It's then that I remember I do have one vampire power. I can send telepathic cries for help to other vampires. Maybe if I send strongly enough Jareth will be able to hear me. Hope-fully he's not too mad at me to not at least come to my rescue.
I reach inside myself and pull together as much power and energy as possible, then send out the loudest mental scream for help I can muster. I'm not exactly sure what to say, but I give as much info as I can.
Hopefully it will be enough for him to find me.
While I'm yelling my head off on the inside, Orpheus pro-ceeds to tie me up on the outside, binding my hands and feet with a length of rope. Then he sits me down in front of the caveand gathers wood for a fire. "I've killed us a nice rabbit, my darling," he says, after sparking the blaze. He reaches into a wooden box and pulls out the most foul, rotting creature I've ever seen. "I'll roast it for us." He stokes the fire, only managing to produce more smoke. I cough in protest. But that's nothing to what I'm going to feel when he force-feeds me last week's Thumper.
I try to send out another cry for help—I mean, what else can I do? This time I describe Orpheus, too.
Maybe Jareth can ask the other Lycans about him. Maybe they know where his cave is so he can come rescue me before it's too late. Before Lycan turns me into a werewolf and tries to (ew!) mate me.
One thing's for sure. I'm so not rolling over and playing dead to this dog.
22
After our "dinner" of roast Thumper, which, of course, I puke right up after being forced to eat, Orpheus tells me he has things to do, dogs to see, and that he'll be back in a few hours. He leaves me tied up just outside the cave.
It's cold, it's damp, and my butt is frozen on the stone ground. Add that to the fact that I'm freaking out scared and you get a pretty good idea of the situation. I'm stuck by a northern English cave on the side of a mountain, miles from any town or village. I've been kidnapped by a werewolf who wants to make me the queen, er, bitch of his pack. And no one has any idea where I am.
Why, oh why, did I think it was a good move to leave the safety of the village and go off with some random guy? Why didn't I at least tell someone where I was going? And why isn't Jareth answering my calls? I've been sending for what seems like hours now and still there's no sign of him. Maybe he doesn't
care about me anymore. After all, me being gone kind of eliminates the need of having to annul the blood mate thing. Maybe my cry for help was the best news he heard all day.
Jareth. Tears drip from my eyes as I think about him. The wonderful, most perfect, sweet, kind blood mate a vampire girl could ever hope for. I had him. He loved me. And what did I do? I went and ruined everything. As usual. God, I'm so stupid. Why can't I ever see how good I have it until it's too late? I could have been with him for eternity. Now I'm likely to spend the rest of my (possibly very short) life as part dog. Not that I don't deserve that and a lot more for the way I acted. I wonder if he'll ever be able to forgive me. If I ever see him again, that is.
Will he still take the antidote back home to America? Will he figure out a way to administer it to the cheerleaders? Or will Slayer Inc. step in and decide to euthanize them after all since I'm not there to fight it? And what about Cait? Will they just assume she's one of the wolves and kill her, too, for no reason?
That's it. I have to get out of here. Some way, somehow. Whatever it takes. I can do this. I mean, I'm a vampire. And aslayer. You'd think I'd have some secret weapon at my disposal to getting myself out of this mess. Any moment now I'll think of what that is . . .
"Mmmmhmm."
I freeze. What's that sound? It's coming from the cave. Are there more people here, too? Other captives? Or more wolves? Should I make my presence known or be as quiet as possible? I squint, trying to see inside, but all I can see is blackness.
"Help! Someone help us!" the voice begs.
"Trevor, shut the eff up, dude. I'm telling you, no one can hear you except that psycho wolf guy. And I really don't want him coming back in here and screwing with us again, do you?"
My mouth drops open. I'd know that voice anywhere.
"Mike?" I cry. "Mike Stevens?"
Silence, then, "Who wants to know?"
"Mike? Trevor? It's me. Rayne McDonald."
"What the ... ?" Mike starts, then he swears under his breath. "Great. I must be hallucinating again. I thought I just heard that freak girl Rayne from school calling out my name."
I frown. Freak girl. Forget the homecoming game. I should really leave those two for wolf meat.
"Nah, dude. I heard her, too," Trevor says. "Unless we're both imagining it. Wouldn't that be way freaky? If we went insane together and, like, saw the same hallucinations and crap?"
I roll my eyes. Tweedledee and Tweedledum are going to be such great pack mates. "You're not hallucinating," I in-form them. "I'm here. Just outside the cave." I squint again and think maybe I can make out two dark shapes by the far wall.
"Really? What are you doing here? How did you find us? Did you bring help? That wolf guy is really strong."
"It's a long story. And no, I don't have help. I'm stuck here, too. Well, I'm hoping my backup will show, but I'm not sure that's going to happen. We may have to figure a way out ourselves."
"Yeah, good luck with that."
"How did you guys get here?" I ask, still shocked at their sudden presence. "I mean, we aren't exactly in Massachusetts anymore."