Disclaimer: I do not own The Caster Chronicles. Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl do. I'm just writing this story for fun and I'm not making any money off of it.

Italics (except for the beginning with the date) are direct quotes and scenes from Beautiful Darkness and they are not my own words. I'm using them, again like other quotations in earlier chapters, to further the story from Lila's point of view.

Reviews welcomed.

Please enjoy!

Chapter Forty-Four

March 2005 Six Months before Beautiful Creatures

"Mom, mom, mom where are you?"

Lila looked up from her work, and pushed it to the side when Ethan came into the kitchen. He wore a white tank and black basketball shorts. His hair stuck up at odd angles. He held a basketball in his left hand against his hip. She couldn't help but smile.

"What is it?"

"Do you know where the jersey dad got me for Christmas is?"

Lila smiled. "I put it away for you in the top drawer. You always have it on the floor."

Ethan gave her a sheepish grin before he ran upstairs to grab it and darted back down to go out the door. Lila yelled before he opened the storm door.

"Where are you going?"

Ethan peeked out his head. "To practice with Link."

Lila knitted her eyebrows. "How are you getting to the school?"

"Link got his driver's license an hour ago. I thought he'd drive me?"

Lila laughed. "Alright. Be safe and don't get into an accident."

He told her he wouldn't and she shook her head, before her mind went back to all the papers across the dinner table. She collected them before she called Amma and told her if she could make dinner that night. She had to make a trip to Savannah that day and it was one o'clock in the afternoon.

Mitchell was out at a reading in Summerville. She would be there, except she had to go see her sister, Caroline. Lila took all of her work with her and put them in the front seat of the car. She started the ignition and backed out of the garage.

Her fingers tapped the steering wheel as she made her way out of Gatlin, and at a stop sign felt in her pocket for the Calling Crystal Leah gave her what felt like ages ago. Lila knew her life was in a constant state of danger, since she went down into the tunnels that one day.

She never walked in the tunnels alone, but the one day she did she wandered into a bad part of the tunnels. It was there she came across a pub. Wrapped in dark clothes no one paid her any mind. Arelia gave Lila a charm to make sure people would not pay attention when she was in the tunnels.

The pub catered to a select clientele, seeing as she was surrounded by Incubi and Succubae. Lila knew that fleeing would only catch their interest. She headed towards the exit, but when she walked down a hallway she overheard two Incubi.

"When do you think we should make a move against him?" The voice had an edge and Lila saw he wore a fedora hat.

"If anything when his niece goes to Ravenwood. Sarafine's been keeping an eye out for her. She's been useful. I also got her cousin wrapped under my wing—the siren, even though she doesn't know it."

Lila stifled a gasp, but kept her position. She needed to know who these people were, but their knowledge about Macon's niece did not sit well with her.

"Abraham, we need a plan to take back Ravenwood."

Her eyes widened, her heart dropped, and her palms started to sweat. She did not hear what she thought she heard.

"We will. We need his niece though. Sarafine's been telling me she's going to be a second natural, and if everything goes to plan then she'll be on our side. What with her being able to claim herself and all, yet we'll manipulate her to turn on her ol' beloved Uncle Macon. Your shameful son and my disgusting great-great-great grandson will never see what's coming."

Lila closed her eyes. The evidence was clear and she moved away, and she heard a faint chuckle.

"Tell Sarafine we need to take care of a little nuisance in the coming months, but I want to visit someone before she does," Abraham said. Lila heard a rip, but casually walked out of the blood Incubi pub and made her way back towards the Lunae Libri of Gatlin County.

The road in front of Lila's car stretched for miles, and her mind replayed that event for a couple of days. She wasn't sure what Abraham meant by "a nuisance," but her stomach acid churned. Time was ticking. She needed to go to her sister's house to store some things, and she needed to see Macon one final time to tell him everything.

#

"Lila I didn't think I would—" Caroline said from the porch, but got cut off.

"Not here, I need to talk to you inside."

Caroline shook her head and opened the door for her sister. Lila's hair hung down to her shoulders and her red reading glasses held it back. Caroline saw that Lila had a lot of notebooks papers on her. She was going to pour her sister some sweet tea, but told her she needed to go up to the attic. Caroline let her go and watched her sister run up the stairs and shook her head.

Lila closed the door. Her shoulders tensed as she kept a weathered journal close to her stomach. The same journal she kept information on the Ravenwood family and part of the incantation for the Arclight. The one Arelia gave her, which used to be Macon's but he never used it. She scribbled a note in it. She dated it the twenty first of March.

Macon,

If you're reading this, it means I wasn't able to get to you in the time to tell you myself. Things are much worse than any of us could have imagined. It may already be too late. But if there is a chance, you are the only one who will know how to prevent our worst fears from becoming a reality.

Leah told her something was afoot years ago, but it wasn't till recently she knew what exactly it was.

Abraham is alive. He's been in hiding. And he's not alone. Sarafine is with him, as devoted disciple as your father.

You have to stop them before we all run out of time.

-LJ

Before I run out of time, Lila thought. Time was not in her favor. She ripped s page out of the journal and put it in the back. There was an old trunk and she pushed it away from the wall. Carolina never fixed the loose board from the wainscoting. Her head whipped around the room to make sure that no one saw her, and she slid the journal into the narrow opening. Macon would find it. This was their designated place for the utmost secret information, except research she even kept secret from everyone else.

Caroline tried to push Lila for information when she came to Savannah without any word before she came. Lila said she needed something for the research she did with Marian.

"I don't believe you, you know?"

Caroline stood in the living room and crossed her arms in front of her and stopped Lila from leaving the house.

"What?"

Caroline walked up to her sister and brushed a hair out of her face.

"About the research. Why you'd drive all this way when you could have called me? What's going on?"

Lila wrapped her hands around her sister and closed her eyes. Silent tears threatened to stain her cheeks, but Lila kept them at bay. No one must know what she assumed would happen to her in the next few months. Caroline staggered back for a moment, but her arms wrapped around her sister.

"I love you Caroline, you know that?"

Caroline's eyebrows raised but she told Lila that yes, she knew. Lila told her she wanted to call her parents, and she did. She told them how much she loved them, and how they were her rock. They wanted to know why she called them in the first place, and Lila lied to them. She never liked doing it, but her story involved how she felt a great outpouring of emotion and wanted them to know. They told her they would see her at Thanksgiving that year, and she said she would too. Another lie she knew since the odds of her survival till then were not in her favor.

When she got back, she needed to speak with Macon. In the flesh. Lila called Marian to arrange it, and Marian shook her head but Lila told her it was important. It was around six o'clock and Lila heard that Macon could see her later that night.

#

Lila arrived back in Gatlin it was far too late to go back to Wate's Landing, but had dinner on the road. A stop at McDonald's was all she could afford for time, and Marian met her at the library. She gave Lila the information she needed. The Lunae Libri was open, and she walked through its labyrinth halls to find the hatch.

There were a few times Marian would visit Macon, if to give him the books he required or return books they borrowed from his personal library. They had an unspoken vow to never see each other because it would be too hard to see the other. Her heart hammered in her chest. It been years since she saw him. She was a mother of a teen that would turn sixteen in a few months. He had a niece who would turn sixteen in less than a year.

She found the trapdoor that would lead down into his reprieve and got the key out. He could probably hear her, and she felt her stomach stung like a hive of bees was in there. She heard a click, there was no going back. She opened it up and only saw a few candles alight and a shadow. She did not look in the shadow's direction, but when she did she stared.

He still wore fine clothes like a tailored black wool blazer, a brown cashmere scarf, a pair of black slacks, and a pair of black boots. His hair started to grey earlier than it should and worry lines lined his face, but his eyes were black stones with a clear sheen. The young man she knew grew up no longer the lanky young man, but a gentleman whose features were still scratched into her memory. He was still a vision, but everything from the past bubbled up. She needed to get out of here. She had her own life, her husband, and her E.W to think about.

"Jane," he said.

Lila knees shook. It had been a long time since she was called that. His voice aged well every cadence she remembered, but an octave lower.

"No one's called me that since…" she said.

"Of course I knew that," Macon said.

Nothing changed, not in the ways she expected. She heard about the things he did when he first changed, but none of that was here now.

Everything came back to her. The kisses they gave that lingered on one another, the time at Marian's house back in Durham, the night at Wisteria Bistro, and the afternoon at the tree at Duke where each time they spent with one another they fell deeper and deeper into a void that Lila and Macon clawed their selves out of to do what was best for them. A volcano of emotions rip rolled through her as she shivered at her memories of his touch and his gaze on her now reminded her why they separated themselves. He probably thought she was betraying her husband, who thought she was doing some late-night research after her trip to get the stuff from Caroline.

"I'm sorry I had to come, but this was the only way."

She avoided his eyes to avoid the feelings she still harbored for him when they came to the forefront of her mind. It would be all too easy to kiss him, but she was a mother and a wife. Her resolve sharpened.

"What I have to tell you it's not something I could leave for you in the study, and I couldn't risk sending a message through the Tunnels," Lila said.

Macon stood there and came forward. "It's good to see you."

Lila stiffened. He was making this too hard for her. She still wanted him even after all these years, and it would be too easy to run into his arms. Macon saw it differently.

"It's safe. I can control the urges now."

"It's not that. I—" It was never that Macon, Lila thought but her mind warned her she didn't have much time. Not at this time of night.

"I shouldn't be here. I told Mitchell I was working late in the archive. I don't like to lie to him."

She did not like lying in any situation, but had to for the safety of all those she loved.

"We are in an archive," Macon said. He smiled, if forced.

"Schematics, Macon."

There was a beat, and Lila heard him intake a breath. Till that moment she hadn't said his name, and it flowed off her lips. Too easy. Way too easy.

"What's so important that you would risk coming to me, Lila?"

Lila knew the information she would impart to him would make him agitated.

"I've found something your father kept form you."

His eyes darkened, and she didn't blame him at all.

"I haven't seen my father in years. Not since—"

Lila knew what he was going to say. "The Transformation."

Her thoughts tumbled at that word. The one word that kept them apart, but it was in the past now. He needed to hear what she had to say.

"There is something you need to know." Her shoulders tensed up and she allowed her voice to become a whisper. "Abraham is alive."

Macon's mouth formed an 'o,' but a whirring sound interrupted him. A figure materialized in the darkness.

"Bravo, she really is a much smarter than I had anticipated. Lila, is it?" He was clapping. Abraham Ravenwood was there. Lila shook. She needed to pull herself together. Her heart stopped beating. She wouldn't make this out alive.

"A tactical error on my part, but one your sister can correct easily enough. Wouldn't you agree, Macon?"

Lila saw his eyes narrow. There was only one possible sister he was talking about. Leah did not involve herself with anyone unless she deemed it necessary. Delphine was of the Light and would never work with a dark blood Incubus like Abraham.

"Sarafine is not my sister," Macon said.

Lila watched Abraham adjust his string tie. He looked more like Colonel Sanders than the killer he really was with his white beard and Sunday suit.

"There's no need to be nasty. Sarafine is your father's daughter after all. It's a shame you two can't get along."

Abraham walked towards Macon in a casual manner. He stopped.

"You know, I always hoped we would have a chance to meet. I'm sure once we talk, you'll understand your place in the Order of Things."

Macon didn't even give him a chance to continue, and Lila was sure he was grounding his teeth.

"I know my place. I made my choice and bound myself to the Light long ago."

Lila watched them interact, and her heart hammered. She kept her position. Abraham laughed, his bellows echoed around them. It chilled her.

"As if such a thing were even possible. You're a dark creature by nature, an Incubus. This ridiculous alliance with Light Casters, defending Mortals—it's inane. You belong with us, with your family."

Macon did not give him the satisfaction on an answer, but a restrained power grew behind Macon's eyes.

Abraham's gaze swept to Lila. "And for what? A Mortal woman you can never be with? One who is married to another man?"

She stiffened and how he found that out she did not know, but it was no matter. She knew that Macon made a lot of decisions in his life, and not all were because of her. Lila felt something within her, the old fire she had when it came to Macon. Abraham faced her and she would face him. He wasn't a threat to the truest thing in the world.

"We're going to find a way to end all that. Casters and Mortals should be able to do more than just coexist."

Abraham was no Hunting. Hunting was the penny act, all brawns and no bite when Macon was around. Abraham had a hundred plus years on his shoulders, and his expression darkened. His gaze went from Lila back to Macon. Abraham no longer looked like a gentleman, but the lines in his face stark and sinister. The smile on Abraham's lips made the hairs on Lila's body stand up.

"Your father and Hunting—we hoped you would join us. I warned Hunting that brothers are often a disappointment. As are sons."

Macon's face changed to as he stared at Abraham. The lines mirrored Abraham and Lila knew this was the side he feared.

"I am no one's son."

"At any rate, I can't have you or this woman interfering with our plans. It's unfortunate, really. You turned your back on your family because you loved this filthy Mortal, and yet she will die because you brought here into this."

Lila saw that he vanished and ripped right in front of her. "Oh, well." He opened his mouth, baring his gleaming canines.

There were times when one should be brave, but Lila knew now how fruitless it was. This was it. Macon knew what he needed to know. She covered her head with her arms and screamed, but when the bite didn't come she saw Macon was in front of her acting as a wall between Abraham and herself. All his weight pushed her backwards and he yelled.

"Lila, run!"

She stood paralyzed as she watched Macon throw Abraham to the ground, his guttural cries ripped through the air. She ran away, up and over. She slammed the door down and locked it. She never looked back as she ran into the Gatlin County library. Marian was there and saw Lila breaths came out hard and fast. She asked Lila what happened. Lila told her everything, and Lila knew she was never going to be safe again. If Abraham found her once, he would do so again.

#

When she came home, Amma waited for her at the door. She had put poultices all around the house, and narrowed her eyes at her. Lila told her everything in hushed whispers, and Amma's eyes widened. Tears formed in Lila's eyes as she knew no amount of 'I'm sorry' was going to make any of them feel better.

"All you do right now Lila is be there for Mitchell and for your son. You got it? I'll do what I can, and you know he will do what he can. That's all we can do right now."

It was the first time Amma ever said anything positive about Macon.

Lila nodded her head, exhaustion flowed throughout her body. She climbed the stairs and heard Mitchell snore. She tore off her clothes and just laid there with her husband in her panties and bra. His hands wrapped around her core and she nestled into him. The images of what transpired did not leave her head as she fell into a fitful sleep.

A/N:

This chapter gave me problems. It's not one my favorites. Please let me know what you think and what I can do to improve it. I'm really unsure why Lila kept things at Caroline's house as a secret, and I couldn't figure out a good enough reason. So, another loophole I could not close. You might be wondering how much longer? The story has fifty-two chapters, so there are still a few chapters but I think you guys will like them. I know the past few chapters have been more of a bridge, but I wanted to do something fun before the next couple of chapters.

Thank you for reading.

Much Obliged,

Dark Horse Writer