She was jolted and rattled around, helpless to brace herself against anything as the vehicle accelerated, the jarring getting worse as the journey continued. She estimated the first hour was on a reasonably smooth road surface, but with multiple tight twists and turns that flung her from one side of the boot to the other.

It didn't take long before she was violently ill and then tossed through her own mess as the car left the tar-seal and started down a windy rutted road that rattled her until she felt it must be loosening her very teeth. Jack wasn't going to want this set of clothing back. She silently prayed for death, or at least blissful unconsciousness as she dry heaved and wretched while being bounced upward into the boot-lid.

What felt like hours later the cars stopped, doors slamming shut and the muffled sounds of voices drifting into the now disgusting smelling boot.

"Just dump it with the other one." The voice rumbled as the boot opened, showing a spectacular lurid red sunset silhouetting the figure looming over her.

Rough hands gripped her and the uncomfortable chewing tinfoil feeling of magic buzzed through her mouth and sunk into her bones. Unable to resist she was flung over the man's shoulder as he made noises of disgust at the reek of vomit. She felt a small prick of enjoyment that he was getting covered in her filth, it didn't offset the overwhelming terror in any way, but it was a tiny satisfaction.

She realised she could see about the same time she realised she had the ability to twitch her fingers but not much more. It was a start, as long as they didn't whammy her with whatever the heck it was they had done before she might just stand a chance of escaping. She was carted into a building, the area too dark already for her to make out much more than the fact it seemed rural and isolated. Screaming for help wasn't going to do much then.

The interior of the building was just as dark and she wondered if there was no electricity here or if the creatures who had abducted her just didn't need light. She was jounced down several flights of steps, her face getting an extra battering against the creatures hard back. The creaking of a door was her only warning before she was dumped unceremoniously on a cold hard concrete floor and the door was shut behind her, locking her in.

"Urgh, god dammit!" she hissed in frustration.

"Gretchen?"

"Charles?!?"

"God, is it really you?"

She heard a shuffling stumble and then felt hands touching her, feeling for her face.

"I can't move," it came out as a whimper and shame heated her face, she had to be tougher than this.

"Don't worry, it wears off. How did they get you? What happened to Angelus?"

She explained everything that had happened since he'd disappeared while he found her hand in the darkness and held on to it, a reassuring grip that anchored her.

"Damn," Charles muttered after she'd finished, "so you're bait for Angelus and... what did you say his name was? Jack?"

"Yeah," it came out as a sigh and Charles squeezed her hand tighter in reply.

"So what's the deal with this place? What are those things that brought us here?"

"I don't know what they are," Charles sounded tired and defeated, "they seem to have some kind of paralysis or energy drain, but beyond that, " She could hear a rustle she assumed was a shrug. "Angelus might know, but they are nothing I've come across before." He sighed, "as for this place?"

She felt a shudder run through him.

"I'm so sorry Gretchen, " he started sobbing.

"Charles?"

"They're both dead, and... and I don't know how much longer I can last," it was a hoarse whisper that sent a cold spear of dread right through her heart.

"What do you mean? Who's dead? Charles? What the hell is going on?"

It took him long moments before he calmed down enough to answer her.

"When I arrived there were two others here, immortals like us, one was really weak, he was killed a few days after I arrived. The other lasted about two weeks longer." He took a shuddering breath then continued, "there is something; I hesitate to call it human, here. It wants the secret of immortality, which of course none of us have. So it's taking our blood instead," his voice faltered and he gripped her hand painfully tightly. "You can only loose so much blood before you can't replace it fast enough, and then you're considered useless to him, even immortals have their limits. If he gave us time to recover, or fed us more than once every few days..." he was sobbing again, "Or maybe he just wants to torture us before he kills us."

"Angelus won't let that happen to you, to us. He's gonna come and save us." She said it with as much bravado as she could muster, hoping it didn't sound as much of a lie as it felt.

Charles didn't answer, just held her hand in a death-grip as if it were a lifeline he was clinging to.

She must have dozed off, because she woke stiff, sore and chilled, but able to move again. Charles was curled up asleep on the floor beside her, her hand still gripped in his. The darkness wasn't so impenetrable now, the outlines of the room visible in the gloom. The room was small, just a box with a door, not even a mattress to make the hard floor more bearable. Whoever had them trapped here certainly didn't care about their welfare.

The door rattling brought her out of her musings. Climbing shakily to her feet she turned to face who or whatever it was. The door swung open and the figure outlined by flickering florescent lighting didn't make her teeth ache so she assumed they were human.

"Good, you're up, follow me."

He turned to the side waving her out with a hand, she could see he was a very ordinary looking guy, maybe mid 30's, stubble, jeans and a checked shirt, completely forgettable.

She followed him up the stairs after he had locked Charles in again, wondering where she was being taken and how long she'd been asleep. Several flights of stairs later they were at a thick steel door which he unlocked via the digital security keypad. She didn't catch the code, but it gave her hope that if she could get Charles up here he might be able to override it.

Then they were marching swiftly through the halls of an old mansion, the wallpaper peeling and the wooden floors with their threadbare carpet runners creaking under their footfalls. The further they walked the more of a headache she got, and the staler and more foetid the air tasted.

Her escort stopped in front of a set of heavy looking double doors, knocked, and pulled one open, indicating she should enter. A horrid feeling of wrongness mixed with a rotten stench overlain with a cloying sweetness met her, and she would have bolted if it wasn't for the fact Charles was still trapped downstairs. Swallowing bile she took a hesitant step into the darkened room, jumping as the door shut behind her leaving her in darkness that was anything but empty.