Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. My best friend and me are just along for the ride.
A/N: This is a the story of Lilium (her name changes during the time periods from Sesen to Lilium to Lily – Sesen in the beginning, mostly while she's in Egypt, Lilium during the Roman time period and Lily during the English one, if there is one(?)). Here she finds her mate. It really is the Sequel of Farewell, My Love, The Wilting of a Flower and Storytime, but it can be read perfectly well on its own. For a deeper understanding of the characters, read the predecessing stories first. Co-written along with my best friend, the creator of Chrystal. Enjoy!
Magnetic Forces Will Not Be Denied
Chrystal and Lilium were discussing things you should never say to a vampire.
"The thing that takes the price, though, is probably the phrase that got me into this mess in the first place," Lilium stated. "'Bite me'!"
"Why in the world did you say that? Vampires might take things like that literally." Chrystal looked confused.
"Vampires weren't that usual in Egypt," Lilium defended herself. "I didn't know that Murtagh was one!"
"He was a lunatic," Chrystal stated. "I couldn't help that he liked the sun."
They were so immersed in the conversation that they didn't notice the human approaching until it was screaming.
"VAMPIRES!" And he turned and ran away, screaming all the while and throwing frantic looks over his shoulder as he went. Now that they'd noticed him, his increased, panicked heart beat and breathing seemed loud as he stumbled gracelessly through the underbrush.
"Humans have a strange way of panicking in the exact wrong situations." Chrystal shook her head. "May I kill it?"
"NO!" Lilium yelled, annoyed. "How many times must I say it, NO!!"
"Alright, alright. I won't kill it," Chrystal said soothingly.
They kept walking.
"Chrystal, we will have to find new hunting grounds," Lilium commented after a few hours, while picking some wildflowers some distance away from Chrystal. Chrystal flitted to her side.
"Why?" Chrystal asked.
"The predators in this area are beginning to get dangerously few," Lilium explained. "Besides, as we've noticed, there are far too many humaans...!" Lilium trailed off abruptly when she felt a powerful tug somewhere in her midsection. Before she knew it, she was literally flying through the air. She tried to get her feet back on earth but failed – this was like nothing she had ever felt before. She had no control over it.
She was flying through the air only for a few seconds, but she still managed to fly right through several trees in the way, and even a big rock, before she slammed into something hard and smooth that definitely wasn't a tree or a rock.
"Oof!" the thing said, and she realized that it was another vampire, a male by the sound of it, and they both fell over. The sound they made was like boulders in a rockslide, and Lilium cringed internally, hoping that no humans had heard that.
She tried to disentangle herself from this other vampire, but she was somehow stuck to him, like iron dust to a magnet. She was left pressed against his back, sprawled all over him. He turned his head in her direction where he lay on the ground.
"Hey! Could you please get off of me?" The man said, sounding annoyed and a bit embarrassed.
"That's just the thing," Lilium tried to explain. She would have been blushing if she had been a human. "I can't."
"Huh?" He sounded startled now.
"There's this force that won't allow me to move," Lilium complained. And then, realizing what that sounded like, she could have sworn that she blushed anyway, even though she couldn't. "I mean... I'm literally physically unable to move."
Stupid, stupid, stupid! That was so mortifying!
The man was silent for an uncomfortably long moment.
"Oh," he finally said.
Suddenly the force died out. Lilium got to her feet immediately, mortally embarrassed and refusing to look at the man.
"I'm sorry about that." The man got to his feet also. "I'm afraid that was my fault."
"Huh?" Lilium asked, so startled by this that she finally looked at him. And what she saw just about knocked her off her feet.
He was tall, with dark brown curly hair that Lilium immediately wanted to touch, to see if it could possibly be as silky as it looked. His shoulders were broad and his eyes were the customary burgundy red of vampires with the normal human blood diet. As with most vampires, he was also beautiful.
And he was impossibly attractive.
When she finally came out of her daze she realized that he was staring at her. She was immediately embarrassed again. Surely he had noticed her frank appraisal of him. That was probably why he was staring so intensely at her – he thought that she was just some freak that...
"You're beautiful!" he exclaimed.
Lilium was so caught off guard with that statement that she actually jumped.
"What?" she burst out.
He looked embarrassed again. "Sorry. I didn't mean to say that out loud. Anyway." He cleared his throat. "Where was I? Oh, yeah, why you couldn't get off me. See, I..." The man trailed off when he noticed her eyes. "Why are your eyes amber?"
"Oh, it's because I only drink animal blood," Lilium explained, feeling embarrassed again. "I'm weird that way."
"I didn't know it was possible to live on animal blood!" He looked surprised, and... hopeful?
"Well, it is," Lilium answered, shrugging. "I'm living proof of that."
"Interesting..." he mused.
"What was that you were saying about me being unable to get off you?" she reminded him, curious as to what he was going to say.
"Oh, yes. That." Suddenly he looked nervous. "Well, you see, I've got a talent. I'm selectively magnetic. That means, I'm magnetic to the things that I want to be magnetic to." He laughed a bit. "That sounded very weird, put like that, didn't it?"
Lilium shook her head reassuringly. "No, I got it, I think. Wait, so you're saying you wanted to be magnetic to me?" She was really confused now.
"Well, kind of. You see, I've been going around, trying to be magnetic to my soul mate." He looked significantly at her.
Lilium's breath caught. "You're saying that I'm your soul mate?"
"You must be, because I haven't tried continually to be magnetic to anyone else." Now he looked really nervous.
"Oh." She didn't know what to say. "So... this feels ridiculous."
"Ridiculous?" He looked questioningly at her.
"You're telling me that, apparently, we're soul mates, and I don't even know your name yet!" Lilium laughed a little at the thought.
He laughed to, and stuck his hand out to her. "Right. My name is Alexei."
Lilium took his hand and smiled. "I'm Lilium."
"A beautiful name for a beautiful woman," he murmured, looking intensely at her again.
She smiled, embarrassed again. "Well, aren't you quite the charmer. You don't look so bad yourself, you know." She looked critically at him when he smiled at that. "But if we're going to be together from now on, you're going to have to change your diet."
"I'll try," Alexei promised with another smile.
Lilium looked around herself. "By the way, where's Chrystal?"
Chrystal? she called in her thoughts.
Yes, my dear.
Where did you disappear to?
Alexei looked at her with a confused look on his face. "Who's Chrystal?"
"Wait," she said, holding up a hand.
He looked even more confused.
"Right here." Chrystal appeared behind Alexei. He spun around. "You must be Alexei. Nice to meet you."
He nodded confusedly. "I suppose you're Chrystal, then?"
"Yes. I see you've met my daughter."
He looked surprised. "Your daughter?"
"Don't take that literally," Lilium inserted. "It's emotionally."
"Oh. Yes, I have, obviously."
"So you're basically a walking magnet..." Chrystal looked amused at Alexei.
"Basically," he agreed, laughing at the statement. "I take it you heard the entire conversation?"
"Well, that also."
Lilium looked bored.
"Also?" Alexei asked.
"Lilium, don't give me that look. Well, you see, I can read your mind." Chrystal threw a glance at Lilium.
Alexei looked shocked. "That's one I haven't heard before..." he stated. "Well, except for Aro. Does your talent work the same way as his?" He looked deeply interested.
"Well... I haven't ever met this Aro..." Chrystal looked up in the sky as if Aro was somewhere up there. "No, I don't need to touch the person, I don't have a range limit, and I can also put thoughts into your head," she said.
"Basically, she can do anything that has to do with the mind," Lilium explained.
"Cool," he said. "That must be one handy talent."
"As long as the thoughts aren't sexual fantasies..." Chrystal cleared her throat.
Alexei immediately looked embarrassed. Lilium threw him an amused look. He turned toward her. "Do you have a talent?"
"Why, yes. I can move objects, as long as they're within a... say... five mile radius." She demonstrated by 'picking' Alexei up and letting him dangle in the air five feet up.
"Okay, I get it," he laughed. "You can put me down now."
Lilium did as he asked.
"What's the reason you're in this particular forest?" Chrystal asked when Alexei was on the ground.
"I don't know if I have a reason," he answered good-naturedly. "I'm basically just going from place to place. I happened to be here at the moment."
"So, you're sort of a nomad?" Chrystal looked thoughtful.
"I suppose that's what I would be called, yes. I have human relatives relatively close by, but of course, I am a murderer to them."
"I know the feeling." Chrystal looked sympathetically at him. Do you want him to join us? Chrystal looked at Lilium.
Yes, of course! I thought you heard the conversation?! She looked incredulously at Chrystal.
"I heard you wanted to try Lilium's animal diet... So I guess you'll be joining us?" Chrystal looked at Alexei again.
"If I may," Alexei answered. "I see you're not following this diet?"
"Only if I must..." Chrystal looked back at Lilium. Don't look at me that way. I will not join you and your mate in your diet. I'm fine just the way I am.
Lilium rolled her eyes. "Your stubbornness is baffling. I don't get why you're so unwilling to stop killing humans."
"Usually I kill old and sick humans, and they, not to be heartless, will die sooner or later anyway." Chrystal put her chin up.
"Yeah, but do you always check whether they are ready to die yet or not?" Lilium asked, giving Chrystal a pointed look. Alexei looked bemused at the conversation.
"I actually do have a sense of moral." Chrystal sniffed, putting her chin up even higher.
"Are you always like this?" Alexei looked amused.
"Usually, and you'll be hearing this for quite some time." Chrystal winked at him.
"Chrystal!" Lilium exclaimed. "Don't scare him away!"
Alexei laughed. "I doubt she'd manage anyway..."
"My sentiment exactly." Chrystal turned. "Are we leaving?"
"You're always leaving," Lilium commented with a laugh. "But, yes, we are. Right, Alexei?"
"Right." He nodded.
"Shall I lead the way?" Chrystal grinned.
"Do!" Lilium nodded.
They left.
A/N: Chrystal drinks human blood because she did so for 400 years before she met Sesen (Lilium) and realized that an animal blood diet was possible. By then it would have been too difficult for her to change her diet, and she didn't even bother trying. She CAN stay away from humans, but usually she doesn't. She thinks of her diet as the natural one.
Sesen refused to drink human blood from the beginning, and she's almost as good at abstaining as Carlisle. I know that in the Twilight series, Carlisle is actually the one who invents the animal blood diet, but go with me here. It's fanfiction. Sorry for the long note. Review!