Chapter Twenty-Two

What am I?

Serena stared at Lily, her heart in her stomach, as Lily suckled at her palm. Lily's teeth grazed Serena's skin, causing Serena to lose her shock. She tried to pull her hand from Lily's grip, but Lily was too strong.

Staring into Lily's eyes, Serena realized that whatever made Lily, Lily, wasn't there. What kneeled beside her was a shell. The eyes were cold and dead, the skin clammy yet dry. The usually bouncy dark hair hung limply by her face. As Serena stared at Lily, she realized that Lily was completely nude.

Serena tried again to pull her hand from her dead friend's grip, but to no success. "Please let go, Lily." Serena stated, her voice calmer than she felt. Immediately, to Serena's surprise, Lily let go. Glancing at her hand, she saw four small crescent moon marks on the skin. A small amount of blood welled out of one of the marks, but the skin around the small wounds was pale. Serena turned to stare at her dead friend, a small flame filled Lily's eyes, like a shadow of what Lily's eyes used to look like when she was alive.

"Serena?" Lily asked, suddenly. "How did you get on the plane?"

"I'm not on the plane." Serena found herself replying calmly. "You're supposed to be dead."

Lily gave Serena a small quirky smile. "Yeah right, very funny."

"I saw you dead, Lil. Your stomach is ripped open. Look." Serena pointed at Lily's stomach. Lily looked down and stared at the gaping wound. It looked like someone had tried to sew it back together, but they had done a sloppy job. There were gaps between stitches that revealed some of her innards. She looked back up at Serena.

"I remember." She sighed looking tired. "Can you put me back?"

"I don't know. I don't even know how I called you."

"But you did."

"Do you remember what happened?" Serena asked.

"I woke up in a cold box, and wanted to see you, so I got out and came here." Lily said. She glanced around Serena's room interestedly. "Is this the palace?"

"Yes." Serena climbed from her bed. "Get something to wear from my closet, I'm gonna make a call and see if I cant put you back where you belong."

Nikolai stood waiting outside the Moonlit DCB as Serena had directed him to do. She pulled Darien's car to the curb, reached over, and opened the passenger door. He climbed inside and seat belted himself before looking in the backseat at Lily.

"Nikolai this is Lily, Lily, this is my big pain that I've been telling you about." Serena stated, shifting gears and pulling into the traffic.

"Pain?" Nikolai asked, looking startled.

"Yeah, pain. Now, explain how she's up and moving around." Serena stated, barely glancing at him.

"You haven't figured out what you are?" Nikolai asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean the fact that you are able to manipulate Strigoi and Lycan energy. You have noticed that you can sense us, when others cannot." Nikolai stated. Serena nodded.

"But how is Lily walking around when she's supposed to be dead?"

"You called her."

"What!" Serena turned to stare at him. "I-I called her?" She glanced in the rearview mirror at Lily, who was staring around through the windows at the bits of New Tokyo she could see. "How did I call her? She was dead!"

"Yes, she was. Your energy calls to anything undead."

"You aren't making any sense. She's dead. How is she undead? What is undead anyway?"

"Strigoi are undead. Zombies are undead."

"Who said anything about Zombies?"

"Don't you understand that what is riding in your backseat is not your friend Lily, but a zombie?"

"So I can summon Zombies and Vampires?" Serena asked, turning onto a darker road. "Where are we going?"

"We need a cemetery."

"Any cemetery or a specific one?"

"Whichever one she came from."

"She came from the morgue."

"Then any cemetery will do. I don't know how to put a corpse back without a graveyard."

"Can you enter a graveyard? I thought they were sacred ground."

"I came from a cemetery, I can return to one."

"Ok, cut it with the cryptic remarks. Explain what is going on, or you can get out and I will try to figure it out on my own." Serena snapped.

"You called to her. Your energy can fill a corpse temporarily and awaken an aspect of a soul that… I guess you would say a persons ghost. If they have a ghost… Anyway, you summoned her, woke her up and drew her to you."

"Ok, how did I do that? And how would I do that without realizing that I was doing it?" Serena asked. Nikolai sighed exasperatedly.

"You call your power, draw blood, and summon her. I don't understand the technical part of it."

"Ok so how do I put her back."

"The same way, in reverse, and with salt."

"I don't have salt." Serena glanced at him.

"I brought salt and a small dagger." Nikolai stated, sounding unconcerned, "they will do."

Serena frowned, but didn't say anything else for a few moments while she drove toward the only cemetery she knew of. Nikolai also fell quiet. Lily didn't say anything unless she was spoken to, so she was quiet as well.

Then Serena remembered something. She glanced into the rearview mirror at her friend. "Hey, Lily, what did you have to tell me?"

"What?" Lily asked, her face went thoughtful for a moment then brightened. "Oh, yeah. Serena you are in danger. There is a contract for your life."

"I know that." Serena stated, with a slight frown.

"I figured you would figure it out. But the contract is by the Ancients."

Serena stared at her friend in the mirror. "What are Ancients?"

Nikolai answered, "Ancients are the oldest of the Strigoi. There are thirteen of them, ruling us like your governments… But I will explain all of this later."

Lily carried on as if Nikolai and Serena hadn't spoken. "The Ancients sent me to watch you, to make sure you didn't turn into a necromancer. I found you when you hit San Francisco and kept an eye on you."

"Why?"

"I was the human servant of the Queen of Beasts."

"Queen of Beasts?"

"Yeah. The Queen of Beasts is my master. She can call all animals on the planet. Though I don't know how true that is, she usually has a couple of tigers or black panthers with her, being her choice of beasts. Anyway, she ordered me to guard and watch you, if you were to turn into a necromancer, I was to kill you."

"What is a necromancer?"

Nikolai was the one that answered. "A human with the ability to call the undead. They can raise zombies and in some cases control strigoi."

"Whoa!" Serena stated, she felt like her mind was taking in too much information. "You mean I'm a necromancer?"

"No. Not yet, but your power suggests that you are capable of being one. Right now you can animate corpses and manipulate various energies. Though I have never heard of any Necromancer who was able to play with a Werewolf's energy." Nikolai stated. He turned his red eyes to study Serena. "So you are a first."

Serena fell silent again. She couldn't be one of the monsters. It was just too weird. But she didn't know what to do or think. She knew she needed to concentrate on getting Lily back to being dead. She felt uncomfortable as it was, being able to talk to a dead friend. But curiosity was winning over her confusion.

"Ok so the Ancients' are the ones that sent the contract to kill me?"

"Yeah." Lily said.

"Did you know?" Serena asked Nikolai.

Nodding, he said, "I hired someone to protect you. I believe that she is following us as we speak."

"Cat."

"Yes."

"Why didn't you stop them from setting a contract on me?"

"I'm in the process of doing that. But at the time, I wasn't sure if anyone picked up their contract. So the woman, Cat, was hired to protect you." Nikolai stated, turning his gaze back to the road. "Turn here." He pointed left. Serena turned her blinker on and did a quick turn onto the road he had indicated. Lily moaned in the back seat.

"What?" Serena asked.

"I didn't know that the dead could get carsick." Lily commented, clutching at her throat.

"Why did you pretend to be my friend?" Serena asked. "Why didn't you kill me?"

"I was told to get close to you, so I became your friend, then it became a true friendship. I couldn't kill you, which is why the council set out the contract. My job was to lure you back to New Tokyo, which wasn't hard, since you were very interested in the attacks that were happening to the delegates. After you returned here, I learned of the contract and wanted to warn you. But I couldn't get away before." Lily stated from the backseat. She sounded tired and scared. "I couldn't kill you, Serena. You were a wonderful person. I just couldn't do it. The Queen of Beasts is angry with me. I suspect that it was one of her beasts that killed me…" Her voice died. Serena glanced in the rearview mirror to see her friend clutching her face. Her shoulders were shaking.

"This is good." Nikolai said softly, waving his hand to signify the area. Serena slowed down and pulled to a stop. As she climbed from the car, she gasped. They were in the same part of the graveyard as she had seen in her dream. In her dream, though, it had been darker, and there was no road. She stared around.

"I know this place." She said.

Nikolai frowned. "Bury someone here?"

"Yeah my grandfather, a long time ago."

"Pick a spot, Lily." Nikolai told her. Lily sighed and nodded.

"Do you two know each other since Lily was a vampire's human servant?" Serena asked interestedly.

Lily nodded, looking around.

"Yes. The Queen of Beasts is the vampire that sired me." Nikolai stated.

AN: Feel free to read and review. Leave comments, questions, thoughts, ideas, etc if you wish. Also leave your emails so that if you do have a question, I can respond to it. I will not respond to flamers. All I ask is that if you do have something to say against my writing, you word it politely.