Lily struggled to keep up as she basically stumbled down the stairs.
"Why would she have silver in that gun?!" she exclaimed, following after Holden who carried the unconscious Queen over his shoulders. The girl's stomach turned as she saw how even the back of her shirt was all torn up from the bullets that had went all the way through, smoke rising through them as if there was a fire blazing inside of her body.
"Because she was going to use it on vampires," Holden breathlessly spoke as he went down the stairs as fast as he could, darting onto the second floor and down the corridor until he came to a door, kicking it open and bringing the Queen inside.
Lily followed him into the room, her body shaking from the anxiety gripping her. Looking around, she noticed it was some kind of medical room, with surgical tables and large metal cabinets and sinks. She jumped at the sound as Holden flung the vampire onto one of the metal tables rather harshly, his actions stressed from the urgency in him.
Stepping closer, she watched as he quickly strapped her limp body down on the table with the metal cuffs attached to it, making her bound at her hands and feet. "Why are you doing that?" she asked timidly, folding her hands together nervously.
"Because if she wakes up she is going to be thrashing at the pain," he quickly mumbled as he flashed across the room to a cabinet, swinging it open and violently rummaging through everything in it.
"If she wakes up..." Lily repeated in a whisper as she stared at the unconscious Rose, making sure to keep her distance as Holden quickly returned to the table. She felt like she might pass out from the fear gripping her. The sight of Rose's smoking bullet wounds, her skin which was as white as paper, and the thought of her dying on that table was enough for the girl's entire body to tremble.
Holden quickly ripped the remains of Rose's shirt off her, exposing her bloody stomach and chest and leaving her in her black bra and black pants. Lily felt nauseous at all the blood oozing from her. "C-Can vampires die from blood loss?" she nervously asked, her voice quivering.
"Not usually, but silver stops all the healing processes." Setting a tray of utensils down on the table above Rose's head, he grabbed a pair of long, metal forceps, readying himself above Rose's stomach. "I need to get all the bullets out of her or else they will burn her to death." Immediately following his words, he stuck the forceps into one of her wounds, causing Lily to cover her mouth in the goriness of it. He immediately found the bullet and pulled it out of her flesh, plopping the bloody piece of silver into the tray.
"H-How many do you think are in there?" She tried to push down the tears welling in her eyes. She had never seen Rose in such a vulnerable state, and she was so horribly afraid that she would never see that beautiful smile again. She was afraid she would lose the last person she ever thought she would care for.
"Considering that she's still alive, not many," he said, his eyes focused as he dug into another one of her wounds, pulling yet another piece of silver out. "It seems most of them went straight through. But a few is enough to kill her."
Lily watched in silence, pacing back and forth and never tearing her eyes away from the vampire who lay strapped to the table, her lips slightly parted as smoke even emanated from them. All she could think about was all their moments together flashing through her mind, pulsating like a sadistic movie replaying them over and over and reminding her that she might never experience them again. She knew that she had feelings for Rose, but that moment really showed her how much she cared from her—the thought of ever being without her scared her to her core.
"There," Holden said after a few minutes, plopping the last silver bullet into the tray. "That should be all." He quickly leaned down and listened to her body for any sizzles, placing his hands over her stomach and feeling for any heat. Finding none, he excitedly stood up and watched her, but the wounds were not healing. His eyes widening, he watched as blood kept pooling from her wounds. "S-She's dying," he whispered, his chest heaving as he tried to think of something to do.
"What?!" Lily exclaimed, walking closer to the table. "But you got them all out!"
"I know, but she's weak!" he exclaimed, placing his hand against her neck and feeling how cold it was, as if her skin had been chilled by the winds of death threatening to come upon her.
Lily ran her hands through her hair, her entire face screwing up as she stared at Rose through her teary vision. "What can we do?!" she shouted, a frustrated and helpless feeling arising within her.
Holden also ran his fingers through his curls, closing his eyes and turning in circles as he tried to think clearly through his own emotions about his best friend dying on the table before him. Then, remembering what was running through Lily's veins, he quickly turned to her. "Your blood."
"What?" she asked, her breaths stilling.
"Feeding always strengthens vampires. It will get her body to heal faster, especially your blood!" He looked at her desperately, his forehead damp with nervous sweat.
Lily shifted her eyes to Rose again, seeing how her cheeks seemed to be sinking even further inside themselves, her body visibly seeming to waste away before them. She looked at her chest and her stomach, the fresh blood oozing from her wounds and causing a pool of blood on the table that even spilled over and dripped onto the floor. Without second thought, she quickly nodded in agreement. "O-Okay."
As she walked over to the table, Holden took a scalpel from the tray and turned to the girl who stood on the other side of the table. He held his hand out, and upon seeing her look at him nervously, he gave her an encouraging nod. So she stuck her arm out to him, and he quickly sliced the scalpel on her skin, blood immediately forming from the sharpness of the surgical tool.
She winced at the pain and followed Holden's lead as he brought her wrist over Rose's mouth, her blood dropping from the cut and landing right against the vampire's pale and parted lips, splotching them with crimson color. He then pushed her wrist against her mouth, aligning it with the cut, so that the blood would drop down her throat.
Holden and Lily both waited for a moment, nervously glancing towards each other, until they saw muscles in Rose's neck clench, signaling that she had swallowed. Lily then felt her mouth move against her wrist, and Rose's hands suddenly jerked against their restraints, her legs quickly following.
Lily felt Rose begin to suck from the cut, the feeling causing her to wince and bear through it for her sake.
His wide obsidian eyes looking to Rose's bloody wounds and seeing that they were beginning to heal, Holden broke into a nervous smile, feeling the burdening stress and fear lift from his shoulders. "It's working!" he exclaimed. He flashed over to a sink and grabbed a rag, wetting it with cold water before returning to the Queen's side and patting the blood from her wounds, his own hands bloody from removing the bullets.
Her skin losing the ghastly tone and returning some of its color, Rose began to move more against the restraints, her wounds healing faster as she sucked the blood from Lily's vein harder.
Beginning to feel faint, Lily dropped to her knees onto a low cart beside the table, accidentally knocking nearly everything on it to the ground. Holden quickly looked to her and noticed her eyelids growing heavy. "Just a little more," he told her assuredly, glancing back to the vampire's wounds that were almost done healing.
Lily kept her eyes on Rose, on the way she was still drinking her blood while unconscious, on how her elegant neck and tensed and relaxed every time she swallowed. She felt her body begin to grow cold, but she wouldn't dare to pull away until she knew that Rose was going to be okay.
Then, without warning, Rose's eyes snapped open, flaring their normal yellow-green color, except her pupils were widely dilated from her intake of the deliciously sweet blood. Recognizing the taste of the blood, she quickly looked over and saw Lily sitting right beside her. Panic flooded her and she immediately closed her mouth and turned her head away from her arm, grunting as she struggled against her restraints.
Pulling her arm back to herself, Lily's body deflated as she was released from the sickening pressure of feeling her blood being pulled from her.
"You need to bandage that," Holden quickly said, grabbing gauze and tape and handing it to her over the table.
As she took the medical supplies from Holden, feeling a bit numb and floating, she watched the very last wound on Rose's abdomen close up, all the blood disappearing as if nothing had ever happened. Lily was honestly astounded at a vampire's power to heal.
Breathing heavily from the girl's blood still dripping from her lips, Rose looked around wildly, her eyes full of confusion. Sitting up as much as she could, she looked down to her restrained wrists and ankles, struggling against them. She then noticed that she was shirtless, and she glanced to Holden to see his hands were bloody. Hesitantly looking over to Lily, afraid that she would get the urge to continue draining her, she watched her wrap gauze around her arm slowly as if she was sleepy, her face pale from blood loss.
Having no recollection of what had happened, Rose scrunched her eyebrows and exclaimed, "What the hell is going on?!" Her voice was tremulous, her chest heaving.
Holden chuckled a bit tightly, still strained from the stress of everything that had happened. "Lily here just saved your life."
Quickly glancing up to him, Lily threaded her brows. "You're the one who got the silver out of her, Holden."
Rose's eyes widened slightly. "S-Silver?" She felt like she had been drugged and was experiencing some kind of psychedelic trip.
"You got shot with silver," Holden explained, walking to the cabinet he had mangled and much more calmly searching through it for some iron tablets. "Here, Lily." He opened the bottle and took a tablet out, walking over to the blonde and handing it to her. "Take that with water." He nodded towards the sink near her.
Carefully watching Holden hand Lily the tablet over her body, Rose felt guilt and confusion all at once. She watched the girl walk to the sink and bend down to drink from it. She tried to remembered what had happened, how she had ended up getting shot. She knew it wasn't in Scottsdale, for she remembered leaving the Duke's castle in one piece. She then remembered getting an alarmed feeling as she was leaving and immediately speeding home, and that's when everything hit her.
"Oh," she breathed, letting her head lay against the table as her body relaxed. "That's right. I played lawyer and divorced that bitch from her head."
Lily winced at her words, not being able to help but feel bothered by it, especially from the sight of Jasmine's head rolling on the floor. Even though the newborn vampire had tried to kill her, Lily felt like everything was still her fault. If she had never gotten them thrown into that castle, Jasmine would've never been manipulated into morphing into a vampire. Gripping the sink with her hands, she just let her head hang over it as she listened to the water run.
Sensing what Lily was feeling, Rose looked over to her. She felt guilty for making Lily upset, but she knew it was what she had to do. "Release me from these, Holden," she mumbled as she jerked her wrists against the restraints again.
"I don't know," Holden began with a smirk, "I like the idea of not being bossed around."
Clenching her jaw, she slowly turned her face towards him with her threatening glare, amber striking through green.
His smirk fell and he stepped forward to undo her restraints. "Yes, Your Majesty," he said much more soberly. Upon freeing her, Holden made sure to take a few steps back and carefully watch his Queen attempt to sit up.
Grunting, Rose slowly sat up, wincing as she did so. She felt sore in all the places she had been shot, a common side effect of silver. She was honestly surprised that she had lived through getting machine-gunned down with silver bullets. A smirk grew to her lips as she allowed her ego to swell. But she winced as she swung her legs over the table, feeling Lily's eyes turn to her and growing somewhat nervous.
"Those newborns are devils, I tell you," she grunted, straightening her back to stretch her abdomen muscles. Taking a deep breath, she then attempted to hop down from the table, but her body weakly staggered and incited an expectant Holden to quickly catch her.
"You're weak, Your Majesty," he said as he supported her under her arm, feeling how much weight she had to lean against him to be able to stand.
Seeing how breathless Rose had become just from standing, Lily stepped forward and offered, "If you need more of my—"
"No!" Rose snapped much harsher than she intended, feeling anger towards herself rise inside of her. She had promised to never feed from her again, and even though it happened against her will, she was guilty about it. Turning towards the girl, she repeated much more softly, "No. But thank you. Your selflessness saved my life."
Seeing Rose weakly smile at her, Lily felt her heart melt. She smiled back, although her eyes were still traced with worry for the vampire's condition.
"And my surgical skills," Holden added with a huff, rolling his eyes as he aided the Queen in walking towards the door.
"Yes," Rose said with a chuckle, her voice strained as she hobbled against him. "You were also the hero, Holden. As always." She turned to him, and in her eyes and smile, Holden saw years of his service being thanked, nothing but pure platonic love clear in them. He smiled back, silently returning all of her feelings that were felt rather than said.
Seeing how much Rose was struggling to walk, Lily quickly jogged over to her other side and snaked her arm around the tall vampire's back.
A bit surprised at the feeling, Rose turned to the girl and saw the small, comforting smile resting on her lips. She looked deeply into her baby blue eyes, and she remembered bursting into the castle and seeing the way Jasmine had her up against the wall, touching her and being so close to biting her. She felt a flare of anger rise in her, but she calmed herself, remembering to be grateful that both Lily and herself were alive. So she placed her arm around the girl, the other one around Holden, and the three all walked together down the castle hall.
✞
Rose already sensed who it was when she heard a light knock at her bedroom door. Smirking as she laid on her bed with her head propped up by pillows, she called, "Come in, little one."
Blushing, Lily carefully opened the door and stepped into the large bedroom, her other hand holding a tray with a glass and a pitcher of blood. Even though she had seen Rose's bedroom the evening before when her and Holden had brought her in there to rest for the night, it looked even more extravagant with the morning light seeping in through the large wall of windows across the door. The bed was large with all-black sheets, and there was a wooden vanity and a bookshelf and a small desk. The bathroom connected to the room was just as extravagant.
"Good morning," she spoke timidly, feeling a bit nervous by the vampire's eyes watching her so intensely like they always did.
"Good morning," Rose replied, a playful smile crossing her lips as she tilted her head and watched the girl walk towards her with the tray. "Holden was too lazy to attend to his master himself?"
Chuckling as she placed the tray down on the spacial nightstand beside the bed, Lily responded, "No, I wanted to do it myself, actually."
Rose hummed, watching the girl fill the glass with blood from the pitcher, her upper lip curling in disgust as she did so. The vampire had to restrain laughter as she took the glass from the girl who looked very ready for it to be taken from her. "Thank you," she said as she took a sip.
Sighing, Lily sat down on the side of the bed, careful to not sit on the vampire's legs. She assessed the woman's appearance, at how her eyes were back to their normal brightness, her skin glowed more like it usually did, and she just looked healthier overall. "You look better."
Rose took the glass away from her lips and set it on the nightstand. "I feel better," she responded in a matched tone, settling herself against the pillow and turning her eyes to the girl who looked so stunningly beautiful. "Although I'm just a bit too lazy to get up and get a shirt myself."
Lily smiled, making sure to not let her eyes fall to Rose's still shirtless upper body. She felt her heart ache at how beautiful the vampire looked under the morning winter sun coming in from the window. "Would you like me to get one for you?"
"Please," the vampire lilted, puffing out her lip to give a pouty face even though it made her fangs show through, making it look more threatening than sad. Finding it cute, Lily chuckled as she stood from the bed and walked to the wardrobe.
Not surprised that every single piece of clothing in the wardrobe was black, Lily pulled out a black crew neck sweater. She returned to the bedside and held it out to her. But Rose, a cross between a smirk and a pout on her face, leaned up from her pillows and stuck her arms in the air as if waiting for the girl to slip the sweater over her head for her.
"Are you serious?" Lily asked with a chuckle, seeing how the vampire's slender back strained with her laughter. Her attention was momentarily distracted by how sexy Rose's back was. It was very fit, some bones visible through her skin, yet it was also muscular, straining with her every movement like it was the core of her body's strength.
"Distracted?" that velvety voice spoke.
Feeling her cheeks burn, Lily snapped herself out of it and sat down on the side of the bed in front of her, smirking at the vampire who was acting very cutely out of character. Leaning forward, she reached up and slipped the sweater over her hands.
As the girl leaned forward, her neck only inches away from her face, Rose got a strong whiff of her scent. She felt something inside her twist, but she gulped, pushing those feelings down with ease. It soothed her to know she could so easily control herself around the girl.
Lily slipped the sweater over Rose's arms and head, tugging it down to her hips. "There, you child," she mumbled with a smirk, making sure the sweater sat well on her body.
Rose tilted her head and smiled, feeling a sense of comforting warmth at the way the girl adjusted the sweater carefully, brushing away the wrinkles of the fabric on her shoulder. She no longer was self-conscious of how head over heels she was for the human girl. There was no point in denying it or being mad about it. It was simply how she felt, and nothing could stop her from that.
Lily gasped as Rose suddenly reached forward and wrapped her arms around her, digging her face into the blonde's soft locks. Lily froze, caught off guard by what was happening, until she realized it was just a hug—a very tight one. Chuckling, she relaxed and leaned into the woman, slipping her hands around her and sliding them up her back, feeling her muscles react to her touch.
The vampire, with her face pressed so close into the girl's neck, could smell her blood, but there was no urge or thirst. There was no loss of control, there was no instinctual drive to feed. She was able to be close to her, to breathe her in, to nuzzle her nose into her warm neck and not be bothered by it.
Smiling at the vampire's nose rub against her skin softly, Lily dwelt in the comfort it brought her to be able to trust Rose. Never in her life had she felt so protected and so safe with someone, even Jasmine back when they were at camp. Never had something as simple as a hug make her feel like everything inside her just fell together perfectly. Never did she ever think that a vampire being close to her neck wouldn't frighten her. She remembered how Jasmine had gotten close to her neck and how scared she had become. She even remembered when William had inhaled her scent, his nose against her neck, that night in her room.
At the horrid memory, she felt that prickly violation again, that overwhelming and crushing disgust. She then suddenly remembered that Rose didn't even know about it, and she felt guilt pry at her throat for never telling her. If she had, maybe the vampire hugging her would have went and killed him before he gathered all the rebels in Scottsdale.
Rose pulled away, still gently holding the girl's arms, and Lily began to panic when she saw that Rose's eyebrows were threaded, a look of inquisition on her face. "What is it?" she softly inquired, searching the girl's face all over as if she would find a clue as to why she had felt that horrible feeling come from the girl's aura.
"What is what?" Lily tensely asked, trying to sound as casual as possible. She tried to push the thoughts out of her mind, but she remembered his hand around her mouth, the knife cutting her, him draining her mercilessly. Her jaw clenched as anxiety snared at her nerve endings.
Being so close to the girl, Rose felt completely overwhelmed by the anxiety coming from her. It hung in the air around her like humidity, and it was so strong that she knew it was serious. "Lily..." she softly spoke, her eyes widening as she began to grow worried at the insurmountable amount of anxiety she was picking up on. "What happened?" she asked grimly, worried about the answer she might hear.
Lily shook her head, her breathing picking up speed. "Nothing?" The events still replayed in her mouth tortuously, and she felt the cut on her arm throb.
Of course, Rose's eyes flashed down the girl's sleeve-covered arm, somehow being able to sense the throb she felt. Gently taking her am, she felt the girl try to tug away, but she held her fast. "Stop," she whispered, trying to be calm but feeling a suffocating worry fill her. The girl stared at her blankly, her eyes wide and her heart beating so fast that Rose could hear nothing else. She returned her eyes to the girl's arm, pushing the sleeve up. She was met with the bandaged cut from the night before, but right above it was another cut, one a bit more faded and rugged, obviously cut with a knife instead of a smooth scalpel.
Chartreuse eyes flashed to cerulean ones. "Where did this come from?"
Lily blinked and stared at it, feeling paralyzed by the memory behind it. "I-It was just from Jasmine during everything yesterday. Just a scratch."
"You're lying," Rose immediately pointed out, growing frustrated. "Why are you lying to me?" She stared hard at her, trying to see if she could sense anything coming off her that would tell her where the mysterious cut had come from.
The room feeling suddenly too small to breathe in, Lily closed her eyes and shook her head, but behind her eyes she could only see him. She could only see William's golden eyes of evil, his wicked sneer. She could only feel his hand holding her down and his mouth feeding from her forcefully. She could only hear his threats over if she were to tell anyone about it. He had come into her room that night and plundered her, pushing her into a corner and forcing her to stay quiet about the wrong that had been done to her in secret.
The girl, her eyes closed as she became lost in her mind, hadn't even felt the tears streaming down her cheeks. Rose's lips parted, more worry filling her. "Baby," she softly spoke, wiping some of her tears away from her red cheeks, but more showers followed it. Threading her brows together, she decided to just pull the crying girl into her chest.
It was then, when those tear-stained cheeks pressing against her, that it was like everything going through the girl's mind transferred to her. She saw everything—William's threats, his crooked grin, him cutting her, him feeding from her. It was like she could feel everything too—the hand around her mouth, the slice of the cut, the feeling of the blood being drained from her. It was like she was pulled into the girl's mind and forced to experience what she had experienced in violent, flashing memories.
Rose let out a breath, her entire body tensing as she wrapped her arms tighter around the girl, pulling her as close to herself as possible. She felt fury invade her at the fact that he had done that to her, that he went against the highest orders of the castle and hurt the thing that mattered most to her.
"Why didn't you tell me?" the vampire whispered, closing her eyes and opening her mouth as she felt herself grow hot with anger.
Feeling the fury-induced warmth emanating from Rose's body, Lily pulled away and looked up to see that the vampire's eyes were glowing amber, which only made her cry more. "He said he would kill me if I told you!" She ran her hands through her hair and leaned forward, pulling her hair as hard as she could. "Now you know, and he-he's gonna..." Her words trailed as she began to hyperventilate, his words running in her mind over and over again.
Her anger distracted by the way she noticed Lily was freaking out, Rose's eyes quickly returned to their yellow-green color as she gently pulled Lily's hands away from her hair and held them in their own. "Lily, it's okay. He's not going to hurt you."
"He is!" she exclaimed, the violated feeling she had kept harbored inside of her finally taking its true form in the sobs that racked her body.
Rose gently grabbed the girl's face and, upon feeling how hot her cheeks were, made her hands turn cold so she could cool the girl down. "He is not, Lily," she pressed in a gentle tone, but the girl was still breathing jaggedly and trembling in her hands. "Hey, look at me."
Hesitantly, Lily raised her bloodshot eyes to the vampire, looking deeply into her magnetic yellow-green ones that seemed to calm her instantly. She felt her breaths slow as she focused on drawing them out more smoothly.
"He is not going to hurt you. He and Giana don't live here at the castle anymore, and I've got guards galore surrounding every part of this land to ensure no one gets through." Her eyes, full of care and slightly dilated, glanced to the girl's cheek where she used her thumb to wipe a straggling tear from the girl who had calmed down. "I am so sorry that he did that to you," she whispered, trying to tame the fury swelling in her. "But trust me when I say I will get revenge on him soon."
"He's leading the rebels," Lily quickly commented. "You've already been hurt, I can't have you gettin—"
"I know, baby, I know," Rose gently cut her off. "I can't do anything about this right now. They've got an army, so that means I've got to raise mine." She paused, looking deeply into those beautiful ocean orbs that threatened to swallow her whole. She wanted to get lost in them forever, to be constantly drunk off their haze. "But I promise that soon, very soon, I will get him back for this and for all the other ways he's betrayed me. I will never, ever let somebody get away with hurting you like that. And if anyone else ever does, please promise me you will tell me right away. Promise me, Lily."
Lily was taken aback by the amount of despair written clearly across her beautiful eyes that were contrasted by her dark and thick lashes. Her face, so close to hers, had nothing but pure care and adoration in it. "I promise," she whispered, feeling her body finally relax.
"Good," Rose breathed, letting her hand stroke down the girl's soft cheek. "I will always protect you no matter what, Lily. You will never have a reason to not feel safe as long as I'm around, which I always will be."
The girl felt as if everything solid in her chest just melted all into one pathetic puddle at Rose's words. And when the beautiful vampire leaned forward and pressed her lips against hers, enveloping her in a passionate kiss that pulled the breath right out of her lungs, she remembered Jasmine's words.
Even though she wanted to stay there kissing her forever, Lily quickly pulled away, her blue eyes searching Rose's desperately.
"What is it?" Rose asked, her hands that trailed around the girl's waist leaving tingles in their path.
Lily hesitated. Surely, it was a myth. Surely, it wasn't true. Surely, she wasn't trying to convince herself these things when in that moment, looking into Rose's eyes, she felt that their souls were already tied so deeply together that they could never be undone. It was that feeling, that connection, that chord seeming to hold them together, the magnetic field they were always trapped in when around each other, that propelled her to just come right out and ask it.
"Am I your mate?"