A Little Less Sixteen Candles... Continued

All Change

Joe was exhausted. At three-twenty in the morning, by rights, he should have been tucked up in bed, but no, not this night. He had flopped into a chair alongside Patrick's bed and, satisfied that the two vampires were secured and no longer a threat, he closed his eyes. At least inside a warehouse, he didn't have to worry about windows in Patrick's bedroom. All the bedrooms, in fact most of the rooms, were entirely without windows. What windows that had existed had long since been blocked up as a concession made to Pete several months earlier. The time would eventually come when Pete would be able to remain awake beyond dawn and it just made sense to them to allow him as much freedom around the warehouse as possible.

On Pete's return to them, nearly eighteen months earlier, they had needed a method of restraining him. There were few things they could be absolutely certain would work – quite simply, they had never held a vampire prisoner before.

It had been a necessity, but Patrick had reluctantly constructed a cage. It was strong enough to hold a human, certainly, but Pete's strength was an unknown quantity at the time. Unwilling to risk Pete's strength being great enough to break free, Patrick had reinforced the cell by the use of an extension of the idea that had been used to construct the Net Guns. Of course, it worked perfectly on paper but then, most things did! He could only hope desperately would work in practice.

His theory assumed that passing an electric current back and forth with a random pattern through the bars, plus constantly changing the wave pattern would create a continually fluctuating electro-magnetic field around the occupant that would be too difficult to grow accustomed to. Patrick had seen the draining effect of the Net Guns on hunts and he hoped this larger and more complex version would have a similar desired effect – that of reducing a vampire's strength to such a level that the simple cage would hold him. A secondary, but equally useful and desirable advantage was that it disrupted the occupant's brain patterns enough that the mind games and attempts to control, that vampires favoured so much, were impossible.

Of course, it appeared to work, but Pete was never a truly unwilling occupant. He wanted to return to them and understood the need to ensure their safety. For that reason alone, he had never tried to escape. But, Pete believed that it worked, he admitted that he felt weaker within the cell and even though he had never tried to escape, he seemed reasonably confident that it would have been able to hold him. Believing so much in their need to ensure their own safety and as an extra incentive for them to be comfortable that they had made the right decision, even after they had agreed to release him, Pete had insisted that they keep the cell, should the worst happen and they needed it again.

The worst had happened and, once again, inside the cell, Pete lay on the floor, fastened in chains and still unconscious. Joe didn't want to think about the current situation, but he had been forced to. He desperately hoped that the combination would be strong enough to hold him.
Dawn was not for another three hours yet, but confident that everyone who needed to be was secured, he allowed his eyes to close. Allowing the pleasant comfort of sleep to wrap around him, Joe felt himself slipping into a comfortable blackness. It lasted about ten seconds.

"Joe?"

The voice wasn't loud, but it had already cut through his sleep. It might have seemed selfish, but he was utterly exhausted, Joe decided he was dreaming and ignored it.

"Joe!" came the voice again, more persistent this time.

He wanted, no, he needed sleep, but he wasn't going to get it. That much he'd worked out. Opening his eyes, Joe turned them towards the bed only to see Patrick staring back at him.
Immediately, he felt guilty for ignoring the first call to him. There was pain and confusion in Patrick's eyes and Joe knew he would have to explain what had happened. Though, how he would or could manage that eluded him.