The Immortal Hunter(80)

A memory from the night before immediately flashed across her mind, and Dani stiffened as she recalled Decker pouring the blood into her mouth. Groaning, she turned her head down again and forced the memory away, unready to contend with what had happened yet. She then straightened and started to pull off her shirt, but saw the ropes on her wrists and paused to remove those. One came off easily, but the knots on the other were tight and resisted her efforts. Leaving it on, she turned her attention to the ropes at her ankles and quickly removed those, then tried the last rope on her right wrist again.

Dani fumbled with it briefly, but finally gave it up and simply stripped off her clothes, stepped under the shower, and tugged the glass door closed. The water was colder than she normally liked, but it was bracing as well and she stood under it, allowing it to pound down over her head briefly before adjusting the temperature. She then reached for the soap and began to clean herself, washing away the film of greasy waste that had apparently been forced out of her body by the nanos. It was the only explanation she could think of for it, but since thinking about it forced her to think about last night, Dani pushed these thoughts away and simply concentrated on soaping herself clean.

It wasn't until she was washing her hair that Dani began to consider her situation. She was now one of the dreaded no-fangers. At least she presumed she was, though in truth, other than the weakness still plaguing her, she didn't feel any different. She didn't now have a mad urge to cut up people to get their blood, or leap on them to lick open wounds.

Dani grimaced at the memory of assaulting poor John Parker. She was pretty sure she wouldn't be doing that were he to walk into the bathroom right now. In fact, the idea of lapping up blood from his forehead, or even drinking it from a glass just seemed gross to her... much as it would have before Leonius had forced his blood on her. It made Dani wonder if perhaps the nanos hadn't taken. Perhaps she hadn't gotten enough to bring about the turn, or perhaps her body had fought off the nanos somehow.

The thought had barely entered her mind before Dani's more sensible side slapped it down. It wasn't very likely that her body had fought off the nanos. It was more probable that she was just full of blood right now and not craving madly for it as she had last night. But even that gave her hope. She seemed to be thinking clearly, her thoughts didn't strike her as insane or unusual. Perhaps if she kept herself full of blood, she might still be able to live a relatively normal life.

Dani considered that as she rinsed the shampoo out of her hair, and had almost convinced herself that it would work, that she could get blood from the Argeneau Blood Bank as Decker claimed immortals did, keep herself well-fed, and continue working at her practice... perhaps even continue her relationship with Decker. That fantasy melted away as she recalled Leonius's claim that immortals hated no-fangers, that they hunted them down and killed them, and that Decker would want to kill both Leonius and her when he found out.

Leaning against the tiled wall, Dani closed her eyes and tried to think over the sudden howling in her mind at the very thought of Decker despising and wanting to kill her. She tried to tell herself that he wouldn't, that he could have killed her last night, and hadn't, but her stupid mind immediately pointed out that while he hadn't killed her, he'd tied her down like an animal and had been grim-faced and cold as he'd poured bag after bag of blood into her mouth.

As those memories assaulted her, Dani feared Decker might very well loathe her now, and while he hadn't killed her yet, it might only be because he thought they might use her. Maybe they thought she had some information about Leonius and his son that they could use to hunt them down if they hadn't caught and killed Leonius already.

She had to get out of there, Dani realized. She had to get out of that house before someone realized she was awake and tried to tie her down again. Pushing away from the wall, she turned the water off and pulled the door open. The towels she'd used after her bath the first morning hung over the towel rack. Dani grabbed one and quickly dried herself, ignoring the way the now-wet piece of rope still attached to her wrist slapped against her. She then swiftly rubbed her hair to get the worst of the water out before tossing the towel aside and heading for the door. Finding the bedroom still empty, she rushed to the bags against the wall and tipped up the first one to empty its contents on the floor.

Several silk panties and a summery blue halter dress tumbled to the floor. Deciding that would do, she grabbed the nearest pair of panties and pulled them on, then tugged the halter dress on over her head, yanked it into place, and tied the halter around her neck as she headed for the door. Once there, she paused to listen, but when she couldn't hear sounds coming from the hall, Dani eased the door open and peered out, relieved to find it empty. She wasted no time, but tiptoed out and to the stairs. When no sounds of movement reached her from the main floor, Dani headed silently down to the entry. It was when she saw the bright sunny day outside that she slowed.

The fact that it was daylight explained why the house appeared empty. Dani supposed that meant Sam would be at work, and everyone else would be asleep in their beds, completely unaware that she'd broken free at some point during her turn and was now awake and escaping. That was a good thing. However, it caused other problems, she realized, recalling Decker saying that immortals avoided going out in sunlight because it caused damage and increased the need for blood.

That was a definite problem, Dani acknowledged. She felt fine right now, but feared she might not be after an hour or so walking along a dusty country road under a baking sun. She shifted on her feet, unsure what to do, and then thought of the vehicles in the garage. Perhaps she could take one of those. It would be stealing, of course, but she could leave it somewhere and call later to tell them where it was. Besides, better a thief than ending up attacking someone in a frenzy for blood.