Mine, Bitten

Chapter Forty-Four

            Varian muttered a growl of admittance, remaining firm at Lily's side.

            "How are you feeling?" Ruby asked as she strolled into the room, green eyes alert. "What's the matter?"

            "She hasn't fed." Varian snarled dissatisfied.

            Ruby stiffened, "Why haven't you eaten?"

            Lily suddenly felt beneath a spotlight as two pairs of eyes, one piercing of black shards yet hinting at underlining warmth while the other, glinting of evergreen, pinned her sharply. "I've tried."

            Blanch appeared in the doorway, "We can further discuss this at a better time. Please, we should get Lily to a secure location."

"Wait – "Ruby exclaimed suddenly, holding up a hand. "Wouldn't she be safe here?"

            Lily shook her head, "No, my father knows this hotel. He'll know to look here."

            "Yes, but this hotel is teeming with guests and staff. There is constant traffic. It would be difficult to channel your scent among the others?"

            "She's right." Varian said, "It's a sliver of an advantage but it may work in our favor."

            Lily started to rise from the bed, feeling a bit more nauseous than she cared to admit and as she did, her legs suddenly buckled from beneath her. She grabbed onto Varian's arm just as he swung around to catch her.

Seve

            "I don't think we really have a choice." Blanch affirmed, "She's growing weaker."

            "What do you suggest we do?" Ruby demanded, green eyes round with unease.

            The sudden clearing of a feminine throat brought everyone around. Varian shifted Lily into his arms as Ruby and Blanch spun about to peer at a much unexpected face.

            "I have a thought." Marguerite purred.

            "You are proving to be quite useless to me, human." Seve hissed as they traversed Bucharest's boisterous streets. It thrived with the unconstrained and daring, yet its unbridled and wanton night-life went unnoticed as the ignorant and fragile passed them by, unaware of the creatures that slipped among them.

            The pathetic human staggered in Alessandro's unyielding grip, shouting vague directions with a hint of fear. The human had every reason to be fearful. He was merely a means to an end. Once they captured the woman and obtained the man's research they would no longer need the scientist.

            Pearly trailed at their heels, appearing the ethereal figurine that she was, donned in all her white silk as she peered with yearning eyes, enthralled by the hum of night-life.

            Alessandro was an intensely stoic figure among the crowd with an icy resolve that held a sinister, granite stare. He surveyed the humans with undisguised contempt. Seve mirrored that hatred, harboring a deep and maddening envy for the weaker species and their ability to live freely in the daylight.

            They were bound by darkness and cursed to be monsters forever damned. So much time has transpired; decades and centuries of living in the shadows, beneath the ground, that he could no longer remember a time of mortality.

            And yet, his daughter did not share in his hatred. Blanch infuriated him to no end! His own flesh and blood rebuffed and objected his future contrivances and now this act of betrayal to her kin!