It really wasn't that bad.
I'd gotten spoiled over the past several years.
Despite the hell I'd been put through with Davor, and the unhappiness for some years even before him, my master had always kept us in style. Even when we'd traveled.
There were always a thousand thread count sheets, expensive wine, the finest of bath products.
But I would take this subpar room rental with its scratchy bath towels and thin sheets with Drex over any five-star hotel with my master or his friends any day of the week.
"It's heaven," I shot back, moving on stiff legs toward the bathroom. I wanted to wash my face off. And see if I could turn just the right way to get a look at my thighs and butt in the mirror. They had to be bruised, right? To cause so much pain?
"Hey, you good hanging here while I run for some supplies?" Drex called. "Or do you want to come? I don't know how this vampire no entrance shit works with hotel rooms."
"They can't come in," I told him, giving up on the mirror thing, and making my way back out into the bedroom area. "I've heard them joke with each other about how it would be an all-you-can-eat buffet at hotels if the universe didn't consider hotel rooms temporary residences."
"So, we're safe here."
"Yeah. But I don't think they're close anyway. I'd be more in pain, right? That's why it is getting better, because we are further away."
"That's why I pushed us so far today. I wanted to get as far as possible. Hopefully only one more day of this before the snap happens. Otherwise, we'll have to hop on a boat or something. You want me to pick you up anything? I know you need a change of clothes," he added. "We can wash and dry what we've got at the next stop. But any... woman shit you need?"
"Woman shit," I repeated, amused. "Do you mean, like, period products?" I asked. "You've been on Earth for hundreds of years, and you can't say tampons?" I asked.
"Know you don't need tampons yet, babe," he said, making a wiggling motion with his fingers. "I meant razors or like hair shit. I don't know. You're supposed to tell me."
"I won't need tampons until I gain some weight," I admitted. My period dropped off after the last ten pounds I'd lost. "But a razor might be good. Conditioner, I guess. Our own toothbrushes, in case we end up places without them. Deodorant. Um, I guess that's it."
"Food?" he asked.
"Anything but pumpkin seeds and almonds and dried fruit and..."
"Got it," he said, smirking. "But take your iron while I'm gone. "And I'll leave one of these here," he said, dropping a pill on the counter. "If you feel it coming on. There is more in the backpack, but try not to use it if you can."
"Don't worry. I don't want to. If I can come out of this not addicted to the pills, that would be great."
"You'll be fine," he assured me. "Okay. Anything else?" he asked, making his way to the door.
A little voice inside me screamed Condoms!
But I couldn't bring myself to say that.
Even though I definitely wanted it to go there.
I mean, I'd woken up aching for him in the basement. And when I'd felt his hard cock, and heard him murmur my name in his sleep, I couldn't help myself. I needed to feel him, taste him. I couldn't think of anything else.
We'd be sharing another tight space for another night. And without bikers to interrupt us, I had a feeling things were going to progress pretty quickly.
"Can't think of anything," I said instead of what I wanted to say.
"Alright. Be back in under an hour."
I planned to wait for him, to flick around the TV, but the second I got into that bed, I passed out hard.
And deep enough that I missed it when he returned.
I only woke up to take the pills on the nightstand, then passed back out again.
It shouldn't have been surprising. The anemia made me sleepy. And it had been a strange and stressful few days. Sure, no one was drinking my blood, and I'd been taking supplements, but it took a while to build your blood back up after so many years of deficiency.
Life was just catching up with me.
The next time I woke up, the sun was shining in the windows, and I could hear the splash of the water on the shower floor.
Before I could even stretch out my sore muscles, the water was cutting off, and Drex was walking out in a torturously low-slung towel.
"Finally," he said. "I checked your fucking pulse twice," he admitted, giving me a smile. "You were half-dead. You gotta be starving," he added, moving toward the desk where several bags were stashed. Grabbing one, he brought it to the bed, and dropped it in front of me. "Crap food," he told me. "We have to get on the road soon. It's getting late. We will stop for a late breakfast, but this should hold you over until then. I want to get as far as fast as possible to see if we can snap the enthrallment today."