Claudia D. Christian

Estimated reading time: 4 – 6 minutes

Lily watched her mother leave the room. She waited until the footsteps faded into the muted sound of a carefully closed door.

“You actually can obey orders. It’s very gratifying to know.”

“Douglas…” her tiny voice paired alongside a placid countenance attested to a battered opponent. “Is there anything you would like before you take your leave of us?”

The vampire possessed a smirk worthy of a well-fed cat. “Are you offering me sustenance?”

“What would you like?”

Julian beckoned Lily to him. He noted her stingy steps. Amusement charged the air with mischief. Once she stopped an arm’s distance away, Julian snapped out and hauled Lily to him. He ignored her hiss and settled his mouth above her carotid artery. It throbbed and jumped madly.

“How about you, Lily?”

“You’re not still hungry. You already fed from…Nicole.”

“Hmm. True. Maybe I’m just a glutton, Lily.” He feathered his lips right above the skin. The tiny hairs sprang to attention, currying for his favor. “Maybe I just wonder how virginal you’ll taste.”

Lily stayed silent.

“Oh, you’re being so submissive, darling. I like it very much.”

She tried to burn a hole in the floor with her dogged stare.

“Are you not going to screech in my ear? Hmm. That would disappoint me if you lost all your fight, Lily.”

She remained rigid in his hold. Her mouth hardened like her posture.

“Maybe if I bite you I’ll get to hear a little screech. What do you say?”

“I say you won’t. You have no interest in feeding off of me. I’m not food for you.”

“Sounds like a dare.” Julian’s fang tips scraped over Lily’s neck. “I’m not above indulging in childish antics. After all, I’ve endured yours all night.”

Lily inhaled sharply. Ridiculous pleasure threatened to rob her numbness. She wanted to drive her fist into his throat. Knowing it wouldn’t do much but satisfied with the symbolism, Lily struggled to keep her impulse in check.

She’d already been reprimanded for her aggression more than once by her mother. She wasn’t going to go for a third. Not tonight and not for him.

“Lily? Lily?”

His sing-song voice penetrated her resolve. Anger, familiar, beautiful anger, boiled beneath her skin. Lily hated their game. Hated the way things had degraded between them. Honesty used to be their language. Now it was a thing difficult to find amidst all the pretty words and hissed curses.

“Douglas. I want you to leave. I can’t make you because my mama wouldn’t approve. Instead, I’m asking you to go.”

Julian pulled away. He released her arms. “Why? Is my company that repellant to you?”

“The way you are now? Yes. It is.”

His eyes flashed gold. “Do you think you are so much more amusing this way?”

“I’m not trying to amuse you, Douglas. I’m just trying to survive.”

“I see.”

“Do you really?”

“I do.”

“I don’t think so. You come into my life as someone I can look up to, someone I can trust. You protect me, become the brother I never had and father I needed. I grow up with you. I fall in love with you. And then you leave. You leave me and come back as someone else. You hate me. You hate me for not knowing you existed. I can’t help that, Douglas! I can’t help that no one saw fit to tell me who you really are! Last night you wanted to kill me. You. Wanted. To. Kill. Me. And…I…no. I’m not…going…”

Lily walked briskly into the kitchen and out the back door. Her words, the most honest ones she’d spoken to him since their reunion the night before, dug away at her insides. They exposed her for the lost, abandoned child she really was.

She stalked past the tiny ash pile, remnants of the blanket she burned just that morning, and kept walking. She went past the vegetable garden, past the flower beds, and past the shed. Lily walked, disheveled and barefoot, and mourned. Tears slipped past their ebony cage, free to show their existence when no one was watching.

Lily became aware of footsteps echoing hers. She wiped her cheeks and stifled the swollen sobs pouring from her mouth. Her humiliation complete, Lily saw no other option than to stop and turn around.

Julian stood only a few feet behind her. “If you wanted to speak outside, darling, all you had to do was ask.”

“Stop it. Stop being so nice to me when you don’t mean it at all!”

“Of course I mean it. I’m courting you now, Lily.”