Chapter 15

Dazed

Lily was asleep when Azheda came to collect her.

"Wake up my love," he said, nudging her. Lily came awake groggily, having not eaten in quite some time her vampire powers were almost nonexistent, and of course not having eaten human food she was very weak.

She opened her eyes and rubbed them to see better. Everything came into focus quickly then.

"Azheda," she said as she sat up and glanced around the room. She had fallen asleep in her designer black on black dress and she noticed absentmindedly that it wasn't wrinkled.

"Get up I'm sure you're hungry. The night is young and the city is ours to feast upon," Azheda said as he pulled her from the bed and onto her feet.

"I don't want the city," she whispered, she just wanted Kenny. She hid the thought deep in her mind so he wouldn't hear it.

"What do you want? Simply name it and it's yours my Queen," Azheda said, grabbing her arm and pulling her close to him.

"Q-Queen?" Lily asked looking up, but not that far as she was fairly tall herself, into his black eyes.

"I am the oldest living made vampire belonging to the Night World, and since Hunter was killed by that grandson of his I am unchallenged. I am the King of the Night World now and you are my queen," he said succinctly.

For a moment the idea crept inside her mind showing her wearing a crown, designer clothing, expensive jewelry, and doing anything she pleased, until the thought of the murders they would commit to get there intruded, and the thought of Kenny.

She pulled free of his grasp and walked away to the closet. She sorted through the immense amount of shoes until she found a pair of knee high, black, stiletto boots. She put them on and laced them up quickly then turned back to Azheda.

"Well let's go," she whispered as she walked past him and out of the bedroom door. He followed closely behind her; she felt his hand hovering by her arm, almost touching but not quite. They walked until they reached the limo parked out front of the house.

Azheda opened the door for her and she hopped inside and simply looked out the window, not wanting to make conversation. She felt him slide in next to her and ignored the hand that he placed on her leg.

Little sparks from his fingers were running up her leg and down her spine. She was trembling from desire and the need to hold back from him by the time they reached their destination. It was a dark, quiet house that seemed out of place on a block with other houses; another Night World club.

"The Black Iris, I'm told you've been to her sister in San Francisco," Azheda whispered as he leaned in close to her ear. She closed her eyes as he began to kiss her lobe; the sparks were turning into full electrocution as his hand moved up her thigh.

"Stop," she whispered, her voice quavering with lust.

"Is that what you truly want?" He asked as his lips worked their way down her neck and his fingers massaged the inside of her thigh.

She nodded, not trusting her voice. It was like a physical blow as he removed himself from her. She looked over at him to see he was getting out on the opposite side as her, and it hit her, she was faster than him.

Without a second thought she pushed on the door and was mildly surprised when it didn't move, locked. She took a deep breath and pushed with all her might just as Azheda realized what she was doing and dove to stop her. The door flew off of the limo and hit the sidewalk. Lily jumped out the door and ran.

He lost time when he had jumped through the limo to grab her, but Lily knew he wouldn't stay down for long. She didn't waste the precious seconds she had by shapeshifting. If he hadn't caught her by the time she was a bird, which was unlikely, then she still wouldn't have a good take off point, and if he did catch her she wouldn't be able to fight back. So she ran, faster than she had ever run in her life.

She felt him fall in close behind her, only fifty feet away or so. She knew if she faltered he would catch her. She had to make it to Thiery. The people on the street couldn't see her she was moving so fast, and though she could see them she couldn't see them well. As she ran past a sign she tried to read it so she would know where she was. After doing this without success a few more times she simply reached for one of the slowly moving blurs with her mind and took the information from it.

She was closer to the strip than she thought, only about a mile away. Without thought she changed her course to intersect with it and speeded up. She had a problem though, she was hungry. She was beginning to run short of breath, and then she realized it wasn't from the running but the lack of blood. She had never used her vampire powers without feeding first, and she knew this was what all vampires went through. Blood lust.

She was on the strip now, but it was so crowded she was having trouble maneuvering through the hordes of people, and she was having even more trouble stopping herself from grabbing one and ripping his throat out.

Lily slowed her pace to dodge better when she felt fingers graze her back. Azheda had almost caught her. She turned and ran into the street, running past cars as she sped up to get away from him.

The cars were becoming hard to dodge, Lily was sure she would die from lack of oxygen soon.

Her legs suddenly went out from under her and she was falling backwards. She felt her head smash into something and heard a loud crack and then a tinkling sound. All she could feel was enormous pain radiating throughout her body. Lily had been hit by a car.

She heard brakes screech and felt herself slide off the windshield and onto the pavement to lie on the broken glass.

"Richie call 911," a male voice said from what seemed like very far away. She cracked her eyes and looked up to see a pair of chocolate eyes staring down into hers. Lily strained hard as she turned her neck to the right, to Azheda. He was standing on the sidewalk in a crowd of people watching her. A smirk touched his lips as he saw her looking at him.

"Don't worry my love, I will collect you soon enough," his mind whispered. Lily fell unconscious.

Lily became aware of voices before anything else. The knowledge that she was human again hit her as she tried to read their minds to discover their identities and couldn't.

"What were you doing driving so fast," a woman's voice whispered loudly, the woman was more than likely standing close to Lily.

"I swear we were only going thirty five ma, I don't care what the Doctor says," a man said.

"It's true Mrs. Timberk, we weren't going that fast," another man said.

"The Doctor seems to believe that her injuries couldn't have been caused by that speed. You had to have been going over sixty, and the police say faster than that," a third man said. This voice seemed older than the other two.

Lily couldn't take the suspense anymore; she opened her eyes and looked around. She had been right; there was a woman in her early forties standing beside Lily. In front of her were two boys around seventeen, and across the room was a man in his forties. No one noticed she was awake, so intent upon reprimanding the two young men who were obviously the ones who had hit her. She felt almost sorry for them; after all she had been the one speeding not them.

"You could be in real trouble if the girl presses charges," the woman said as she began to pace. "And if she doesn't wake up the police might take you to jail, or worse."

"Ma, don't say that, of course she'll-" the boy stopped speaking as he looked at Lily. "You're awake."

Lily smiled and nodded slightly, her neck still hurt. The entire room turned to stare at her and she found herself under the scrutiny of four pairs of eyes.

The mother of the boy smiled and stepped forward. "Hi I'm Lisa Timberk, this is my son Jake, his friend Richie and my husband John," she said, motioning to each in turn. Jake was the one with the chocolate eyes and dusty brown hair, Richie had blond hair and blue eyes. Lisa and John both had dark brown hair, but where John's eyes were a simple brown, Lisa's were bright, emerald green.

Lily smiled at the nice, homey picture they all presented. They sat there smiling, watching her expectantly.

"I'm sorry," she said after a moment. "My name is Lily Ambrose."

"Lovely to meet you Lily, though I wish it were under better circumstances," Lisa smiled.

"You didn't have any ID on you when we brought you in, no numbers to call or anything," Jake said apologetically. She nodded, she hadn't brought anything with her to Azheda's and the dress she was wearing hadn't had any pockets or anything.

"Actually I would like to make a phone call," she said.

Jake picked up the phone and handed it to her. "I'll dial for you," he said with a smile. She nodded and told him the number. After a moment it began to ring.

After about five rings she heard the phone pick up and a voice she knew said, "hello?"

"Nilson," she said happily.

"Miss Lily?" He asked in shock.

"Yes it's me. I'm in the hospital, I was hit by a car," she looked at Lisa questioningly.

"Room two forty dear," Lisa said.

Lily nodded. "I'm in room two forty, tell Thiery to bring everyone," she tried to make it clear in her voice that she was still in danger from Azheda.

Nilson obviously understood. "Everyone plus the cavalry, they're on their way miss. What happened?"

"I'll tell you about it later Nilson, I'll tell you everything."

"Just don't go doing that again, had us all worried sick about you," he said, genuine concern in his voice. Lily was touched by it.

"I won't, I promise. Bye Nilson." She handed the phone to Jake who hung it up for her.

"So is your family coming then?" John asked.

"They're on their way," she smiled.

"Listen dear there's no easy way to say this, so I'll just say it," Lisa said, and she felt the woman take her hand. "The Doctors say you won't walk again, something to do with your spine."

Lily looked up into the woman's sincere eyes and blinked, wondering how long it would take her to heal if she drank her blood. The thoughts vanished quickly, they were too nice.

Lisa was going on, oblivious to Lily's thoughts. "They operated on you but nothing they did worked." Lily was now in shock.

"They operated on me? How long have I been here?"

"You've been out for two days," John said. Lily looked out the window in her large, white room. It was full dark outside, it seemed as though only scant hours had passed since her ordeal.

"Two days," she whispered. Why hadn't Azheda come for her?

"If you don't mind my asking Lily," John asked, watching her closely.

"What?" She whispered.

"Why were you in the street? Jake says you just appeared in front of his car and he couldn't stop…"

"I was running," she said. The four people looked at each other, and then turned back to her. The door burst open. Everyone turned to see a large group of people rushing into the room. Her mother and father, Shiloh, Kaleb, Jason, Josh, Noah, Kenny, Ash, and Thiery all pushed their way inside the room and next to her. She found herself being held tightly in Kenny's grasp. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly back. The connection hit her like a breath of fresh air, goosebumps ran up her arms as they held on to each other.

"Well the room is rather crowded, we'll just be in the waiting room," Lisa said as she ushered her family out. When the door closed the questioning began.

"What happened?"

"How did you escape?"

"Why are you in the hospital?"

Lily took one look at her babbling family and burst out laughing. Everyone stopped talking.

"Sorry," she said, her laughter calming a little. Thiery came and sat next to her on the bed, he touched her head lightly and she felt his mind probing hers for answers, she allowed him this as she had to speak less. Without warning he pulled his hand back and stared at her in shock. She knew he had seen everything.

"How?" He asked simply. He wanted to know how she had two soulmates. She shrugged and looked around the room. She didn't want them to know. She built up her walls, high enough that no one could get through and looked pleadingly at Thiery.

He nodded and stood from her bed. "We need to speak with the Doctors, nurses, and the family. We need to leave the hospital. Everyone come with me," Thiery said. Kenny held her hand.

"I'm staying," he said.

Thiery smiled, "you have no power, and I only need those that can influence." Thiery left, and her family, after smiling once at her, left with him.

"Why are you in the hospital?" Kenny asked suddenly.

"I was hit by a car," she said with a shrug.

"But, you're a vampire," he said, sitting on the edge of her bed.

"I'm a vampire that hasn't fed in quite some time, and since I'm part human when I don't have blood I revert to that human form," she said with a shrug.

"So if you had blood you would heal?"

She nodded simply and watched as he smiled.

"Then take mine, you need your strength," Kenny said. He leaned down in front of her. The veins of his neck drew her eyes, and she couldn't help but stare at them.

"Don't," she whispered as he moved his neck closer.

"Drink Lily," he said. Lily reached out and grabbed him, pulling him closer. Her teeth sharpened and extended as she smelled the blood in his veins. She bit. It wasn't anything like the other times she had fed, those times her prey had been stunned, sleeping.

Kenny was awake and she felt herself being pulled into his mind. Their first connection was like a faulty telephone call compared to this. Everything was vibrant, alive, sparkling.

"I love you," she heard him say and couldn't help but think the same thing.

His mind was so brilliant, so full of light and color, unlike the other one…

"What other one?" The question was asked, and she realized she hadn't told him anything about Azheda.

She couldn't hide anything here, and she knew he was inside her mind, seeing everything that had happened, everything she had seen. He was looking at Azheda's mind, seeing the memories she had seen.

"That's me," Kenny said. "Why does he know me?"

"He said you were his brother," Lily said.

"I don't understand," Kenny said. She could feel him pulling away from her, mentally and physically. She let him go. A cry escaped her lips as she entered her own body again, she felt bereft.

"Kenny," she whispered, reaching out to him.

"No," he said, pulling away from her and standing from the bed. He turned and left the room without looking back.

"Kenny," Lily called as he closed the door. "I'm sorry."

Ha Ha, it's done! About time too, don't you think? Okay please please PLEASE review, I need all the love and reviews I can get, still feeling kind of down. For all those fans of my POTC fic, I will start that chapter soon, maybe today or tomorrow… I just had to get this one rewritten and all.

Thank you all so much for your patience and understanding about my computer! You have all been wonderful and I hope you stuck with me throughout it.

Okay, so… Go Review!

Much love to you all!