*picture of Lilly above*
The girl stayed silent as she scooted further into the corner. Henry slowly bent down and placed the knife on the ground. "I'm not going to hurt you," he said as he stood up and stepped back from the knife. "Are you Rose's sister?" he asked again.
"What . . . how-" she was cut off when Henry heard someone behind him. He quickly turned around and grabbed the person's arms, just in time to stop the boy from shoving a knife into Henry's chest. Henry was pushed against the wall as he continued to try and push the boy off of him, his arms started to shake as his body became weaker.
"Joey, stop!" Rose's sister said as she grabbed Joey's arm and pulled him off of Henry.
"What, why?! He's a leech!" Joey pointed to Henry with his knife.
"He knows Rose," she said.
Henry looked at Joey – he had dirty blond hair that was shaggy, barely going past his ears. He had vibrant light blue eyes and looked around the age of thirteen, around the same age as Rose's sister.
"Lilly, how do we know if he's telling the truth? He's a vampire; they have humans for Pets!" Joey tried to step towards Henry again.
"He didn't want to hurt me. Look." She pointed to the knife that Henry had placed on the floor.
"I still don't trust him," Joey said.
Lilly turned and faced Henry. "How do you know my sister? Describe her."
Joey's grip tightened around the handle of the blade
"She has brown hair and emerald green eyes. Her birthday is on April thirteenth, and she is now twenty." Henry paused for a second. "I saw what happened . . . both your parents were killed and Rose was taken. She had one book that she read."
Lilly cleared her throat as tears appeared in her eyes. "How do you know my sister?" Her voice unwillingly cracked.
"I was her Master," Henry said in a tone only describable as a whisper.
Lilly stuttered through words as she tried to say something, anything to this monster, but she was beginning to hyperventilate. But so many thoughts, so many terrifying, horrifying thoughts were swirling around her brain she couldn't even get a word out. But Henry heard. Henry heard every profanity thought about him. Every scared, sad, mad, hate-filled thought about him, he heard.
"I didn't treat her like a Pet," Henry said. All those frantic thoughts stopped. "I don't treat humans like that."
"How do I know you're telling the truth?" Joey asked.
"Rose is in the living room-" before he could say more, Lilly ran past him.
Henry cautiously began to follow her, still aware that Joey had a more than sharp knife ready to strike him. He walked into the room and saw Lilly standing over Rose, her face pale and full of horror.
Lilly's tear-filled eyes met Henry's. "What did you do to her?!" She pulled out her own knife.
"I didn't do anything." He slowly made his way to the couch. Lilly and Joey were unsure how weak he was and were not about to be killed by trying to slice him open. "She was taken by the Special Units Force." Exhaustion rammed into Henry and he no longer cared about the knives. He fell onto the couch wincing for an unknown reason as he did so.
"Why would she be taken?" Lilly asked.
Henry closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, preparing to have his heart stabbed. "I changed her." Lilly stepped forwards. "She asked me to." Lilly froze.
"Why would she ask you to do that?" Tears appeared in her eyes again. The thought of her sister asking to become a monster was almost too much for her to comprehend.
"She was hurt by . . . another vampire and she didn't want to leave me." Just saying those words coated the room in awkwardness. He added more, "We are together." Lilly's widened eyes looked down and saw that Henry was holding Rose's hand. It was a subconscious move he hadn't even known he had done.
Lilly stumbled back as her mind began another jumbled onslaught of every emotion imaginable.
Joey stepped forward. "Why are you so weak?" he asked. When a vampire struggled to fight off a human, that wasn't something that went unnoticed.
"One of my gifts is to be able to control people," Henry murmured, all he wanted to do was rest. He was so tired. "It weakens me."
Just as Henry's eyes closed Rose stirred a little before opening hers. "Henry?" Rose's hoarse voice asked. It was no use, the headache had beaten him. "Henry?" She groggily sat up. A scream ripped through the air when her eyes landed on Lilly. However, despite her fear and years apart, Rose suddenly recognized her. "L-Lilly?" This had to be another horrible dream. It just had to be!
Lilly nodded her head as her eyes started to tear up too. She dropped to her knees in front of a trembling Rose, who was a far cry of the sister Lilly knew. This girl was a pale, shaking, trembling, stuttering shadow of what Rose had been. It was almost enough to make Lilly cling onto Rose for dear life, but she somehow knew the sudden movement and action would scare Rose.
"I-I thought you were d-dead," Rose stuttered. She still didn't totally believe Lilly was really in front of her.
"Joey saved me," Lilly said as she glanced at Joey. Rose spun quickly around. She winced as it felt like her brain thudded against her skull. Her fearful eyes met Joey's and it took a second or two for her to realize the knife wasn't intended for her.
"T-thank you."
"No problem," Joey said as slowly but the knife back into its holster.
Lilly violently wiped a stray tear from her cheek. She hadn't seen Rose in so long she didn't know what to say or how to act. Just the thought of what Rose had endured almost made her cry out. Meanwhile, she had gotten stronger, braver, everything Rose wasn't.
Rose's head swam and her body ached. Before she could even warn the two, her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fell back onto a passed out Henry.
Lilly looked at Rose's unconscious body; more tears streamed down her face. She continued to wipe away the tears with the back of her hand. Joey looked at Lilly and tried to search for any words to calm her.
"Why don't you talk to her?" Joey said. "I bet she can still hear you."
Lilly stiffly nodded and walked to the couch. She knelt down in front of the two and forced her eyes to look above Rose. She couldn't bring herself to look at Rose's sickly-looking body.
"Hi . . . um, I don't really know what to say, which is weird because I imagined what I would say to you if I ever saw you again." There was a short pause. "I really missed you, and I'm sorry that I wasn't stronger that day. I should have been stronger . . . I should have tried to fight back, but I was too scared to . . . I-I'm so sorry-" she was cut off as she choked on her tears. She laid her head on Rose's shoulder as she continued to cry.
Henry murmured and his face twitched. From those two small things, Lilly knew he was waking up. Granted, it had been possibly the shortest rest in history, but it was enough.
"So you really do like her?" Lilly asked.
"Yes, I do," Henry said, eyes still closed.
"Treat my sister well." She watched as his arm around Rose tightened and pulled her closer. Whatever Rose needed right now, Lilly didn't know and couldn't give.
Henry's eyes opened and his surroundings came crashing into him. Rose was still asleep in his arms. His entire body ached and a sweet, beautiful taste filled his mouth. He cursed under his breath; he needed blood. His body was too weak, too spent to continue without it. Thankfully though, the last time he had been at the cabin he had bought blood, hopefully, it hadn't dried up.
Gently removing Rose from him he slowly and weakly made his way to the kitchen. Now, his senses were heightened and he could hear a heartbeat behind him. A scent filled his nose and he knew it was Lilly.
"Can you open the very bottom shelf and grab me the remaining blood bags?" Henry pointed at the fridge.
Lilly froze for a second before she stepped forward, her hand resting on her knife. She found only one blood bag left and handed them to Henry. He bared his fangs and bit into the bag, savoring it. He slowly felt some of his strength come back. He glanced up at Lilly, who had been staring at him throughout the process.
"What?" he asked as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
"You have two humans in your house, and you go for the bags."
"Believe it or not, but I don't like hurting humans," he said as he threw the bag away. There was silence between the two.
"What happened to my sister once she was taken?"
***
Rider was dragged out of bed when a knock rang out throughout the house.
"I'll get it," his wife said as she began to stand.
"No, I'll get it." He didn't know why, but he didn't want her answering the door. He stood up and allowed his hand to slip from hers. Walking down the stairs, he made it to the door and barely opened it. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion when he saw a man he didn't know.
"Can I help you?" Rider asked.
The Leader's unnaturally dark red eyes met Rider's. "You don't recognize me?" As soon as he finished his sentence, Rider had shut the door behind him.
"Did my dad send you here?" Rider hissed out. The Leader didn't answer, instead, the two made eye contact. Rider tried to step back, but he fumbled to his knees, hands clutching his head, and eyes tightly shut. How could this be happening now?! Why now?!
As Rider's eyes turned the dark red, his mind only allowed one thought to go through it: the abomination that was Rose had to die.
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