Disclaimer: The Lost Boys and the characters involved therein belong to Warner Brothers. No copyright infringement intended. I'm just borrowing them for entertainment purposes. Lily King and anyone else you don't recognize belong to me. Title from the song of the same name by Loreena McKinnitt

Between the Shadows

by Sun

The boardwalk in Santa Carla was a unique place. Teeming with human life, it made good hunting ground for the other kind of life that existed in the small mid-California town. Vampires.

To the unaware, Santa Carla seemed like the perfect seaside town. But Lily was far from unaware. A dark haired beauty, her hazel eyes scanned the people lazily as she walked down the smooth well-worn wood, delicate sandals on her feet almost hidden under the light summer skirt. She wore a dark halter-top tied behind her neck and her hair loose in the summer breeze. As she wandered slowly, people seemed to move out of her way of their own accord, creating a path through the crowds.

Though she looked it, Lily was not aimless in her wandering. She had a destination, a purpose: the garishly lit store with the sign that read Max's Video. Stepping out of the way to let a group of rowdy teenagers exit the store, she entered.

A large white dog behind the counter barked fiercely at her before she glared at it. "Shut up, Thorn." It whined and lay down behind the counter.

The older man behind the counter was handsome with dark curly hair and glasses. "What are you doing here?" Max's face was blank, neutral, neither pleased nor upset to see her.

"Mom's dead. Something killed her." She stared at him, waiting to see what he would do.

He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, a habit of annoyance. "I'm sorry." He sounded anything but. "There's no one else?"

She shook her head. "I've looked. She died almost six months ago. I've been trying to track down some of her family but there's no one. And whoever it was is coming after me."

Max sighed. "Let me get you a key." He headed into a back office, Thorn following after giving her a cursory sniff. He quickly returned and handed her a key. "Where are your things?"

"My car. You gonna tell me how to get there?" She raised an eyebrow, an expression that reminded him of her mother.

"We close in an hour. Come back then and you can follow me home, Lilith."

Lily rolled her eyes and sighed. He was predictable unconcerned for her safety. "Fine. Then I'll see you later father." She called as she left the store.

David watched the exchange between Max and the girl with interest. She was obviously demanding something of Max, an unusual circumstance at best and it looked like Max gave in, even more unusual. The girl was striking, slender but curved and well muscled with lightly waved chestnut hair falling to her shoulders, shining green-gold eyes and luminous pale skin. She took whatever Max handed her and left the store, calling back to him as she left in a soft melodical voice.

"Fine. Then I'll see you later father."

Father? If he wasn't sure he'd heard her correctly, David might have thought his vampire hearing was failing him. Upon closer inspection, he recognized bits of Max in her, her hair and eyes. Everything else must have come from her mother. She was too delicate looking to take after Max much.

"What's up David?" Marko asked, following his line of sight. "Ohh."

"David's found new prey." Paul called teasing.

David turned and cuffed him on the back of the head. "Knock it off." His gaze never left Lily who was standing outside the video store looking indecisive about where to go. "She's not prey. There's something different about her."

Finally, she turned away from the lights and meandered down onto the beach. David followed her, not caring if the other Boys followed him. She slipped off her sandals and walked down into the gentle surf, holding up her skirt so the hem wouldn't get wet. In the water, she walked parallel to the shore away from the bonfires.

"Are you following me?" She spoke quietly but the words drifted to his ears clearly.

He chuckled. Yeah, there was definitely something different about this one. "Do you want me to be?"

"Depends." She kept walking, slowing her pace only marginally, never turning to look at him.

"On what?"

"Are you a real punk teen or are you just pretending to be one?" That stopped him in his tracks. Finally, she turned and looked at him. She noticed him when she came out of the video store. He was pale, white blond hair, bright cerulean eyes, dressed in black from head to foot. "That's what I thought. So are you my father's childe or do you pay tribute to hunt on his lands?"

"What the hell are you?" David grew angry. He hated to be caught unaware and she'd done it twice so far.

"Max's daughter." She made the words sound distasteful.

"Another childe?"

Lily laughed. "No. Biological. I'm a halfling." David seemed to mull this over and Lily turned to head back toward the bonfires. She'd only gotten a few yards from David when she found herself surrounded by the other three Lost Boys.

They circled her like a shark does its prey. A tall blond with wild hair looked her over, a hungry look in his eyes. After him was a shorter young man with curly blond hair and a baby face. He reached out and brushed his fingers over her shoulders causing her to jump. The last one was tall like the first blond, but with dark hair and impossibly dark eyes. He just stared at her, his eyes never leaving her face.

Lily looked over at David. "More of Max's children?"

He grinned and shook his head. "Mine. Boys, be nice. This is Max's daughter Lilith."

She cringed when he said her full name. "Its just Lily."

"Max's daughter? Like for real?" The tall blonde's look changed from lecherous to something closer to awe. "Wow."

David pushed between the Boys. "Let me introduce you to the Lost Boys. This is Marko." He indicated the short blond vampire standing to his right.

Marko nodded his head in greeting. He took her hand and kissed the back of it, in an unexpected courtly gesture. "My lady." He grinned at her as she shook her head in amusement.

David turned her attention to the next young man, the tall dark haired one. "Dwayne."

"Welcome to Santa Carla." His voice was low and dark. Like Marko, he kissed the back of her hand. But unlike Marko, Dwayne was completely serious about it, treating her as if she was some kind of royalty. She gave him a shy smile before turning to the last young man David was introducing.

"And this is Paul."

Paul was the tall blond. He grinned widely and swept her into an impromptu dance, spinning her around. "Hi, Lily."

Lily laughed. They were certainly more charming than they appeared. Paul let her go and she swayed for a moment, dizzy from his spinning. She shook her head and the dizziness went away. The Boys looked at her expectantly. "Nice to meet you." She smiled brightly and started to say something else when she heard her name.

"Lilith!"

She turned and looked at the boardwalk. Someone was beckoning her back to the boardwalk. "My father. I've got to go." She slipped her sandals back on. "It was nice to meet you." She called as she jogged back up to the boardwalk where Max and Thorn were waiting.

"I see you met my Boys." He commented as she approached.

She nodded. "I did. They seem nice. For vampires."

"Good to know your mother didn't taint your view of my kind." He said sarcastically before gesturing toward the store. "I've closed up early. Let's go home."

She followed his car down the ocean road, winding along the cliff's edge until he turned off. Max parked next to a white garage and she pulled her car in next to his.

"This is the back way in. The main driveway is over there." He pointed to a wooden walkway with a wide white gate at the end. On the other side was a large gravel parking pad. Lily opened her trunk and pulled out a large duffle bag. She followed her father up the stairs onto the porch and into the spacious house. They climbed up the stairs to the third floor attic.

"You can stay here." He opened the door to the attic bedroom. "Bathroom's through there. And those windows open wide so you can get the ocean breeze."

Lily set her duffle bag down on the bed before looking around. The room was all white and blue, blue walls, white trim, blue rug over the hardwood floor. The curtains were a white and blue check that matched the bedding on the white iron bed. Overall, the room was more elegant than she thought her father was capable of.

"Its nice. Thank you."

Max nodded. "When you're done unpacking your car, come down to my study." He said as they headed back downstairs.

"Sure." Lily continued down to the first floor and out to her car, Max turned into his study on the second floor. She carried the other two large bags up to her room before coming down to her father's study. She knocked softly before pushing the door open.

"Come in, sit down Lilith." Max waved her over to a large overstuffed easy chair. "I knew your mother died. The attorney sent me a letter."

"You knew?" She couldn't believe it. He'd left her to wander around, looking for a home; terrified whatever killed her mother was going to get her too, when he knew what had happened.

Max nodded. "There was no mention of murder though. I assumed you had moved in with Molly's Aunt Gigi."

"Gigi died two years ago."

"I had no idea. What killed her?" Max asked abruptly.

Lily was confused. "Gigi?"

"No, your mother." He studied her. Lily had grown up to look very much like Molly. She had his eyes and hair but her skin was Molly's pale porcelain and she was tiny, like her mother had been.

"I came home one night and she was dead. Her throat was ripped open. There was blood everywhere." Lily's voice cracked as she tried to keep back tears.

Max held out a tissue to his daughter. "It was a vampire?"

She wiped her nose. "I think so. After the funeral, something chased me from her grave. I packed that night and left, looking for mom's family. But there isn't anyone left."

"So you came here." She nodded. "Good. You'll be safe here. My wards around the town will keep whatever it is from knowing you're here. At least for a while." Max reassured her and stood up. He held out a hand to help her up. "You must be tired. Get some sleep and I'll see you tomorrow evening."

"Alright. Good night, father."

"Night, Lilith." On a whim, Max leaned forward and kissed his daughter on the forehead. Lily just smiled and climbed the stairs to her room.