Blood Lily (Lilith Adams Vampire Series Book 1) (30 page)

“I was on my way here from the lab. Spencer rammed me off the road. I managed to get out of the truck after getting one hell of a shot to the jaw.” Her teeth hurt just thinking about it. “I made it up the embankment before he tackled me. I did manage to break his nose.” She saw the edge of a smile quirk his lips at that. “I hauled ass through a cornfield and managed to hide in a barn. Spencer ran off when he heard the old man’s truck coming down the road and now I’m here. End of story.” It sounded so nice and neat when she sugar-coated it and wrapped it in a little pink bow like that. The truth was, even thinking about it was horrifying and she wasn’t out of the woods yet.

“This may be a stupid question, but are you all right?” She knew what Chance was asking. Was she going to live?
Any serious life threatening injuries? Any specifically traumatizing injuries, physical or emotional?

“I’m pretty positive I have a concussion and at least
a couple broken ribs. I think the seatbelt nearly sawed me in half and I might have a hairline fracture in my jaw. I did lose a lot of blood, but I’m worried about my head more than anything else.” Lilith moved the icepack to the other side of her face again, sighing at the cool pressure against her skin. Her skull was beginning to feel like a pressure cooker. The stabbing pain was mixed with an excruciating pressure that felt like her head would explode any minute.

She couldn’t look at Chance. Just days ago she’d only seen two faces on Chance, casual humor and business.
She was getting to know that pained, hurt look far too well and right now she just couldn’t take it. It was the look of failure and it was absolutely heart-breaking. When she finally glanced at him, he was all business, checking over her wounds.

“You have a lot of scraps, some serious cuts to your scalp, but I don’t really see any major wounds. Do you remember a lot of blood?” Chance looked concerned, but he was forcing himself into a business role to keep it all together.

The question confused her at first. There was some blood, but now that she tried to think about it, not enough to make her feel like this. She knew the signs very well. That only meant one thing and it wasn’t good. Internal bleeding.

She’d almost forgot
ten Cohen was even in the room until he spoke up. “I seem to be a little lost, but before we go into the full story, I think there may be something I can do to help.” His smooth southern drawl sounded completely casual, but she knew now that it was fake, like everything else about him.

“How?”
Chance asked before she could. When she glanced up at him, his eyes were firmly set on Cohen, suspicion quirking the corner of his mouth.

Detective Cohen leaned back in his chair with all the grace of a cat. His usually warm brown eyes were calculating now, weighing her.
He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. He didn’t bother with the fake southern drawl this time. “What I’m about to tell you, must never leave this room. My own family would kill me for even thinking about doing this.” The calm casualness ran out of his body and he rubbed a hand roughly through his hair.

“Look.” Cohen suddenly leaned forward in his chair again, resting his arms on his knees and holding Lilith’s gaze with a serious weight in his eyes. “With your injuries, even with a vampire’s regenerative powers, you’ll be
recuperating for at least a week, if you actually live through the next few hours, which right now, is looking very doubtful. Duncan doesn’t have that long, if he’s even still alive. I need your help, so I’m left with no choice.”

Lilith winced and shifted on the couch, readjusting the ice pack. “Spit it out. If you draw it out any longer, the suspense will kill me before the internal bleeding.”
No one else thought it was funny. Her chuckle turned to a cough that wracked her body in tormenting heaves with flashes of blinding pain. She could vaguely feel Chance’s warm hand rubbing her back as she doubled over. When the coughing stopped she collapsed against the cushions in whimpers of mind-numbing torment. Chance just squeezed his fingers around hers, not knowing what else to do. If she was bleeding internally that bad, there really wasn’t anything he could do.

Detective Cohen let the silence stretch into awkwardness. He was having some inner battle, so Lilith just let him have it. She just concentrated on staying conscious with Chance’s fingers acting as an anchor to the waking world.

Finally the Detective spoke up, apparently having made his decision. “I can’t tell you everything. Let’s just say that by taking a bit of my blood it will help ease your need and help you back on your feet faster.”

That definitely was
not
what she expected to hear. “Say what? How purple is flagging her?” She just blurted it out in total surprise. She didn’t even realize the last bit only made sense to her. Cohen’s eyes narrowed at her shrewdly and Chance was apparently too much in his own head to hear what she’d said.

Chance dropped her fingers, his back straightening. She couldn’t see his face, just the back of his head. His usually casual, shaggy brown hair was a mess from running his fingers through it constantly.
Weird how she noticed that. “What the hell are you talking about, Cohen? We don’t even know who the hell you are or what the hell you are!”

Cohen held up a hand, his almost handsome face set in hard lines. “I already told you. I need your help and right now you need mine. It won’t hurt her. It’ll do the exact opposite. There is a reason my kind is even more carefully hidden than yours. Exposure would be incredibly dangerous. We’d be hunted for our blood if this got out. If I do this, no one can ever know or I’ll have to ensure your silence, permanently. Understood?”

“If you do this? How are we supposed to trust you?”

Lilith was still staring at Chance’s hair as the voices seemed a little more distant with every word. The auburn streaks in his hair were dancing. It brought a smile to her face until she realized that it wasn’t his hair, it was her vision, wavering like some cheap intro to a flash back scene. The pounding in her head was a full out roar, making everything else sound hollow and tinny.

Cohen was the first to notice. He jumped out of the chair and grabbed a pair of scissors out of a holder on the desk. “We are out of time. Even if we could get normal blood, she might not make it. She was still recovering from a concussion before all this happened and now she’s about to go under again. If she falls asleep now she won’t wake up and I guarantee that the internal bleeding is extreme. She’s dying.”

Chance leapt to his feet and blocked Cohen from reaching her. Lilith’s eyes just fluttered, unfocusing as a groan turned into a breathy giggle.

“Look at her, Deveraux! Do you want her to live or not? I certainly do. She may be the only one left that can help me. I will not let her die, even if it means killing you in the process. Step aside!”

“If anything happens to her…” The threat was perfect
ly obvious in just his tone, although it all started to sound like gibberish to her. He stepped aside and Cohen knelt down next to her.

“Lilith.” The voice echoed in her ears like it was coming from a long dark tunnel. Something grabbed her face and her fluttering eyes tried desperately to focus on what was in front of her. But her eyelids felt so heavy, she was so tired. If she could just sleep for a while, then she’d feel better. “You have to talk to her, Chance. Keep her awake, at least until the blood is in her system.”

A familiar scent filled the air and a smile curled her lips. “Chance? You always smell like sunlight…” her voice sounded oddly melodic, even to her.

“That’s right. Hey…hey. Look at me, Lily.”

Her eyes fluttered open and she struggled as hard as she could to keep focused. She wanted to see his handsome face. Fingertips just barely brushed over her swollen cheeks and finally her eyes stared right into Chance’s. He had the most amazing eyes, warm hazel brown with those specks of green. They were hypnotic. She felt like she could stare at them forever.

“That’s it, Lily.
Stay with me. Cohen’s gonna give you something and you have to drink it, okay?”

She loved the sound of his voice, even if she didn’t really understand what he was saying. Something warm and wet touched her lips and she jerked back in surprise. Blinding stabs of pain shot up her neck and rattled around in her skull releasing a moaning scream from her sore throat.

“Lily, stay still. Drink, baby. Please,
Cherie
.” There were tears in his voice that made her just burst into tears. “You can’t quit on me, not now.” She felt lost, confused and she hurt so bad everywhere. His warm fingers brushed over her hair and a rush of comforting whispers sounded just above her. When she licked her lips, the very first taste exploded onto her tongue like an atom bomb of flavor. She’d never tasted anything so delicious. Blood never tasted good. It was like swallowing a mouthful of pennies, but this was like some kind of fine wine.

When the warm sticky thing touched her lips again, she grabbed a hold of it, completely ignoring the screaming pain in her arms.
For the first time she could ever remember, her little cartilaginous fangs clicked down and pierced the skin in front of her. She sucked hungrily as the sweet stuff burned down to her stomach and seemed to roar through every cell of her body. The sensation built and built until her vision went blindingly white and then fell into darkness, again.

Somewhere, distantly, Lilith felt her cheek resting on something firm and warm. She was still floating through crazy dreams of flying and running with impossible creatures. It was all just a psychedelic show behind her eyelids as she nuzzled her face against the warmth, curling closer toward it. It smelled warm and rich. It smelled familiar and it felt even better. It felt powerful, like electricity tingling down her bones. Still, it was the comforting scent that pulled her out of her brain-addled dreams and her eyes slowly fluttered open. She expected the light to blind her with pain, but she merely blinked in the brightness. Odd. She kept waiting for the insane torrent of pain to wash over her, but it didn’t happen.

Her eyes flicked upward from the leg she was resting her cheek on. Chance was staring off at some unknown point, deep in thought. His fingers were laced with hers, resting on her s
ide.  Gently, she squeezed his fingers and his eyes dropped down to her face. She felt his heart stop beating for a moment, holding his breath as he looked down at her with such a tender look that it made her heart ache.

She felt a flood of relief wash over him, actually felt it just as if it was her own emotion. That was weird.
His free hand smoothed over her hair and a smile tugged at his lips, bringing her right out of her thoughts. “You look much better. How do you feel, Lily?”

She hadn’t really
, truly thought about it till he’d asked. She had a minor headache, her face felt a little tender, her muscles felt a little stiff and there was a dull ache across her chest, but it was merely a shadow of how she’d felt before. It was nowhere near the mind-numbing pain she’d been in before. It was completely impossible. “I… well I feel fantastic compared to earlier. How is that possible?” She kept trying to remember what had happened, but everything past Chance gearing up to deck Cohen in the face was just fuzzy glimpses that made no sense. “What happened?”

Chance pulled her up into his lap, wrapping his arms around her and burying his face in her neck. She clung to him, tears stinging her eyes as she starte
d to remember just how hurt she‘d been, how close to death. The sudden surge of emotions was completely overpowering and she clung to Chance like she was stuck in a raging river and he was the only rock. She felt his lips brush against the soft skin of her neck and it made every nerve spring to life, instantly evaporating the fear that was gripping her heart. It was like a damn rollercoaster ride. It was far more intense than anything she’d ever felt before. It was like the difference between feeling that spark with someone you like and actually licking a damn battery. What the hell was going on?

“That’s twice now that I thought I was going to lose you, Lily. You seriously have got to stop doing this to me. No one likes a prematurely gr
ey body guard.” His words were playful, but his tone was vulnerable as his breath tickled across her skin.

Lilith tightened her arms around him, drinking in his warm, comforting scent. “Next time someone tries to attack me, I’ll let them know I’m not allowed to play
cause my body guard said so.” She smiled at the shaky laugh she got from him.

Chance pulled her back, smoothing a hand over her pinned up hair, as his eyes searched hers. It seemed like an eternity stretched out
between them and she wondered why she’d never seen it all before. The look in his eyes made her heart race and her breath catch. She’d always wanted to see that look directed at her, that look from a million different movies, and now it was hers. All from the last person on earth she expected to ever see it from.

“When I left the lab, all I could think about was getting to you before Spencer could.” She caressed her palm over his cheek, the soft scruff tickling her skin. “Things were bad before, but now…with Spencer as an enemy…” She squeezed her eyes closed
and fought back against the threatening tears. “He knows everything.”

Chance’s lips brushed against hers, making her open her eyes. He leaned his forehead against hers lightly and smiled. “He doesn’t know everything. You made sure of that.”