"Doctor... I must go for a time... I will be back later tonight to see how my sister is doing..." Dain said as he stood to face Doctor Price. He knew the dawn was coming... He had to go, now.
As the sun rose, Lilly slept, but it was only her body the rested. Within, the tiny drop of blood that Dain had placed upon her lips, ravaged her body, transforming her every cell, her very chemestery and DNA. The blood that Doctor Price pumped endlessly into her veins gave her body little strenght to fight back against the demon blood, but for now, it gave her life.
Doctor Price was never far from her, even hanging back to check on her when he went off duty, and leaving strict instructions that should anything change, anything at all, he was to be called at once.
As the day faded away, and the sun sank into the hills, Dr. Price came back on duty, Lilly stired in her slumber, and somewhere, in the shadows, the love of Lilly's life opened his eyes.
Night settled and Dain returned to the hospital and to Lilly's side, assuming the role of her brother. The Doctor was out of the room when he came in and he knelt next to her, whispering in her ear. "Wake my love, please, wake..."
At the sound of Dains voice, Lilly found her way back to reality. her head swam, and her mind faught to find reason, but Dain being so near gave her something to focus upon.
"You're feeling a taste of what I am..." Dain said nervously, as he looked back toward the doors. "Lil, can you come with me? Now?" He asked as he leaned over her and caressed her cheek.
For the first time since she was brought to the hospital, Lilly felt fear, real fear, yet there was somehting in his eyes that made her feel as though she could trust him. A taste of what he was? And just what was he really? And did she really want to become that? So many questions raced through her mind as she watched him. Her body was still weakened, but has recovered much quicker than it should have, concidering her blood loss.
She took a deep breath, and ber her bottom lip in thought. "Yes Dain, I'll come with you." She raised herself from the bed, set her feet on the floor and steadied herself. "Where are we going?"
"A place where we can hide... For a time..." Dain whispered nervously as he helped Lilly to her feet. "I'm sorry to rush you like this Lilly, there is danger for you.. For us if we stay..."
Lilly paused for a moment and looked a little harder at Dain. He seemed all together too gittery, and it was making her very uncomfortable. "Hide? Hide from what?"
At that moment, Doctor Price walked into the room, Lilly's folder in his hands and a concerned look on his face. "Lilly, what are you doing up? Back to bed young lady, you are no where near ready to be up and about." His smile was warm, but the look he gave Dain did not hide the fact that he was cautious.
Lilly felt trapped between a rock and a hard place, her next move, her next choice....what should she do?
"She's coming with me, we are leaving..." Dain said coldly as he stood to face Doctor Price. Looking back he spoke to Lilly. "Lilly, get up, we're going to go." Dain turned his eyes back onto Price almost hatefully.
Dr Price set down the folder and crossed his arms over his chest. "Is that so? And i supose you know how to care for a woman as sick as she is better than I do?"
Lilly's hands began to trembel. She was never good with confrentation and to see two such strong me coming up against one another was more then a little frightening.
"Yes, I do. She needs something more than what your cold, stale hospital could ever give her. If she were to stay, she would fade away, don't prove me right..." Dain said with a darkness to his voice.
Doctor Price did not miss the threat in Dain's tone, but his main concideration was for Lilly, and on that, he would not be shaken.
"Think what you like, but i insist that she remains here and recieves the medical care she needs. You might be prepared to have her death on your concience, but I am not. Take her from this room and i will have security pick you up before you make it half way up the hallway." The look in Dr Price's eyes was just as strong as Dain, and it was clear that neither man was going to back down.
The fear in Lilly grew as she stepped unsteadily away from both of them.
"Lilly, he can't keep us here if you wish to leave of your own accord..." Dain said calmly as he kept his eye locked challengingly on Price. A smug smile crossed his lips.
Lilly became confused, and exhaustion was begining to take it's toll on her.
Dr Price turned his gaze to her, and his strong features softened.
"Lilly, I am your doctor, and I only want what is best for you. Your "brother" here might care for you a great deal, but he's not a doctor, and it's dangerious for you to leave here before i can stableize your condition. Please Lilly, get back into bed and let me do my job."
Lilly's mind and body began to ache. Her human reasoning conflicting with the new force that was quickly ravaging her body. She felt her self wavering, the room spun, and everything seemed to close in on her all at once. She could see things she did not see before, hear things, so many things, all at once. So much so that it was almost deafening. Suddenly, she could take no more, and covering her ears, she ran from the room, away from the conflict, and the noise, just away. Confused and hurting, she ran from the hospital and into the night, with no thought to where she was going. She just needed out.
"I would take that as a no, good doctor." Dain said with a touch of triumph to his voice. "I'll be with her, and though you think me inadequite, she will be safer in my care than yours..." Dain stabbed with his words. He turned away and made to go after Lilly then.
Out in the street, everything about Lilly seemed unreal. Her senses seemed hightened, everything was louder, more intense. She could hear people talking a block away, and saw a mouse duck behind a garbage bin across the street. It was more than her human body could contain and she felt as though she was going out of her mind. She felt desperate, paniced, trapped. She raced across teh busy street, bringing cars to a creaming halt, screaching tyres and beeping horns pearcing her mind. Covering her ears, she continued to run, she needed to find some place quiet, and soon, before she lost her mind.
"Excuse me... I must see to my sister..." Dain called back to the Doctor one last time before slipping from the room. Once he was out, he ran, honing in on his Lilly. He knew where she was, he felt her, as though she was right next to him. Casting himself over hoods of cars and through and alley, he was gaining on his lover. Finally, he saw her, and in a sprint he caught her by the wrist, dodging her instinctive out lashed hand. He forced her against him, clasping her head to his chest, his hand on her ear, blotting out the sounds about them, that he knew would be horribly keen to her now.
As Dain pulled Lilly against his chest, she fought, lasted out, then crumpled against him. Her eyes looked into his, imploring him to make it all stop, to make it go away. Eventually all her energy was spent, and she collapsed unconcious, into his loving arms.
Caressing his faint lover's cheek, Dain lifted her in his arms and walked in the shadows, taking her back to her apartment. Eventually he arived there, Lilly still faint in his arms, he slipped into her bedroom silently and placed her on her bed. Then he waited.
Price watched as Dain placed the unconcious Lilly in her bed. He was angry, more angry then he had been in a long time. For some reason, he took this case very personaly.
"So you can take better cair of her than i can huh? Well she sure looks a lot better now then whe she left the hospital. NOT!! Oh don't look so surprised to see me. It didn't take much to work out that you would come back here sooner or later. For a "BROTHER" you don't seem to show a lot of real reguard for you sisters well being. Now get out of my way while i try and save her life." His voice almost spat contempt at Dain as he pushed past him and bent to examin the sleeping Lilly.
"Mr. Price... You're in very serious danger of testing my patience." Dain growled. "What ails Lilly is nothing you could comprehend, nor fix with your knowledge, any of it... If there were something you could do for her, I would have let you... But...." Dain reached out and caught Price by the shoulder and flung him against the wall. His unnatural strength reveiled in the simple act. "You CAN do nothing for her...." Dain's back was to Price as he spoke, then he turned sharply, his eyes glowing with a penetrating red light. His face was twisted in a feral mask that made the good doctor freeze in fright.
At the fearsome and unearthly sight of Dain, Price froze in his tracks, but as he looked past dain, and at the pail Lilly, he set his fear aside, his thoughts only for his patient.
"I don't know what the hell you are, or what rock you crawled out from under, but I wont let you have her. You hear me Demon? You CAN'T have her!!"
His back streightened in defiance as he faced upto Dain.
"Would you die for her Doctor Price? What is she to you other than another patient, another wad of cash in your pocket? She is nothing to you... Or... Do you remember? Remember when we met last? Remember what I did to you when you tried to take her from me then?" Dain shot back, the memories all to clear for him.
"I remember some, enough. Dreams that have haunted me all of my life. I knew her the moment she was brought into the hospital, and i knew that i had a second chance to save her. Do you know what it's like to love a woman you have only ever seen in your dreams? To see her die, and not have the power to save her over and over again? You killed her once before, I wont let you kill her again, OVERLORD!" he spat the last word at Dain, for in the life time that they both spoke of, Dain had been just that, the Overlord, loved by few, and dispised but most.
Letting the mask of his vampirism slip away, Dain looked himself once more. "Those were dark days... I have changed... Have you? Can you accept that your love has been missplaced on a woman who cannot return it? She is mine, she will, cannot be yours, it is her fate, and that fate is linked to me. Do not perpetuate your mistakes of old and make me end your life here and now Price... You have always been a good soul, just one who doesn't know when to quite his rediculous facination with a foolish notion of love."