I stepped up to the door, and sniffed at the keyhole. "I smell blood. Fresh, but not Rebecca's. Is there another way in?" The door was clearly ancient, and I didn't want to smash it down unless I had to. I could smell that Rebecca was no longer there, so destroying the door would be pointless.
"There's a back door that leads to the service driveway. We have a separate smaller entrance to the estate for deliveries and servants," he explained.
"Let's go," I said, pushing him in front of me so he could lead the way. I felt the dread building, and I was almost shaking with the effort of suppressing it. Simon must have picked up on my tension, because he trotted back the way we had come, and then down a few other corridors and through a massive kitchen. Outside the wind wrapped it icy fingers around us all - the sun had retreated, and the day was grey and bleak. Our feet crunched on the ubiquitous gravel as we rounded one of the corners of the house, and entered through yet another ancient wooden door, this one pocked and weathered. The room beyond it was large with high ceilings criss-crossed by elderly beams. There was a massive table surrounded by dozens of chairs. But there was nobody inside the room.
"Wait!" I barked, and held the others back with one arm. They froze. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, letting the molecules from the air drift over my sensory receptor cells.
"Two men, not vampires, and Rebecca were in this room. Lucy also, but briefly. Seems she left early on in the proceedings."
Fergus looked at Simon in an accusatory manner, as if his sister's actions were somehow his fault. Simon just looked bewildered.
"Also a drug I am not familiar with. Someone was punched in the nose too, one of the males. Probably by Rebecca." I was becoming very worried. If Rebecca had punched someone, she must have felt threatened. Seriously threatened. It had to be him.
Jack was back.
Rebecca
I woke up in a different room. This one looked like it had been built a week ago by a drunk on a bender. No wait, that was just me. The room was revolving nauseatingly around my head like some nightmarish solar system, and at first I thought I was still hallucinating. The handcuff gripping my right wrist clanked against the metal frame of the bed I lay on as I moved. I yanked on it, scraping the skin around my wrist. Definitely not a hallucination. Probably something a lot worse.
I closed my eyes but that made the spinning worse, so I opened them and tried to focus on the contents of the room. Lets see. Ceiling - sort of white - check. Walls. Yup, four of them, with a cheap wooden door at the far end - closed, of course. Some furniture between me and the door - table, chair, big blobby thing. Ah, yes, Eric the Evil Henchman. I rattled the handcuffs again and Eric stood up slowly and lumbered over to where I lay. I pretended to be frightened - it wasn't that hard, if I'm honest. He leered at me.