Come in.

A sign perched in Lily's window displayed these words. I chuckled to myself. I was officially invited. This allowed me to come and go as I pleased. See, technically, Vampires had to be invited into a residence. We did have one neutral zone though, the room that was on the side of which the sun set.

Luckily enough for me, that was Lily's room. Now I was free to roam the house. Not that I was planning to come over for a play-date anytime soon.

I slipped in once more through the window, but instead of waking her up, I took a look around Lily's room. Her double bed was pushed against the wall opposite the window, her delicate shape just a small lump under the black comforter adorned with a gray print of bats. The green closet doors were flung open, revealing a messy array of unique and varying clothes. A sea of shoes was on the bottom of the closet.

A wooden desk was pushed into an alcove beside the bed. Above the unorganized writing perch, the walls of the cut out were covered, absolutely covered with photos, posters, old movie tickets, sketches, crumpled and un-crumpled pieces of paper with poems and quotes scribbled on them. I gaped at the photos of caves, bats, abandoned mansions and cemeteries. Photo shopped pictures of Lily with fangs, or featured as an abandoned prey of a vampire flashed in front of my eyes. Her skill with the camera was astonishing.

I tore myself away from the collage, and turned to the other side of the room. I stood in front of a wall of books. Literally. One giant oak shelf hid the wall from view. Art books, comedies, sci-fi, non-fiction, fantasy and horrors. Rows upon rows of horrors and hundreds of books about Vampires. Some fictional, some historical. One in particular caught my eye. A worn leather-bound publication, with multiple creases along the spine from years of study. I gently slid it out from between a book of poetry, and a heavy textbook. It rested on my palm and the ancient binding fell with no resistance to a page marked with a length of black silk ribbon. The page depicted a ceremony where a man was holding a woman's limp body in his arms. Blood ran down her neck and stained the corners of the man's mouth.

My eyes widened as they scrolled across the title, "Noct Archaeo". Of course, I thought to myself, Lily would interested in the ancient ceremony of the night. It was the traditional act of bonding a vampire to their victim forever, and the casualty would be transformed. I read the Latin text;

To be forever bonded with a Vampyre, one must be taken in a Ceremony of the night. Drained of every last drop of blood, the human shall drink from the Vampyre's blood, replenishing their system the salutiferous prospects of the solvent. Only in completing this ritual may a human be bonded to a Vampyre for eternity. One may be changed by drinking from the Vampyre, but if he or she still has their own blood circulating in their veins, no bond or connection will be made. Do not carelessly give your being or take a being. If one side is unwilling, things may go awry.

I made to turn the page when I heard Lily stir behind me. One second later, the book was closed, on the shelf and I was standing next to her bed.

Sleepily, Lily opened her eyes and stretched.

"Good morning," she barely managed to get out through her yawn.

"Morning sleeping beauty," I chuckled.

"Ew, yah right. I snore louder than my Uncle. And that's saying something."

"Really? I haven't heard yet."

"Good, you don't want to."

I couldn't help from smiling. She always did that to me. Damn girl made me smile. What if I didn't want to smile? I doubted that I really had a choice.

"So what's on the agenda for tonight?" Lily continued, her eyes flickering to the book shelf.

I debated telling Lily about what I had found out, but decided against it. I wasn't ready to discuss it just yet. Or ever.

"I have something in mind." I said, grabbing the black knitted blanket tossed over the back of her desk chair. I pulled her out of bed and toward the window. She dug her feet into the carpet.

"Don't I get to change first?" Lily objected.

I turned and looked her up and down.

"No." I said simply.

"Goddamn. We better not be in public."

"Not exactly."

Lily raised an eyebrow. I raised one right back.

"Fine. Let's go."

I carried her in my arms to the ground below. We walked in silence for a while, I lead the way. I enjoyed being with her. The quiet was comforting. Not that it lasted very long.

"I found out why the girls didn't turn once you'd bitten them."

"Why then?" I sighed. Why had I thought we could avoid the topic? Why would I make such a foolish wish?

"Because…" She looked down. It wasn't like Lily to be ashamed.

"Are you disgusted by me?"

Her eyes immediately widened and locked with mine.

"Of course not! I just thought you might be angry at me for finding out more about you."

"No I'm not." I took in a breath. "Well maybe a little. But only because I'm supposed to be a well kept secret." I added hurriedly, seeing her forehead crease slightly.

"Ok good." She smiled brilliantly.

"We're almost there," I added, happy to be off the dreadful subject.

"Don't you want to hear my theory?" Lily asked. So much for getting off the topic.

"Not even a little." I mumbled.

Lily either did not hear this, or did not care, for she carried on.

"It's because they didn't drink your blood."

"Where did you find that out?" I played along, but didn't pretend like she was wrong.

"In a book I found."

"Do you still have this book?"

"No. I was looking at it at a thrift store, but when I went back to look at it again, it was gone."

Yes, I thought, and safely on your own bookshelf. I had to give it to her though, she was a talented liar.

"This is it." I gestured with one hand, the other still held the blanket.

"The Cemetery?" Lily looked at the wrought iron gates skeptically.

I nodded. "Yes the cemetery. Why? Not scared right?"

"Pfft. Of course not," she shook her dark locks. "How are we getting in?"

"Over that." I glanced to the gate and laughed as Lily took a test jump at the fence.

"You may be capable of jumping twelve feet, but others of us aren't so gifted."

"Give me your foot." I linked my fingers together forming a sort of stirrup.

She gingerly placed her foot in my hands and I boosted her to the top of the gate. She hoisted her thin body up, swung her legs over the top, and dropped lightly to the ground on the other side. I vaulted over as well, and came to stand by her side.

"This way," I lead her over the grassy lawns, weaving my way through ivy covered tombstones. When I reached the top of a bare hill, I spread out the blanket and beckoned for Lily to sit beside me. As she sat down next me, she grabbed my hand tight. I was about to pull away, but thought that it couldn't really hurt.

We laid back on the blankets, and gazed at the star spattered sky. I knew Lily was bursting with questions to ask me, but something about the fiery jewels, suspended in the charcoal sea seemed to calm her.

The calm covered us like a blanket and we stared at the sky, our fingers entwined.