6 The One That Got Away

"You'll die otherwise." The words echoed in her head.

"So what else is new?" She asked Ethan defiantly. He chuckled at her, and the confidence in that laugh sounded strange to her ears.

"For starters, this house," he said, gesturing around them. "It's a safe distance from the residential and commercial areas, has power and clean water, reinforced windows and doors; and we have our own self sustaining ecosystem." Her eyes flitted to the medical table again and she shuddered.

"Yeah. About that," but before she could say more, someone she hadn't been introduced to interrupted them and pulled Ethan away, supposedly for some important business.

Left to her own devices, she finished her journey to the laundry room and threw her clothes angrily - piece by piece - into what she assumed was the dirty clothes pile. Was she really trapped in a house with vampires? They had to be delusional if they seriously believed this would end well for the humans.

She didn't see Mel again until she left the laundry room and nearly crashed into her in the hall. Mel must have noticed Cara needed to let off a little steam because she quickly explained their "porch loophole". For the sake of sanity, the porch was apparently still considered part of the house, so they were allowed on it without a buddy. It was the moment they stepped a foot off the porch and into the yard that the buddy system went into effect. Learning that, she exited the house with gusto and planted her butt on the porch, making sure to dangle her feet through the white wooden porch rails too while she was out there.

Even though she didn't have anywhere in particular to go, she knew she didn't want to stay here. Despite seeing a human in charge of the house, Cara still didn't feel safe. And what's more, the humans seemed to be making a lot of sacrifices and doing a lot of labor for the privilege of living in this house but she had yet to learn what it was the vampires were sacrificing or contributing for their slice of the pie. 'Slice' was the wrong word to use, it brought unpleasant images to Cara's mind and she gulped.

Two men who'd been roving around the house with guns all afternoon (and were responsible for the gun shots earlier) turned toward the house to come back in, drawing her eye and bringing her attention to how late it must be. The sun was starting to sink low on the horizon, and made her feel like it was time for her to go back in too. She was kind of hungry, and might as well sleep since running away at night would be the absolute worst time to try and put some distance between herself and Ethan's madhouse, considering its nocturnal residents. Still she hesitated, going inside felt too much like accepting their house rules when she wasn't sure that she could.

"Hello breakfast," a voice startled her. She jolted and snapped her eyes in the direction it came from only to find a tall slender man standing there with short blond hair, a well defined muscular build, wearing all black from his leather jacket down to his combat boots. In fact the only thing he wore that wasn't black was the thin metal dog-tags hanging from his neck, but she couldn't read them from here.

"Micajah?" She asked, having been unable to see his face earlier, but wanted to take back her question immediately. Micajah had been much more broad from shoulder to shoulder, and his voice had sounded completely different.

"No ma'am," this character snickered, letting himself down smoothly to sit opposite of her with his back to the white wooden porch rails. The way he smiled made her uneasy, and it wasn't just because of the fangs. There was something sinister to his expression despite the polite words. "My name is Liam, it's a pleasure to meet you, Cara."

She bristled. She hadn't given him her name. But then again, it wouldn't be hard to figure out if everyone here knew everyone else and she was the only unfamiliar face around.

"I was just about to-"

"Go inside?" he finished for her, and he seemed to be enjoying the fact that he was making her more and more uncomfortable the longer he sat there.

"Yeah," she said, nodding maybe a little too much to back up her claim.

"I won't keep you, I just wanted to get a good look at the 'one who got away.'" Cara reached up for the bandage on her neck, knowing instantly what he was referring to. Anger started to build back up again, and it flooded her senses, crushing the fear that Liam put her in. Scowling, she pushed herself to her feet and without saying another word to him she stormed back inside.

"You should be proud of that," she heard Liam shout through the door after her. She didn't care. She didn't feel proud, or lucky, she felt insane for staying here as long as she already had when she knew full well that killers like Judith and Liam were living inside. She turned the corner to head toward the stairs so she could go up to the girls room where vampires supposedly weren't allowed, and ran face first into a dark shadow.

"Are you alright?" The tall and broad shouldered shadow asked, sounding both sarcastic and concerned at the same time. It was that weird inflection again and Cara knew who it was without asking. She looked up and this time there was no hood to obscure his face, though he did still have on a black corps hat. Did all vampires wear all black? Was there some kind of dress code or something?

"Cara?" His blue eyes shown like ice under a well defined brow, watching her carefully for her reaction. She could see the fangs pressing into his bottom lip, not just the usual two where his canines go, but a second set next to those making him look twice as feral. It was difficult but she stopped staring at his teeth long enough to look back up at his eyes. Unlike Liam, he didn't seem to be too pleased to know that he scared her, and that gave her the slightest sense of relief.

"Sorry," she mumbled, finding her voice again, and brushed passed him to ascend the stairs as quickly as she could without tripping herself or running into anybody else.