Blood Bag

Bound by Metal

Something's wrong. The vampire is leaving, and there is no way I can get across the room in time to catch up with him. Kyle is nowhere to be seen. Bodies press against me. Some asshole is standing on my foot and the vampires brutish bodyguards are making their way through the crowd, towards me. 

I push at the body closest to me, face full of frizzy blonde hair, and the pressure on my foot lets up. Brute 1 and 2 are halfway through the crowd now and I no longer have any doubt who they are aiming for. Their eyes are locked on me. Somehow they know. I  briefly consider grabbing the knife at my leg, to hide it or use it I'm not even sure. Instead I turn to flee, pushing back at the bodies that are still surging forward, all  eager to see the Vampire before he leaves. 

I get about three steps, almost free of the crowd, when a hand grasps my wrist, I turn hoping to see Kyle, but it's Brute number 2. I try to tug my arm free but he just tightens his grip. I consider punching him in his already squashed nose, he's tall but so am I. I can reach. But before I can raise it, he's grabbed that one too. 

I try pathetically to kick out at him but having my hands trapped has left me off balance. I can hear Brute 1 swearing over the music. Faces have turned to look at me. Shock and confusion plastered on them. This isn't what they'd come to see. I feel my hair being grabbed from behind, my neck being pulled back and then the cold kiss of metal, just like the knife pressing against my leg, envelops my neck. The following click is deafening. Shock and confusion sweep over me. My mind races away to a place far from the club. Far from Lavort.

 I can feel the laughter bubbling up again, threatening to burst from my chest this time and then suddenly I'm back in the club, hot tears are streaking down my face. I look around at the people surrounding me, a few of them are looking away now but most are still openly staring. Vaguely aware of my arms being tugged forward and my feet compliantly planting themselves one in front of the other I am swept through the crowd and into the cold night air. 

I take deep breaths to steady my pounding head, the clubs music sounds distant, muffled. I try to pull my arms out of Brute 2's grip but only succeed in causing myself pain. I try to crook my head around to see back into the club, hoping to spot Kyle but brute 1 is already closing the door. 

Great. I think to myself, there is no conceivable way this could have gone any worse. I try again to kick out at my captor but only succeed in losing a shoe.  

"Fuck you." I spit out at Brute 2. Who actually looks offended. I tug my arms again and for a moment he lessens his grip. Then a car pulls up in the alleyway, it's not even chugging or throwing smoke and Brute 2 drags me over to it. The door opens, the smiling young blonde man from the club, still grinning now, moves to the far side of the seats. Brute lets go of my wrists, grabbing and pushing me into the car instead. I claw at him as much as I can, until I find myself sat in the car and Brutes pushing me along so he can fit in too. 

Squashed between Brute 1 and the grinning blonde I can feel tears threatening to spill warmly down my cheeks again. 

"Please don't do this." I beg - to the brute, to grinning guy, to anyone who might listen. 

"It's too late." A voice mutters quietly from the front passenger seat and for the first time I notice the two others in the car. The driver is an older fellow, all I can see of him is grey hair, a black suit, and the side of a wrinkled neck. The passenger, is clearly younger, with pale skin and unruly brown hair. Vampire. Knowing its my last chance I use my now free hands to grab the knife from its makeshift sheath on my thigh and lunge forward. Something connects, not the knife but something hard to the side of my head. My vision explodes into darkness and I free fall into the  blank abyss that's now my mind. 

***

I dream of Nancy, of cold shiny metal, of blood. 

***

Something cool is pressing against the side of my head, it hurts. I groan as I try to bring myself back into my body. Trying to open my heavy eyelids, one proving trickier than the other. I peer out from under the functioning one, wincing at the effort. My head is thudding like I'm still in the bass filled club. The club... I was at the club. Everything comes flashing back, the vampire, the man with the squashed nose, a collar, cold and hard... and still around my fucking neck! I bolt upright, startling a blonde man sitting on a chair beside me. He drops the cold compress in his hand. 

"WHERE THE FUCK AM I?" I ask, glancing around to try to dis-concern the answer for myself. I'm in a grand room, it feels eerily like Darlington manor, except nothing in here is dusty or broken and the lights work. I look down at myself, tucked into a huge bed, there's a real genuine duvet on top of me. I haven't seen one in years. The blonde man grins at me.

"You're in Cartham Manor." 

I nod. The names familiar but I can't put my finger on it, the relentless thudding in my head is making thinking difficult.

 "Otherwise known as Vampire central." Calls a voice from the other side of the bed, I whirl round, meeting the dark sunken eyes of the vampire from the club. 

"That little stunt you pulled back there." He continues, "Is the reason we're stuck here instead of my apartment, which, I can assure you, is where you are about to wish you were."

"Oh bite me." I mutter rolling my eyes. Then I realize what I've just said and burst out laughing. This is it, I think. The strain on my mind is too much and mania is here to take over. I laugh until my stomach hurts and Blondey starts to look very wary, my vision starts and stops, the thudding in my head reaches a crescendo. I know I have too breathe soon or else I'll pass out so I try to suck in air between the hysterics. 

I clutch at the ring of metal around my neck, tugging desperately at it. Trying to breathe gets momentarily harder. 

"Stop it you're going to choke yourself!" Yells the vampire. 

"Would you rather do it for me?" I ask, my voice is supposed to sound strong but it betrays me with a feeble breathless wheeze. I give him a murderous eye roll for good measure. The look I get in return is incredulous, his dark eyes narrow though, as if he really is thinking about reaching out and doing it. 

With a sigh the vampire gives Blondey an exhausted look. 

"Samuel, I trust you can oversee our guest from here, I'm bored with the dramatics." 

"If I'm a guest" I spit, "Then you won't mind if I leave. The hospitality here is simply atrocious." I throw the covers off me, exposing the ridiculous dress from the club and go to swing my legs off the bed. My right leg gets almost to the floor, before its wrenched to a holt. That's when I notice it, metal, cold hard unforgiving metal, wrapped around my ankle. 

"You can't go anywhere," Blondey says with an unapologetic smile, "You've been chosen."