Mine, Bitten

Chapter Thirty-Two

          Lily

           Jackson drew his eyes away from Charlie to peer at Lily. "I imagine they do."

            Lily frowned, "You're not concerned?"

            He shrugged his shoulders unaffected and moved to lean against the wall. "I can't run from it." He said calmly, "I'm sure Ward's figured out by now that I've crossed sides and well I can't really speak for the monsters."

            "They're not monsters." Lily found herself saying and Jackson stared strangely at her.

            "Are you defending them?" he asked almost incredulously.

            She narrowed her eyes at him, "Don't judge me okay?" she picked up Charlie to place him in her lap. "Besides, we all know who the real monster in this is."

            Veronica appeared suddenly at the door with her burger and fries.

            "What happened to you?" she asked in between snapping her gum, "Where's Ruby? I'm working her shift, you know? She owes me." She grumbled.

            Veronica's ignorance moved furiously through Lily, "You good for nothing trollop trash." Lily leapt to her feet, wagging a finger in Veronica's bewildered face, "How many times have you ditched your shift leaving Ruby to work a double just so you could bang the first hottie in the hotel down the street?"

            Veronica exchanged a confounded look with Jackson and then rolled her gum and snapped it. "You gonna' let her talk to me like that, Jackson?"

            Smirking, Jackson simply rolled his shoulders.
            Muttering something unpleasant beneath her breath, Veronica dropped the plate of burger and fries, which landed simultaneously on the table and pivoted towards the door.

            "It would seem Ruby's rubbed off on you." Jackson teased.

            Sighing, Lily sank heavily back into her seat. "I shouldn't have said that."

            Jackson chuckled and pushed away from the wall, "You only said what everyone else was thinking-Veronica is a floozy."

            Jackson plucked a fry off the plate where Veronica had dropped it then pushed the plate toward Lily.

            She shook her head.

            "You should eat something." He settled down in the chair opposite of her.

            "You're not safe with me, Jackson."
            "Yeah, I've figured that much out."

            Lily leaned across the desk to grab his attention, "I'm serious, you better get the hell out of dodge, betrayal doesn't set well with Ward and Varian will come for me-he always does. Either one won't hesitate to kill you. You know too much and if they don't do it, others will."

            Jackson lifted a brow, slight humor curling his lips. "Varian? Are you on first name basis with this vampire?"

            "Damn it, Jack, you listening to me?"
            He held a hand to ward off some of her growing frustration, "I got it-I'm on the hit list."

            "And you find this amusing?"

            "Not exactly but at the moment it's somewhat gratifying to know that I'm currently alive and have survived the last couple days of bizarreness-that tends to make oneself lightheaded with giddiness."