Bad Taste (Part I) // Colby Brock

122 - Tara

James ran to where Rebecca was leaning against the wall. He stared down at her and I didn't have to see his eyes to know what he was doing when he started to speak. She was caught in the trap before anyone could stop it.

"You don't have vervaine in your system, so let's try this again, shall we?" He muttered, pressing his forearm to her neck. "You want me to bite you. You're going to let me without consequence; without screaming or fighting back. And you're going to like it." Rebecca didn't respond at all, just lowered the arms she'd raised to push him. Colby's growl rumbled louder than it should have in the silent room as James started smirking. He raised his hand to the back of Rebecca's head, sifting his fingers through her curls and giving himself access to her neck. She was completely passive to it.

My chest was hurting when James let out that signature snarl, letting his fangs drop from his gums. I started to fight against my chains like Colby was now, the fight returned to him. Half-dead Katrina whimpered. None of us wanted her to get bitten by him.

For the first time, I was super thankful that Rebecca brushed everything off.

Before James could get his teeth in her, she took him off guard by throwing her knee into his crotch then shoving his shoulders back, raising her fist, and punching him so hard in the face that he fell to the ground. She went after him straight away, grabbing his hair like he'd grabbed hers. She shoved his head against the wall before letting him fall to the ground again.

She stood there breathing for a couple of seconds, her chest moving too fast and her heart racing, until she let out a soft whimper and fell, too. I didn't realise why until I smelt the fresh blood. My eyes roamed her neck, but the injury wasn't there.

This whole time, she'd managed to conceal that she was bleeding from the head. Beating his ass had taken it out of her.

Rebecca clutched onto the arm of the couch with white knuckles—a sight I'd seen once before. Colby tried to pull at his chains but he couldn't get to her, as I predicted. I could see in his eyes how much he wanted to just break free entirely of his poisoned state, but his adrenaline from watching Rebecca in pain simply wasn't enough.

The only good news was that James looked knocked out for now.

"Rebecca? Rebecca, are you okay?" Corey called across the room, tugging lightly against his chains and creating a racket. His eyes were sparkling like he wanted to cry but couldn't. I thought we all felt the same about seeing Rebecca on the floor bleeding when there was nothing we could do about it.

James' hand twitched and Rebecca saw it. Her eyes locked on Colby across the room, a million unspoken words passing between them. Somehow, I knew exactly what she was planning on doing when she pulled her hand away from the back of her head to look at the blood coating it. She'd learned from experience what blood did to help vervaine—or rather, to fight it.

James' whole arm moved when Rebecca launched up to her feet and ran past him. She almost made it before James recovered, but his eyes flickered open too soon. I screamed, just to get Rebecca's attention. She managed to act fast enough to dodge the grabby hand James made at her, though she fell victim to his shove. She fell to the floor just feet away from Colby, her eyes locked on her enemy. He ran at her, driving her against the wall still on the floor.

"I promise you, that will not happen again, princess." Colby growled but Rebecca made no sound or move against James. "Someone's been waiting to see you. Don't get your hopes up: she's not as polite as she used to be."

James disappeared and Rebecca let out a breath. She glared at the door that slammed at the top of the stairs before forcing herself up to her feet and walking to Colby. My heart started hurting again as she dropped to her knees and bumped their foreheads together. Both of their eyes closed. I noticed Colby's jaw clenching and unclenching, the muscles in his arms flexing. He was trying hard not to rip his hands off just to get them on her.

After what felt like forever, Rebecca whispered, "you're the strongest, right?" Colby pulled back from her and nodded. They looked at each other for a moment then Rebecca pulled up the sleeve of the blazer. I could tell she was a little hesitant about it—so was Colby. Even if we didn't like to admit it, feeding was pretty intimate and we didn't like to do it in front of each other. Desperate times called for desperate measures. Rebecca certainly knew that. "Take your share and beat the shit out of anyone who walks through that door," she told him.

When she held her wrist up to him, he didn't hesitate. I turned my head away not wanting to see the moment between them but I smelt Rebecca get a little excited. Jake smirked next to me and I elbowed him in the stomach.

A few moments passed then Colby gasped. My eyes flicked straight to him to see his vamp fully out, his hands grabbing at the chains that were holding him back. Rebecca, completely unaffected by the feed, shuffled back out of the way. He pulled once, twice, a third time. The chains finally broke. He pulled some of the walls out at the same time. He tore the chains from his wrists then his ankles, setting himself completely free. It was like he'd never been poisoned.

The first thing he did, which none of us were surprised about, was drag Rebecca up to her feet and into his arms. She latched onto him gratefully, jumping up so she was clutched to him like a koala. I smiled to myself at the thought.

Slowly, she slid down from him. Like they had orchestrated it, Colby ran straight for Kevin, who was by far the strongest of all of us. "When someone comes in here," he started, breaking the chains on Kevin's wrists with ease, "you pretend you're still chained up."

He moved on to a few others, just enough to give him a strong army against the people upstairs: Kevin, Corey, Mike, Sam, Cassie, and me, to my surprise. He said something about me being feisty when I looked at him weirdly for breaking my restraints.

Sam had healed Katrina and returned to his place at the wall pretending to be restrained. Colby, on the other hand, went back to Rebecca and dragged her onto his lap. She curled up against him sideways, his hand brushing through her hair. I thought she might fall asleep, she looked so relaxed.

We were all anticipating that door at the top of the stairs opening.

I couldn't wait to kick some ass, personally.