"Brunch," he said shortly, and showed his teeth. "You're gonna need it."
He indicated to his colleague to put the tray down, which he did, and then they were gone again. My belly churned in response to the smell of sausages and eggs. I leaned across and dragged the tray towards me, noting the care with which it appeared to have been laid out. There was even a serviette neatly folded around the knife and fork. I was pretty sure the goons couldn't be held responsible for that, and Anne hadn't struck me as the domestic type. I wondered briefly how many other people were involved in this before my hunger took over and I started tucking into the food. I didn't even bother to wonder about his little "you're gonna need it" statement. It could only be bad news for me. I glanced at the chair again as I chewed. Oh yes, bad news indeed.
Just as I finished putting the serviette to good use, Snake Eyes returned, and this time he and his buddy were accompanied by Anne as well as a couple of seriously unwell looking individuals. They were gaunt with papery skin stretched tight over bony skulls, and thin straggly hair that brushed skinny shoulders. They looked like they could be bowled over by a puppy, but something burned in their eyes that could have been hate, or could have been hunger. Either way, they scared me far more than Snake Eyes ever could. At least I knew that Snake Eyes was human. Even if he was from the deeper murkier part of the gene pool where the detritus had settled and was undergoing a kind of retro evolution. I glanced at his cold reptilian face. Yep, he was definitely evolving backwards.
I stood then, intimidated by the strange gathering, but somehow, very weirdly, not really afraid of what was to come. I knew Anne was probably going to hurt me, but I also knew that it was in her best interests to have me alive at the end of it all, and that when my vampire self-evolved, I would heal. Pain was coming, but I knew my body would emerge at the end of it, undamaged. I was worried about the rest of me, though. Could I handle the bitter rage that was sure to be the inevitable outcome of this? Or would hatred burn through me as it did those bony freaks in the doorway?
My eyes wandered slowly over to the bloodstained chair, and Anne smiled grimly and nodded.
"If you wouldn't mind," she said in a mockingly polite tone.
"I'd really rather not," I told her flatly. She looked at me for a second, before she nodded to Snake Eyes, who stepped forward and lifted me easily and deposited me into the chair. The sick dudes in the back leaned forward eagerly as the other thug buckled leather straps around my forearms and ankles. I watched as my limbs were all immobilised, unable to intervene in any way to prevent what I knew was coming. I felt despair then, and fear for my integrity, everything that was me. I glanced up to see Anne looking at me, a triumphant expression in her eyes, and I decided there and then that she would never break me.