Page 33 of How to Entice a Fiend

“Do you think I would still be dangling here with my butt crack on display if I had? I can feel the cool breeze caressing it. Like… you don’t think they ever considered pulling my trousers up a little when they tied me up?” I try to twist a bit so he can see what I’m talking about.

“That’s what you’re worried about?” Ender asks as he blatantly glances down andsmirks. He obviously thinks it’s funny and doesn’t understand my woes at all! Maybe it’s because his trousers are perfectly in place! Like… how can he have been shot, dragged off to who knows where, and hung from the ceiling and still look completely put together? His hair doesn’t even seem to be out of place. Although his complexion does seem off.

“Can you take me as seriously when you see my ass crack?”

“I never took you seriously to begin with.”

“Yet you took me seriously enough to pick me to torture,” I remind him.

“A mistake.”

I nod. “Ah, understandable. I was really counting on you to break us out. So go on, now. Let me see your moves.”

His skin is an odd color that I’m not sure I’ve seen too often in humans or in vampires. While he didn’t suffer from as much blood loss as I did, what that ammunition released into his system has to have fucked with him to the point where he looks worse off than I do. He swings a bit, and I assume he’s just going to try some odd swinging nonsense that will get him nowhere, but instead, he hooks my legs with his.

“What are you doing? Are you trying to pull me free with your feet? A bit ambitious, but I’m willing to see if it works.”

“I’m going to eat you and then I’ll have enough strength to get out of here.”

What the fuck? This man is a fiend! “Ah… ha ha. I’d rather not!”

“Lean over a bit so I can get your throat.”

“The more I talk to you, the more I feel like you don’t overly like me.”

“I’m not sure what would ever give you that impression. Just swing this way.”

“Weirdly, I’d rather not! Especially after you declared not even five minutes ago that if you could ‘off’ me to get out of here, you would!”

“You are a council member. How hard is it to understand that they are evil? What if I promise not to drain you completely?”

“I feel like I have so little blood that if I stepped on a thumbtack, I would just die instantly! They practically drained me all over the hotel room floor. Holding my head up feels like a chore I’m barely capable of!”

“Did you kill any of them before they knocked you down?” he asks, but he had to have seen what I did.

“I… uh… smacked one!”

“Aren’t you a vampire?” Ender asks.

“Not a very good one!”

“So then you might as well let me eat you. I have a child at home.”

“You’re like those humans with the ‘baby on board’ stickers. Like oh, I guess I won’t hitthatcar since there’s a baby in it!”

He doesn’t care. All he cares about is trying to eat me as he keeps trying to catch me with his feet. I try to kick him away, but with my legs tied, it’s wildly unsuccessful.

Ender must exhaust himself because he slumps down. “Dammit.” He grits his teeth. “FUCK. Fuck… fuck.”

He’s starting to sound less cocky and more panicky. He’s tearing and pulling so hard that I hear his shoulder dislocate. Ender grimaces but it doesn’t slow him down any.

“Hey, with limited blood and the drugs from that ammunition running through your veins, you’re not going to heal quickly, so don’t hurt yourself to the point where you can’t fight when you need to,” I caution him.

“I need to get out of here,” he says as his nails dig into the chains, but all he’s doing is hurting his fingers. Obviously, I’m also not having the time of my life here, but I really don’t think hurting himself is going to get us anywhere.

“Ender, please. Stop. Let’s think this through.”

“You don’t know what they’re going to do,” he says.

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