That fetched an eye opened balefully at me.
"Look, the college's off now, Luv. I'm going to nap. You're going to quiet down. Later, when I'm up, we'll go through all of these comforts while I equip you for our arrangement. Until then, permit a gentleman to get some rest."
"Show me the route out and you can nap all you want."
Again I looked around for an escape, discovering nothing.
He groaned in mockery.
"Sure thing. Hows about I earn your weapons for you as well, then I'll just shut my eyes while you drill holes into my heart? Not bloody likely. You're in until I let you out. Don't worry about struggling to flee, you'd never make it. Now I advise you to obtain some sleep because if you keep me sleepless much longer, I'm going to want breakfast. Understand?"
He closed his eyes again with finality.
"I'm not sleeping with you."
Indignation compressed my tone.
There was a short tussling on the bed, and then a blanket slam me in the face.
"Sleep on the floor, then. You're a cover swine anyhow."
Left with no other option, I laid down on the cold gravel floor. The blanket didn't do much to leave out the coolness, let alone provide any covering.
I manoeuvred through, hopelessly struggling to discover a softer position before laying off and holding my head in my arms.
At least this was fairer than being in bed with that creature. I'd sooner sleep on pins. The stillness of the room was somehow comforting. One aspect was for real, vampires didn't snore. After a while, I drifted off.
It could have been hours, it looks like minutes. A hand none extremely gently shook my shoulders and that dreaded voice whistled in my ears.
"Rise and shine. We have a task to carry out"
My bones gave a clear rasp of agony when I stood and stretched. He smirked at the tone.
"Serves you right for striving to kill me. The previous bloke who did that turned out with much more than a stiff neck. You're right fortunate you're beneficial, or you'd be nothing better than a flush in my cheeks by now."
"Yeah, that's me. Lucky."
I felt cold rather, imprisoned in a hole with a homicidal wolf.
He waggled a finger at me.
"Don't be glum. You're about to get a first-class education in nosferatu. Trust me, not many humans get to acquire this status. But then again, you're not human."
"Stop uttering that. I'm more human than I am…thing."
"Yes, well, we'll find out just how much promptly. Walk out from the wall."
I accepted, not having much choice in this little room and not wishing to be near him. He stood in front of the rock wall where I'd been napping and sensed either side of the rock.
With relief, he heaved the piece entirely off the ground and lay it to the side, uncovering a gap huge enough to walk through. So that was how we entered this grave.
"Come along," he threw over his shoulder, strolling through it.
"Don't dawdle"
As I squeezed through the slim entrance, an abrupt twist of my bladder reminded me that I was yet incredibly much dependent on my organs.
"Um…er, I don't suppose…"
To hell with the comforts.
"Is there a bathroom in here? One of us still has active kidneys."
He ceased low, arching an eyebrow at me. There were tiny streams of glow arriving from the limestone ceiling, giving rise to crisscrossed drawings of brightness throughout the cave. Daytime, then.
"Do you think this is a blooming hotel? What, next you'll be needing a bidet"
With furious humiliation, I ground out, "Unless you like it messy, I advise you to offer me an option, and fast."
A sound that sounded very much like a sigh arrived from him.
"Follow me. Don't trip or shake anything, doomed if I'll carry you. Let's see what we can rise with. Sodding woman."
As I climbed after him, I calmed myself with mental pictures of him wriggling helplessly under my stake. The visible was so evident, that I nearly gleamed as he brought me toward the sounds of water.
"There."
He referred to a bunch of rocks that seemed to hang over a little inward stream.
"That water dashes downstream. You can ascend on those rocks and perform your business."
I scrambled around, and he yelled with an edge to his expression, "By the way, if you're feeling you'll just bounce off and paddle out of here, it's a terrible notion. That water's about forty degrees and waves over two miles before it escapes these tunnels. You'd be suffering from hypothermia long before then. Not a nice way to be, shivering and lost in the dusk, illusions setting in. Besides, you'd have halted our agreement. I'd find you. And I would be certainly, really displeased."
The tragic remark in his voice made the words sound more harmful than the cocking of a gun. Anguish tickled me. I had been imagining performing that.
"See you in a bit." He swivelled over and walked a short way off, his back to me. Sighing, I climbed up the rocks and levelled while replying to nature's untimely visit.
"I presume toilet sheet's out of the question?" I blurted flippantly.
There was a husk of a chuckle in reply.
"I'll fix it on my shopping schedule, Kitten."
"Stop calling me Kitten. My name is Jane."
Finished, I lowered myself down until I then stood on somewhat solid ground.
"What's yours, by the way? You never told me. If we're going to be…working together, at least I should know what to call you. Unless you just desire to respond to obscenity, of course."
There was that wily curl to his lips also when he faced me. His feet were planted apart and his hips leaned narrowly onward.
Faint fur caressed his skull in tight waves. Below the pinholes of light around him, his skin firmly gleamed.
"My name is Max."
"First Luv, If you're going to be useful at exterminating vamps, you will require to understand more about them."
We sat on rocks confronting one another. The dim rays of light in the tunnel from the trunks of the sun had an ambiguous strong effect.
It had to be by far the weirdest period of my life, sitting over from a vampire calmly discussing the adequate ways to eradicate one.