Lily Read online

  He and his sister couldn’t be any more different if they lived on opposite sides of the globe. Erica was smart and levelheaded. She was always thinking, always trying to make things better for the coven, the vampires and for the feeders. Everyone loved Erica, except her brother. But Eric didn’t really like anyone, and there was no love lost on him either.

  On two separate occasions, the entire coven had to uproot and move to another city or risk detection or worse, action from the Guardians, the vampire overseers that governed the vampires. Eric felt that since he was the ‘prince’, he could go out every night and rape, kill and feed. Vincent wanted his last such infraction to be his last. Vincent was going to put him down because he was just too much of a risk to everyone. But Alexa refused to let the orders be carried out. She reminded Vincent that before they met, he had once been a part of a murdering horde and that he too had risked the safety of the species.

  Vincent and Alexa had lived in London in the late 1800’s. The world was very different then. There was no extranet cameras, no television, not even phones or radios. It was much easier then to get away with murder. London is where Vincent met Dr. Jack McGregor, the scientist responsible for the creation of Lily. He had messy sandy blond hair and a moustache of the same color. He stood about six feet tall and weighed about one hundred and sixty pounds. He was a brilliant scientist and had experimented with vampire and human blood for over a century. He was also a very twisted individual, and still was. He was better known in the coven as Dr. McGoo. Vince started calling him that shortly after the turn of the 19th century, after his curiosity had gotten the better of him and he went on a killing spree in the Whitechapel area of London. The spree became known to history as the Whitechapel Murders, but everyone that knew anything about them knew them as simply ‘the work of Jack the Ripper’.

  Jack McGregor was still alive and well and lived with the coven in what is now West Nashville. It was there from which Eric forced them to leave. This was after Lily’s arrival and how the coven ended up being residents of Atlanta. They had to leave Atlanta after about twenty years because Eric had killed an Atlanta police officer. He said it was a mistake, but that was doubtful.

  On that day, it was also Eric that woke the sleeping dragon, also known as Lily, in the early morning hours on the day of her arrival at the Nashville coven. Vincent entered the front door of the meeting hall and was planning on a quiet trip to the tunnels where he would put the little sleeping vampire in a cage until he could figure out what she was, how she was going to react and how to move forward from there.

  He wasn’t so much as to the bottom of the steps when Eric shouted out from the other end of the hall.

  Lily’s eyes shot open and Vincent felt spikes erupt down the length of her spine. She clawed at his chest and managed to wiggle and claw her way out of his arms. She shot down the hallway and Vince shot after her. Her claws tinked and tapped against the floor as she ran from hallway to hallway.

  The black coat Vincent had placed over her had fallen away as soon as she was out of his arms so she was a naked five year old running down the brick-lined hallway with one inch canines, two inch spine spikes and claws on her hands and feet. It was very near dawn, and the vampires were settling into the underground area for the day. As Lily, Vincent and Eric ran past, each one looked at them as though he were chasing a purple unicorn.

  “What the hell is it?” Eric asked Vincent as he ran behind.

  “A child,” Vincent answered calmly.

  Vince was still annoyed with his son for waking her in the first place. When they finally reached a hallway that ended in a heavy locked door, Lily turned and attacked. Instead of stopping her, Vince simply stepped out of the way. She took Eric completely by surprise and before he could get her off, she had clawed him up rather badly.

  When Eric finally got his hands around her, Vince promptly took her and held her out in front of him. He turned her around to face him and she clawed at his arms and took swipes at his face. He only held her out, away from him and stared at her. She either realized that he was not going to let her go or that he wasn’t going to hurt her, or both, because after only a short time, she calmed down. She retracted the claws and relaxed. Just as he was going to cradle her again, Erica’s voice came drifting down the hall. Lily turned quickly in her direction.

  Vincent’s daughter, Eric’s twin, was walking down the hall toward them. She had long flowing brown hair. She was about five foot eight and was a solid one hundred and thirty five pounds.

  “So I take it you found Mary,” she asked as she approached. “And what do we have here?” She smiled and brushed Lily’s hair out of her face.

  “This is Lily,” Vincent answered.

  Lily did nothing to attack. Erica’s smile was apparently contagious because Lily smiled back. Eric came up behind Erica and pushed her into the wall as he walked toward Lily and Vincent. In a split second, Lily was on the full offensive once again. Her arms pawed the air after Eric but Vince turned so his back was toward Eric and was between him and Lily.

  “Go away!” Erica said as she punched Eric in the jaw.

  Lily strained her neck to look past Vince. Erica then simply walked around him, took Lily from Vince and began walking back down the hall in the direction she had come.

  “What the hell?” Eric asked, shrugging his shoulders.

  “If you threaten her, she attacks, dumb ass,” Vincent said then followed Erica and Lily down the hall.

  Eric just stood there, his hand rubbing his jaw, and watched as Lily snuggled into Erica’s arms. That was the moment that Eric’s hate for Lily began. She had embarrassed him but took immediately to Erica. Everyone always takes to Erica, he thought. He looked down the hall toward the others.

  “You just wait, Lily,” he mumbled under his breath.

  Erica carried Lily to the only place Vincent could have planned to put her. A cage that was designed to house werewolves. It was a few doors down from the laboratory in what everyone called ‘McGoo’s hallway’. Most of the rooms off this particular hallway were used by the doctor to do his experiments.

  The room was well lit and had a small table with two chairs sitting behind a large cage. Erica walked past the table, took the key off of the far wall then unlocked the heavy cage door. It was a simple cage, rectangular in shape with heavy steel bars spaced about four inches apart. There was a makeshift bed on the floor that was made of straw and grass with a heavy quilt on top.

  Erica put Lily down on the bed and then sat down beside her. Instantly, Lily spotted the large wolf laying against the outside of the cage. Lily pointed to him.

  “Wolf,” Erica said, looking directly at Lily.

  “Woooof,” Lily mumbled while still pointing to the huge animal.

  “His name is Onyx, and he doesn’t like anyone,” Vincent said from the doorway of the cage.

  “He just protects the premise. Not the people in it,” Erica corrected.

  “Can you say, Onyx?” Erica asked Lily. “Aaaa nix.”

  “On-ix,” Lily sounded out.

  “Very good.”

  Onyx was a solid black Guardian Wolf. He was huge, He was over three hundred pounds and like Vince had said, he didn’t like anyone, not even Vincent. Most wolves choose who they would protect to the death when they were just pups. But Onyx, the offspring of Vincent and Alexa’s wolves, Venom and Snowball, had chosen no one. He protected the property of the coven and did it quite well, so Vincent let it slide that he had no vampire of his own to protect.

  Erica pointed to the dress she was wearing. “Dress.”

  “Dwess,” Lily said with puckered lips.

  There wasn’t much in the room but Lily pointed at everything that was around and Erica gave her a name for it, from the broom in the corner to the cup on top of the table.

  As soon as Vincent was out of sight, Erica carried Lily down the hallway and then upstairs to her house and straight to the bathroom. Onyx only lifted his head when the door to the cage clange
d shut.

  "Ok little girl, it’s bath time. You are absolutely filthy," Erica thought aloud.

  Erica smiled at the naked little vampire in her arms and Lily smiled back. She was relaxed and after a moment her fangs began to descend. Lily obviously hadn't done it on purpose and raised her hand to feel the protruding canines. Then she got this look of deep concentration and Erica felt the spikes erupt down Lily's back as she watched shiny white claws slide from their sheaths under Lily's nails.

  Lily arched her back so the spikes scraped against Erica’s hands then she looked down at her claws and wiggled her fingers. She looked up into Erica's eyes and flashed a big toothy grin as she showed Erica her clawed hand.

  "That's very good, little one," Erica cooed. "Usually takes new vampires months to have that kind of control. And usually they have to get really mad for the defenses to surface."

  Erica decided to test Lily's control so she sat Lily on the floor and knelt in front of her. She took one of Lily's hands and pushed on the tips of the claws, in the hopes that Lily would get the idea to retract them. At first Lily just pushed her claws against Erica's hand in a playful way. Then Erica laid her hand on top of Lily's palm and revealed her claws to Lily. Lily grinned and pushed against the tips, which prompted Erica to retract the claws. Lily giggled aloud and pressed against Erica's fingertips. The claws came out once more and then Erica pushed her claws against Lily's. Lily quickly retracted her claws then pushed against Erica's who did the same. Lily laughed out loud as she began to understand the game. Erica taped Lily's fingertips and instantly the claws were out. Another tap and they were gone.

  Erica couldn't help but laugh with Lily, not only by the game but by how quickly Lily caught on. Erica then ran her hand down the spikes on Lily's back and they disappeared below the skin.

  Erica knew of some that had been a vampire for a year that didn't have the kind of control Lily did. And Lily wasn't even a week old. But she supposed that being born with the ability was a lot different than being changed into it.

  “Whew, you stink little girl,” Erica whispered.

  Erica held her hand in front of Lily. “Stay.”

  Luckily, when Erica returned with warm water, Lily was still in the room, just looking around the empty room and then followed Erica to the bathtub.

  Erica poured the water into the tub then went to get more water. Lily followed and Erica didn’t stop her. She followed her to the living room and watched Erica pour steaming water from a large pot over the fireplace. She then refilled it and took the hot pot to the bathroom. It took several trips but Lily just followed along behind.

  When the tub was nearly full, Erica lowered Lily into the water, not sure of what her reaction would be. When Lily’s lower body was in the water, she tried to lift herself out by wrapping herself around Erica. Erica only smiled and let Lily hold on to her.

  Then she slowly tried again to lower Lily into the water.

  “It’s okay, Lily,” Erica reassured.

  After the fourth try, Lily finally loosened her hold on Erica’s neck and settled sleepily into the water. Erica grabbed a washcloth and soap and began to clean the dried blood and dirt from Lily’s arms and legs. When Erica dropped one of Lily’s arms and the water splashed in Lily’s face, Lily actually audibly gasped.

  “Aww, I’m sorry,” Erica cooed, wiping the water from Lily’s eyes with a dry towel.

  But then Lily lifted her hand and dropped it on her own, this time splashing Erica’s clothes. When she looked at Lily to reprimand her, Lily was smiling. A full toothy grin and Erica just couldn’t be mad. Then Lily splashed again and again. Erica used the splashing to wet Lily’s filthy hair. It worked. Then Erica lathered the matted hair with soap and began to massage the suds around. Apparently Lily liked it because she cooed and grinned and just let Erica wash her hair. Then she splashed Erica with water again.

  When Erica tried to lay Lily back to rinse her hair, Lily was having nothing of it. She wrapped her little arms tightly around Erica’s neck and wouldn’t let go. Erica tried to pry her off but Lily was not leaning back into the water. Erica finally got Lily to let go but was right back when Erica tried to lower her in the water again. The third time, Erica simply leaned forward and dunked Lily into the water and rinsed as much of the soap out as possible. Now they were both soaked. Lily let go of Erica’s neck and Erica went to get a cup from the sink then rinsed the rest of the shampoo from Lily’s head just by leaning her head back and not her whole body. This worked better.

  Erica wrapped the towel around Lily then they sat on the floor beside the tub. Erica worked through the tangles and after about 20 minutes was finally able to get a comb through Lily’s shoulder length, blond hair. She then went and fumbled through a few drawers to find the smallest shirt she had, slid the shirt over Lily’s head and, as if Lily were any ordinary child, said “Boo” when Lily’s head popped out of the shirt. Lily laughed.

  Steven, Erica’s husband, walked into the room, curious as to where the laughter was coming from.

  “Who’s that?” he asked.

  “This is Lily,” Erica answered. “Remember the experiments that McGoo does? Well, this time it worked and here she is.”

  “The first true blood vampire, born with fangs and claws,” Steven acknowledged. “At least she’ll never have to experience the change.”

  “True,” Erica said as she combed once again through Lily’s hair. “She seems pretty tame, considering what she is.”

  “I would definitely keep an eye on her though. You know how temperamental new vampires can be,” Steven reminded her.

  “Vincent wants her under lock and key for the time being.”

  “So why is she here?”

  Erica smiled shyly and shrugged her shoulders. “She needed a bath?”

  “Erica! You have no idea what she’s capable of.” Steven paused. “Vincent doesn’t know she’s here, does he?”

  “She’s just a little girl,” Erica reassured.

  “She’s still a newborn vampire,” Steven reminded her.

  “It will be fine.”

  Erica picked her up and held her for a little while but decided that it would be really bad if she was caught with Lily out her cage. She kissed Steven then carried Lily downstairs and back toward the basement and the cage. Lily began to doze off in Erica’s arms.

  They were almost to the last turn at the last intersection of halls when Eric rounded the corner from the opposite direction and stopped. He glared at Erica with a smirk on his face.

  “What are you doing?” Eric yelled.

  Lily jumped and was instantly awake and on the defensive. Erica tried desperately to keep Lily in her arms but she wasn’t fast enough. Lily hit the ground running and shot down the hall to the left toward McGoo’s hallway. The next second there were six vampires and two wolves after Lily. Eric’s doing.

  Erica chased after them and managed to throw one of the vampires into the wall.

  “That’s one down,” Erica mumbled to herself.

  Lily turned the first corner, claws scratching against the stone floor trying to get traction. A long corridor lay in front her with door openings on either side at varying intervals that lead to houses above or research labs or storage below. She ran past the first couple of doors that smelled like vampires but entered the hallway that smelled like humans, McGoo’s hallway. She scurried, nearly on all fours down the hall. She entered the first opened door and ran to the other side of the room, through an opened door, through another room and finally through a pair of opened double doors, into a very large white room with thick glass windows overlooking other rooms all around but with no exits. On the right wall was a long metal table. Lily could smell the blood that had seeped through the cracks over the years in the white tiled floor.

  She slid on all fours, turning as she slid until her side hit hard against the far wall. Lily had ended up in the laboratory that was used for the experiments. The smell of blood was so strong that Lily actually felt ligh
theaded for a moment.

  She growled and hissed, her eyes blood red with fear. She faced her would be attackers head on as they were only seconds behind. Eric didn’t like Lily, thought she was a threat to his ego and wanted to see her dead. The wolves, Venom and Zeus on Eric’s orders, stood on each side of him. They all approached slowly, meticulously calculating every move that Lily might make. When they were halfway across the white tiles, Venom stopped cold in his tracks. The ratta-tat-tat of wolf claws on stone, then on tiles, reverberated through the opened door of the lab. Lily thought the sound was coming for her and watched as everyone’s attention turned toward the opened doors.

  As everyone turned to see which wolf it was, Onyx knocked his way through the crowd at the door and over Zeus’s head, nearly hitting his own head against the ceiling.

  The huge black wolf landed a few feet from Lily, his momentum sending him sliding into the wall over her. Everything had happened so fast, Lily only had time to duck and cover. She knew that the wolf was coming for her and she ducked and waited for the bite.

  Onyx stood over the child, making her look so incredibly small under his huge frame. Eric took a step closer and Onyx lowered his head, his nose wrinkled, his ears flattened against his head and his white teeth flashed brightly against his solid black coat. His yellow eyes were fixed on Eric.

  Eric looked down at Venom and shrugged his shoulders as if say, “Well, what are you waiting for?” but Venom didn’t move. He was Onyx’s sire but even he knew that nothing could take down Onyx. And Onyx was not backing down.

  After a few seconds, Lily slowly opened her eyes and found that no one had moved since she had closed them. A low, guttural growl rumbled in Onyx’s throat and Lily ducked, not quite realizing that Onyx was standing directly over her with his teeth bared, daring anyone to make a move against her.