Chapter One : The Deal

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Eight days. That's how long it had been since Lily had made a deal with a vampire. And now, over a week later, she had no more information than the night she met him. She had no way of contacting him, no way to know when or where they would meet again, or even who this supposed friend was. Eric had yet to tell her anything at all, and she was beginning to wonder if she had made a horrible mistake.

Every time the phone rang she felt her heart rate spike and rushed to get to it first, just in case it was him, just in case anybody would find out what she was doing. This deal, it had to remain a secret. Her guardian, Steph, would be the first to reprimand her for her actions, telling her how dangerous it was to be putting her safety in a vampire's hands, and it was. But opportunities like these didn't come along very often. It was the money that was driving her forward. She needed it. The bank, the bills, the repairman, needed it. She wished she had asked for the money upfront.

It was strange to have to rely on someone else, she was the one who took care of everyone else. Lily was the one who made sure her sister drank enough water when she came home hungover, who made sure Steph had enough to pay the bills. And now there was nothing she could do but wait. She'd have to rob a bank to get her hands on that kind of cash.

But besides tiring of waiting for information to come her way, she was also tiring of trying to come up with a solution. How was she actually going to find this friend of his in the first place? Witchcraft wasn't something that came easily to Lily. English essays, picking locks, lying to get into clubs, these were the things she knew she could do well—as well as the superpower of always knowing when someone was talking about her, as long as they're in the same room. But how to actually go about invoking some unearthly power? No. And it wasn't as if she could ask Steph or even her sister about it.

She had spent her entire Saturday morning scouring through cabinets and oak boxes in the little room at the end of the hall, where Steph kept things from her youth that she'd probably rather keep hidden, witchcraft things.

In a chest of drawers, there was one drawer dedicated to tiny rusty keys in an array of shapes and designs, another full of trinkets and charms and pendants, stuff that could have passed for jewellery or ornaments but most likely had a more sinister purpose. Then there was the middle drawer. It was locked and was the one most likely to hold the very thing that would be most useful to her in this situation. The good stuff was always kept locked away from her reach, like she was still a little girl who had tried to reach for the scissors and sharp knives.

So by late afternoon, Lily had managed to sneak only a mere handful of items back to her bedroom. An old book with a split in its spine, smoothed gemstones, a stick of sage, and a bottle of amber coloured oil sealed with a piece of cork. She hid them in the space underneath her bed, for all the good they'd do. The book might actually have some potential but she'd look through that later when she was sure nobody would bother her.

The day was slow. She didn't have any appointments to keep her distracted. She hadn't seen her sister since the night before, and Steph had left sometime that morning due to business of some sort that she had to attend to. She hadn't been around all that much lately, which served Lily well as it gave her valuable snooping time. She searched through cabinets and drawers, took what she could that would go unnoticed, and hid it as best she could. And when she felt her frustration rise at the lack of objects she'd gathered so far, nothing particularly useful to help Eric, she decided she had to get out and join the real world.

It was one of those especially clear days where the only clouds came from the white trail after a jet had flown by. She took a break and walked down the street in the hot sun, passed downtown restaurants to the Creole townhouses three blocks over. There was a grocery store at the street corner that sold liquor and cigarettes, eggs and milk. The basics at a discount price and the only place that didn't mind too much when she paid in loose change.

A bald man behind the counter had his eyes glued to a static television set on a high shelf, craning his neck out to get a good view, completely engrossed. It looked like the news but Lily wasn't all that interested. She headed straight to the back aisle and picked up a tin of spaghetti, and on her way back to the counter, a small loaf of bread. The man behind the counter didn't even notice her. Instead, he pointed a remote at the set to turn the volume up over the hum of the air conditioner.

"The vampires, as a group, have cheated death. And when death has no meaning, then life has no meaning. And when life has no meaning, it is very, very easy to kill." A man dressed in a sharp suit sat arguing as the camera panned to a blonde woman in another studio wearing a headset.

"Not true..." the blonde woman carried out a counter argument that Lily had stopped listening to.

She cleared her throat louder than necessary; gaining the bald mans startled attention. He pointed the remote to the TV and the screen went blank. He muttered: "Fuckers." Rolling his eyes and gesturing towards the TV, as if wanting someone to agree with him.

She wasn't sure which side he was referring to, but thought it better not to ask. She nodded in reply and he scanned her items. "Two dollars, fifty." She poked through her pocket to retrieve a crumpled dollar bill and several coins, paid and left. By the time she got back home, her sister had made an appearance.

Gwen was sitting at the kitchen table with one knee up at her chest, dressed in a long, sheer black dress from the night before. Her dark hair was in tangles and there was mascara smears under her eyes like she had rubbed her eyes in her sleep, but above all that she still looked beautiful. Gwen had been born with that kind of effortless beauty. She was tall and therefore naturally slim, long legs and high cheekbones. Dark brown hair, Bambi eyes and tanned skin that made her look like a beauty queen.

As children, people would tell them that they looked alike but Lily never saw it. Her own hair was a few shades lighter and her eyes were a shade of hazel trapped between olive green and honey brown.

"Where have you been?" She asked in a groggy voice as she fumbled through a semi squashed packet of Marlboro lights. Lily held up the tin and loaf of bread as an answer before setting them down on the kitchen counter.

The closer she came to her sister's side, the more she took heed of what she was staring down at on the kitchen table. Gwen was leafing through pages of a square book, stopping every so often to slam her finger down on the paper and mumble profanities. It was her high school yearbook. What on earth would inspire her to dig up that old thing? But upon closer inspection, realised that there was a small oak box on the table next to it, one from the dusty little room at the end of the hall.

Lily felt her palms tingle. Did Gwen know? Had she seen her rooting through it and somehow figured out what she was doing? No, she needed to calm down. Acting so suspicious would only spike her curiosity.

"Ugly, ugly, ugly." She mumbled as she brushed the tip of her finger over each smiling face, "Drop out, ugly." Lily was coming to sit on the chair next to her, peering over her shoulder at the grainy, black and white photographs of old high school seniors. "Pregnant!" Gwen exclaimed, briefly entertained before moving on to pass judgement on other alumni.

"Where did you find that?" Lily asked.

"Found a box of old junk in the cobweb room," She called it that because of its thick wisps of thread hanging in corners of the ceiling and behind dressers like mesh curtains. "The door was open; it was on top of the desk."

There had been a bunch of wooden boxes similar to that one hidden away in the back of a cabinet. Lily had set a few out on the floor and on the desk to look through later, not counting on anyone coming in and taking them in the short while that she had been gone.

While Gwen placed a fresh cigarette between her lips, Lily peered into the box. There wasn't much in there: ribbons and sewing pins, folded papers and several smooth stones. The engravings on the stones smoothed, coloured surface caught her eye. Alchemist symbols had been etched with care upon them. They might actually be of use to her.

She heard her sister snap her fingers over and over again, holding them at the end of the cigarette, much like she would a lighter. A small white spark appeared amongst her fingertips and she used it to light her cigarette. Lily wished she wouldn't use her magic so often and for such simple things. Steph must not have been around, because they both knew that she would be the first to chasten her about putting her power towards a better use. Like all forms of power, it was incredibly addictive.

"Where's Steph?"

"Gone out." She took a long drag and exhaled a slow swirl of silver smoke. "Said she'd be back late, took that leathery old book with her."

That leathery old book was a book of witchcraft. Powerful, and something Steph kept well away from the girls. It occurred to Lily that perhaps she wasn't the only witch under this roof keeping secrets, implementing services. She quickly changed the subject.

"Have you eaten?"

"No." Gwen held the red tipped cigarette in between fingers, "Have you?"

Lily shrugged off the question, "Oh, you know, the usual." Gwen wasn't often this sober. She stared at her for longer than necessary, wide eyed and expressionless.

Lily offered to make something for the two of them and Gwen nodded, puffing out smoke through a space in an open window. She made French toast with the last of the eggs in the fridge and they sat on the sofa and ate together like when they were kids. Although, back then Gwen was the one doing the makeshift cooking and she would put a Breakfast at Tiffany's tape in the VCR to watch on an old television that gave them electric shocks when they went near it.

Lily tore a crust to pieces and ate them slowly. Smoke had seeped into the furniture and soon it started to feel like she was eating from an ashtray. She took their plates to the kitchen and set them in the sink. Gwen was flipping through channel after channel on television. Taking advantage of her momentary distraction, Lily turned on the tap and let the gush of the water cover any hushed sounds as she etched closer to the oak box sitting on the kitchen table with its lid hung open. She reached in and picked up one of the alchemist stones, the sunlight bouncing off its polished exterior. The meaning of the symbol carved into its body was on the tip of her tongue, she had learned them all as a child. Quickly, she retrieved the others belonging to the set and put them in her pocket.

She turned back to the sink and above the clinking dishware, heard a monotonous buzz coming from somewhere in the other room, like a phone. She heard it again a few minutes later, followed by her sisters footsteps coming towards her. Glancing over her shoulder, she found her standing right behind her, staring down at her phone. The light from the screen cast her face in a pale glow. She looked up with a twinkle in her dark eyes.

"What? What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Gwen glanced down at her phone again to read something. "I was just wondering what you're doing tonight," she said.

"I'm not sure, why?"

Her eyes lit up, and then she asked: "Have you ever been to Velvet?"

Velvet was one of those clubs that attracted young, rich, beautiful people from around the city. Everyone wanted to get in because people who had been there said it looked like heaven on an acid trip.

As it turned out, she wanted to take her there. She said that she had to meet a friend there and didn't want to go alone. Even though she was perfectly capable of going alone all those other times she ventured out at all hours. Lily thought that the whole thing reeked of some ulterior motive. But found herself curious as to what her sister got up to on these excursions. And she had never been to that club before… Before she could voice her answer, Gwen took her silent, non-answer, as a yes and smiled so wide she showed teeth.

They waited until the sun set before getting ready because Steph had yet to come home and Lily was half hoping she would arrive home and claim to need help downstairs. That fantasy didn't last long and she decided she would leave a note for her instead.

They got ready in a hurry, smoothing out hair and dusting the last of the good bronzer on their cheeks making them glow like stardust. Getting ready was arguably the best part of going out at night, like painting on a new face would somehow protect her from the rest of the world. She could be anyone she wanted to be.

Gwen would pull out clothes on hangers and hold them against Lily to see what they would look like. After the tenth or eleventh rejected choice, she finally she gave a look of approval. The dress of choice was short, black and short. The skirt was like fine netting, a delicate contraption that pulled in under her chest and hugged all the right places. Gwen insisted on painting her lips a dark maroon colour. "Because it makes you look, like, scary hot," She had said when Lily asked her why she was hell bent on applying it.

When the sky turned dark blue and the city lights began to outshine the stars, they left. Getting to the strip of nightclubs downtown was a simple walk; one of the advantages of living in the city. It was easier to walk wherever you wanted to go and spare yourself the stress of inner city traffic. And they got there in a matter of minutes, it was early, but not early enough. The line outside Velvet was huge.

They passed a line of waiting partygoers and shivering girls in bodycon dresses, and slipped passed the main doors without so much as a glimpse at Lily's fake ID because apparently Gwen knew the bouncer and he owed her a favour. The bouncer was a tall, broad shouldered man with intricate designs shaved into the side of his head, she caught him winking at her sister as they headed on inside.

In this place, the world was a swirl of colour; rainbow strobe lights streaked across dancing strangers like lightening. She was being pulled through the crowd, brushing past people and this one guy who did a double take with raised eyebrows when he saw her. Even though he was kind of sweaty and gross, it made her feel better.

It was packed to the rafters tonight and she could feel the grip around her hand tighten, Gwen pulled her up to the bar and shouted her order at the bartender, slamming her palms to the counter a few times for impact. This was Gwen's world; she was in her element here. Glancing around, Lily saw a group of girls she recognised from school who were hardly old enough to legally drive huddled around a table laughing and sipping on rosy pink cocktails. Before she could make out their faces a red drink in a long glass found its way into her hand. It tasted sweet, like strawberries. Gwen was sipping on a replica.

That night they danced, drank strawberry daiquiris, and melted into crowd of strangers. A blur of people masked in electric hues. Flash of red light. Flash of white light. Flash of green light. People were throwing their heads back and raising their arms because they didn't care about anything in that moment. The people who came here didn't want to care about anything.

She saw a girl sitting on a barstool slumped over the counter, holding a head full of soft blonde curls in her hand. There was a man standing over her, whispering something in her ear as the side of his mouth tilted. His hand was on her lower back—like all men do—making small circles that puckered the red lace of her dress. The sight stirred something within her and Lily couldn't stop herself.

"Hey, how do you know my friend here?" She asked.

He gave her a grin, looking her up and down, "Are you a cheerleader too?"

"Yeah, I am." She smiled bright and persuasive.

"See, my buddy over there is looking for some company..."

"Then fuck off and find him." Lily dropped her smile and watched as his expression changed.

He made this noise deep in his throat somewhere between a laugh and a scoff. She raised her brow and retained her steely expression until he shook his head and gave her this look, like: 'who do you think you are'. He skulked away holding his whiskey on the rocks. Lily waved goodbye as he passed by just to rub it in. Guys like that were assholes just looking to take advantage of any unsuspecting person they could get their hands on. And who drank whiskey in a club like this anyway? He might as well of some self respect and order one of those fruity cocktails with frilly umbrellas to at least try to blend in with the underage scene in here, since he was planning on taking one home.

She turned to the blonde girl whose eyes were dazed and half closed. There was a vodka soda sitting in front of her, only a few sips away from untouched. There was a pretty good chance that it had been laced with something.

"Georgia?"

Her eyes opened slowly at the recognition of her name, her voice sounded groggy, "Whatever you want to do," She replied.

"What? Georgia, it's Lily." Lily put a hand on her shoulder; half afraid she would fall from her seat if she didn't.

Georgia frowned, "What are you doing here?" She looked around, her hair swishing out of place. "Where did he go?"

"You don't want to waste your time with a creep like that. He's not worth it."

Looking as sad as she'd ever seen her, Georgia wrinkled her nose and looked her up and down, "Who cares? He was going to take me home..." her speech became too slurred to comprehend, "and I wouldn't die a virgin."

Virgin? That was new. She and Georgia weren't particularly close, not anymore, so it was never the kind of thing they discussed when they met for cheerleader practise after school. But she had always carried herself like she...well, wasn't. When Lily tried to put her hand on her shoulder again, Georgia just pulled away. Lily decided to leave her for now. She thought she could come back later to check on her, make sure she got home alright. Georgia didn't live far from here, she probably walked here with someone.

She went to find her sister in the crowd of flashing lights, which entailed walking around and pushing past strangers making out in order to loop around to the other end of the club. A few false alarms later, she saw her, standing with some guy. He looked like he could have been in a boy band with a face like that. Gwen was handing him something, a tiny bag of white powder, and in return he handed her a ball of scrunched up bills. It was painfully obvious what she was doing.

So this was the reason she came here.

Lily watched for a second, just standing there. She was about to go to her and ask her all of the angry questions running through her mind—did she realise how much trouble she could get into if she were to get caught?—but a hand around her waist stopped her.

"Hey, beautiful, I can make you feel alright."

She turned around and saw a man, light haired and unfamiliar. He pulled her towards his chest, smiling. "I don't think so." She pushed against him and broke away. Someone slapped a hand on his shoulder and laughed. It was the guy who was flirting with Georgia. He said something she couldn't hear to his friend and they both smirked as they turned to face her.

"I'll bet you can do the splits," The light haired guy said, his smile grew wide.

"Of course she can," his friend added. "She's a cheerleader."

Suddenly she was in elementary school again, when some boys cornered her in the playground and took to explaining the sensitive topic of her mother. One boy's father had told him that he had known Lily's mother, and that she was possessed by the devil and that was why she hadn't been around to raise her, because she was out and about in the world doing whatever it was that possessed people did. Another boy told her that she was probably going to end up just like her mother one day, and then proceeded to push her to the ground as if he were somehow assaulting the devil. In this situation however, she guessed that they weren't going to push her to the ground and leave her be.

She tried to walk away, even dared to act like it was because they weren't worth her time, like her stomach wasn't churning from nerves. Her head was beginning to feel cloudy from drinking daiquiris on an almost empty stomach. He took her by the wrist and pulled her back. And then Gwen was there.

She was shouting at them, saying everything Lily had wanted to but couldn't think of. She swore in their general direction and acted as a barrier between them, forcing her little sister behind her. She moved in closer and for a second Lily thought she was going to hit him. The look on his face seemed to come to the same conclusion. But all she did was press her hand against his chest in a swift movement, like she was trying to shove him or knock him over. Then his smile dropped.

There was no sound above the music, just a look of panic stricken across his face. The muscles in his neck were protruding and strained because his mouth was trying to gulp in oxygen to no avail. He looked like a fish suddenly exposed and choking on the air. And then all hell broke loose.

His friend—creepy whiskey guy—had rage in his eyes and tried to pry Gwen away. A sizeable crowd had built up around them now, coming to look at the guy who was trying to fight some poor innocent girl. Gwen's hand remained over where his lungs would be and only tore herself away after someone had thrown the first punch. It came from a stranger who seemed to have done it in her defence after realising that Whiskey Guy was clenching his fists in preparation for attack.

Someone must have come to Whiskey Guy's aid because soon things were starting to look like a less theatrical version of West Side Story. Glasses were shattered and blood splattered across faces and arms and knuckles. Girls were screaming and running for the exit as security guards tried to dodge fists and pry angry drunks off one another.

"Come on," Gwen said as she squeezed Lily's hand tight. They could hear the shouts and curses directed their way from Whiskey Guy even above the music.

She was pulling her away in a run, but not towards the main exit. Unsure of whether or not their new friend might be following, Lily glanced over her shoulder every so often but could barely see anything. They headed for the far end of the building where everything was significantly darker and the walls seemed to close in. But Gwen seemed to know where she was going so Lily kept quite. Past some corridor that lead to women's bathrooms and through a door identical to the wall that she never would have noticed was there, they ended up outside in a grubby little alleyway at the back of the building.

Whiskey Guy came stumbling out after them,"Fucking freak, what did you do to Brady?" He wore a look of disgust on his face.

"He had it coming." Gwen stepped forward and there was this moment of silence between them. He was looking at her with angry confusion in his eyes, either because she seemed like she was prepared to take him on or because he didn't know what she was waiting for.

Gwen stood still, only feet away from him, but Lily caught the subtle twitch of her fingers. She was going to do something. Abruptly, he shouted out and held a hand over his right eye. His knees buckled and his shouts turned to profanities. He looked up at his presumed attacker for just long enough for her to see something horribly wrong with his eye. She had to squint through the darkness to make sense of what she saw, the white of his right eye had become dark, stained with blood due to burst blood vessels.

But it wasn't enough to keep him on his knees for long. He staggered to his feet shouting accusations their way, and Lily could have sworn she heard her sister laugh as she took her by the hand and they ran. Whiskey Guy ran too. The incident seemed to have only invigorated his anger and fuelled him forward. Not that it concerned them very much.

It wasn't clear if it was because of his partially blinded eye or because he was half drunk, but when Gwen sprang behind an archway that looked almost invisible in the moonlight, he carried on in the other direction where he would eventually end up at the street corner around the block. They stood there holding their breath and pressing their backs against the damp brick wall, waiting for him to leave. After a while his swearing sounded distant and muffled by passing traffic.

Lily was sure she should have been scared, nervous at the very least. But all she did was laugh. And it started Gwen laughing. It was the kind of laughter brought on by strung up nerves and adrenaline in their veins. It was exciting.

As they slipped past the gate, they had to push their way through the line of tipsy civilians still waiting outside the doors. That night, they walked home in their high heels with aching feet, elbow through elbow, almost as if they were the kind of sisters who were just that close and did things like that every Saturday night.

Lily decided not to bring up the topic of drug dealing that she had witnessed, not now at least. It would have tarnished the events of the night that had lead to this impromptu feeling of closeness. Besides, taking care of Creepy Whiskey Guy was enough to compensate, if just for tonight. Everything else could wait until the morning.

By the time they reached their front door that lead to the apartment upstairs, which stood beside the bar building, behind a tall gate for added security, they were too tired and too lightheaded to do anything but climb into bed and fall onto soft pillows. It was only when her eyes had fluttered closed that Lily thought to check with whoever was behind the bar tonight to see if anybody had left her a message, like she had done every night since meeting Eric Northman. Every night was the same, nothing, and she was too tired to get up now anyway, so she decided against it.

She really should have checked that night.

A/N: Thank you for the reviews/follows/favourites. It really does means a lot to me.

This chapter is longer than I intended it to be but we'll be moving on to more interesting things in the next one! This chapter was really just to establish characters and get a feel for what Lily's life is like, who she is, motivations etc. All of these extra characters are relevant to future chapters, really.

Remember to review, if you have any critique or anything you think I could improve on. Thank you!