Sorry this took awhile I have been obnoxiously busy. Please excuse.
Corpus peered below him from the trees at the conversation that had rooted itself between Lillith and her brother. He was intrigued as to how she would answer him. Would she give him encouraging words promising him that she would see him again—even though that would be a lie? She wouldn't know it was a lie, but he would. Corpus watched with marvel as she embraced him with a passionate hug. He wished to be the recipient of her affection, but as of late that would take some time. He didn't have to strain his ears to make out the small sounds of a sob. So she was crying.
Yes, this was certainly going to take awhile. Corpus couldn't blame her for weeping. The only family and people who cared for her as a human would not be there in her new life. Lilly had no knowing of what was to be her fate and what she really was—his dark angel. His perfect match. The reason to his existence. How inefficient those words sounded, plagued with childish intimacies. But it was true. If she didn't exist—neither did he. Literally. If it hadn't been for her, he would have been hardened by the previous events that gripped them in a vice. Lilly was more than just a mortal, she was a fallen angel.
His fallen angel.
His limbs quivered to take her away from her brother—from everything she ever knew. He would train her, teach her, transform her into the killing machine he needed against those that were beginning to rebel. Time was running out for her in this precious, bubbled life. It was time to make her into the goddess they presumed her to be.
He spread himself out along the branch, balancing as perfect as a panther would in the juggles of Africa. He watched as Liam vented somewhat towards her unknowing ears. She tried to defend herself but she didn't know what exactly she was defending. Corpus fantasized about pulling her to him and kissing her to make her be still but that was only a dream. She only accepted him and held nothing more than reverence for him.
Lilly stood there as she bade Liam goodbye, staring sullenly after him as he drudged away in the moonlight. Lilly turned back around to face the woods and for quite some time she stood there, admiring its beauty. Perhaps she believed she would run far away or perhaps she believed that she would be forever trapped in them once married. He guessed she knew many stories of Bartelona as she should. Her "parents" had done well.
Corpus climbed down gracefully from the tree to stare back at her through the brush and branches. They were glaring right at each other—though she was completely unaware.
Corpus studied her once again, her slight frame that fit a pixie more than a human being. His lips pulled themselves down while surveying her. Lilly was almost sickly looking, but yet her stance proved to make her seem otherwise. She posed, always, as if ready to fight something that was about to take her head on. Her long, messy hair briefly fallen from her intricate braids gave her the look of a crazed vampire and Corpus had to keep from shouting in laughter. Because not only would it have been rude, he would have been laughing at her emotions that so struck him with aw—and giving away the fact that he was stalking her. She swayed a little on her feet from lack of sleep, her violet eyes set in such an expression he had never seen. It was a mixture of wanting and willing to do what was right and heading straight into the woods to never look back. Her little nose sniffled, her lips pressed tightly together. There were no more tears in her eyes—just the small breathe escaping her nostrils every other second.
Corpus couldn't help but draw nearer to her. She had a magnetic pull that only he felt. He longed to be around her, caressing her skin that would soon be stable enough for him not to bruise. He shook his head, recalling how careful he had had to be with her when carrying her home. His nerves were on edge all the way across the fields to her humble yet ragged estate. Soon she wouldn't have to be so fragile. She would be strong—for him.
A thought occurred to Corpus that he hadn't yet intended to notice. His hands tingled with want of touching her and realized it was only when he thought of brushing them against her human skin. Not when fantasizing about feeling her hard rock skin. While holding her, he had the strongest urge to press her to him and protect her from all things. He didn't want to change her and the need he felt for her blood hadn't bothered him for a moment. He simply wanted to keep her away from anyone who might ever prevail upon to see her.
Corpus sighed knowing that it was impossible for him to do that. All of Bartelona was dying—literally—to see her. Though her title would only be Lady, she would be as a Queen. She would lead them in her human natures of kindness, make them feel again.
Suddenly, Corpus didn't want to change her. The fears of what that would entail to all of them were fiercer than the want of her pumping heart that filled his ears—to make it stop…make it still. Maybe she could just teach them how to be stronger and never have to fulfill the payment of becoming a creature of the night like himself.
Corpus paused at her normally unnoticeable intake of breath. She was about to speak.
"If you can hear me God, watch over my future for it is beginning to look bleak." Her words would have seemed nonexistent to a human's ears, but to Corpus it was as if she had mumbled them just as loudly as she would have in a crowded room.
Corpus face fell into that of depression. She was asking God to watch over her future…the one entity that she had fallen out of favor with. She didn't ask the angels or the heavens—her brothers and sisters, her home—she asked him. Corpus turned from her, unable to see Lilly as she was at that moment, begging the stars and life up above to watch over her. Corpus was sick at the thought not because she was human and could believe her soul would be saved—but because he knew he couldn't save her. He was to bring her soul to nonexistence once again and ask of her to join him. That is, if he didn't have the strength to keep her alive.
As Corpus fled off into the darkest of the trees a small thought trailed him. Maybe, just maybe, he didn't have to take her soul. If there was a way to preserve it and keep her as his for all time (surely she had walked thousands of years until giving up hope) then he wouldn't take her life.
But if there was no way but to bite her then the task would be managed. Corpus was a man of selfish desires, as was their entire race. For Corpus, getting what he wanted was nothing out of the ordinary. And he would get what he wanted.
Lilly saw little of Corpus over the next course of the month though she had the peculiar feeling that he was around everywhere she went. Liam and she often went to town on horseback to buy goods for their mother and it was always there that she saw him and two other cohorts speaking to the townspeople. He always seemed to know where she was as his eyes scanned her for a brief moment—no emotion in them. He always stood in random places in the town square murmuring kind words to the villagers and displaying an air of equality to them. It was on one particular day that Lilly first felt a connection to her intended that she couldn't explain.
Corpus was speaking just loud enough for her to hear as she picked through the scant fruit of the oncoming winter. Her back was to him and so he wouldn't know she was listening. She just had to plan things right…keep her distance. Her ears pricked up at the sobbing of two villagers that he had addressed. They were crying about recently deceased relatives in the neighboring village some ten miles off.
Lilly had heard rumors of a few deaths in those villages—their bodies cold and drained of blood—and so she assumed that Corpus would be comforting them. She turned around for just a moment to catch a glimpse of him hand a bag of money over the townsfolk he was consulting with to which they replied that he was an angel in disguise. The most peculiar emotion washed across his face and just as it did, his eyes met hers.
At that point the fruit had flown from her hands just moments after she had sped off into the woods, Liam calling her name in irritation, the whole square staring after her retreating figure. She was crying all the way home shaken to the core. That look—she had seen it before. But where? Lilly had never seen Lord Vespacelli in all her life until now and the way their eyes collided sent her mind into a torment. Anger, abhorrent, resentment, regret, and extreme understanding radiated in her joints and tendons. Why? What was it that he had to offer her that gave her such feelings as these?
"Did I startle you, my lady?" A voice asked coming from her left in the trees.
Lilly backed away at once, her breath quickening. How had he traveled so fast to find her?
"It appears I have." Corpus' lips were curved politely in a smile. "Please, allow me to escort you home. There are all sorts of…monstrous things out there." His eyes fell upon a particular part down the road like he could pinpoint exactly where the "monstrous" things were. "Well?" He asked waiting on her acceptance.
"Y-yes." She stammered but her feet were already taking her down the road seeming to tell her that Lord Vescpacelli's presence would not deter her from her journey homeward.
They were silent for a moment when Corpus posed a question she wasn't ready to answer. "Why did you run?"
His eyes were upon her searing into her soul. What could she say? That she had felt a connection to him that frightened her? She wouldn't want to come off as a silly farm girl whose dreams of marrying a handsome Lord were coming true—though those weren't her dreams. "I forgot something at home that Liam might need."
"Liam is already on his way home. Wouldn't it have been better if you told him where you were going before scaring him into thinking you were running away?"
"And what would I be running from?" Lilly interjected hoping that she wouldn't have to answer his question.
The grin that appeared was devious causing her steps to fumble. "I asked you first."
Lillith's answer was clipped. "Yes, I suppose it would have been more considerate."
"Running away from your intended." Was his reply.
That threw her off guard to the point where she stopped abruptly. He paused in a half step in front of her, his eyes twinkling. Lilly shivered at the crimson in them hoping that he didn't notice. She noticed that he wasn't angry or accusing her—but something else was rumbling about his demeanor. Words rang throughout her mind as something Liam used to tell her when they play hide and seek. You can run but you can't hide. Her eyes fell to the floor. Was that it? Could she run but never hide? And why would she want to? This was her duty. She had to remain here and fight the tremors of her future. Lifting up her chin, she stubbornly replied "I have no need to run, sir. I know what is to be done."
"Do you?" Corpus' voice was just above the wind that rustled past them and through their limbs. She dared not to look into his eyes. It was like he was daring her to take this path. She told him she would. What more did he want? Lilly decided to shrug it off as mere annoyance of her wedding day drawing closer. It would be best to just go home and spend as much time as she could with her family. Setting firm footsteps in front of her, she moved off into the fields just below her father's estate leaving Corpus to watch after her.