Chapter 24: A surprise for Lucy

+ Lucy +

"Sol… Solange." I said in a singsong voice. My best friend was sprawled across her bed with her raven black hair surrounding her head like a dark halo. I heard her groan before she slowly opened her eyes. Unintentionally, I drew back. I couldn't help myself. Solange had never looked more regal, in a dark and enthralling way. She was slowly morphing from the beautiful girl I've always known into an enigmatic vampire princess.

It sent alarm bells ringing in my head. How many days had passed since that Friday night from when everything seemed to go downhill? I quickly made the math in my mind which made me gasp. In less than a week, Solange would have to got through the change.

"Lucy… Luce, what happened to you? You look as if someone just shoved a lemon down your throat. Did something happen?" she asked me as she hastily tried to unwrap the sheets which were tangled around her legs. I woke up from my reverie and patted her on the shoulder. "Don't worry Sol, everything is OK. I just had a craving for pancakes, that's all." I told her as I banished the thoughts of her change from my mind. We were going to cherish the last few days of her humanity.

Solange closed her eyes and sighed. "Please tell me that you did wake me up just to make pancakes." I got out of her bed and went to stand next to the door. "If I could, I would, but I can't so I shan't."

She smiled at me as she shook her head. "Ah, Lucy you are truly incorrigible."

I grinned at her. "Come on, get ready, I need my pancake fix." I said with a wave of my hand.

"Lucy?" She said when I was already out of the room. I popped my head back in the room. "Yeah?"

"Are you sure you want to go out there wearing a pair of short pyjama shorts? I don't want you to give poor Nick a heart attack." she said with a grin. I glared at her before I walked up to the cupboard were she kept her sweat pants.

"Can I take one?"

"As if you need to ask." I put on the grey sweatpants reluctantly. "I really need to get my clothes from my house. I can't keep taking your clothes like this, it's not fair." I said grimly.

"Don't worry. I honestly don't mind." she shrugged. I nodded but I still wanted to get some of stuff. I couldn't keep on intruding on Solange, even though I was sure that she didn't care if I did. We were practically sisters.

"Okay then it's pancake time!" I said gloriously. Solange laughed a hearty laugh.

"I swear. You probably love those things more than you love me." I stared back.

"I strongly resent that, you know. I am appalled that you even considered the fact that I love pancakes more than you. I love you like a sister and if I had to choose between you and pancakes, you'd win without a second thought and trust me, if you were eatable, I'd never stop eating you. But since you're not, pancakes will have to do, so come on!" I threw a pair of sweat pants at her and once she changed I grabbed her by her arm and almost dragged her down the stairs.

Within half an hour, we each had a plate full of delicious blueberry pancakes in front of us.

"So," Solange started, "You and Nick, huh?"

I glanced at her but quickly returned my attention to my food. "Sol, I honestly told you everything that I could tell you yesterday. Do we seriously need to start this conversation again? Let's talk about something more interesting. For example did you finish your last masterpiece?" I tried to get her off track, but Sol wasn't born yesterday and she knew me perfectly.

"Uh-huh, so apart from the fact that I did have a feeling that something was going on between you two even before the whole bond, yesterday while you were sleeping I went to ask Will to give me more details about the bond. So apart from the fact that it's basic creation was for the procreation of healthy vampire babies, it also involves an emotional side, a physical side where your lives are so tightly intricate that if one dies, so does the other, and an even more intimate physical side. In simple English, you can barely stand in the same room without wanting to rip each other's clothes off. Am I right?" She said with a knowing smile.

I looked down at my plate once more and tried to conceal my cheeks, as I knew that by they'd take on a bright red shade. I was comfortable telling Solange absolutely anything about myself, but I drew the line when it came to talking about Nick and me.

I swallowed down my food and stopped her before she could carry on. Now wait just a second. That's not true. We can stand in the same room without wanting to rip each other's clothes off, as you so inelegantly put it." Sure, the thought would still be there, hammering at the back of our heads but that was a detail which Sol could definitely live without.

"To be honest, I'm kind of relieved that this happened because now I know that I'll never lose you, even after the change. But tell me the truth, Lucy. I'm your best friend and I certainly won't judge you. Did you and Nick… uh… do the dirty deed?" She hadn't even finished the sentence before I choked on my food. I coughed, wild eyed and baffled beyond compare that she'd ask me a question like that. It was unthinkable that my goody-two shoes friend would ask me these things. Usually I was the perverted one and the one who got the guy's dirty jokes first.

Sol rushed to pour me a glass of milk. Once she handed it to me, I had to swallow it down at once to get rid of the pieces of pancakes that were threatening to chock me. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, it did.

"Mother of pancakes! Lucy what the hell happened to you?" Logan said as he, Connor and Quinn joined us in the kitchen. I tried to wipe away the tears that had formed in my eyes when I was chocking. I knew that I probably looked like a chipmunk that just had an allergic reaction to something. This made me wonder, can chipmunks be allergic to anything like humans are?

"She almost choked on her pancakes when I asked her a question." Sol answered.

Quinn's eyebrows furrowed. "What the hell did you ask her then?" I shut my eyes instantly when I saw Sol's evil grin. I would never live this down, I just knew it.

"Nothing special, only if she and Nick have made sweet luuurve yet." she answered. The boys were holding their sides with laughter.

To make my humiliation even worse, Connor decided to dedicate a 'song' to me. "Get a load of this Lucy. Lucy and Nick, sitting in his MG, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a vampire baby in a carriage. I rolled my eyes at his immaturity and continued eating my pancakes. I would scrape the plate clean even if it killed me.

"Hey, Connor, I've got a little poem for you!" Nick said as he walked into the room. I wanted to slap myself as I held my breath while he entered the room. Seriously, was I turning into Bella Swan… that thought scared me shitless. But it all honestly he did look jaw droopingly gorgeous. Even though he had slight purple bags under his eyes and he did seem a little hung over like he others, he still made my heart skip a beat, as corny as that sounded. His messy hair was hanging sexily in front of his eyes and he kept pushing it out of the way. And did I mention that he was shirtless? Did I even need to explain further?

"Roses are red, Violets are blue, I've got a beautiful, hot girlfriend… and that's just about it. There's no need to ass anything else." Nick concluded sweetly. His brothers obviously started booing him. You wouldn't expect anything else from Logan, Connor and Quinn Drake.

"Whipped much?" Logan said with a condescending grin.

"Yeah, and put on a shirt you little corny sissy." Quinn added as he grabbed some bottles of blood for him and his brothers and put them in the microwave.

With a family like this, it was hard to be unhappy. To be honest, I had never been happier on a Saturday morning.

Nick waved his brothers off and started making his way towards me. "Good morni-"

All of a sudden I felt as if I was the president and Nick was a terrorist carrying a bomb. Sol and the guys got between us and made it impossible for him to even touch me.

"Where do you think you're going, buster?" Sol said to him with a condescending smirk.

"I was just going to hung her. For Pete's sake what did you think we were going to do? Do you think that we're just going to randomly start humping like rabbits in the middle of the kitchen in front of you perverts?" Nick asked them as he sat down opposite to me. The others relaxed and sat down. The guys started slowly sipping on their blood.

"Sorry, but we can't let you do that. We have orders directly from the boss." Connor answered with a shrug. By boss he obviously meant Helena.

"Fine, just eat your pancakes and sip your blood people. Don't get your panties in a twist." The conversation took quite the turn when the boys started discussing about actual panties. After a while, Sol and I managed to get them back on track.

Since they had asked me to move in, I found no objection; even because I had nowhere else to go. But I needed my stuff back so I asked the guys to give me a lift to my old house since I had basically nothing and Sol and I were going to all of her clothes quite quickly. At first only Sol wanted to take me – mainly because she hadn't exited the house it weeks, but somehow everybody wanted to come. The guys let Sol come with us on the condition that she laid low. Nick also got the opportunity to get his car from where it was parked after we left it out of gas.

We waited till it was late in the afternoon and spent most of our time watching a Lord of the Rings marathon. We only managed to see two films since the guys only had the extended versions of the films. Soon we were on the road. Since there were six of us and only five seats, I, of all people ended up sitting on Logan since they didn't allow me to sit on Nick. During the entire drive, poor Logan received the daggers from Nick, just because I was sitting on him. The poor lad was jealous even though he knew that he had absolutely nothing to be jealous about. Logan to me was like a brother, a friend or a chair. Our relationship was always platonic and held nothing remotely romantic in it.

After Nick got his car running and Logan went with him, the rest of were more comfortable.

When we stopped and my gaze fell upon my old house that had long lost any of the beauty it held when it was originally built, I felt guilty. The house was almost picturesque when my dad was still around. Now the grass needed desperate mowing and the windows were desperate for a good cleaning. I tore my gaze away. This was no longer my house so it was no longer my business. Hopefully today would be the last time I'd ever need to enter in that god forsaken house. I sighed and told the guys to wait for me. I didn't want to invite them inside as I had no idea of the disasters I could find. Of all disasters, the maximum I expected was a bunch of half naked people after my brother turned the house into his personal disco. I certainly didn't expect what I found.

I reached into my pocket for my keys and with shaky fingers, I tried to insert the key in the lock, but much to my surprise, the door was open. My mind led me to a thousand different scenarios and I swallowed in advance. I walked inside and hastily made my way inside, leaving the door open as it was in the first place. The first thing I noticed was a foul smell of decay. The air had a metallic smell blood. I wanted to walk out that moment but my curiosity got the best of me and I regret it every single day because that evening I saw things that scarred me for life.

I walked into the kitchen. As I've said before, I've seen some pretty disturbing shit in my sixteen years, but I had never seen a dead body before and certainly not a dismembered one.

Laying in a pool of vermillion blood was a headless body of a man. I was appalled. In all honestly I was so shocked and scared that I couldn't move. My eyes fell on the thing which made the scene a thousand times more gruesome. The head was standing just a few feet away from the body and it was staring at me, almost as if it was examining me. It was locked in an eternal bloodcurdling look of shock, mixed with pure, undiluted terror.

The head belonged to Phil, my mum's new husband.

XXXX

HEY GUYS! Missed me? Sorry I had to end the chapter in such a gruesome way, just a few days before the happiest holiday of the year but it did make an impact, didn't in? :D

Anyways, I'm not going to bore you with never-ending stories about me, I just wanted to upload before Christmas. Consider it as my present to you, awesome people! I honestly wish you all the happiness in the world, whichever holiday you celebrate or even if you don't celebrate any. This time is the perfect time of year for cuddling, so imagine your very own smexy Nick with whom you can cuddle :D :D

Lucy: *Grabs my hair* Oh no you don't bitch! He's MINE! Get your own Nicky!

Me: Okay *walks away slowly*

Lol, enough of my craziness, seriously guys, happy holidays and until the next time my gorgeous lovelies :D