My Blood on Your Lips, Your Money in My Bra

My eyes shot open at a sound from near the balcony doors, my body jerking into a sitting position instinctively. Wildly, I looked toward the sound, my sleepy disorientation driven away by my growing alarm. Someone was there. Someone had to be there. But there was no one to be seen. I was alone.

Eli and Kyrianna were in the living room, one passed out on the couch and the other intrigued by a horror movie from the comfort of an arm chair. Both of them had thought it best to leave me alone. According to them, I needed the sleep to heal and to deal with the stress of this whole war. I disagreed. With their leaving me alone, anyway. Sure, better sleep would probably improve my weakened condition greatly, but leaving me alone would not allow me that kind of sleep. I was just too paranoid.

With a tired sigh, I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and rested my elbows on them, burying my face in my hands and closing my eyes to protect me from my own glow. Idiots. I'm too crazy to sleep.

My thoughts and my breathing ceased when I heard another noise from the balcony. It was soft, barely audible, but it was there. I may have been crazy, but I knew what I heard, and I wasn't making this up.

I sat up and turned my gaze to the door, hidden by its thick black curtains. They were still, the balcony silent, but I remained tense, alert, ready for anything that could come bursting through the glass.

A third sound reached my ears from beyond the curtains, this one very eerily recognizable: the tap of a fingernail against glass.

I leapt to my feet and spun, fully facing the door from across my bed. I could see nothing out of the ordinary, the curtains still unmoving and the door closed, but still, I watched. Still, I waited.

The tapping came again, this time continuing in a slow rhythm. My body began to tingle, my heart racing and my body still rigid. If there was someone on my balcony, there was no doubt that it was someone who wanted to kill me. Or, at the very least, hurt me. A lot.

My vision began to dim, much like it had done during the night's battle. But that had happened because a group of vampires had been biting into me, trying to hurt and drain me. Now, it was just panic. Panic was making me lose myself.

The tapping stopped suddenly, the silence of early morning claiming the room once more. All I could hear was the sound of my own rapidly beating heart, the occasional car on the street below, and the sounds of the television in my living room. It was all normal.

The door was suddenly jerked open, quiet, yet so loud in the silence. I nearly jumped backward, my back hitting the nearby wall with a soft thump. Why didn't I ever lock that damned door?

I slid down the wall as the curtain was slowly pulled aside. My breath caught as I waited, watching with blurred, darkening vision as a face was revealed. It took me barely a second to recognize it, pale and blue-gray-eyed, wearing an amused, taunting smirk.

James.

"I've been waiting for you," he said in a quiet whisper, so as not to alert my drowsy friends down the hall. Kyrianna never would have heard him in her sleep, and Eli was probably so wrapped up in his movie that he wasn't even listening to anything else, but James knew that caution often paid off at times like these. He had been Terrence's companion, after all. He'd learned from the man, and the man had always been quiet when others who could interfere with his plans were in the area.

"Why?" I breathed, barely able to make my gaze focus on him now.

"You were gone for such a long time," he continued, stepping toward me and easily ignoring my weak little voice. "I actually got rather comfortable out there. The view is somewhat soothing when you take it in for long enough." He was soon before me, kneeling and looking into my glowing eyes. But the light they cast upon his face was different from the usual amethyst. It was a deep red, just barely darker than blood. It didn't belong to me...did it? "Ah, yes," he murmured to me, reaching out to gently cup my chin. "Terrence said this would happen. The day you drank his blood..." He trailed off, smirking once more, amused because he knew I was currently unable to move, unable to shove him away as I wanted to.

"What's happening?" I barely managed, my voice airy and nearly inaudible. My vision was almost completely black now. Why was this happening? And why so slowly?

"Necromancers aren't supposed to associate with vampires in the way that you so often do." The vampire's hand dropped away from my chin, falling to rest on my thigh. His touch was innocent, however, as though his hand had simply ended up there, nothing more. His gaze was intent, his eyes locked with mine. That was all I could see now: his eyes.

"What...?"

"You know how we turn humans into vampires, right?" he asked, his voice still a whisper. "We drink from them, they drink from us, and...it's done. They wake up as bloodsuckers." A chill ran through me at his words. I barely felt it, on the brink of unconsciousness as I was, but it was there. He chuckled, somehow noticing my reaction. I must have twitched or grunted or...something. "You understand, then? He drank from you, you drank from him, and now, you're becoming the necromantic equivalent of a vampire: a Shadow."

"A...what?" The term sounded vaguely familiar, but in my current state, I couldn't even begin to grasp the piece of knowledge that went with it. Hell, I was lucky I was still able to understand the man's words.

"A Shadow," he murmured, almost as if he were speaking to a child now. His hand fell upon my cheek again, caressing it lightly, and I just barely felt his touch, a vague tingle beyond my numbness. "Vampires and necromancers aren't meant to mix, Elyria. They're two different kinds of monster. But you...you went and let them meld together. And because of that, you're bound to become a new kind of monster, a different breed altogether. You're going to lose your reason, your very mind, and become nothing more than a hollow, empty, blood-thirsty shell of what you once were."

I lost it then. My consciousness fell away, dropping me into a dark void, full of a cold, comforting nothingness. And this time, I didn't come back. No sudden return, no heightened senses, no visions of slaughter. But I did feel the vague sensation of my body moving...

-

Eli opened his eyes, snapped out of a deep, horror movie-induced slumber by the sound of a cell phone vibrating against an expensive glass tabletop. He looked toward the sound, finding Elyria's phone moving slowly across the surface, farther with each new vibration. Hadn't that been in her room...?

He picked it up, watching as Kyrianna awoke just as he had, eyeing him groggily. He shrugged, then turned his attention to the name displayed on the phone's front. His entire body tensed.

Terrence...?

He flipped the phone open cautiously, almost as if he expected it to explode or something, then carefully held it to his ear. "Hello?"

"Eli, I assume?" James's cool, calm voice drawled.

"Yes. Why do you have Terrence's phone?"

"It has Elyria's number in it."

"Why do you need this number?"

"I wanted to tell you that I have Elyria."

"Wh-" But Eli was cut off, James going on without caring what the vampire had to say.

"But I'm not telling you to get you to come for her. I couldn't care any less about you and the other necromancer. I just didn't want you to bust in here tomorrow night, fighting and killing and possibly dying for nothing as you search for her." Eli waited as the man sighed, having to force it as he didn't naturally have any air in his lungs. "It really would be pointless for you to come for her. She's not even here anymore, really."

"What...what do you mean?" Eli asked, uncharacteristically stammering as he tried to get the words out. He was concerned, scared, terrified for the woman he cared for, maybe even loved. If James had her...If she was "wasn't even here anymore"...

"Put the other necromancer on. She's more likely to understand it than you are."

"But I-"

Kyrianna jerked the phone from the vampire's grasp, having caught James's words in the sudden silence from the muted TV. "What have you done to her?"

"Nothing," James answered with a light laugh. "She did it to herself. But I suppose Terrence did help a bit..."

Kyrianna visibly stiffened, her entire body going still. She didn't even appear to be breathing anymore. "You mean..." Her hushed voice fell away. She couldn't continue. The thought was simply too horrid. It couldn't be real...

"She's a Shadow now. Come if you want, but..." His voice suddenly hardened. "I'll kill you both if you try to take her from me. She's mine now." The line went dead.

Kyrianna pulled the phone from her ear, staring at the brightly lit screen. Call ended...

"Kyrianna..." It was the first time Eli had said her name like that, without any harshness or hatred trapped in the syllables.

"She's a Shadow now," she whispered to the man, her eyes not leaving the phone. Even when the light faded, then the screen went black, she didn't look away. "What started at my house, what happened last night...it's all finished now." Finally, she turned to the vampire, a pain in her glowing pink eyes that was rivaled only by the pain of losing her parents. "She's a monster, Eli. She's not with us anymore."

-

The vampire and necromancer were led into what was once Terrence's home, now James's, by a grinning vampire. It was clear that he knew their suffering and the reason for it, the reason for their grieving eyes and their expressionless lips, and it entertained him. If the two hadn't been so sorrowful, torn between a barely there hopefulness and the grief at accepting what had probably happened, they more than likely would've killed the man.

"I'd hoped you wouldn't come," James said when he saw the pair. He was standing in a downstairs study-like room, the flames of an ornate fireplace creating flickering shadows across his tall, dark form. He smiled, flashing his fangs in an almost taunting manner. "There isn't much to see." When the pair said nothing, merely offering the vampire twin cold gazes, his smile grew. "Well, then, let's go see how she's doing."

Silently, the group made their way toward the basement door, having to travel through several rooms to get there. With each new room, another vampire joined the group, creating an obvious form of security for James. If either of his guests were to go for him, they would be easily taken care of.

They all started down the stairs, still silent but for the occasional creak of the old wood. Kyrianna and Eli glanced at one another as they neared the stairs' end, both worried beyond belief. Yet that hope remained. They clung to it, refusing to let go. As they rounded the corner from the stairs to the basement, they reached for each other's hand, their fingers lacing and tightening the grip.

A snarl sounded as soon as the group revealed themselves. The sound of flesh against metal rang through the massive cement room, followed by sharp teeth against the bars of a cage. It was Elyria, of course. But those weren't her eyes, her fangs, her soulless, empty look. Blood-red tresses bounced about her silver-skinned face as she threw herself against the bars of the cage once more. She was barely able to stand fully upright in the cage, barely able to sit down and spread her legs out on the cold metal floor, but none of that mattered. She was crouched, hunkered over like an animal, and she seemed reluctant to leave the corner she'd situated herself in, ramming her body against the bars periodically. Almost comically, she was clad in the same red skirt and hot pink top she'd been wearing in her room only an hour earlier. The outfit looked like a costume now, like the frilly little dresses owners sometimes put on their dogs. It gave the vampires a chuckle, but not Kyrianna and Eli. They merely looked into the girl's eyes, deep, deep red and filled only with anger, an empty anger for the sake of itself. There wasn't anyone in there. There was no angry person. It was just the anger itself, thirsty for blood and violence.

"See?" James said, sounding far too amused by all of this. "She's gone. There's nothing left of her that you would want."

"But there's...something that you want?" Kyrianna asked softly, hesitantly, unsure as to whether she wanted to know or not. She watched her friend, her almost-girlfriend, her protector for only a second longer, then she lowered her eyes. There was nothing left...

The vampire laughed, truly amused by the question. "Of course, my dear! In this state, she-"

"He wants to use her as a weapon," Eli interjected softly, his eyes locked with Elyria's as she tried to gnaw through another bar of the cage. Free me, those angry eyes said. Free me so I can kill you all. He dropped his gaze, unable to take it anymore. His hope had died alongside Kyrianna's.

"Exactly!" James said with another loud laugh. "If I can find away to...leash her, I suppose you could say, to keep her from killing my men, she could be a very powerful tool."

"You can't just use her like that!" Kyrianna exclaimed, turning on the man with her eyes simply blazing in anger. "She's a person!"

"No. She was a person. Now, she's something to be used. Otherwise, we might as well just kill her." James grinned wickedly. "The world would be much safer that way, after all."

Kyrianna was clearly torn by this. She turned back to Elyria, conflict written all over her face. She still looked like a person. Just...a person with scary fangs and soulless eyes...

"Are you convinced now?" James asked after a moment. "She's gone. You can't get her back." Eli and Kyrianna slowly nodded, still watching the woman they'd once had feelings for, that they still did have feelings for. "Good. Then we should leave before she gets even more riled up." The pair nodded again, and the vampires turned and started toward the stairs. The vampire and necromancer were left alone with the Shadow for a moment.

They stepped closer to the cage, cautious, as Elyria was still thrashing about inside. They stopped a couple of feet from her, watching sadly as she bit into a bar once more, a bar she could never chew through.

"Elyria..." Kyrianna's eyes filled with tears, and she couldn't say anything more. Somehow, just the name seemed to be enough, laced with the girl's deep sorrow and raw emotion.

Elyria stilled at the sound of it, cocking her head at the crying girl. She glanced at Eli, finding that his eyes had also filled with tears, though he refused to let them fall. All of the emotion in the room was enough to dull the Shadow's anger a bit, to let her see them clearly once more instead of through a red haze of fury. Slowly, her hand slid between the bars, her arm stretching for them, her fingers spread.

"Elyria...?" Eli whispered, his voice questioning and oddly hopeful. She whined softly, trying to stretch herself more. But it was hopeless. Her shoulder caught against the bar, and no matter how much she pushed against it, she found, she couldn't get past it.

Eli and Kyrianna stepped closer once more, closing the distance between themselves and the red-eyed girl's extended hand. Cautiously, Eli reached out and touched her palm, his cool skin lightly brushing against hers. She made an excited sound, a squeak that told him to keep going. He gently gripped her hand, his fingers closing around it and pressing their palms together.

They stood like that for a moment, his pale lips curving in a small smile as he watched her curiously eye their linked hands. She giggled suddenly, pulling her hand back a bit and putting her fingertips against his open palm. With a jerk, she tore through his skin with her nails, causing him to let out a pained hiss. She quickly brought her bloody fingers back to her, cackling now. She licked her fingers to clean them of the rich blood, laughing louder with each taste. Eli and Kyrianna staggered back in shock and fear, putting several feet between themselves and the cage.

"She's gone," James said from the stairway behind them. "The sooner you come to terms with that, the sooner you can move on and get the hell out of my way." Eli and Kyrianna turned to him, still holding hands as blood dripped down Eli's free hand. "Now, let's go. I don't want you two in my house any longer." With that, he turned and started back up the stairs. With one last glance at Elyria, the vampire and necromancer followed. Her cackling followed them out, echoing painfully after them along the stairway.

Elyria Vlorinix was no more.