A/N:First of all thank you/hello to everyone who commented/favorited/added to alert. The email notifications made me so happy :D.
Secondly, I have already written up to the end of chapter 6 from then on it's less set in stone (but I've still planned all the backstories and what will happen in a general arc) so I can't predict exactly how updating will go as this is unfamiliar ground for me but I'll let you know!
We all go back to where we belong
"I dreamt what you were offering
Imagine lying next to me
You should, and your reputation talks.
I will write our story in my mind
Write about our dreams and triumphs
This might be my 'Innocence Lost'."
"Don't you dare pass out! Fucking wake up!"
Quinn turned into the alleyway taking in the image of Rachel; in a pool of blood, her face disfigured. A large, grimy man hovering over her, holding her wrists - they looked like fragile twigs in his huge calloused hands. Fury at someone hurting Rachel burned white hot in Quinn. Her urge to rip every limb he'd ever touched her with clean from his body was held barely below a paper thin surface. Quinn dredged a memory, from the darkest moment of her existence and pushed the terror and hatred it encompassed at the scene in front of her. The man froze above Rachel's tiny broken form before clambering to his feet and fleeing.
"Rachel? Rachel!" Quinn called rushing to kneel at the broken girl's side, eyes frantically surveying her injuries. She was immediately aware of Rachel's lack of response and closed, swollen eyes.
"Rach! No! No, no, no! Look at me!" Quinn pleaded with the girl desperate for her to be okay.
"Rach, can you hear me?" The smaller girl had lost consciousness. Quinn could feel she was still alive; she saw the blood softly pumping round her bruised and broken body, oozing from her wounds and congealing. Not knowing what else to do, she bit down on her lip hard before pressing her mouth roughly to Rachel's; the only way to force her to ingest some of her blood – her actions met with a thick silence.
Quinn would never forgive herself for being out running so far away if Rachel died. Suddenly the smaller girl gasped and a pained groan tore through her throat. Quinn pulled back bringing her wrist to her mouth before biting down hard and holding her gushing wrist to Rachel's mouth. Instinctively Rachel took it and as she swallowed the cold metallic liquid her wounds began to close. A sickening crack rang out as her wrist snapped back into place as it healed. Terrified eyes opened, panic was washing over Rachel as she attempted to recognise her surroundings.
She gasped, "Quinn? Is that you? What's going on?" her voice croaky. The bruising from Rachel's face began to reabsorb as the healing properties of Quinn's blood finished repairing the more superficial damage.
Rushed, Quinn pushed the first emotion she could think of onto Rachel, a sudden calm sensation washed over her as her features relaxed. The blonde stood quickly, turned and ran, leaving the - at least physically - repaired girl to process what had just happened. Quinn felt terrible leaving, her heart trying to draw her back to the fragile brunette, but she knew if she left while Rachel was still disorientated perhaps the girl would never remember seeing her and she wouldn't have to deal with the inevitable questions.
Quinn was covered in a mixture of blood; her own and Rachel's smeared together on her skin and clothing. The smell was overpowering, as Quinn struggled to ignore the pounding desire to hunt and kill.
Desperate to get home as fast as possible, Quinn sprinted back to the huge out of town mansion her family lived in. Slamming the door to the outside world behind her, she stood stock-still finally beginning to process what had just happened.
"The Fuck did you just do Quinn?" her sister Fran shouted from upstairs. "I can smell fresh blood on you from here, if you fucking killed someone Russ is going to kick you out so fast." Quinn took the stairs up to Fran's room 3 at a time before rounding the corner into her room. "You look awful. What happened?" her eyes raked over Quinn critically. Rachel's blood was over her arms and shorts. Her own blood coated her hand and was smeared up her forearm.
"Rachel... she got attacked. I had to save her Fran. I couldn't lose her," Quinn couldn't even make eye contact with her sister, too focused on trying to sense if Rachel was okay.
"You mean that annoying girl you've been moping over and going to high school again for?" Quinn nodded. "You're pathetic. I hope you've got a fucking good cover up. Go eat something, you look dead." Frannie chuckled at her own joke. "Well, more dead than normal."
"You fucking suck at vampire humour," Quinn spat back incredulously, offended by her sister's dismissive attitude towards Rachel and her feelings for her.
Standing in the middle of her bedroom Quinn looked down at herself. Beginning to realise what just happened and what it could mean for her. The smell of Rachel's blood permeated her nostrils endlessly. Quinn felt so real in this moment covered in blood, she'd spent so many years a ghost, just existing, never really interacting with or affecting anyone's life, just being a silent observer. The rush of fear she had felt at nearly losing Rachel still coursed through her veins, what if Rachel never would have known how she felt? Quinn began to peal off her ruined clothes turning to look at herself in the bathroom mirror. Quinn stopped abruptly seeing the blood smeared down her cheek and shoulder where Rachel's bloodied hand had grasped at her as she healed. She traced it slowly with her fingertip.
Suddenly realisation struck. What would Rachel remember? What if Rachel figured out everything; what Quinn is, how she feels? How could she possibly explain away what had happened? She couldn't tell Rachel what she was; she was bound to tell someone, leaving her with only one option – to lie. She was going to have to lie to Rachel.
Quinn leaned close to the mirror taking a damp cloth and began to wipe her face and neck. Maybe she could pretend she had been out jogging and found Rachel blacked out in the alley from low blood sugar and waited until she came around so Rachel would think she had hallucinated everything. Quinn laughed at herself, was she really going to try and erase this night in the same manner as she was cleaning the evidence from herself. Quinn threw the cloth carelessly over her shoulder landing it square in the small corner bin. She would have to pretend she had no idea of the events that night. Pretending that she hadn't even seen Rachel, while leaving the girl to deal with the trauma by herself. Quinn hated what she would have to do; to lie to the girl she was falling in love with, but it was necessary to protect Rachel from the truth about vampires.
Quinn stepped into a hot shower, the water cascading over marble skin, warming it gently. Quinn liked hot showers; it made her feel like, for a few minutes, she could be alive. The warm water caused her blood to flow fast and her skin to tingle. She would have to wait until school to see what Rachel knew go from there, until then all she could do was wait.