A hand reached out and grabbed his, wonderfully cool and smooth in the blistering inferno. The heat was spreading through his entire body, burning everything and anything it touched. He was pulled into cool, watery arms, arms that seemed to dampen the flames within him…
Darren opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling.
It was not very interesting.
There was a water spot in one corner the looked somewhat like a rabbit.
Groaning, he rolled over, glancing at the bedside clock. Three-forty-five. What was he doing awake at this ungodly hour?
He tried to get his bearings. Nothing in the hotel room looked amiss, but there was still that unsettling feeling that something was wrong. A change in the air pressure? A burglar? Rats?
No. Then what?
As he usually did when he was on tour, he wished Colby was there beside him, even though they were split up. But she was back in Brisbane, probably shopping or taking the dogs to the vet or something. Mentally he tried to figure out the time difference, but gave up as he was still groggy and never good at math.
Someone knocked on the door. Darren got up and unhooked the chain, pulling open the door as he went and sat on the couch.
"So you woke up too." It was more of a statement than a question.
Daniel nodded, sheepishly. "I dunno. Something weird woke me up and now I can't fall back asleep. Mind if I hang out with you for awhile?"
Darren shook his head, his eyes alternating between the TV screen and the open window.
Below them, the lights of New York sparkled. Noises drifted up from the
streets below. The cacophony of cars and people comforted them, reminding them that they weren't alone in the world.
"So what do you think it was?"
Daniel shrugged. "A remnant from a dream, I guess. Actually, I remember
the end of it. I was on fire or something, and then someone pulled me out…" he shuddered and stared out the window.
Darren just looked at him. Daniel's eyes met his.
"You dreamed the same thing." Darren nodded, and reached for the phone.
"Who are you calling at this hour?"
"We need a drink," Darren said and dialed the number for room service.
The dining room was very, very noisy.
Darren and Daniel woke up with terrific headaches, the result of two bottles of wine consumed only a few hours before. Darren was really shaken up, since he didn't drink. He was amazed that such a stupid thing as a dream could have driven him to getting drunk. Now he had a hangover to show for his stupidity.
He walked over to Daniel, who was nursing a cup of coffee in the corner,
swathed in layers of fleece and wishing it wasn't so damn cold in the room. Darren sat down next to him, but said nothing. He didn't need to.
"Bloody ghost dreams," he grumbled into his mug. "I didn't bloody need
this. Too much to do." He sipped his coffee and glared at Darren. "Sorry, it scared the shit out of me."
Daniel sighed, his glare gone. "Yeah, me too. Although now I can't
remember what the bloody dream was about. I can't remember a bloody thing."
Darren shook his head and sipped a glass of apple juice. "Me neither."
"We have a bloody press conference in a bloody hour…"
"At least tonight is the last night of the tour…Dan my friend, I understand how you feel. But would you please stop swearing? It's not helping my bloody hangover."
They smiled at each other.
The press conference went off without a hitch. All headaches in question
were gone by the time it was time for the concert they were giving that
night.
"And if you need to crash and burn you're not alone…"
Darren smiled at the gigantic crowd as he finished "Crash and Burn." One
more song to go, he thought. Only one more song! With that comforting
thought in his head he launched into "Truly Madly Deeply."
Halfway through Daniel's guitar solo, he saw her.
She was standing in the first row, like the eye of a hurricane. She wasn't jumping and screaming and singing along. She wasn't moving at all. Her black clothing offset the brilliant red of her hair and the incredible green of her eyes. He could tell her eye color from the stage, they were that green.
He was so busy staring at her that he almost missed his cue to start
singing again. The song ended, they took their bows, and walked off the
stage.
Her eyes were so green…
"What's wrong with them?" Anna Maria, a backup singer, was talking to Lee, the bassist.
"They've been like that ever since this morning. Totally zoned."
Darren and Daniel managed to put on smiles for the fans who were lucky
enough to get backstage passes. They left as soon as the last autograph was signed, no one knew to where.
Darren put on his Yankees cap and black leather jacket and, after leaving a message with Leonie for everyone else, walked out the stage door.
He took the subway to Battery Park and walked across the street to the
nearly deserted Staten Island Ferry terminal. He boarded the next boat and took a seat on the outside walkway. The weather was unusually warm for the end of October.
Halfway to the Statue of Liberty, he saw her again.
Her red hair, wavy and thick, fell almost to her knees. Her skin was
unusually pale, as if she'd never seen the sun at all. He couldn't find a color to describe the green of her eyes. Emerald wasn't enough.
"I saw your concert."
Her voice was incredible.
"My name is Xenia," she said. "And you're Darren Hayes, the famous lead
singer of Savage Garden. I love your voice."
He was sitting next to a goddess and all he could do was stare at her.
"It's such a nice night. I wonder why no one else it out here." The wind
tugged at her hair as she glanced behind her at the New York Skyline. Then she turned back to Darren. She leaned in closer and closer…and kissed him.
Her lips were fiery hot and silky soft. Darren tasted blood; he realized
that she had bitten his lip. He pulled her closer to him and kissed her
harder.
Abruptly she pulled away. Her eyes met his, and he saw panic there. His
blood was on her lips and a tiny drop of it marred her perfect white skin.
Panic turned to fear and then to rage. She whirled around, only to see… no one. Facing Darren, she kissed him again, hungrily. He felt her teeth rip a new tear in his lip. Then she jumped up and ran away, in the direction she had looked before.
Darren sat there for a minute, stunned. He looked down at his shirt, and
watched as blood fell from his mouth to turn the blue fabric black. He
stood up to go look for Xenia. How far could she possibly go on a boat?
She couldn't be that far away. He wanted to finish what she had started.
He wandered about the boat, but he couldn't find Xenia anywhere. Dazed, he went back to his original spot by the rail.
"When you see her coming, you should run."
"Ahhhhhh!" Darren started and turned around.
Another girl sat next to him. Her shoulder length hair was silver, a color unusual on one so young, her skin so pale it was almost translucent. She reached up as if to touch his cheek, but drew her hand back the moment before it touched his skin.
"Oh, she bit you…"
"Who are you?"
"Hold still a moment."
Darren obligingly sat still, watching with a mild curiosity as the girl
wrapped her hand in a handkerchief and touched his mouth with it. He felt nothing but a tingling sensation, cool on his hot face. He hadn't even realized that he was overheated…
"She almost got you. You can tell; you're feverish. Come on, let's get
you home." She stood and walked away, towards the ramp at the opposite end of the boat, which was pulling into the dock.
Darren, having regained something of his senses, held his hands up in a
defensive way. "I'm not going anywhere with you," he said, backing away
from her. "You're another freakjob who's trying to seduce me. Oh no. I'm
not falling for that again. Get away from me, wacko child! Leave me
alone!"
She stopped, and turned to face him. Her eyes glowed silver, shining in
the darkness. She laughed, a tinkling sound, reminiscent of a wind chime.
"Seduce you! Darren, who do you think I am? Xenia? Daniel's already at
my house, waiting for you."
A look of confusion crossed his face. "Daniel?"
"Yes. Now come on, or you'll run into your little friend again, and maybe the next time you do you won't get lucky and survive and then where would I be? Now, let's go," she said and walked down the ramp.
Not knowing what else to do, he followed.
Darren was surprised when, instead of walking up to wait for a bus, the
girl stepped into a waiting limousine. She stuck her head out the door and beckoned for him to get in. Shrugging, he climbed in.
Pressing a button, she spoke into an intercom. "Back to the house."
Darren shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "You know, if I'm going home
with you, you can at least tell me your name."
She looked at him, silver eyes boring into sapphire. "Lilith."
"Lilith what?"
She ignored the question. The car slowed, then stopped. "We're here."
Darren got out and stretched, looking around to see where he was. The
house was beautiful, seemingly with more windows than walls. The front yard was surrounded by a high stone was which went around the sides of the house, which he couldn't see. In the darkness, he could just make out the dim outlines of perfectly maintained flowerbeds, and from somewhere off to the side he could hear the crystalline splashing of a fountain.
Lilith walked up the path from the driveway to the front door. "Are you
coming?"
Darren followed her inside.
Although Lilith's house was beautifully furnished , it didn't seem lived
in. Everything was white - floors, walls, furniture, even the paintings on the walls were different shades of white and ecru. White curtains billowed out from the floor to ceiling windows, held back only with silver bars.
Lilith walked further into the house, Darren following.
"Darren!"
Daniel stood up from a couch in the living room and ran over to his friend.
"You guys want to see something cool? Watch this." Lilith went over to a
white and silver tassel in the corner and pulled. The curtains swept across the room, revealing a spectacular view of the Manhattan skyline, the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn, and the Verrazano Bridge.
"Wow," was the general consensus.
Lilith walked into the kitchen and turned on the light. "Dinner is in five if you want to wash up."
"Dinner?" Darren asked. He had forgotten all about dinner, what with
meeting Xenia and all. Daniel rolled his eyes at Darren's enthusiasm for
food. They were shown to the bathroom by Lilith, who somehow managed to put a gourmet meal on the table in between the time it took to turn the faucets on and off.
Darren and Daniel sat down and began to eat. Daniel, who had discovered he was hungry after all, looked up from eating long enough to notice that Lilith hadn't touched any of the food. She was just sitting there watching them eat. She didn't even have something to drink.
"What, not hungry or something?"
Lilith sat up straighter in her chair, something Daniel would not have
thought possible, she was sitting so straight already. "No. I ate earlier."
"This is delicious, Lil…may I call you that?"
"Thank you, and no you may not call me Lil. My name is Lilith and you may call me that."
Darren stared at her. "Umm…okay." Uncomfortable silence ensued.
"Lilith, this is all very nice, but, uh…why are we here, exactly?"
Lilith looked down at her hands on the table. "You want a lie, the truth
sugarcoated, or the truth plain and simple?"
Daniel considered for a moment. "All three, in that order."
"Well, you're here because you contracted the Rhino Virus and this is
quarantine. Or you could say you were here because this is a witness
protection type thing. Which is also the truth, plain and simple, although in a complicated sort of way. Are you finished with your dinner? Okay, I'll show you to your bedrooms. This way, please." Without letting either of them reply, she stood and led them out of the dining room. They followed twisting corridors and a spiral staircase to an upper level.
Lilith opened two doors at the end of the hall.
"These will be your rooms for your stay here. Clothes are in the closets, and they should fit. If you need anything at all, ring the bell next to the door and a servant will get it for you. Well, goodnight. Have a good sleep, and in the morning when you're more rested I'll tell you what's going on in more detail."
"Thanks very much, Lilith." Darren reached out to touch her shoulder.
Her reaction was hardly what Darren expected. She jerked violently away
before he could touch her. "Don't touch me!" she almost shrieked,
horrified. "Whatever you do, don't ever touch me."
Darren raised his hands in a defensive gesture. "Okay, okay, relax. I'm
sorry."
She regarded both of them warily. "Well…goodnight," she said, backing away a few steps before turning and running down the hall. Her feet made no sound on the marble floor.
"Strange. This is all wacky, Daz. Lilith is wacky. But you know what?"
"No, what?"
"I don't get any bad feeling about her at all, and to tell you the truth, I'd rather be here than, well, out there. So I'm going to play along, for now."
"Yeah. Me too. Maybe we'll be a little more sane in the morning."
"Yeah. Maybe. Night, Dazza."
"Night, Jonesy."
Darren shut the door behind him and looked around his room. Again, the
white decorating motif, with silver and dark blue accents this time. A
comfy looking bed was in one corner of the room, with a dresser and desk
opposite. Next to that was a white marble fireplace with a mirror over the mantel. On the mantelpiece was a Japanese vase, with a spray of bright yellow daffodil fanning outward from it. It was the only spot of color in the whole room. Experimentally, he sniffed it. That's funny, it has no smell, he thought.
The bathroom was near the door and next to the closet, which was indeed
filled with clothes, all of which looked to fit him. A TV was in the corner near the fireplace. The double windows looked out over the Verazzano Narrows and the spacious backyard, which sloped down almost to the New York Harbor waterline.
Darren took a quick shower, brushed his teeth with the (white) toothbrush provided, and climbed into bed. He felt safe, snuggled down under the comforters, and he soon fell asleep.
Daniel woke around two in the morning, not remembering at first where he
was. Groggily, he climbed out of bed and pulled on a t-shirt, and went next door to Darren's room. He was sound asleep, curled up under the blankets. He knew he wouldn't be able to get to sleep for a while, so he went to go get a drink.
Downstairs, all was quiet. Daniel found the kitchen with little trouble,
and went out to the living room to drink his Coke. He wasn't alone.
Lilith was standing in the corner, gazing out the window at New York's
brilliant lights. Lost in her own reverie, she took no notice of Daniel
when he came in.
She was dressed differently than she had been before. A few hours ago, she had been wearing a long gray skirt and a gray tunic-style sweater, her hair pulled back in a scrunchie. Now she was wearing a long nightgown type garment, gray with a dark gray tunic over it, tied in the middle with a silver belt. Her hair fell loosely about her shoulders, fanned by the gentle breeze from the open window.
"So you couldn't sleep either?"
Lilith started and took an involuntary step backward, staring at him.
"Nice night." He walked over and stood next to her, looking out over the
terraced garden and the lights beyond.
"Yes, it is."
"So where are you from?"
She considered a moment. "France, originally. But I've lived in England,
Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Holland…and a bunch of other places. I like to travel."
"You don't have a French accent."
"I had tutors who taught me English exceptionally well."
"Will you tell me more about yourself? I like to know those I live with."
"I was born in France. My name is Lilith. I live in New York. That's the
story of my life."
"How old are you?"
She stared out into the distance. "Nineteen."
She was hiding something, he could see it in her eyes. He had seen the
pain flicker into her eyes and be carefully masked again when he had asked about her age.
"What are you hiding?" He decided to be blunt.
"Nothing."
Something, or someone, had hurt her, that much was apparent. Daniel wanted to reach out and hold her. He extended his hand towards hers.
Searing cold raced up his arm and into his torso. It was a cold beyond
cold, beyond ice, beyond the cold of outer space. Her touch had drained the heat out of his body in a single instant.
All he saw, before he hit the ground, were Lilith's wonderful silver eyes, filled with horror and remorse at what her touch had done.
"Dan! Dan! You okay, bud?"
Bright sunlight streamed offensively in through the window, hurting his
eyes. Where am I? What am I doing here? The last thing I remember is
the smell of carpet…
"I found you passed out on the floor this morning. You must have been
cold…you were shivering and your hands were like ice! But Lilith sent up
some hot water bottles and extra blankets, so you're okay now. She said
you'd be fine." Lilith…something about her…
"Daz, I…I touched her, and she…she…"
"Freaked out?" he said with a knowing smile.
Daniel glared at him. As Lilith chose that moment to walk into the room,
he didn't have a chance to voice the caustic remark that was on the tip of his tongue.
She was dressed similar to yesterday, in a long gray skirt and long sleeved t-shirt. A silver chain hung around her throat; it disappeared somewhere beneath her shirt.
"Darren, could you excuse us for a minute please?"
Nodding, he slipped out of the room. As soon as the door clicked shut
behind him, she walked over to the mantel and picked a rose blossom off the spray that was displayed there. She handed it to Daniel.
"Smell it."
He did so. "There's no scent. But it feels real."
She shook her head. "It is real, but there will never be any scent. Nor
will it grow, or wilt, or fade. It will always stay exactly the same.
That's the beauty of it; that's also its curse."
"What are you trying to tell me?"
She looked at him for a moment, not saying anything. Then she lowered her eyes to the rose he held in his hand. "You have to go back into the city today. But I can't go with you, you and Darren have to go on your own. You can't get sidetracked. You can't. If I get you the address and meet you there, can you be there by six? Please, Daniel. It's very important."
He nodded, and she turned to go, avoiding stepping in the patch of sunlight that sprawled across the floor. At the last minute she hesitated.
"Daniel, I'm sorry about last night, I'm so sorry…"
As the door swung closed behind her, he could have sworn he saw a single
tear roll down her cheek.
It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining brightly and there were a
few puffy clouds in the white sky. Seagulls screamed at them as they walked down the ramp from the boat to the terminal.
Darren was almost oblivious to everything but the beauty of the day; Daniel, on the other hand, wasn't paying attention to it at all. He pulled the address Lilith had written for him out of his pocket. Even her handwriting was beautiful: Six o'clock PM
Saint Columba Chapel
Cathedral of St. John the Divine
1047 Amsterdam Avenue
112th Street
"Hey, Darren, where's 112th Street?"
"Way uptown. We'll have to take the subway to get there."
They hopped on the next train they could catch and took it up to the
closest station to the Cathedral. On the train, Daniel tapped his foot
impatiently and looked at his watch every five minutes. Darren pretended to be absorbed with reading an Ex-Lax ad above the door. The train finally reached the 110th Street station, and Daniel ran out, almost dragging Daniel with him.
"Hey! Slow down! We won't be late, it's only 4:30. We have plenty of
time to walk two blocks."
"I just want to make sure. I want to know what the hell is going on, and I want to find out as soon as possible so I don't want to be late." Darren just looked at him.
The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine was as massive as it was ugly. The one tower was only half finished, and covered with rusty scaffolding. The other tower wasn't even started. Carvings of Saints loomed up over the gigantic bronze doors, with tourists snapping pictures of everything in sight. They just stared at the building before them.
"Wow…that's one big ugly church," Darren said.
"Ladies and gentlemen, another candid observation from Darren Hayes!" They crossed the street and walked through the small doors off to the side.
Inside, the church was dim and shadowy. Bright splashes of color hit the
stone floor through the stained glass windows. Daniel gazed up to the
ceiling, marveling at how tall it was. "Darren, would you look at that,
it's got to be 150 feet high!"
"Actually, it's 124 feet high, with the interior arches." They looked behind them. Darren's eyes widened.
Xenia?
Her hair was redder than the night before, her eyes the same hell-fire
green. She smiled at Darren and placed her hand on his arm. She looked at Daniel and smiled at him.
Daniel looked around him. The Cathedral hadn't been that crowded to begin with, but now it was totally empty. There wasn't another person in sight.
He looked at the strange girl and Darren. They obviously knew one another.
He wondered what her name was. He wondered why Darren looked freaked. He
wondered why he had a really bad feeling all of a sudden.
Xenia looked directly into his eyes, and as if she was reading his mind,
said, "I'm Xenia. I met Darren after the concert last night." After the concert…?
Daniel remembered how Darren had left right away. Daniel didn't see him
go; he had left out another door at the same time. He had wandered
aimlessly for an hour or so, before running into Lilith in the park. For
some reason that period of time was fuzzy in his mind. He didn't even
remember being convinced by Lilith to come home with her, although he must have been.
Her eyes were very green. Almost as green as…
Belinda's eyes were that same color green.
He felt a tap on his shoulder. Belinda stood behind him, an exact copy of Xenia. He looked at her accusingly.
"You never told me you had a twin sister."
"You never asked."
The last evening shifted into focus. He remembered leaving the theater,
heading in the direction of Central Park. He had run into Belinda,
literally, knocking her over on the corner. They had got to talking, and
she'd kissed him, and then…
She'd run away, scared of something. He went looking for her, but found
Lilith instead.
Thunder crashed overhead, echoing through the stone vaults and archways.
The bright colors had disappeared from the floor, leaving the entire church in shadow. Darren and Daniel flinched.
Xenia laughed sweetly. "It's only the cold front hitting the warm air,
silly. One of the last summer thunderstorms of the year."
Darren looked about uncertainly. "It wasn't overcast at all when we got
here. Can a storm come up that quickly?"
"Yes." Two pairs of green eyes looked into two pairs of blue.
A soft, cool breeze filled the cathedral. It got stronger and colder, but no one moved. Darren and Daniel were locked into the gazes of Belinda and Xenia.
A burst of icy air, accompanied by a flash of light, managed to snap them out of it. Daniel pulled his jacket closer around him and Darren started to shiver. The storm raged above them, around them, inside them.
Suddenly Lilith was between them, slashing at the other two women with a
wickedly curved blade. They screeched and jumped back, but they looked
unhurt.
"Don't touch them."
"Oh, look who it is, it's the little ghosty girl," Belinda sneered, one
hand up to her cheek, and a cut that wasn't bleeding.
"Leave. Just leave. I'll give you…" Lilith considered a moment, "Five
seconds."
"What the hell is going on?" Darren said, looking at the three before him, ready to fight at the first chance.
No one moved.
Finally, Lilith spoke, in a low, steady voice.
"Kaerxeni, Oiwhela. Aku Ryo Tai San."
Xenia and Belinda screamed, a horrible noise that resounded again and again through the arches and side chapels. Their features melted, changed shape; their intense beauty vanished, leaving them two hideous monsters: the demons that they really were.
They disappeared, fading away into ash that floated away into the farthest recesses of the nave.
"To repeat Daz's question: WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON????"
"Calm down, Daniel. I'll explain everything. Follow me, please." They
followed her to one of the massive stone columns which held up the roof.
Walking around the back of it, she opened up a door. She looked at Darren and Daniel and motioned for them to follow.
They walked up the spiral stone staircase for what seemed like forever.
They passed a few doors, but Lilith didn't stop at any of them. Just as it seemed they were never going to stop climbing, and Daniel was slightly out of breath, they did. Lilith pushed open a warped wooden door and walked into the darkness beyond.
They went through yet another door.
They were on the roof.
Night had fallen, and the sky had cleared up. They had a great view of the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, and of the Twin Towers in the far distance. A narrow crescent moon hung low on the horizon, still pink from the sunset.
Lilith walked under an archway and over a buttress, then turned right and walked along the edge of the roof. Effortlessly, she hopped up onto the stone railing, the only thing between them and the stone carving area almost two hundred feet below.
"Okay, Lilith. We're here now. You have some explaining to do." Daniel
crossed his arms over his chest and planted his feet on the slate, daring her to challenge him.
A faint smile crossed her lips, but it was belied by the bitter expression in her eyes. She laid a delicate white hand on the gargoyle she sat next to, as if it were a favorite pet. To their astonishment, the mouth opened and dropped something into her palm.
It was a crest of some sort.
Delicate silver filigree formed a picture of some sort of bird. The
outside was studded with rubies. Intelligible words written in a long
forgotten language were written on it, but they were cut off. A large chunk of it was missing. Lilith dropped it into Daniel's hand, who examined it closely. Darren looked at it over his shoulder, watching as Daniel turned it this way and that.
"Yeah, it's a charm of some sort. So?"
Lilith sighed.
"I need the other two pieces of it. That's where you come in."
Daniel cocked an eyebrow at her. "I haven't seen anything like this in my life. How could I have a piece of it?"
She looked at Dan, then at Darren. "You carry it inside you. You each
have a piece of it, close to your heart. I need it. I have to take it
out."
"How do you plan to do that? Are you a surgeon?"
She looked Darren in the eye. "Will you let me take it out? No surgery
involved, I promise you. No knife."
Darren gulped. "Will it hurt?"
"Yes. There's no help for it. But I guarantee you that it will hurt a
thousand times worse if you leave it in."
"Speaking of knives, what happened to the one you were wielding before?"
Daniel asked, looking around for the weapon in question.
"Oh, I got rid of it. Darren? Please?"
Mutely, he nodded.
"Okay. Go lay down over there." She pointed to a pallet on the slate a
few feet away. It wasn't there two minutes ago, Darren thought to himself.
He laid down as she directed. It was surprisingly comfortable.
"Wait! What are you doing to him? Stop it!" Daniel cried, lunging for
Darren. Lilith looked at him from where she knelt by Darren's side. She
didn't do anything that he could see, but he found himself unable to move or speak.
Darren squeezed his eyes shut tight. Daniel couldn't help but watch.
Lilith's hands touched Darren's chest. He tried to scream, but the only
sound that came out of his mouth was a strangled gurgle.
Daniel watched in horror as the girl's hands actually went through Darren's chest. Darren's eyes were opened wide now, staring at nothing. He was trembling violently.
Lilith's hands grasped something, and she pulled.
Darren screamed, his body arching off the pallet. She pulled harder, and
her hands came free of his chest. Darren fell back on the pallet, shaking, tears streaming down his cheeks. He curled up into a fetal position, making whimpering noises. Lilith shook her head sadly and passes her hand over Darren's body. Immediately his body relaxed, his breathing becoming slower and deeper. His eyes closed and he fell into a healing sleep.
Lilith stood and walked to Daniel, taking the amulet from him. She held
the two pieces up, and they fused together. Then she looked back at Darren.
"Don't worry. He'll be fine."
Daniel scowled at her. "I guess I'm next, huh?"
"Not right this second. Wait till Darren wakes up."
The silence between them grew and grew until Daniel couldn't take it any
longer.
"So who are you, really? No point in hiding anything now. I'll believe
anything."
Her eyes glazed over, seeing things they didn't want to remember. Memories she had buried deep in her mind and didn't want to unearth. She sighed once, decided to throw caution to the winds, and began to tell her story.
"My birth name was Jacqueline d'Arbonne. I was born on February eighth,
1376, in Paris. My parents were Marie de Mer and Jaques d'Arbonne.
Although I was born in Paris, I grew up in Carcassonne, which is south of Paris. Due to a twist of fate and screwed up family lineage, I was a countess - my father's brother was the king's nephew or some such nonsense. Things worked like that in those days. Anyway…
"I grew up the usual way. You know, embroidery, music, enough schooling to read the Bible, things that every proper lady should know. When I was
sixteen my father arranged a marriage for me to a lord from a nearby
province, but the deal fell through. Then we got into another war with
England, and marriage was pushed to the back of everyone's mind for the time being. By the time I was eighteen things had cooled down a bit and I found myself being ready to go to Britagne to marry some duke or something there."
"Was he a nice guy?"
"I don't know. I never met him."
"Oh, then you didn't marry him, then?"
"No. I never even saw him. We were en route to Britagne when we were
attacked.
"At first we thought they were just the normal highwaymen…Steal the gold
and leave. But that wasn't the case. First tip off that something was
wrong - normal robbers don't have eyes that green. Or hair that red. Nor do they travel with two women named Xenia and Belinda."
"Wow! They aged really well!"
"Aren't you the smart ass. Actually, their names weren't Xenia and Belinda back then. They called themselves Marie and Ailise. That's the thing with demons, they never use their real names, and you can't get rid of them till you find their real names. And they were vampire demons, which are trickier to deal with than a normal vampire or demon."
"So they're more powerful."
"No, I said they're trickier, harder to deal with. But they don't matter
anymore, since I got rid of them a little while ago." She smiled at Daniel.
"Did you know it took me about six hundred years to find out their true
names? And I had to go all the way to India to do that.
"To get back to my story…Xenia and Belinda were after the amulet that I had possession of, the same one that I am putting back together today. It is the key to a gateway to the underworld, one of demons and darkness, the place where lost souls go. Their master sent them to retrieve the amulet and bring it to him so he could open the gate and merge the underworld with this one. They figured that they could ambush my people, kill me, steal my amulet, and get a free dinner in the process. It didn't quite work that way. My mother had taught me about demons and such; she was not Catholic and knew that calling on Christ wouldn't do shit. She taught me all the spells and charms and chants I would need to protect myself and my family.
"After I pretty much wasted the two demon girls, all but a few of the
servants ran away. They thought I was a witch, a brand that could do some pretty serious damage in that day and age. Word reached Britagne before I did, and my fiancé's family refused to even see me. I went to Paris and moved in with my distant relatives, the royal family.
"Everything would have been fine if Draco hadn't gotten curious about who had defeated the demons twins. He came to Paris looking for me.
"I gave him a scar across his chest, and he killed me. But he didn't stop there. He put a cruse on me, turning me into a ghost."
Daniel exhaled slowly. It was too incredible to believe…but he knew it was true, deep down in his heart. He wanted to comfort Lilith but he didn't know how. He couldn't even touch her.
"I died in 1395. But due to Draco's curse, I was still half alive. I
could talk to people, like I'm talking to you now. But every time I touch someone, I drain the life force from their body. I can't sleep. I can't eat. I can't taste anything. I can go through walls, and summon objects. I never age. And I become invisible when sunlight hits me. It's hell…like living in permanent limbo." She gave a ragged sob, then got control of herself and continued.
"Draco wanted my amulet. I split it into three pieces only a few seconds
before I was killed. I kept one hidden. As for the other two, I used one
of my mother's spells to send them into the future. They went to you and
Darren."
"Then why do you need it so badly?"
She laughed mirthlessly. "Draco wanted the amulet so bad. But he had no
idea where I sent it. I myself had only a vague notion of where and when it was, and Draco tracked it faster than I did. Hence, Xenia and Belinda. He can't get us here - the Cathedral is holy ground, and he won't even set foot on it. But I need to put it back together, so I can bring myself back to life long enough to destroy it once and for all. Then there's no danger of him getting it and opening the gates."
"Well, it's a plan, I guess. But why did you change your name to Lilith?"
Another bitter laugh. "I didn't. Draco gave me my new name. Lilith means
'night spirit' so it's fitting. Nothing I can do about it."
On the pallet, Darren stirred. His eyes fluttered open.
Lilith hopped down and knelt next to him, giving him a heavy down quilt and helping him back to where Daniel was sitting. Darren promptly fell back asleep, the blanket warding off the chill night air.
Daniel walked over and laid down on the pallet.
"I apologize in advance. But if I don't do this now Draco will remove it, and it'll be slower and gorier."
Dan smiled at her. "It's okay. Do what you have to do."
He laid back on the pallet and closed his eyes…
Lilith's hands were icy cold, agony in itself. But then she pushed down
and into his chest. The pain was excruciating. Lights flashed behind his
eyelids. It was horrible, beyond anything he could have ever imagined…
The unbearable pressure grew and grew, and he was sure it would kill him.
Then he felt a release of a sort, and the pain disappeared.
Smiling with relief, he let himself sink down into that comforting
blackness.
Sunlight. Sunlight was always waking him up.
He was in a bed, covered with thick covers. He was warm and snuggled in,
and didn't want to move even though his bladder was advising him to.
"Grrrrrrrr."
"How're you feeling?"
Darren looked up from the pillow his face was buried in.
Lilith stood in the doorway, dressed as always in gray. She held a
breakfast tray in her hands.
"Here, eat this. You like food."
She left the tray on the table neat the bed. Darren went to the bathroom
and got dressed. By the time Lilith returned, nothing was left on the tray and Darren had just finished brushing his teeth.
"You can go anywhere in the house, except the rooms where the doors are
locked. The kitchen's a free for all, what you see is what you get is what you eat. I'm gonna go check on Daniel now." She left soundlessly, taking the tray with her.
Daniel was still asleep, snuggled deep into the pillows just as Darren had been a little while earlier. She'd been watching them all night, making sure they had no ill effects. Darren seemed fine now; Daniel she wasn't so sure of. He hadn't handled the whole situation very well. When she had removed the last piece of the crest from his chest, he'd almost died.
Her hand wavered above his forehead, wanting to touch him but not being
able to. He would be fine, of that she was sure. Still, he looked a little pale.
She sat in a chair in the corner and started work on her embroidery, to
pass the time while she kept her eye on him. Embroidery was a habit she
found hard to break. It had been drilled into her at such a young age that she found it difficult to give up.
She lost track of how long she sat there. She could hear Darren
downstairs, cheering for some sport or other on TV. Her piece of linen was almost totally covered. She'd have to go and get a new one in a few
minutes.
"So, how long have you been sitting here watching me?"
Daniel scared Lilith out of her wits. She actually dropped her thimble.
He smiled at her from the pillows.
"Good morning, how are you feeling?"
"Better than yesterday."
Lilith nodded and picked up to leave.
"So, how do you bring yourself back to life?"
"It's kind of difficult to explain, but it's not that difficult, because
I'm not all the way dead. You understand."
He nodded. He noticed a breakfast tray off to the side of him. He pointed to it. "That for me?"
"Yes. Eat it and then come downstairs, I have to talk to you." Lilith
left without another word.
He chewed his pancakes thoughtfully. He thought about Lilith. He thought
about the whole mess she was in, and how he wished he could help her out
more.
Downstairs, he found Darren watching Cartoon Network. He asked him where
Lilith was, he got a shrug in reply. Wisely, he waited till the commercial.
Darren glared at him. "She's out in the garden. Why do you want to know?"
He answered his own question. "You like her, that's why. Jones, you're in love with her!"
Dan stared at him for a full thirty seconds before recovering his power of speech. "I am not! I think she's very nice, but I'm not in love with her! You know I'm still hung up on Michelle!"
"Michelle dumped you for the old lighting guy almost six months ago! You
stopped mooning over her in August!"
With a start, Daniel realized he was right. He wasn't hung up over
Michelle anymore.
But how could he be in love with a ghost?
Confused, he left Darren to his cartoons and went in search of Lilith in
the garden. He found her in the middle of a bed of belladonna.
She spoke without meeting his eyes, hemming and hawing.
"I…umm…I need your help with something, uh, to bring myself back to life…I, uh, need some of your blood…"
"What?"
"Just a little bit…"
He pulled up his sleeve. "Where do you want me to cut?"
Relieved, she laughed. "Oh, thank you. I can't tell you how much I
appreciate it."
"When?"
"Midnight tonight."
It was cold out on the beach.
Darren was at Lilith's house, asleep. He had no part in this; he did not
even know Lilith's story. He didn't need to. Lilith stood side by side, staring at the moon glimmering on the waves. For a while they just stood there.
Lilith's voice was low, almost a whisper as she spoke to Daniel. "Roll up your sleeve." She made a tiny cut with a sharp knife, so sharp he didn't even feel it. Blood ran in a thin river down his arm. She wiped it with the amulet, careful never to touch him. Once she was finished, she wrapped her hand in her shirt and wiped his arm with it. The wound healed instantly.
"You should turn away. This next part is pretty gruesome."
He turned his back to her, but turned enough so he could watch her over his shoulder. She waded a few feet into the water, then placed the amulet over her heart.
It started to glow, a bright, piercing red. It slipped from her fingers,
only to be washed up on the shore a few feet away. Daniel grabbed it before it could be swept out on the next wave.
From the spot above her heart that the amulet had touched, a tiny spot of red. It grew and grew, first a spot, then a blotch.
Blood. Lilith was bleeding.
The water around her started to glow as blood spouted from her heart. She raised her hand to the now gaping hole in her chest, trying to still the flow. The water inched up her legs, her hips, her torso, until she was covered in it. She opened her mouth in a silent scream.
There was a sharp sound, and the water fell away from her. The flow of
blood tapered off.
She managed to make it out of the water before collapsing onto the sand.
Daniel ran over to her. Careful not to touch her skin, he lifted her and
carried her back to the car. He put her in the backseat and told the driver to hurry home.
When they finally got back to the house, it was three in the morning.
Daniel carried her into the house and up the stairs before realizing that he had no idea where her bedroom was. She had said something before about the door to her room being locked. He couldn't very well put her on the couch; she was the hostess for God's sake and that was undignified. So he put her in his bed and made himself comfortable on the floor.
Lilith woke up with a start.
"Maman? Où êtes-vous? J'ai eu un rêve terrible... Maman! Maman?"
She looked around as if seeing the room for the first time. Gradually, her memory came back to her, and she became less and less confused. Recalling the events of the night before, she got out of the bed she'd been sleeping in and ran to the mirror, tripping over a snoozing Daniel at the foot of the bed.
"Lilith, what are you…"
She was no longer listening to him, captivated by her own image.
Her skin was a healthy peach color, still quite pale, but not unhealthily so. Her hair was a light shade of brown. Her eyes were no longer a harsh, glowing silver. They were a warm, greeny blue.
She was totally and completely human.
Amazed, she laid a finger on the glass. It was cool to her touch. Mon Dieu. I'm myself again. I'm alive again.
"Are you…" Daniel was behind her, hands outstretched. She nodded, smiling with joy.
"Alive? Yes!" She grabbed his hands and danced him around the room in
happiness.
Suddenly she stopped, looked around. Dan watched as she ran into the
closet. After a few seconds, clothing started flying out. Lilith reemerged wearing jeans and a loose, dark red sweater. With one hand she pulled her hair back into a ponytail, with the other she fastened a gold necklace around her neck. She grabbed Daniel's hand again and pulled him down the stairs, almost breaking his neck in the process.
"DARREN! WE'RE GOING OUT FOR FOOD! LET'S GO!"
Darren appeared beside them in an instant. "Okay, where to?"
"Dammed if I know." She grabbed the car keys off the kitchen counter and
dragged them both out to the garage. Darren climbed into the backseat of
the blue BMW, Daniel sat in the front. Lilith slipped in behind the wheel, and in thirty seconds flat they were cruising down the street, heading for the Verrazano Bridge.
"So Darren," Lilith glanced in the rearview mirror as she made a hairpin
turn. "What's good to eat?"
"Well, what haven't you tried?"
Lilith looked sideways at Daniel and winked. "Oh, lots of things. Pretend that I haven't ever eaten anything other than, oh, I don't know, bread and apples and meat and potatoes."
"Umm…how 'bout pizza?"
"CAPITAL IDEA!" The tires squealed as Lilith made a U turn into a
supermarket parking lot. Daniel fought to keep his stomach under control as she parked in a handicapped spot. She didn't even wait for the guys, but ran into the store ahead of them.
By the time they found her the cart was half way filled with frozen pizza, chocolate bars, oranges, Jell-O, ice cream, chicken stir fry, soy sauce…a ton of stuff she'd been around for years but never tried. Three hours later Daniel managed to pry Lilith out of the store (Darren wasn't much help in that department.) Between the two of them they bought so much food that they had to use Darren's platinum credit card to pay for it all (Lilith had left hers in the car, but she promised to pay him back.)
They drove over the bridge into Brooklyn, over the Brooklyn Bridge, through Manhattan, and kept driving until they hit the open country. Lilith popped her mix CD into the stereo. They sang along to the songs they knew and laughed through the ones they didn't know that well. When "The General" by Dispatch came up, Lilith jacked up the volume a few notches. Dan and Daz didn't know the song, but it was a good tune, and easy to pick up on, so they were able to sing the words when she repeated the song. Daniel made her turn "Crush" by Dave Matthews up, and Darren wanted her to play "Ray of Light" by Madonna again.
They picked a nice tree to sit on, high on a hill overlooking the Hudson. Daniel pulled a blanket out of the trunk, and Lilith and Darren set up the food which wasn't frozen.
Lilith just looked at the piece of chocolate Darren handed her. "Do you
believe I've never had chocolate before?"
"You must be joking."
She shrugged and popped it into her mouth. She chewed for a second, and
then grabbed the rest out of Darren's hand. He grinned at Dan. "Well
Jonesy, I think she likes it."
Lilith nodded happily, her mouth to full to answer.
The afternoon passed pleasantly. Lilith and Darren and Daniel cracked
jokes and ate almost all the food they brought with them. By the time dusk fell, they had quieted down. They sat on the blanket, watching the sun set over the river.
"Ready to head back?" Lilith said as she stretched and fell back onto the blanket.
"Go back where, my child? The night is young."
Lilith stiffened, fought down a scream.
A figure materialized in front of them, dressed from head to toe in black.
Blood pounded in her ears, deafening her. She tried to scream but found
that her throat was suddenly too dry to do so. This isn't happening. He's not here. You're a victim of over
imagination. You're hallucinating.
"No, I'm really here."
"Lilith, who's that…?" Darren looked from Lilith to the strange man to
Daniel and back again. Daniel wasn't sure who it was either, but judging
from the look on Lilith's face he could make an educated guess.
His hair was a dark red color, with black highlights. Penetrating green
eyes locked gazes with Lilith, who recovered her powers of speech.
"Get off it, Draco. You don't scare me. You never did." She thrust her
chin out defiantly.
"Oh, of course not. Not even when I put a sword through your heart and
cursed you to eternal half-life? No. Not even then."
Inwardly, she shuddered. Draco's voice was soft, soothing, bitter, the
voice of a two thousand year old vampire.
"Lilith, I don't have the time to waste. I want the amulet…You've kept it for so long and made my life more difficult my hiding it from me. Make everyone's life a little easier and give it to me."
"No."
Draco's eyes flashed angrily, but he said nothing, only held out his hand.
Smiling sweetly, Lilith dropped a fortune cookie into his hand. "Go to
hell," she said in the nicest voice she could manage. Draco smiled back at her.
"You're alive now. I could kill you all over again. Slower. I did it
quickly last time…I used a knife then. Next time I'll use my bare hands."
Lilith's cheeky smile faltered but didn't fade.
"Lilith, what's going on?"
"Go back to the car, Darren."
"But…"
"Darren, let's go," Daniel placed a hand on his shoulder and started to
back up.
Draco looked at them. "Stop," he said. They stopped.
Dropping her eyes to the ground, Lilith spoke. "Let them go, Draco. They
don't have the amulet, I do. They have no part in this."
"Oh, I think they do, Lilith. You brought them into this, and that means
that now they're a part of it. You have to get them out. Well, I think I
might do that for you. I'm quite thirsty."
"Lilith, what's he talking about?"
Draco walked over to Darren, shaking his head. "Lilith has not been as
truthful with you as she should have been, Darren. Didn't she tell you that you were only a pawn in her little scheme?"
Darren's eyes narrowed. "What?"
"She used you, Darren." He leaned in close to his ear, his voice becoming a whisper. "You're nothing to her, just another toy to play with. She uses you…just like Lydia used you, like Jessica used you. Like Colby used you."
"Don't listen to him, Darren! Block out his voice from your mind!" Lilith cried desperately. Draco reached back with one hand, and lifting her into the air, threw her ten feet in the opposite direction. Her head hit a sharp stone with a sickening crack. Blood formed a small pool underneath her head. Daniel broke away from Darren and Draco and knelt by her side.
"See that, Darren? She cast a spell over Daniel, turning him against you. She's a witch, Darren. She was using you to get to Daniel. She turned everyone against you to do it."
A look of confusion crossed Darren's face. "Daniel? She turned him
against me?"
"Leave them, Darren. They only want to hurt you. Daniel was always
jealous of you and Colby. Lilith needed you to get to Daniel. You are
nothing to them."
"Daniel?" Darren looked stricken as he watched Daniel shake Lilith's
shoulder, his voice a barely audible whisper.
"Don't you just want to die sometimes, Darren?"
Darren shook his head yes. Draco leaned in closer. "I can take all of
your pain away. I can erase them from your memory…"
"Jonesy, why'd you let her come between us…" Darren looked at Lilith with a newfound hatred. Behind him, Draco smiled softly.
When Draco bit his neck Darren didn't even notice. He was entrapped in the cocoon of anguish which Draco had spun for him.
"Kill her, Darren. Killing her is the only way to get Daniel back. To get Colby back." He pressed a knife into his hand.
"Get away from her, Dan," he shouted.
"Daz! What are you doing?" Daniel looked at the knife in Darren's hand
and the insane look in his eyes. On the ground, Lilith stirred and groaned.
Daniel looked back down at her.
"Damn it, Daniel! I won't let her come between us! Even if I have to kill both of you!"
"Oh my God…Darren, for god's sake don't listen to him…"
With a cry, Darren launched himself at Lilith, knife out in front of him.
Daniel caught him before he could reach her, knocking the knife out of his hand and punching him the face. Darren kicked his feet out from under him.
They rolled around in the dirt, each trying to disable the other. Draco watched the entire scene with a mildly interested expression on his
face. He walked over to Lilith, who was trying to get her eyes to focus.
She felt lightheaded and dizzy and nauseous. At first she didn't see Draco looming over her.
Contemptuously, he kicked her in the stomach. Pain exploded through her
abdomen, causing her vision to black out again for a few seconds.
"That one is stronger than he looks. Do you realize how much energy I
wasted to bend his mind to my control?" A kick to the ribs this time.
"All that and you don't even have the amulet on you. I should kill you
now, but this is neither the time nor the place. When I do get around to
killing you, you'll regret that you didn't stay dead in the first place."
He kicked her in the shoulder.
"What am I…your…personal…kick…kick boxing…pad?" Lilith gasped out, trying not to choke on the blood in her mouth.
"Oh well, at least I'll get something out of this little farce. I'm taking your little songbird with me."
"Darren? You can't…"
"Yes, I can." He knelt next to her and tilted her chin up so their eyes
met. "I'm going to make him one of my servants. He'll make a good one, and then the energy wouldn't have been wasted. I'll come back for your silly little bauble tomorrow, or the day after. Goodnight, Lilith, my little night spirit."
"I am not you little anything."
He kissed her forehead and faded away.
Daniel was lying on the ground nearby, panting and holding his hand to his head. A large bruise was forming there. Darren was nowhere to be seen. He sat up, looked around. They were alone.
"You okay, Lilith?"
Mutely, she nodded. Her head was killing her and she ached all over. She
hadn't felt so awful since the last time she died; thinking of that, she
almost laughed.
They sat on the ground for a few minutes to get their bearings before
heading back to the car. Her hands fumbled with the keys as she tried to
fit the right one into the lock. Daniel took them from her, saying he would drive home.
Other than Lilith giving directions and Daniel asking how much the toll
was, nothing was said. They got back to Lilith's house around ten thirty.
The house was dark and quiet.
Lilith headed for her room on the first floor, and Daniel headed for the
room he slept in.
He sat on the bed and looked out the open window. Darren was gone, gone to wherever vampires go to do whatever they do to their victims.
"Damn it."
He knew he should be mad at Lilith. He knew he should go after Darren and find him himself. He knew he should leave her alone to do whatever she had to do.
But he couldn't be mad at Lilith. And he wouldn't leave her alone; she had been alone so long already. As for Darren, together they'd think of
something. They'd get him back.
Lilith wasn't in the living room, or the kitchen, or the dining room. He
thought about which direction he had seen her head in last. She'd gone
through a narrow set of double doors in the hallway just past the living
room.
The doors opened into another corridor. There was only one set of doors at the other end. Shrugging, he went through them.
He was in a beautiful room, with narrow floor to ceiling windows offering a spectacular view. Like the rest of the house it was decorated in white and silver, but it had colored accents. French doors lead onto a balcony. A bookcase of rich cherry wood housed volumes of manuscripts, some of which looked to be very old. A writing desk sat under one of the windows, and a CD player was in the corner. He flipped through the CD's, most were recordings of medieval music and mix CD's. The three exceptions were a Macross Plus CD, a Jazz Masters CD, and Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
A tapestry filled one wall, two icons hung from the other, covered in gold leaf and gems, obviously worth a fortune. A mahogany embroidery frame sat next to the French doors, holding a well worked piece of linen. He recognized it as the piece Lilith had been working on a couple of days ago, depicting a woman with a harp, sitting next to a unicorn.
Another chair and a small table, and that was all that was in the room. A small book sat on the table, with old fashioned writing supplies standing next to it. Carefully, he picked it up and leafed through it. The writing was of the archaic type you'd see in the Cloisters: Tiny, exact, and almost impossible to read. The few letters he could make out made no sense at all; it suddenly struck him that it was in Latin.
"Snooping, I see."
Daniel looked at Lilith, who was standing in the doorway to an adjoining
room, with a guiltily look on his face. She crossed the room and plucked
the book out of his hands. "You were reading my journal."
"Reading is not the word. Everything in there is gibberish. I can't read
it."
"That's good. I write everything in here. Actually, very few people are
able to read it. Mainly museum people."
"How do you know? They might start giving classes in Medieval writing in
public schools."
"I've done work for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian, the
Vatican, and the Louvre, as well as other smaller agencies, translating
Medieval documents for historical study. Been doing it for years…how do you think I bought the house? Selling girl scout cookies?"
He took the journal, opened to a random page, and pointed to a passage.
"Prove it," he said. "Read that."
She looked at the words on the now yellowed page.
"November seventeenth, 1892.
"Tuit cil que.m preyon qu'eu chan, volgra saubesson lo ver,
s'eu n'ai aize ni lezer. Chantes qui chantar volria, qu'eu non saup ni chan ni via, pois perdei ma benanansa per ma mala destinansa."
"Okay. What did you just say, and what language is it? What I could make
out in that book of yours was in Latin, or so I thought."
"My thoughts and stuff like that are in Latin, but this is in Old French. It's a troubador song I liked and wrote down. Those are only worth singing in French. English and Latin are such hideous languages. It says, 'All those who ask me to sing should know the truth about whether I have the time or the inclination. Let he who wants to sing, sing, for I know neither song nor style, since I have lost my joy through my cursed destiny.'"
"Wow. Were you depressed that day or what?"
"I was dead. What did you expect, 'Zippity Doo Dah'?"
"Sorry, don't get mad."
She laughed. "Actually, that's been one of my favorite songs ever since I was small. My nursemaid would send me up to bed and I'd sneak back to the Great Hall to watch the troubadours play and sing. I wanted to be a
troubador when I grew up."
"What's a troubador?"
"A travelling minstrel type of person."
"Oh."
Lilith's face crumpled, and she slammed the book down on the table and sat down. She pushed the book away from her with a violent shove, sending it flying across the room, buried her head in the crook of her arm and started to cry.
"Lilith, what's wrong? What's the matter?"
"What the hell do you think is the matter? Draco has Darren and it's all
my fault. Draco was right! He was right!! Neither of you would be in any
danger now if it weren't for me. I should never have send the pieces of the goddamn thing into people. I should have sent them to…the Taj Mahal or something. And now Darren is gone. He's going to change him…he was
right…right the whole time…" Uncontrollable sobs wracked her slender frame.
Daniel put his arms around her, rocking her back and forth soothingly. He smoothed a loose tendril of hair back from her forehead and wiped the tears from her cheeks.
"You should go to bed now. It's getting late and it's been a long day."
"Bed? I just came back to life, I don't want to go to bed just yet.
There's too much I want to do." Lilith got her sobbing under control.
He looked deeply into her eyes. "What do you want to do?"
She shrugged her shoulders and looked down at her hands. "I want to live a normal life, and pretend that life was a boring as most of us pretend."
Daniel pulled her to her feet, and closing the distance between them,
kissed her.
He wrapped his arms around her as he felt her try to break it off.
"Daniel, I…You…"
He placed a finger on her lips to silence her. He kissed her forehead, her cheeks, her lips, her throat. "I won't hurt you, Lilith. I would never hurt you."
"But Daniel, I've never done anything like this before…"
He smiled at her in the moonlight, a soft smile that spoke volumes. "I
won't hurt you. Trust me."
Lilith stared at him for a second and then smiled tentatively. Taking her hands in his, he led her through the door and into her bedroom.
Daniel looked at Lilith and smiled. She was sleeping in his arms, head on his chest, where he'd wanted her to be the moment he saw her. Where she belonged.
There was no clock in the room, but he guessed it was almost five. The sun would be up soon. They had only a few hours to rescue Darren, by his
estimation. But he didn't want to think about that right this second, as
long as he knew Darren's life wasn't in danger.
Lilith sighed and rolled over without waking up. Daniel wrapped his arms
tighter around her as he kissed the top of her head. He looked into the
darkness, his eyes focused on some unknown point.
In the distance, the sky paled.
