Free Thicker Than Blood (Marchwood Vampire Series #2) by Shalini Boland

eyes for fear of
what she might see, but they opened anyway. The bed she lay on was
narrow and covered in a grubby white sheet. Sitting up, she took in
her surroundings and her stomach lurched. A concrete floor, bare
stained walls, no windows and a noisy, whining strip light. The
room was small with two doors. Her head pounded and her mouth
tasted disgusting, like six-month-old milk. Her wrists and ankles
hurt where they had been tied together. She gave them a rub and
winced as she saw the red raw flesh.
    Sliding off the bed, Maddy staggered across
the three feet required to reach the nearest door. It rattled in
its hinges as she tried the handle - locked. She gave the base of
the door a half-hearted kick before heading over to the second
door. This handle creaked and the door opened inwards to darkness.
Maddy patted the wall until she found the light switch. Another
strip light buzzed on, illuminating a sink, a toilet and a
blackened shower head protruding from the ceiling. Everything was
caked in layers of grime, rust and other stuff which she’d rather
not think about. Shallow pools of liquid lay on the floor. She
wrinkled her nose, turned off the light and closed the door. What
the hell was going on?
    She strode across to the locked door and
rattled it again, harder than before.
    ‘ Hey!’ Her fist pounded
against the peeling paintwork. ‘Open the door! Hey! Is anyone out
there?’
    She put her ear to the door and listened
hard but all she heard was her own ragged breathing. No sound came
from outside. Either there was no one there, or they were ignoring
her. Well, they couldn’t ignore her forever, could they? They had
brought her here for a reason and she’d probably find out what it
was soon enough. Maddy shivered. She was still wearing the same
boots, jeans and sweater she had on at the ice rink, but it was
freezing in here. Scanning the room, she spied a dark shape on the
floor near the end of the bed. It was her parka. She picked it up
and shrugged it on, then checked for her mittens, but the pockets
were empty. Never mind. The coat was toasty and she zipped it up to
her chin and shoved her hands back into her pockets.
    Suddenly, the light spluttered and went out.
Darkness. Silence. Maddy’s skin crawled and fear clutched at her
belly. She took a breath and told herself that whoever had taken
her hadn’t harmed her. They obviously wanted her alive. For now at
least. She shuffled over to the low bed, climbed on and brought her
knees up to her chest, hugging them in tight to her body.
    Alex would find her soon and then her
captors would be sorry. She wouldn’t like to be them when he
arrived. She remembered what Alex had done to that slimy solicitor,
Vasey-Smith, when he’d held her at gunpoint - Alex had broken his
neck with a flick of his wrist. She wished he’d hurry up and find
her now because she was beginning to freak out and this place was
rank. She was cold, hungry and felt so grotty that the vain part of
her almost didn’t want Alex to come and see her like this with her
hair all greasy and her X-rated breath.
    Images of warm bubble baths, crisp cotton
duvets and toothpaste floated into her head, followed by the
picture of one of Esther’s home-cooked roast dinners with mountains
of crispy potatoes and treacle tart for pudding. Her stomach
gurgled and she banished the image from her mind. No, she couldn’t
waste time wishing for the impossible; she needed to work out how
she was going to get out of here. Part of her brain was telling her
to crumple down onto the bed and sob her eyes out, but Maddy
refused to give in to it. She needed to be strong and clear-headed,
she couldn’t dissolve into tears.
    A whirring noise broke the silence, followed
by a crackle and a pop and then the humming sound of the strip
light flared into life again. Once more, Madison was forced to take
in her depressing surroundings and she decided she would have
preferred to remain in darkness.
    Maddy dozed on the bed,