Julian stared hard at the ceiling, trying to organize his thoughts. This night was too...eventful. Eventful and damaging to his pride. He was fully aware that he came close to losing that mind battle.
And he, Julian, never lost. Wether it be a game or a fight.
Not only did he almost lose, but he also lost self control and told that Seriana woman his feelings for her.
Lilith...Lilith DeAllure...
Her name was like sugared fire on his tongue, sweet yet scalding to his lips. He, Julian of the Shadow Men, was baffled and confused because of her.
It would never work out. I'd eventually kill her, Julian kept on thinking to himself, trying to kill the soft feelings he felt towards Lilith.
And yet, if it would never work out between them, why did he continue to hope?
RIIIIIINNNNNNNNGGGGGG!!!!!!!!
The shrill ringing snapped me out of the dark oblivion of sleep, and I cursed silently.
My hand blindly reached out of my lilac comforter and groped for the ivory white phone on the table beside my bed.
I brought the phone to my ear and growled," Whaddya want?"
The answer I got immediently alarmed me.
" Lil - Lilith," Gillian's sobbing voice broke into the phoneline.
At the sound of her voice, I sat up in my bed, all comforts of sleep worn away.
By the gods, what happened now?
" Gillian? What happened?," I questioned. Several thoughts skittered across the surface of my mind. My abdomen clenched as a trail of nervousness and expectation hovered around me.
Through the phone, I could hear people screaming and crying. The Harman witch's sobbing was so heartwrenching, that I felt that I had to protect her somehow from her pain.
" Gillian?," I whispered into the phone.
I heard her draw in a long shaky breath and answer back between tears," Oh Lilith..it was hor-rible...the fire...the beam falling and the house...and-and-and David!," At that, Gillian straight-out began to bawl, crying and gasping and hiccuping at the same time.
My nervousness and curiousity intensified," Gillian! Tell me what's going on! Gillian!"
I heard someone take the reciever from Gillian, and Rashel's smooth voice filled the reciever," Lilith...," At that hesitation, despite Rashel's calmness, I still heard the note of fear and heavy sorrow in her voice.
" By the gods Rashel," I whispered, closing my eyes," Just tell me what happened."
I heard Rashel swallow dryly, and answered back in a raspy voice," They burned down Thierry's mansion. The Night Worlders...they burned it down. All of it."
Merciful gods...I felt as if I had eternally fallen into a deep dark pit, and had landed splat on jagged rocks.
I licked my dry lips and spoke quietly into the phone," Is anybody...hurt?" What I ment to say was if anybody was dead, but saying someone was dead gave this conversation too much of an edge of reality.
Rashel sighed," Hurt, yes. Several of us. But dead...no, fortunately."
I hadn't known that I had been holding my breath until I let it out. Thank the gods no one died...
" But David is severely hurt "
Well shit. Thanks for pulling me down from my cloud of comfort Rashel!
Hissing a curse, I spoke after a couple seconds of silence," How?"
" He - he pushed Gillian out of the way as a beam fell. It appears that he has at least three broken ribs and-and a broken leg. The paramedics are with him right now, and they don't think he'll be able to use that leg. Ever," Rashel's hesitant ominous voice held a note of regret.
If I was just a regular human or a Night Worlder, I would have thought of David's situation as bleak and hopeless, him being a human and all.
Yeah, well, fuck it. I was a damn Seriana.
" Don't sweat it. And tell Gillian to stop weeping after her lover boy. I can heal him," I replied back in a careless tone. I couldn't help but glance over to the mysterious bottle on my dresser table that held the contents of an eerie blue liquid.
" Really?," Rashel questioned, hopefullness apparent.
Despite myself, I grinned," Yeah, really."
" Hey Gilly! Check it out! Blackburn is gonna walk again! Lilith says she's got something for your man!," I heard Rashel call out to Gillian happily. Chuckling, I laid back down in my bed.
Somewhere in the background, Gillian let out a cry of astonishment and began to laugh joyfully.
" She better not be kidding!," Gillian's faint voice yelled at Keller.
Just the sound of sorrow banished from the Harman's voice made me feel good about myself, about the help I could bring to humanity and about the power of the Seriana.
" Oh hey, Lilith? One more thing," Rashel's voice came back on the phone.
" Hm?," I was once again relaxed, nothing could break my sense of relaxation now.
" Can we stay at your place while Thierry's mansion gets fixed?"
" There's the bathroom...the living room...here's the dining room and next to it is the kitchen...oh and here's the game room...another bathroom but with a shower...this little room --well okay, so maybe it isn't little -- is the room where I sometimes sparr, you guys can use it to train...oh, that's the poolhouse outside...that's just another room to relax in...the three other rooms down there are also just for relaxation and pretty much for anything and everything you want to do -- No Ash, not EVERYTHING you want to do -- and over there is the library, yeah the library...another bathroom with a shower and tub...and here's the study. Ok-ay, wanna see the next floor?"
I sprawled against my couch, eyes closed. The tour of the house had taken some energy from me. My mouth thirsted for water. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. You're wondering why I keep on drinking water so much. Here's the answer why: Serianas don't nourish their bodies with any solid foods. The only way we replenish our bodies is through water. If we don't get a regular dose of water, we don't die, but we shrivel up. Like a prune. Yeah, not exactly a very pretty sight.
My body grudgingly stood up and walked to the kitchen to get some more Dasani bottled water. I opened the fridge, letting the cold air blow into my face, coolling me down.
" Holy shit! Don't you have anything else in there besides water?! "
Glancing up, I saw Ash staring at my refrigerator with a look of pure disbelief on his face. My eyes slowly sidled back onto the contents of the refrigerator and I blankly looked over the dozens and dozens of Dasani and Evian bottles racked on each compartment of the fridge until I spied an unopened package of cheese sticks.
Grabbing it, I straightened up with my Dasani in one hand and dumped the cheese sticks into Ash's arms.
" Knock yourself out," I commented briefly as I passed by Ash, headed back towards the couch.
" LILITH!!!!! "
Slender arms suddenly wrapped around me as Gillian smiled up at me with complete happiness. Yeah, well you don't see me smiling, do you? This Harman girl's got some grip.
"Gillian," I choked out as I took a step forward towards the couch with her arms still around me in a vice-like embrace.
" Oopsie! Sorry!," The arms around me dissapeared and I was able to sigh in relief before Gillian unexpectedly popped up in front of me. I took a step back. Good gods! This girl was like the energizer bunny on a sugar rush.
Sidestepping Gillian, I plopped down on the couch and swung my legs over to rest upon a matching ottoman.
" Yo Lilith! "
I rolled me eyes. What now, dammit?!
Glancing to the entrance to the kitchen, I saw several Night Worlder females clad in very VERY skimpy bikinis.
" Dress much?," I retorted dryly as Poppy flashed me a mischievious grin.
Ever since I had stopped Gillian's tears with the Elixer of Rejuvination, Poppy had actually been trying to be nice to me.
The elixer basically renewed every single cell in a person/animal's body until that living being is whole and unmarred. So Poppy didn't try to burn holes in my head anymore with a look of pure hatred because of that little itty bitty incident with Jamie Boy. Lucky me.
" Come one Lilith, take a dip in that big-ass pool of yours with us," The fiery haired vampire witch nodded towards the open sliding glass doors that led outside to the deck, pool, and hot tub.
Shrugging, I took a swig of my water before answering back," Sorry, but I don't have a bathing suit."
A dark haired witch besides Poppy -- Blaise Harman? -- slowly smiled slyly," No prob. I always bring extras."
With that, she tossed two small pieces of metallic baby blue cloth into my lap.
" You call this swimwear?," I questioned with an arched eyebrow," But they hardly even cover me! I'm off better going out there naked than wearing these - these pieces of cloth that can pass for a freaking band aid!"
" Naked? Yeah, good idea. I know I'll be enjoying the view," Ash flashed me a wide grin from the kitchen and took a bite of a cheese stick.
" Yeah, Lilith, please please go with us," Gillian's voice pleaded, her head popping up from behind the couch. I nearly fell off at her sudden entrance.
" C'mon Lilith, join us," Poppy spoke again, an offer of friendship in her eyes.
To turn her down would make Poppy start glaring at me again, what's a modest Seriana girl to do?
" Fine, I'll come," I resigned, and started for the bathroom to change into the two pieces of tight cloth that Blaise called a bikini. From the corner of my eye I saw Ash's face turn a sickening color of green and spit out a rubbery-looking chunk of cheese into the trash can. Yum.
Five minutes later, after deciding that no, this so-called bikini wasn't missing any other clothing material, I got out of the bathroom...sneaking ever so quietly outside, in hope that no one would see me in Blaise's extra bikini.
" Shake that ass baby! Lookin fi-ine Lilith!"
Shit. Someone already saw me.
Everyone at the pool turned towards the glass doors at Ash's loud hollors. The gazes of the Daybreakers were all directed at me.
I closed my eyes and willed myself not to sock Ash in the jaw. Take a deep breath Lilith, you're not completely naked.
Hah, so much for reassurance from my inner self.
Someone else whistled and I gave the unknown source the finger.
Sticking my chin up, I forced myself to calmly walk over to the shapeshifter Keller in a black one-piece swimsuit. She, at least, was covered up. I on the otherhand...
" Hey, whatsup," I greeted in a grumble and practically threw myself down onto the plastic adjustable seat just to grab the towel lying there and wrap it around myself.
Keller pushed herself up with an elbow and looked over at me with an amused smile.
" Yeah, what?," I snarled ungraciously.
Her tranquil grey eyes glinted with laughter and she answered," It's not such a big deal you know. It's just a bikini. Besides, I've seen much MUCH worse."
That, at least, comforted me.
My hands loosened the towel around me," Really? Geez..."
Chuckling softly, Keller said," You're lucky Blaise didn't give you a bikini that included a thong..."
Ugh, I didn't even wanna ask. I had only recently been in the human world for just a week, but by the tone of Keller's voice, I knew that a 'thong' was something much much worse than what I was wearing right now.
That made me feel better.
Dropping the towel on the ground, I replied with a sigh," Yeah, I guess you're right."
" Looking good Lilith," Davidcalled out from the other side of the pool, besides him was Gillian who was waving madly at me.
I shot him a look.
" Don't try to suck up to me. Just cause I gave ya back the ability to walk doesn't mean I'll give ya the ability to fly," I retorted.
He grinned," Ouch. Still, it was worth a try."
I rolled me eyes. Ever since David recieved the Elixer of Rejuvination, he'd been thanking me every 10 minutes. The doctors called it a miracle, I called it good ol' Seriana potions.
" Hm...looks like Julian appreciates the view," Keller murmured. What is she talking about?
I followed her gaze across the pool and met startling blue eyes staring at me that quickly turned away. Immediently memories from last night flashed before my eyes. Draco...Julian...the frozen Daybreakers...
I turned away and closed my eyes briefly to regain control of myself and looked at Keller.
A subtle flush crept up my neck," What's he doing here?"
Keller turned towards me," He is representing the Shadow World, so he gets to come here too. Besides, ever since the Night World found about about our alliance with the Shadow World, they've been trying to hunt Julian down."
Well that's just too bad for Julie. You won't see me trying to protect him from the ooh-so-so-scary Night Worlders.
I forced myself to lay back against the seat and avoid his eyes. Yep, I was back to that again.
As the first few minutes passed by, I immediently began to feel hot and slightly nauseated. I knew that feeling all too well.
My hand reached down for the Dasani bottle I had brought with me and took several sips. When that wasn't enough, I poured the water over myself, letting the coldness of the water wash over me.
Ah...much better.
Holy mother of...
Julian swallowed hard as he saw Lilith walk over to Keller. His eyes traveled over her well built slender body, taking in each curve as he devoured the sight of her. She was like a goddess, a temptress, a fallen angel.
Lost in his...observations...Julian didn't notice that Lilith had looked over his way until it was too late. She caught him staring at her. Immediently he glanced away, embarrassed, but couldn't help sidling his eyes back on her luscious form.
His mouth slightly parted as she tilted her head back and poured the water over her body, the water creating rivulets streaking down her throat, down over the swell of her breasts, down her bare stomach...
" Guests! Ms. DeAllure, guests have arrived! "
He was quickly snapped out of his state of awe and desire at Nilsson's loud voice. Damn that man, Julian cursed.
I looked up towards the glass doors. Guests? Hm..and who could those be...?
" Bring them in!," I yelled back to Nilsson and I laid back against the seat, curious on who decided to drop by.
Two identical females stepped from out of the glass doors.
For a moment, I sat there before breaking into a wide delighted smile," Razua and Zarukia...what are you two doing here?"
The Seriana duet of dreams and inspiration called out a greeting and came over to my side filled with news.
To Be Continued...
