Lily
Lily stared at Varian with confounded disbelief. It shouldn't bother her, but it did. The thought that Varian created that stone beauty was incredulously problematic.
"A bond between a sire and its sired is a powerful union-"
She held up a hand to stop him. "You don't have to explain anything to me. It's not as if we're dating."
"Lily-" he growled, "-you and I need to come to an understanding. I've marked you. That makes you mine."
Her heart jumped at the word-mine. It had a startling effect on her. "I'm not yours!" she exclaimed heatedly, balling her hands into fists at her sides. "I've had it up to here with my being 'yours'!"
He moved so quickly that she jumped, seizing her arms tightly in an iron grip that could easily hurt if he willed it. "Whether you like it or not-" he growled in a low tone, "-you are mine, I made certain of that the moment I drank from you."
Her face blushed a deep red at the remembrance of how he'd stolen into her dreams and fed from her. He had done it so wickedly charming like-how could she feel any other way but enchanted? Ridiculous!
His velvety black eyes moved caressingly over her face, arousing a flutter in her belly and frightened by it, she wiggled out of his grip. "Are we done?"
"You're pale." He said noticeably.
"I'm not feeling well." She confirmed, moving away from the insufferable heat of his massive frame that was doing strange things to her body.
"You haven't eaten." He growled, "You need to feed."
Lily's eyes widened, "Feed? As in-" her eyes dropped warily to the pulse at his throat and her stomach churned, "-certainly not!"
His face darkened as he stepped toward her. "Your body is in transitioning, Lily. It will not digest human food but make you violently ill."
She was doused in a sudden cold sweat. "This is your entire fault!" she whirled on him, "If you hadn't taken my blood this wouldn't have happened."
"It's done, Lily."
Her face reddened, "Just like that, all nonchalant and what not!"
"I told you what would happen if the transitioning wasn't complete. The human in you will fight the change, but nothing can be done, eventually, the change will take course and you'll no longer be-"
"Alive!" she cried, "I didn't want this! I want a normal life-one without you in it!"
He winced as tears began to skim the length of her cheeks. He stepped toward her but she retreated, her face red and taut with fury. "Why didn't you just kill me?" she said dejectedly, "In Romania, why didn't you?"
He straightened beneath her fixated glare, "I wanted to protect you."
She laughed coldly, "I was doing perfectly fine until you came along."
It was his turn to laugh, "Really, should we run down the laundry list of screw ups?"
Varian
The tears had stopped and he was grateful for that-he much rather face her anger then her tears. He knew she was upset, thoroughly upset and she had every reason to be. It had been many centuries since he was turned, though vague of a picture he could paint, he remembered feeling quite desolate and hollow on the inside once he learned of the monster he'd become.
He stepped forward and this time yanked her against him, she fought him weakly but eventually relaxed into him. His arms felt good, whether she was angry with him or not, she rather liked being held. He smoothed a hand through her hair, teasing the waves with playful fingers. "I'm sorry, Lily, but it had to be done. I don't regret it, if I hadn't done what I did, you wouldn't be mine."
She smiled into his surprisingly warm chest. "That was very selfish of you."
He grinned, "I may be a vampire, but I'm a man nonetheless and I know what I want when I see it." His dark eyes dropped hungrily to her lips, "And I want you."
She tilted her head back to peer up at him, "I'm not for the wanting."
He smirked, allowing her that small retort before capturing her lips with heated fervor. He kissed her hungrily, with an animalistic frenzy that heightened with each innocent stroke of her tongue. An animalistic growl arose from his throat as his arms tightened, pressing her luscious frame firm against the hardness of him. She ignited the fires within him until they seared low in his belly working a path of fieriness to his groin. He carried her to the bed and a sleepy Charlie flounced to the floor, padding softly to a cushioned chair.
They fell upon the bed and he rolled, pulling her beneath him, deepening his kiss that produced a soft moan of pleasure from her.
He grinned as he nuzzled the slight curve of her chin and he felt his fangs lengthening, the tips yearning for one sweet taste.
She arched into him, enticing the inexplicable desire to span her waist with his hands, to caress the length of her, smooth the curves of her that enticed and aroused his inner beast. Along with the intolerable urge to claim her as a man would a woman, the fires of bloodlust were beginning to singe the insides of his stomach, burning exceedingly fast through his frame until the tips of his fangs were afire with want.
"Lily-" he growled almost painfully. He seized the front of her shirt and ripped the material clear to her navel, revealing the smooth expanse of her flat stomach and a white bra construed of lace.
She reached up and ran her hands the length of his hardened chest, mewling softly for him to remove the insufferable cloth that kept her touch at bay. Grinning crookedly, he reared back and wrenched it off, tossing it heedlessly to the floor.
Lily
She gasped as her hands connected hotly with flesh and muscle as hard as steel. She had never encountered a man as powerfully built, wickedly chiseled and delightfully defined as Varian. She was almost intimated by the sheer size of him and her hands pulled shyly away.
Sensing her reluctance, he grabbed her hands and pressed a kiss into her palms.
He leaned down, further enclosing the space that separated them and pushed her hands to the back of their heads.
His mouth hovered above hers as a heated hiss escaped him, "Mine." His hand fell to her waist, skimming feather-like over the softness of her stomach, moving higher to the underlining of her bra. She squirmed beneath him, aching for his touch and growing increasingly impatient.
His arm reached beneath her and with a simple fastening of her bra, tugged it free, exposing the soft mounds of her breasts to his hungry gaze. A fiery flame flared hungrily in the velvety dark stare that seared the length of her. He reached down and cupped one breast in his hand, squeezing lightly, pulling a soft sigh from her lips.
He grinned, revealing a tip of his fang.
She arched invitingly into his hand, forcing a low growl from his throat.
He leaned forward and pressed a fevered kiss to the arch of her throat and his hunger intensified, growing precariously intolerable.
"Lily-" he murmured heatedly, "-you need to feed."
Her body squirmed achingly beneath him as she shook her head. "No-" she hissed.
"I want you-" he growled harshly, "-if you don't feed, this can't happen."
She inhaled a sharp breath through her nose and flattened her hands against his naked chest, a look of letdown producing a frown upon her enticing mouth. "I'm sorry-" she said solemnly, "-I just can't be what you are."
She pushed him away and grabbed her shirt. She felt his eyes boring into her as she tugged it harshly over her head.
"You feel a certain kind of way about me." He growled, "Just as I feel for you. It's in our nature. You are mine as I am yours. The thread between us will only thicken; no matter how much you fight it will only grow stronger." She winced as he stood abruptly, the size of him forcing a tremor through her as he crossed the room to the door, slamming it forcefully behind him.
Ruby
It felt as though she was awakening from a long-drawn coma. Her eyes fluttered and the impact of the surprisingly faint light struck her eyes full-force, rendering her blind for a few startling moments until her eyes adjusted to her surroundings. Her mind shuddered alarmingly with a dull ache and a fleeting panic as to how she ended up contained to a cell? Her head began to buzz a little louder. She felt an unusual prickling alongside her tongue and the sensation that her insides were ablaze.
She moaned something nasty beneath her breath and remained slumped on the floor. Her head hummed with a thudding, a terrible thudding with sounds that were growing increasingly louder with her awareness. She blinked and her vision cleared and with that she blanched. Her sight most certainly wasn't 20-20 but damn if she couldn't see every intricate line and crevice of the room. Her brows pulled together in awe-was it just her imagining but was her vision more pronounced?
The burning sensation in her stomach flared to the magnitude of excruciating. Her teeth gritted against the agonizing wrenching of her stomach as she rolled to the floor and curled into a ball. What was happening to her? Her body was cringing and burning all at once it was almost unfathomable.
Despite the immense pain gripping her insides, she pushed herself to her feet and lunged for the bars. The unexpected burning that singed her hands produced a nasty growl from her throat, one that was clearly inhuman and she released them abruptly, leaping away from them.
"I wouldn't touch those again if I were you."
Ruby lifted her head to see a man with dark, unruly hair and wry-cobalt eyes strolling toward her. His handsome face revealed a wickedly, charming grin that portrayed a sinfully attractive appeal that tugged at her feminine strings.
"Who the hell are you?" she snapped angrily.
To her surprise, the man curtsied, "Talon Beaux, ma'am, you can call me T or ah-" he paused, "-judging by that prettily brooding glower of yours, son-of-a-bitch?"
She laughed coldly, "I suppose that means you're the bastard that brought me here?"
A grin broadened his mouth, "I like you."
Her eyes narrowed heatedly, "Wish I could say the same." She motioned to her accommodations. "If you let me out now I won't report you for kidnapping?"
He laughed, "Ah, I think a tigress such as you should remain as such."
Her green eyes flared with her anger, "Listen creep, I'm not the 'damsel-in-distress' type. I'll kick your ass without a second thought, and I'll do it Angelina Jolie style, capiche? "
He stepped closer to the bars, "I'm the least of your worries, Ruby."
Her eyes widened with surprise, "How do you know me?" she stiffened as the subtle sounds of footsteps permeated from the top of the stairs and then produced a familiar face. "Lily?" she gasped in disbelief.
"Ruby-" her friend's face was almost grief-stricken.
"You want to tell me what's going on?" Ruby demanded, her eyes wavering warily to the blue-eyed man peering at her amusingly.
Lily stepped hesitantly toward the bars, "I don't know how to tell you-"
"You can start by telling me how I ended up like this?" she gestured to the bars surrounding her. "Damn I'm hungry." She said this lastly almost to herself, surprised by the unexpected wave of hunger that seized her.
Lily stiffened, paling slightly at the remark. "You're a –" she felt silent as Ruby's dark, evergreen stare connected sharply with hers.
"What?" she growled.
"Do you remember anything before you blacked out?" Lily asked gently.
Ruby's brows knitted together as she tried piecing the last fragments before losing consciousness. "No-" she snapped, "-I can't remember a thing."
"I asked you to go to my apartment?"
She weighed this a moment and nodded slowly, recognition dawning. "Yes, I think I remember."
"What happened after that?"
Growing frustrated, Ruby shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. "What?" she demanded, "What is it?"
Lily sighed and then said very warily, "You're a vampire."
Both she and Talon grew tense, anticipating horror and perhaps a hysterical shriek of disbelief but what followed equally stunned them both.
She burst violently into a fit of laughter.
**********