Ward



Ward stepped aside as Lily was carried into the bright, fluorescent room and placed onto the steel surgical table. He of course had no intention of doing any surgical procedures, however, the table had proved sufficient in keeping his supposed 'patients' manageable.

He would draw some of her blood and while doing so, needed little to no thrashing so the leather strips that dangled on either side would ensure her cooperation.

As his assistant worked at her bindings he took a moment to study her.

She was his daughter; the product of him. He should be feeling some kind of way about that.

As he peered at her, he couldn't help but think of her mother. Lily hadn't known her mother of course; Vivian had died while giving birth to their only child, her last breath pushing forth one last pained retort. Vivian had hated him, but that was of course after what he had done.

That night was as vivid as if it were yesterday. Vivian's confusion as to why he wouldn't rush her to the hospital as she stood crumpled over with pain, clutching her swollen belly.

"Ward, please!" she cried, "The baby is coming." He moved to her side and gently took her arm in his, ushering her towards the bed. "You'll have the baby here, Viv."

Doubled with pain, she barely put up a fight as she collapsed onto the bed, her brow bathed perspiration. "Please-" she whined, arching her back in attempt to avoid the fierce coming contraction.

So absorbed in her pain, she hadn't noticed Ward's movements, the particular object he withdrew from his pocket.

Ginny, his assistant at the time peered at him knowingly as he moved toward the bed to tenderly soothe his wife's brow, "The doctor is coming, dear."

He had waited and anticipated for months on end for this moment. His child was at hand and he knew, it was now or never to do what he had planned for so long.

Taking his wife's arm, aware of how slack it laid in his hand, he tapped the syringe and gently plunged the needle into her flesh.

She felt the prick and turned her pain-hazed eyes to him. Her reaction was delayed as another contraction seized her, forcing a cry past her lips.

As the remnants of the syringe emptied into her body word of the doctor's arrival came.

Ward stepped away and quickly disposed of it as he cast an uneasy gaze upon Vivian.

It wasn't long before the remnants coursed through her veins. The doctor began his ministrations the moment he arrived but was quick to note that the labor was seemingly turning for the worst. Vivian was going into compulsions as a fever gripped her. She claimed of a fire scorching her insides, burning from the inside out, and her skin taking on a peculiar shade of red, the doctor claiming her heart beat at an irregular, frightening pace.

When the doctor realized the pregnancy would prove to be more difficult than what he had anticipated, he left the room momentarily to retrieve more means, only than did Vivian turn to him, eyes aglow with pain.

"What have you done?" she whispered weakly.

"What I had too." He replied coolly, unaffected by the dying light in her eyes.

"You have killed us."

He stood numbly aside as the doctor returned, only this time, prepared for a cesarean.

That night of Lily's birth, he had lost Vivian, but had gained so much more.

As Lily stirred, she became instantly aware of a bright, blinding light hanging above. Wincing she turned her head away and realized she was lying down.

Her eyes fluttered open and her heart slammed fearfully against her chest.

She jolted against the restraints that confined her to a steel table.

Her heart now thumping wildly out of control, she began struggling as panic swept through her.

"Persist in struggling and you will only cause yourself harm."

Lily froze as she turned to the voice that spoke to her from across the room.

"Let me go." She demanded, tears brimming to the surface as she peered alarmingly at Ward. "Let me up."

He cleared his throat, as if somewhere beneath that cold façade, was a man affected by her unshed tears. "I cannot."

"This is k-kidnapping." She stammered, "-Whatever you have planned, y-you can guarantee there will be consequences for you."

He moved to stand above her, "I have already done what needed doing."

She felt whatever color in her face drain rapidly, "What did you do to me?" "I simply took samples of your blood-nothing more."

She jerked on the binding, "Is this necessary?" He nodded, "Yes."

"Let me go, Ward."

He stiffened, "There are things that you and I need to discuss."

"Not while I am bound to a steel table like one of your lab rats. Let me up!" "Lilith-"



Lily

She couldn't contain them any longer, she felt the tears streaming her face, partly from anger, partly from pain-whatever the reason she no longer cared if he saw them.

"I swear it, when I am able, I will have you thrown in prison for this."

He appeared moved by that for his expression darkened, his eyes growing hard. "On that note, perhaps I should keep you here for all time?"

Her face paled, "Why are you doing this?"

Sighing, he crossed the room and settled back into the chair he had vacated earlier. "I thought perhaps we could discuss your mother."

Lily froze for she would have never expected that, "My mother?"

He nodded.

Clearing his throat once more, he began, "Her name was Vivian."

She felt her heart leap-never had anyone spoke of her mother, it had been a forbidden conversation as a child. Ward had refused to speak of her.

"I met your mother through mutual friends-she was young, beautiful, everything a man wanted in a woman, but too clever for her own good." His eyes darkened, "She repelled my work, claimed I spent all my time doing 'ridiculous science' as she called it. I tried explaining the unnatural to her, but she refused to listen."

He paused, "It came to the point where she despised my work. I wanted to prove her wrong. I wanted to prove that I would one day be something she'd envy, but it was more than that; I wanted her approval, her devotion."

He stood and began pacing the room. "She didn't know of the vials I collected, the vampire I chased, she wouldn't have believed me. She detested my work and I hated her for it. I wanted her to become the very thing she repelled, and so I devised a plan to turn her."

Lily felt a sickening coil in her belly, "What do you mean, turn her?" His blue eyes as he leveled them coldly on her were renewed with resentment. "I had planned to inject her with the creature's blood, to find out if she would turn into the very thing she deemed ridiculous."

Lily released a sharp, audible gasp. "You're crazy."

His face altered to a masked expression. "And than she told me she was pregnant."

Her heart stilled in her chest.

"I had thought if I turned her, I could use her, study her-I would no longer need the vampire that eluded me. I believed once turned, Vivian would no longer rebuff my work but become it."

"You thought if you turned her that she would accept you, rather than reject you?" Lily's voice was hollow, dejected as pain for her mother pierced her heart.

Ward stiffened, jutting his chin outward at the apparent horror on her face. "When I injected her, she was in the throes of giving birth-I saw an opportunity and I seized it."

Lily's eyes burned with fresh tears. "You killed her."

Something glimmered in that hardened blue stare and for a moment, she believed him capable of feeling, but as quickly as it shimmered, it vanished.

"How could you do that?' she cried brokenly, "How can you be such a monster!" she pulled on her bindings, thoroughly sickened, seemingly terrified.

Her words must have struck a chord for his face became flushed with anger. "A monster?" he stormed to tower over her, "There are creatures beyond our imagining that drain the life sustenance from humans, and you call me the monster?"

He placed his arms on either side of her, forcing her head back down onto the table. "Perhaps I should tell you the other side to this story."

Lily's stomach churned with dread. "What other side?"

He straightened and grinned, "You." She swallowed back a sudden tightness in her throat, "What about me?"

"Do you think you came out unaffected after I injected your mother with vampire blood?"

Lily paled, feeling a wave of nausea grip her. "What are you saying?" His grin widened, "I'm saying you are half-human, half-vampire- you're a hybrid."

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