past. "Please don't leave if you find out what I am. Please don't hate me. Please don't run, like the others. Please don't think I'm a monster..."
A not-stoppable tear rolled down my cheek. I sniffled as I ran a hand down his face. "I won't leave, baby." I shook my head. "You're not a monster, Teren...you never were." My eyes flashed back to the door. There was only one monster in this house and he was upstairs. And he would pay...somehow.
Teren's eyes fluttered closed with a content sigh. I rubbed his cheek while his face relaxed beneath my touch.
Somehow.
Four hundred...Four hundred and one...Four hundred and two...
Teren jerked on my legs and his eyes flew open. He clenched his jaw and looked around the room, like he didn't know where he was.
"Baby...it's okay," I said in a soothing voice.
His eyes found mine and he exhaled a choppy breath. "Where are..." His thought fell off his tongue as his eyes closed in remembrance. When he reopened them, he met mine again. "We're still here?"
I weakly nodded and rubbed his cheek again. He clasped his hand over mine.
I wondered how long we had. I wondered if it was close to dark. The man said Teren would die by nightfall. Either way, our lives were completely different than they had been this morning. I flicked a glance at Teren's legs, and hoped he was right about them. I hoped he healed. They looked such a bloody, un-repairable mess; broken at the least, shattered at the most. I still wasn't about to take a glance under his jeans to find out. That sight would surely unhinge me, and I needed to stay somewhat focused on getting us out of here. I was pretty certain that if he hadn't been about to change, and I did get him safely away somehow, that his legs would probably have to be removed for him to remain alive. They looked that bad. I'd take him that way too, of course. I'd take Teren Adams any way I could get him.
Teren noticed me glancing at his legs. "It's not so bad anymore. It's almost like they're gone. I can barely feel them." He smiled when he said that, like it was a good thing.
I feebly smiled back, then a thought struck me as I remembered nightfall. "Will your family look for us?"
He was shaking his head as soon as the words left me. "No, I don't think so. Not tonight, anyway." He stroked my fingers with his thumb. "They'll only know we turned away from the ranch...they won't know why." He sighed a little as he stated, "We can't sense intentions." He shrugged as he searched my eyes. "Not even when we want to."
My head dropped as I considered that. I wasn't sure if I wanted his family anywhere near this madman, but it would dramatically improve our odds if they were here. Teren finished his thought in a soft voice, momentarily free from pain, "They won't worry until tomorrow, when they can't reach me on my cell. Then they'll probably wait until dark, so Great-Gran can go with them-she's the strongest of us. By the time they track me here..."
"We'll be dead," I quietly finished.
With a warm, peaceful smile on his face, he shook his head and looked at the wall over my shoulder, like he could see right through it to the outside world. "No...I'll be dead. You'll be free." His eyes seemed to glow with the hope of my freedom. I was positive that the only thing keeping him going right now was the thought of me escaping.
"Teren..."
His happy eyes shifted to take me in. "You'll be free," he repeated. "You'll run...you promised."
While technically I didn't promise that I'd run, now wasn't really the time to argue semantics...or the fact that I was still handcuffed to a wall. "Right, baby...I'll be free," I whispered instead. His grin widened, and his eyes fluttered closed again as he slung an arm around my waist.
I commanded myself not to cry.
Four hundred and ninety-seven...four hundred and ninety-eight...four hundred and ninety-nine...
Teren jerked below me and his eyes flew open again, but this time, it was different. Confused, I watched his face contort in pain and wondered if I'd somehow jarred his legs. I was being exceedingly careful to not move him. His mouth fell open in a silent gasp and I could see fresh pain cloud his pale eyes-a lot of fresh pain. He jerked on my legs a couple of times, like he was struggling against some unseen force.
I tried to still his body, so he wouldn't cause himself extra pain by banging his legs against the ground. "Teren...what is it?"
He couldn't answer me. He could only open and close his mouth and make horrid gasping noises, like he was struggling for air. Then his hand went to his chest. Then I understood.
Time was up...my vampire was dying. And this time he absolutely wasn't joking.
"No...stop it," I croaked out unintentionally. I knew it wasn't possible to stop this, but I wasn't ready. Aside from the not having a plan part yet, and the fact that within an hour I was about to be a snack, I just wasn't ready to say goodbye to Teren's humanity. It was such a selfish thought to have at the moment that I hated myself a little for it. But the fact was, I would miss that side of him that was like me: his fierce thumping heart, his warm probing hands, our long leisurely dinners on his patio with a glass of wine...
But that reality had ended the moment that bar had struck his shins. This would actually help him now. He'd heal and he'd be strong enough to get away from the lunatic upstairs...once he ate me, of course.
I pushed aside my selfish thoughts and focused on the dying, terrified man before me. He clutched my free hand and, still gasping in pain, sought my eyes.
I stared into his pale orbs, willing him strength. The whites of his eyes had been faintly glowing in the pale light of the bulb. They seemed to intensify as his body struggled to remain alive. I imagined that I heard his irregular, wet, thumping heart, pulsing unsteadily and uncertainly. Fighting for every last beat, before the weakness of its humanity claimed it, and the tired organ completely surrendered to the foreignness of his vampire blood.
"I'm here, Teren...I'm here. You're not alone." Not ever having comforted a dying person before, I had no other words.
While his body jerked in painful spasms, his eyes stayed locked onto mine, refusing to leave them. I knew he was soaking me in, trying to force himself to remember what I meant to him...to outsmart the thirst. I was pretty sure that was a losing battle.
A second later, he seemed to realize that too. His face hardened into stone concentration. He forcibly ripped his eyes from mine and lifted himself off my lap. With one hand still clutching at his chest, like its very presence was keeping that organ beating, he reached out with his other hand, took a deep breath, and letting out a scream of pain and frustration, ripped the iron bar that was anchoring me to the wall off its heavy support brackets. It clanked onto the floor a few feet away from us; my arm burned with fire as the blood suddenly rushed back into it.
Teren, his strength gone, collapsed back to my lap. I clutched him with both arms now, the empty manacle uselessly dangling from my wrist.
"Baby...?"
His hand reached up to stroke my face and a calm peace swept over him. Terror filled me as that peace spread from his face to his body. His shaking stopped. His gasping stopped. Looking up to my eyes with an expression so full of love, I thought my heart would burst, he whispered, "Ya tebya lyublyu."
I waited for the reciprocating inhale after the air from saying those words passed his lips. It didn't come. His hand dropped from my cheek to land by his side with a non-resistant thud.
My vision obscured and I blinked the tears down my cheeks, so I could watch his eyes, still locked onto mine, slowly lose their focus. The glow that painted the whites of his eyes vanished and his head drifted down, finally breaking our eye contact.
"Teren...?"
I shook his shoulder in a hopeless attempt to revive him. It was a joke...all of this was some elaborate practical joke, and any minute he'd jerk awake and say "got-ya" and I'd smack the shit out of him for scaring me. But he wasn't moving and he wasn't breathing. I shook him again, in the near maniacal way of someone trying to force a reality they wanted into existence. It still wasn't working, he still wasn't moving.