Frowning, Sarita gathered up the blood she'd come down for and headed back upstairs. She was crossing the living room to the doors to the terrace before she realized what she found most bothersome about the letter. It was the fact that Domitian hadn't mentioned it to her.
Why was that? she wondered, pausing by the doors. Several possibilities filled her mind. Perhaps he had thought it would upset her, which suggested he thought her weak. Or perhaps he hadn't told her because he didn't want her to know Dressler was going to contact him somehow. Or perhaps because he'd already contacted him and told him what he wanted. Perhaps Dressler had told him about the cameras and that he wanted them to have sex. Maybe he'd promised Domitian freedom or something if he performed often and enthusiastically.
Sarita glanced to where Domitian still lay, apparently unconscious on the lounge chair. She briefly considered not taking the blood out to him. She even considered leaving him out there in the sun to fry, grabbing several bottles of water from the refrigerator upstairs, and trying to leave right now on her own. But then she pushed the door open, stepped out, and kicked it closed before walking to the lounge chair.
One glance was enough to ascertain that Domitian was still unconscious and incapable of feeding himself. Sarita dumped the bags of blood on the chair next to his body and then gave him a good slap to try to wake him up so he could feed. When that had no effect, she straightened to consider what she should do.
After a moment, Sarita hurried back into the house and through the living room and bedroom to the en suite bathroom where she retrieved one of the steak knives still lying on the counter. She then fetched a large bath towel as well before hurrying back out to the pool.
Moving quickly now, she covered Domitian with the bath towel from the neck down to prevent further damage from the sun, then grabbed a bag of blood and held it over his mouth. Sarita was raising the knife to puncture the bag when she recalled what Asherah had done in the lab to bring on the immortal's fangs. Pausing, she set the bag down and punctured the tip of her finger instead. It was just a small jab, enough to bring on a bead of blood that she then waved under Domitian's nose.
His nose twitched, and then his mouth fell open and she watched as two of his upper teeth shifted and then slid down, becoming pointy little fangs. Sarita stared at them for a minute, marveling that they looked just like normal teeth when in their resting position, but then she grabbed the bag of blood again and popped it to his fangs. Once she was sure it was fixed in place, cradled in his open mouth, she let go and slowly removed her hand, ready to grab it again if it rolled or shifted and fell off. When that didn't happen, Sarita straightened with a sigh and then left him there and went back inside to get her water. She was quite sure he'd wake up before the first bag was empty and would be able to then feed himself the rest of the bags she'd left him. It hadn't seemed to take much for the corpse guy to come sputtering back to life and he'd apparently been drained.
The bottled water was ice cold when Sarita pulled it from the refrigerator. Hot as she was, she didn't open it at once, but instead pressed it against her forehead and then her cheeks, sighing as it cooled her heated flesh. When she finally opened it and began to drink, she gulped half of it down in one go. Sarita then tossed the cap in the sink and grabbed a second bottle from the refrigerator to take with her before heading for the basement again. She was determined she would finish her search of those boxes this time . . . and the cupboards in the old lab too.
Actually, perhaps she'd start in the lab, Sarita thought suddenly. There might be an old lab coat stashed away in one of the drawers or cupboards that she could wear when she left this place. Even an apron would cover more than anything in the closet upstairs did.
Heck, if there were curtains on any of the windows here, she'd be sewing herself a gown a la Gone with the Wind, Sarita thought dryly and then paused at the bottom of the stairs as she thought of the sheets on the bed. She wouldn't even have to sew that, she could just wrap it around herself toga style.
Sarita almost turned to run back upstairs, but then continued on into the lab. It would only take a minute to check the cupboards for a lab coat, and that would be much less cumbersome than the large sheet from the bed.
She started her search with the cupboards along the wall next to the door, quickly opening and closing cupboards and drawers one after the other as she walked along. All Sarita found was dusty old-and probably outdated-lab equipment, a couple of pencils, a stapler, an empty whiskey bottle, and blank notepads.
Disappointed with her results, she moved on to the floor-to-ceiling cupboards along the wall with the refrigerator and freezer. The first cupboard was an old broom closet with a tin dustpan and a broom and mop, both disintegrating with age. The other two cupboards were empty except for hooks, which had no doubt at one time held lab coats.