Lily



Lily felt Varian's big body tense in front of her as the man with his piercing, green eyes stared at her all smug-like and arrogant.

"You want to keep your dog-eyes off my woman," Varian growled sharply, a precarious note of danger tinged in his deep timbre.

The man chuckled, "Judging by that ominous scowl on her face, she doesn't like being your woman."

Varian shifted his weight until Lily was obscured; "It's none of your concern."

A severity chased away any wry humor on the man's face, "This scientist, does he plan to make a pharmaceutical of your blood?"

The muscle at Varian's jaw twitched, "He's trying to discover the key to immortality."

"Who are you anyway?" Talon intervened, "You keep popping up unexpectedly so you might as well tell us who you are."

The wolf smirked, "Lucan Kirov." He curtsied, producing a broadening grin.

"Of the Kirov bloodline?" Talon asked intriguingly.

Lucan nodded.

"What's that mean?" Blanch asked, bringing everyone's attention to where she stood off to the side.

"It means he's one of the first wolves brought about." Varian growled warily, "He's an elder of his pack."

Lucan's brow arched curiously, "You've heard of me?"

"Don't flatter yourself, dog-your bloodline is infamous."

Kirov's green eyes shifted particularly on Lily, "She's in danger, fanger-"

"What do you care?" Talon stepped forward, eyeing the wolf skeptically, "Why do you take such a risk for vampires?"

Kirov's eyes narrowed shrewdly, "Last I checked, the woman wasn't a vampire just yet."

Talon sneered, "Still, it doesn't explain your reason for being here. What are you after, mutt?"

"I told you-" he growled deeply, "-the scientist is a threat to my pack, I'm here to ensure that something is done about it."

"It's being handled." Varian snapped rigidly.

Kirov arched a brow as he turned toward Varian, "Are you aware that the scientist is not your only problem at the moment?"

"We're aware of the hunter."

"I'm not talking about the hunter."

"What than?" Talon intervened.

Kirov's green eyes flared intriguingly on Lily, "Your human gives off a particular scent, one that entices all sort of beast. Not only do you have the scientist as well as whomever he hires to trail your tail to worry about, but you have Rogues in pursuit."

"Rogues?" this time Lily spoke up, stepping out from behind Varian despite the length of arm intending to keep her at bay.

Kirov smirked as his eyes swept over her face, "My, they've kept you in the dark, not good considering you're the main artery in all this."

"You've said enough." Varian hissed precariously, reaching out to grasp Lily's arm.

"What is he talking about?" she whirled on him, wrenching out of his grasp.

Varian cast an icily glare on Kirov, "We can discuss it later-"

"No, now!" she demanded, "What are Rogues?" she turned to ask Kirov directly.

The wolf appeared all the more eager to inform her, "They're vampires clearly out of check with their humanity. They have no sense of control over the bloodlust that enthralls them."

"Since when did you become equipped on the matters of our kind?" Talon asked frostily.

Kirov's eyes narrowed heatedly, "Since you became my enemy."

"I want you out of here." Varian growled, seizing Lily's arm and tugging her toward the stairs.

"I can help you." Kirov called.

Talon stepped in his view, "Your stink offends my sensibilities, mutt."

Kirov's mouth tilted into a grin, but his eyes remained as green shards of glass. He cast another glance to the stairs and then started for the door but paused when the woman in the corner caught his attention, noticing for the first time since arriving, that despite being his enemy, she was quite lovely.

Lily wrenched from Varian once they were alone in the bedroom. His touch not only infuriated her but stirred a mixture of feelings she dare not submit too.

She felt his presence like a massive wall and she moved to put space between them, "You haven't been entirely honest with me." She said rigidly, turning to peer angrily at him. "Why haven't you told me about these 'Rogues'?" "I had other matters on the mind." He growled darkly.

"And I don't?" she snapped, "It seems my options are limited- either become the undead or its meal? Which is it, Varian?"

He crossed the room to her and his sudden presence looming above her sucked the breath sharply from her lungs. His velvety dark eyes bespoke of explicit things and she was certain if she opened her mind to him, she would catch a glimpse of what lay behind that velour gaze.

"I'm frightened." She whispered despite her anger and all the frustration brimming beneath the surface.

He reached up and captured her chin between his forefinger and thumb, "I won't let anything hurt you." His dark, lilted voice laced heavily with warmth somewhat comforted her.

She attempted a smile but all this was making her afraid. She hadn't realized that she had swayed on her feet until a large, muscled arm latched around her, sweeping her flush against the hardness of him. Naturally her hands came up between them and she would have pushed against the firmness that was his chest, magnificently construed of muscle, but she was tired and unnaturally weak.

She relaxed against him and when she did, he reached beneath her knees and swept her gently against him. He carried her to the bed and laid her down. "You cannot expect me to tolerate this much longer." He said softly in her ear, "The transition needs to be completed or you will die. I am allowing you a bit of choice in the decision, but if it comes down to you dying, I will do it with or without your consent."

Her eyes grew heavy but she heard the truth in the firmness of his words and a shudder passed through her.

When she awoke again Varian was gone. Slowly rising in the ruffled blankets of the bed, she peered sleepily around the room, somewhat stronger than she had been.

Varian?

No answer.

She left the room and stepped out into the hall. The floorboards creaked noisily beneath her feet as she made her way towards the stairs and the house incredibly dark was without a sliver of light to guide her way.

When she reached the parlor, her eyes swept the room and found it empty. The sun must be up-she thought.

With that, she crossed the room towards the door. She opened it and was struck forcibly in the face with the evening sun.

Blinking against the abruptness of it, she placed a hand above her eyes and peered outward. The street was empty of any neighboring houses, no lawn mowers cutting away at heavy grass, no kids riding their bicycles up and down the smooth pavement, nothing that proclaimed life or anything of normalcy-just a creepy house on the corner of the street housing a couple of vampires and a half-breed. Wouldn't that be a highly rated, five-star reality show?

A noise behind her drew her attention from the empty street-she turned around and froze.

"Ruby?"

She kept to the shadows that hugged the parlor, careful to avoid the sunlight that cut a blinding path across the lush carpet. Her green eyes glistened keenly back at Lily, "How does it feel?" her friend asked lacking all the mirth and sarcasm that was Ruby Carmichael.

Lily frowned, "How does what feel?"

'The sun!" Ruby hissed, "How does it feel on your skin? Does it burn yet? Do you feel it tingling all over your body like a zap of electricity? No, you don't, do you?" she said flatly, "Because you're not yet a monster."

Lily stiffened, "Ruby, I never meant-"

"Sure you did." She said crisply, stepping forward. "You didn't want to spend an eternity alone, did you? You had to go and make me into a bloodthirsty beast?" a slow hiss shortly followed, "And here you stand, still undeniably human? Somebody should do something about that." Lily's heart jolted against her chest-this wasn't Ruby, not her Ruby! What had she done? The woman before her was a beast, a vampire and it was all her fault!

She retreated out onto the porch, not realizing that the sun had made a slow descent in the sky followed by the daunting, peril night, the visible lines of a fickle moon pulling strongly through the fading sunlight.

Ruby stepped through the door way, her eyes drawn to the pulse at her throat.

Her heart plummeted.

"Lily-" something in Ruby's voice drew her attention, a desperation, a longing-she wasn't sure, but when she peered into those familiar green eyes, she caught a glimpse of her Ruby. "You have to run.' She said this with great strain and Lily noticed the veins at her neck were taut, pulled tight with an undeniable hunger that burned within the skin.

She shook her head, her eyes teary. "Ruby, I'm sorry."

Green eyes brightened precariously to a ravenous glint, "I can't fight it." She hissed low, deadly. "You have to run, or I'm going to kill you."

Lily's eyes widened as Ruby advanced towards her, her eyes taking on an unnatural gleam; her mouth parted and revealed a set of menacing fangs.

In her peripheral Lily caught a glimpse of an ethereal, deadly face-Marguerite. She stood watching, unmoving with a wicked grin pulling at her lips.

Her blood rushed through her veins with a fleeting fear and her mind called fearfully-Varian! Tears rushed at the back of her eyes as Ruby stalked her, eyes glowing with a minatory thirst that lacked any humane light.

"Ruby!" she called as her friend swiped blindly at her, snarling and baring her fangs in a mindless craze.

She stumbled and fell to the ground. Ruby rushed upon her, propelled by a hunger that was jarring. What little strength Lily had, she felt it waning rapidly from her limbs as they ached against the force of the vampire whose face was a beloved friend.

Ruby easily overpowered her and before she sank her fangs deep into the base of Lily's throat-she caught a fragment of her Ruby, a small flicker of light in those evergreen eyes, fade and die out like an extinguished flame.

The pain that followed was nothing compared to the sensation of her blood being supped away, her life-span draining, bringing about an intense numbness.

She felt darkness approaching but as abruptly as it started, it abruptly ended and the fangs on her throat were gone in a blinking fragment.



Varian



Varian growled a beastly unnatural snarl as he wrenched Ruby through the air, and she landed roughly on the lawn with a distinctive 'ump'.

She rolled to her feet, shrieking, fangs noticeably immersed with Lily's blood. Glazed, green eyes flickered to where Lily lay on the ground but sensing the power emanating from Varian, she hesitated.

Talon and Blanch materialized there on the lawn and assessing the scene moved quickly to apprehend Ruby. She hissed and snarled against their restraint but was easily detained and taken to the basement.

Varian waited till she was out of sight and turned around to where Lily lay unmoving. The sight of her blood pooling incessantly from the punctured marks in her throat pulled dangerously at his hunger. He clenched his eyes and closed his senses against the incredibly enticing scent of her blood and kneeled to take her into his arms.

He materialized in their bedroom and placed her on the bed. His eyes assessed her quickly, noticing the pale shade of her skin, the perspiration bathing her brow and the tremors that racked her body.

He brought his wrist to his mouth and pierced the flesh until crimson drops formed on the surface. Leaning forward, he took the back of her head gently into his palm and brought it to her lips.

"Drink, Lily." He coaxed softly.

"No-" she murmured weakly, pushing his wrist away.

"Yes!" he hissed sharply, his stomach clenching with burning spasms as a hunger of fiery proportions raged within.

She shook her head, pushing feebly at his wrist. "I don't want to become like...you."

"Drink or you'll die!" his hand curled into the hair at the nape of her neck, "Drink, damn it!"



Lily

She felt a sudden pull on her resistance and with that gave in to the inevitable. She drank slowly of the copper taste that was his blood and shockingly felt a liquid warmth seep into her limbs, filling her to the brim with a dynamic strength, Varian's strength, and all the pain evaporated with an intense, burning sensation that was equally matched in those heated, velvety eyes.

A caress at her throat stirred an intense tingling in her belly; his hand smoothed over the expanse of her throat, touching fine, unmarked skin.

She felt him moving and watched through a haze of warm fuzziness as he removed his shirt, tossing it blindly to the floor. He leaned down and a tendril of his dark hair fell forward, lightly brushing her forehead as he captured her lips with his mouth. His large hand spanned the flatness of her stomach, moving to push her shirt up to run the length of her ribcage.

The sensations he stirred within her caused her to move restlessly, hungrily beneath him. She arched into his hand, earnestly aching for his touch.

His kiss deepened, staking claim to her lips with a possessive fervor. Her eyes fluttered closed as an irresistible languidness settled around her like a hazy dream.

It had to be a dream, just like all the others.

"Do not fear." He pressed the words caressingly against her throat.

Her hands spanned the length of his arms, massive, thick with muscle and holding her so tenderly, gently. The wild scent of him mingled with the desires he roused in her were like sheer euphoria.

Her eyes fluttered open as something pricked her skin. Her eyes found him in the dark and she found not a man with velvety eyes, but a vampire, his fangs bared, and eyes a shimmering red ablaze with a hunger in likeness to a fiery flame.

And she wasn't afraid.

**********