The Mating Rules

Hadley’s POV

Zenith and I barrel through the door into another abandoned corridor, I glance over at my friend to see that he is equally as mystified.

‘Did they all leave?’ I whisper, glancing back the way we came.

The vampire shrugs, ‘there were definitely people here when I came in’ he replies in a low tone, ‘and you saw the guards who came in each day.’

I nod, trying to keep my unease in check, it’s like we are here alone, were we not even being watched? Do they just come to us once a day and then leave us by ourselves?

We made our way down the next corridor finding that it ended in a cross walk, a corridor that ran to the left and the right.

I turn to the Vampire beside me and raise an eyebrow questioningly. Zenith shrugs, ‘I was pretty banged up when I got here’ he admits, ‘I can’t remember which way they brought me.’

Studying the two identical routes, I decide the easiest way to decide is with a rhyme we used to sing in the school yard to pick teams for games.

‘Racing car number nine, losing gallons all the time, how many gallons did it lose?’ I mutter under my breath as my finger swings back and forth on each word, before looking expectantly at Zenith who gives me a confused look.

‘Pick a number’ I grumble back impatiently.

‘Umm six?’ the Vampire questions.

I nod and point to the left again, ‘one’ I count, before pointing to the right, ‘two’ back and forth until I reach six, ‘You are not it’ my finger ends up pointing toward the right. ‘Looks like we go left’ I sigh.

Zenith shakes his head in disbelief, making me scowl at him, ‘do you have a better way to pick?’ I demand.

The Vampire holds his hands up in front of him placatingly, ‘nope! Let’s go with your method’ he replies quickly and takes the lead, moving silently along the sterile passage.

We reach the halfway point and have another choice, turn right or carry on. ‘Rock, paper scissors?’ Zenith asks with a smirk of amusement as he holds up his hands. ‘You win, we go right, I win, we keep going straight.’

I shrug, lifting my own hands up, what other choice do we have in honesty.

We slam our fists into our palms three times before throwing them out, me keeping my palm flat, Zenith, holding out two fingers as scissors.

‘Straight on’ the Vampire murmurs, turning his back on me and ignoring the turning beside us.

Onward we walk, on high alert, my own body winding tighter and tighter with each step, anxiety building at every turn where we again, find no one to stop us. It feels like we are walking in circles, every turn just revealing one more stark, abandoned corridor with nothing to stop us from leaving.Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

What seems like an hour later to me, but is most likely only fifteen minutes tops, we walk down yet another, identical corridor to find a set of stairs at the end. I sneak a look at Zenith whose eyes have lit up with excitement.

We creep up the stairs, trying not to make any sound on the metal steps as we ascend to a heavy wooden door.

I reach out and try the handle which moves downward but the door doesn’t budge. I huff out an exasperated breath, it’s locked. Beside me, Zenith kneels down, peeking through the keyhole as I wait beside him.

‘Key is in the lock on the other side’ he murmurs under his breath, ‘is it just locked, or are their bolts on the other side?

I shrug in response and slump down onto the top step. The Vampire takes a seat beside me, rubbing a hand across his chin as he thinks. ‘We’ve got a few options’ he finally says, and I can hear the tiredness beginning to seep into his own voice. I’m wondering how long he can go between feeds, all the tension I’m carrying is burning through the small reserve of energy I had built up from my meager meals, is it the same for a vampire too?

‘What’s the choices?’ I reply, deciding to skirt the issue of feeding for the moment as, right now, I’m his only b***d source and I really need to keep all the energy I’ve got.

Zenith grimaces, ‘we could double back’ he offers reluctantly, ‘look for another way out.’

‘We’ve taken Goddess knows how long to find these stairs’ I mutter, shaking my head, ‘next.’

The Vampire sighs, ‘we try and slide something under the c***k in the door and jiggle the key out so we can pull it underneath and unlock it from this side.’

I turn around to study the door, ‘it could have dead bolts’ I murmur, ‘or a chain, if we do that and it still won’t open, we are risking alerting anyone on the other side to our presence.’

Zenith nods in agreement, ‘which leaves the last option’ he adds, ‘we hide under the stairs and wait for one of the guards to open it, come down and we overpower him.’

I shudder unintentionally at the Vampire’s words, overpower most likely means kill and drain him to the man beside me.

None of the options appeal to me but the only one that stands a modicum of chance is for us to try and take a guard by surprise. They come down every day to dose me so it makes sense that someone should be coming through that door at some point unless there is another entrance somewhere. The second plus of hiding and waiting is that the wolfsbane will be slowly leaving my system meaning Hunter will be able to resurface at some point. Each hour that passes, my wolf strength returns a little. Not enough that three guards can’t over power me when I’m chained up, but I have confidence that I could do some damage if I had the element of surprise. Also, I have Zenith with me and the Vampire has already shown what he is capable of after he’s been fed just a small amount of b***d.

Standing up, I start to walk back down the stairs, ‘we hide and wait’ I throw over my shoulder. ‘Take them by surprise, there will probably be three guards and the doctor in a group, that’s how they usually arrive when they come to dose me.’

The Vampire pulls himself up, brushing his hands down his dirt and b***d covered clothes before following me.

We descend the last few steps and circle around until we are tucked under the metal stairway, out of sight.

Sitting on the floor, I press my back against the wall, closing my eyes as we wait.

‘Get some sleep my friend’ the Vampire murmurs as he tucks himself against the wall beside me. ‘I will keep watch and awaken you as soon as I hear any noises from above.’

I go to protest, but stop, swallowing down my words, I am tired and the man beside me has given me no reason to not trust him. I can’t start thinking that Zenith will overpower and feed on me now, I need him to help me get out of here and he’s been nothing but a friend since I found myself in this hell hole.

‘Thanks, man’ I reply instead, ‘any noise at all, wake me up, I don’t want to give away our position because they are coming down the stairs and I am half awake with no idea where the hell I am.’

The Vampire chuckles and nods, ‘don’t worry my friend’ he says sincerely, ‘I need you just as much as you need me. I’m strong but I don’t want to try and take on four men by myself, especially when I can hand two over to someone I know will have my back.’

I relax at his words realising he’s right, we are both stuck in this place and we need to stick together to get out alive. I rest my head back against the wall and close my eyes, my forearms resting on my knees that are pulled up in front of me.

Sleep takes me surprisingly quickly and my dream is of Jamie-Lee, she’s calling out to me, reaching with her hand as she pleads with me silently to take hold.

‘Sweetheart’ I try to shout out but my vocal cords won’t work for some reason, I try to raise my hand to grip hers but nothing will move, it’s like I’m paralized.

‘Hadley!’ my girl is screaming now, tears running down her face, ‘don’t you leave me! Don’t you dare! Not again! You promised to stay with me, always!’

‘I’m sorry sweetheart’ my mind yells out even as my lips stay silent, tears pricking my own eyelids as I watch her anguish, ‘I don’t want to leave you! I want to stay! I want to stay!’

‘I want to stay . . ‘ the words are playing over and over in my mind as something nudges me, making me sway slightly. ‘I want to stay with you sweetheart, don’t leave me behind.’

My shoulder shakes again and Jamie-Lee starts to go out of focus, pulling away from me as I will my muscles to move, grab her hand and hold her to me.

‘Don’t go!’ I’m desperately trying to do anything I can to reach my girl but she’s slipping further and further away from my unmoving body.

‘Hadley!’ a voice hisses in my ear, ‘wake up!’

My eyes snap open and I blink rapidly, looking around me, feeling disorientated.

‘Come on wolf, snap out of it’ the voice mutters again, drawing my attention, as I turn to find Zenith shaking me roughly by the shoulder before pointing upwards with his finger.