by T M Linville
“Vincent,” Shay greeted nervously.
“Hello LaShay. I heard that your father was here.”
Vincent heard right away when strangers came to the building and he was already expecting Martin to show up at some point.
Shay nodded to Vincent and turned around. She wasn’t sure this was the best time for the two men to meet. Martin was already taking a lot in. Lily joined Shay at the door. She stepped into the hallway and motioned to Shay to close the door.
“Vincent, what are you doing here?” Lily asked. “This probably isn’t the best time…”
“Nonsense, no time like the present,” Vincent smiled and his fangs were clearly visible.
“Vincent!” Lily yelled then covered her mouth.
“I’m kidding, love,” he said and retracted his teeth. “Lighten up, Lily. So why is this not a good time?”
“Because Martin is still working through the whole ‘Shay being gay and living in the Crown Building’ things. He’s still trying to wrap his head around that and I think he’d feel a little intimidated by you right now. You’re my grandfather, by the way, and you own the building.”
“I’m your what!? Grandfather?” Vincent clarified. “Do I look old enough to be a grandfather?”
“Yes, you’re my grandfather.” Lily paused. “You’re not going to go away are you? Not going to take ‘no’ for an answer either, are you?”
“Nope,” Vincent chirped.
Lily took a deep breath and opened the door. Shay had gone back to sit on the couch beside her dad. Vincent followed Lily in. Vincent looked like he was in his forties, was six foot three and a very solid one hundred and ninety pounds. He had medium brown hair that was cut short. His eyes were emerald green and rimmed by long black lashes. His skin was only slightly darker than Lily’s. He was wearing a black, button up shirt and black pants with black boots. He rolled up his sleeves as he followed Lily to the couch. When he was close to Martin, he put out his hand.
“Hello, I’m Vincent Sterling. I’m Lily’s grandfather.”
Martin stood up and shook Vince’s hand.
Grandfather? Martin wondered. He barely looks forty. I wonder what her grandmother looks like.
“I’m Martin Black,” he said a little bit too proudly.
Vincent only nodded and shook Martin’s hand.
“May we sit?” Vincent asked.
“Sure,” Martin said and sat back down.
Vincent sat on the perpendicular section of the couch and Lily sat down beside him. Shay was already sitting beside her dad.
“So, Vincent, what do you do?” Martin asked immediately.
“I’m in real estate.”
Vincent looked at Lily, patted her knee and smiled.
“Real estate?” Martin questioned.
“Yes. This building was passed down to me. The family business is real estate. We own property in every major city.”
“Impressive,” Martin said.
“So you’re in the broadcasting business. Isn’t that correct?” Vincent asked before Martin could ask another question.
“Yes. I own several television stations in the US, Canada and Europe.”
“Impressive,” Vincent repeated.
“So how do you deal with your daughter being gay?” Martin finally asked.
“Umm, what do you mean?” Vince asked.
“She likes girls, right? How do you deal with that?”
“I don’t deal with that. Lily loves who she loves and that’s that. Why would that concern me? I’m not the one that’s dating them. I’m not the one who wakes up next to them every morning. I don’t have to argue with them over what’s for dinner or what color should they paint the bathroom. Lily choses who Lily loves and I’m not going to question that.”
“You are completely OK with all this?” Martin asked.
“I wouldn’t have moved Shay into the building if I had doubts.”
Vincent looked at Lily and she knew what he was thinking. That she had loved three others the same way and this, too, would probably pass. But Lily knew he was wrong this time.
“Well, it’s getting late. I should probably go,” Martin announced suddenly.
“Dad…”
Martin stood up and put his hand out to Vincent. Vincent stood and shook his hand.
“It was nice meeting you, Vincent.”
Before anyone could say anything else, Martin walked to the door and left.
“Well, that went well,” Shay said sarcastically.
“He’ll come around, dear,” Vincent reassured her. “He’s your father and he loves you.”
Shay took a big drink from her glass. Then another. Lily stood up and went to sit beside her. Lily took the glass from Shay just as she was about to take the last drink.
“Shay, you know how he is. He’s old and set in his ways and who knows what is going through his head. He will come around,” Lily told her.
“Shay, no matter what your father thinks, you have a home and a family here,” Vincent said. “How are you doing, by the way? I mean from the whole attack. Are you OK.”
“I should be used to it by now,” Shay said.
“I am so sorry that…,” Lily began.
“Shhh, I know, babe. It’s not your fault,” Shay interrupted.
“I promise you, Shay, that Eric will never step foot in this building again,” Vincent assured her. “You are safe here. Wait. Where’s Onyx?”
“We were surprised by Martin’s visit, so he stayed at my apartment,” said Lily. “One thing at time, you know. Didn’t want to spring a three hundred pound wolf on Martin just yet.”
“There will be guards and wolves on this floor at all times. Regardless of who visits.”
“How are we going to explain that to Martin?” Lily asked.
“Bad neighbors?” Vincent joked. “We’ll make sure the guards are in plain clothes with no visible weapons. As far as the wolves in the hallway, seriously, blame it on the neighbors. But Onyx is yours Lily. Martin should know that Onyx is part of the package.”
“Understood,” Lily said.
“OK,” Vincent said.” I’ll leave the two of you alone. But Shay, when you get a chance, I would like to talk to you.”
“Yes, sir,” Shay answered.
Eric was planning his next attack. He was hoping that the first one would catch everyone off guard. Which it did, but they were able to rally faster than Eric thought they could. He had barely gotten away and had it not been for the collapsing staircase in the tunnels, Onyx may still be chasing him. He was sitting at a table outside Ellen’s Fight Club surrounded by his vampires and other fighters. He had managed to get quite a following. With the news of being able to change humans to vampires once again, it seemed everyone was all ears. Most of the vampires gathered around Eric were fighters from the club. All of them knew Lily. None of them could be trusted.
The Underground was all a buzz about Lily having the ability to change humans without killing them. Some thought it was just a hoax made up by Eric to get help catching Lily. Everyone knew that he hated her and would do just about anything to get his hands on her.
“How do we know that she can really change humans?” Jenkins asked.
“Have you seen her change a human?” Taylor piped in.
“Yeah, how do we know that you’re not just making this up to get help catching Lily?” Asked Maggie from the back of the crowd, one of the few female fighters.
“I have a very trusted source at the coven that has spoken to the new vampire that she created. He told my source who changed him and why would he lie?” Eric said.
“How is Lily able to change humans? She’s not an Elder,” Taylor asked.
“I don’t know,” Eric told him.
“Pft! What do you know?” Matt asked. “Do you have proof?”
“No.”
Eric remembered what McGoo had said about Shay’s blood being as important. Shay’s blood is just as important as Lily’s, McGoo had said at the apartment.
Eric thought that he may be able to catch Shay on her way to or from work. It had almost worked twice. Then he remembered how badly Lily was burned. And she lived. Maybe she was special.
They would be expecting another attack, he thought. He had to come up with an all new plan. If he had to get both Lily and Shay alive, he needed a better plan and more vampires on his side. Lily and Shay now had the entire coven backing them. He had to get inside. He had to get coven vampires on his side. His two primary sources inside the coven were compromised. He knew Sarah would be punished for helping him to drug Lily. Brian would also be watched very carefully after failing to steal blood samples from McGoo’s lab.
The First Test
The next morning McGoo knocked on Shay’s door. Vincent had finally brought in a human to make the change and it was time for Shay and Lily to change him. Shay answered the door.
“Hey, Doc.” Shay yawned.
Her hair was a mess. She was wearing a satin blue robe that stopped at the knee.
“It’s time,” Jack told her.
Shay had a confused look on her face for a moment then it dawned on her what he was talking about.
“Oh, time to donate my blood. Right?”
“That’s correct. We will be waiting in the lab. And don’t forget to bring Lily,” he smiled. As if Shay would show up without her.
Shay trudged back to the bedroom and plopped down next to Lily who was still sleeping. Shay pulled the sheet and blanket down and gently kissed Lily’s neck. She kissed down Lily’s chest and stopped at a breast. She pulled the covers off completely and kissed down Lily’s stomach. She slowly spread Lily’s legs apart then positioned herself between them. It didn’t take long for Lily to wake up.
Lily moaned as Shay licked her slowly. She continued licking and sucking gently until Lily’s legs began to shake. She moaned Shay’s name as she grabbed a handful of the bed sheet. Her back arched and she came hard. Waves washed over her and she finally had to push Shay away. Shay only laughed and kissed her way back up Lily’s body. When Shay was laying on top of her, Lily wrapped her arms around her and rolled her over onto her back.
“Oh no,” Shay giggled. “I owed you one from yesterday.”
“Didn’t know you were keeping score,” Lily said as she kissed Shay’s lips.
Shay ran her fingers up through Lily’s hair then ran her fingernails down Lily’s back. Lily’s back stiffened and she kissed Shay harder. Their tongues circled each other’s and they kissed for a while. Finally Shay told Lily that they were wanted downstairs in the lab.
“Aww,” Lily moaned. “Is it time already? So I take it Vincent came through on his human to change, huh?”
“Yup.”
Lily rolled off of Shay and yawned then stretched.
“Couldn’t think of a better way to wake up, though.” Lily grinned as she stretched again.
“Get up, lazy, we have work to do.”
They got up, took a quick shower together and headed downstairs. They walked to the elevator hand in hand. They kissed all the way down to the sub-basement.
When they walked into the lab where McGoo and Vincent waited, Vincent gave Lily a stern look then shook his head. He knew exactly what had taken them so long but he didn’t say anything.
“Shall we get started?” McGoo finally said. “Lily, LaShay, this is Markus. He’s from the Miami coven. He’s been a feeder there for almost 40 years.”
“Well that does explain the tan. I LaShay,” she said as she reached out her hand to shake Markus’s.
“Hello…?”
“LaShay,” she repeated.
“LaShay, pretty name,” Markus said.
“Thank you.”
“Hello Markus, I’m Lily.”
“Good to meet you Lily,” Markus said.
“Shay, you can go here,” McGoo motioned to a hospital bed beside Markus.
He looked at Lily and motioned to the other empty bed.
Once they were laying down, McGoo raised the top half of the beds so Lily and Shay were sitting up. He left Markus in the flat position.
“Markus are you ready?” Vincent asked, walking over to his bedside.
“Are you ever really ready for this?” Markus laughed.
Vincent laughed, too. “I guess not.”
McGoo connected the IV’s to the machine then to Lily and Shay’s arms and to Markus’s neck, shoulder and thighs. Then he looked at Markus.
“Are you absolutely sure you want to do this? There is no going back and there is no stopping once it starts,” McGoo said to Markus.
“Yes, I am absolutely sure,” Markus affirmed. “But why two donors?”
“You will get only a pint of Shay’s blood. This will… well, let me rephrase that. Shay’s blood should prepare your blood for the change.”
“I did tell you that it’s an experiment, Markus,” Vincent said.
“I know Vince. I’m just asking what the process is,” Markus said.
“After Shay’s blood, you will get a full transfusion of Lily’s blood. The change should take less than five days. At least that’s what we’re hoping.”
“OK,” answered Markus. “I’m ready.”
McGoo hung the bags of blood for Lily on the hooks then connected them.
“OK.” McGoo took a deep breath and switched on the transfusion machine.
The machine clicked and whirred to life. After only about 10 minutes McGoo disconnected LaShay from the machine.
“Are you OK?” He asked. “Do you feel dizzy or sick?”
“No, I’m fine,” Shay answered.
“Are you going to wait for Lily?”
“Yes.”
Three hours passed before McGoo turned off the machine. That was it. It was up to the blood to do the rest. McGoo pulled the IV out of Lily’s arm and placed a small square gauze pad over the small hole as it quickly healed.
“Take it easy for a few days, Lily,” he told her.
“I know,” Lily said.
Two and a half days passed and Lily and Shay were laying on Lily’s couch watching a movie when the phone rang. Lily reached over and grabbed her phone from the coffee table.
“McGoo, what is it? Did he die?” Lily concluded before he even spoke.
Lily thought, It’s only been two and a half days, he must have died and all becau…
“No Lily, I just called to see how the two of you are doing,” McGoo said.
“Oh, we’re fine,” Lily told him. “Just relaxing and watching some television.”
“Oh good. You’re not busy then.”
“What do you want Jack?” Lily sighed.
“I was just curious if I could possibly get a little more of Shay’s blood.”
Lily looked at Shay. “Do you feel like going to donate even more blood?”
“That the doc?” Shay assumed.
Lily nodded.
“Sure.”
“We’ll be there in a few.”
“Thank you!” said McGoo before he hung up.
When they arrived at the lab, McGoo was all grins.
“What is it McGoo?” Lily asked flatly because she knew he was up to something.
“Come with me!” He nearly giggled.
They followed Jack to the room where Markus had been. He was sitting up on the bed. Eyes wide open and staring at his hands in his lap. He looked up at Lily and smiled a big toothy grin, but no fangs. He tried, but it was just too early. Lily and Shay stared in awe.
“Two and a half days?” Lily shrieked.
“Two days and thirteen hours,” McGoo confirmed.
“Holy shit!” Lily yelled.
“I know!” Markus added. “When I woke up I thought something had gone wrong. It didn’t seem like it had been that long. I mean the pain was… the pain was excruciating but I was figuring on it being a whole lot worse.”
Lily and Shay couldn’t believe it. All Lily was thinking was that it would only take two and half days to change Shay. If her blood helped make the transformation for
a human that quick, she should change even faster. She could certainly survive two and a half days. But Vincent. There was no way Vincent would let her change Shay. But what if Eric came back? What if she or Erica wasn’t there to save her? She had to talk to Vincent. She had to convince Vincent that her blood alone would save the vampires. Her blood only took 5 days. That was seven or eight days faster than his blood could make the change.
Alexa and Vince were at home in the penthouse. It’s a good thing that no one else lived on their floor.
“Vincent, you have to let us change LaShay. You know damn well that Eric will kill her if he gets a chance! He doesn’t really need Shay and he knows that,” Alexa yelled for the fourth time that day.
“I’m not going to change Shay! Lily will just change her mind like she has three times before,” Vincent countered.
“Shay isn’t like the rest, Vince. Can’t you see that? Lily almost died on that roof. And she’d do it again if she had to.”
“The answer is still “No”!
“Dammit Vincent!” Alexa yelled. “You’re not listening! Eric will kill Shay. If Shay dies do you know what happens to Lily? The hell with them changing vampires for you. If something happened to LaShay do you think for one second that Lily would give a shit about restoring the species? Think about it Vince!”
“Lexa,” Vincent sighed. “If I let Lily change LaShay into a vampire and Lily decides that she doesn’t love Shay anymore, where does that leave Shay? I’ll tell you! It leaves Shay immortally in love with someone that has moved on to someone else.”
“No Vincent! Lily is in love with Shay. This is the one, Vince. There will not be another for Lily. I promise you.”
“I can’t Lexa. For Shay’s sake, I just can’t.”
“For Shay’s sake? Shay is going to end up dead if you don’t. You know the lengths he’ll go to get Lily. Shay means nothing to Eric and killing her is just a means to an end. Then once Shay is gone, Lily won’t care what happens to her. Do you want Eric to have the means to create his own vampire army?”
“Of course not!”
“Then let Lily change Shay. If not for Lily, do it for Shay!” Alexa yelled very loudly.
