Blood from Stone - Chapter 23

Chapter 23

08.21.2022-8.25.2022

Liliana ran. She ran like her life depended on it. She may not have been in any physical danger, but her mental health was on a steady downward spiral. The frigid air burned her lungs and stung her eyes, but the sunlight on her skin chased away the vestiges of confusion and melancholy that tried to take up root in her brain.

Music roared in her ears, the earbuds stuffing her ear canals and blocking any other noise from distracting her. Her bulky jacket and boots didn’t slow her down. The Winterbourne compound was large enough that she could have run for days and not come across the same patch of ground twice. She loved that about living with the vampires, and the open air and a sense of freedom were both what she needed most.

Despite the pleasurable side effects of being bitten, Liliana was starting to feel like a pincushion. She was living up to Maverick’s “Juice Box” nickname. She’d been eating like she was starved to replenish the nutrients lost from constantly getting chewed on. Now Liliana was starting to worry all the extra calories would effect her figure, despite the opposite being the truth. If anything, she’d started losing weight.

Whatever her reason was, she needed to move. She needed to breathe her own air. She took a turn, continuing into the evergreen forest down a trail. She’d never gone out this far from the main buildings before, especially not solo, but the fresh wet scent of the trees enticed her.

As long as she stayed dry and warm, she could keep up this pace for hours. Her breath rose in small clouds as her boots found purchase in the thick snow. When she was younger, she’d hated running. Now it had become a necessary evil.

She slowed to a walk, catching her breath and taking an earbud out to soak in the muffled sounds of a wild New York winter. Birds chirping away, icicles falling from branches as the temperature warmed, the crunching of the soles of her boots in the snow. She exhaled heavily, closing her eyes for the barest of seconds before they snapped open again.

Liliana was being watched. She could feel it. There was a prickling sensation between her shoulder blades she couldn’t ignore, so she kept moving. She knew the trails would loop back around to the cluster of buildings eventually. There was no simply turning back, since the source of her unease lay directly behind her, despite her not being able to see anyone.

She let the spare earbud dangle loose so she wasn’t deaf to the environment around her, picking up her pace beyond a steady jog to an actual sprint. She couldn’t hear any footsteps, which was the thing that ratcheted up her fear the most. But the more she strained to hear, the stranger what she could detect became.

There were no footsteps to be heard, but there was absolutely rustling in the branches of the pine and spruce trees that were behind her. Could it just be an animal? A bird, or a squirrel? Maybe a fisher, a sort of cross between a weasel and a wolverine. They could be aggressive, but she doubted one would follow her this far. And they were typically nocturnal, like vampires were supposed to be.

An involuntary squeal was startled from her lips as a silhouette appeared a few mere feet ahead of her. She actually slammed right into it with the momentum she was already producing, unable to stop before she collided with an all too familiar body. She caught herself on his shoulder, righting her balance before she could slide and fall flat on her ass in the snow.

“Jesus, Maverick.” Liliana said with a huff. “You could have texted me to warn me you were out here, or something. You almost gave me a damned heart attack.”

She looked up into fully brown eyes, and her own pupils blew wide with unease. “Just Rick, huh? Haven’t seen you on your own in a while, buddy.” Liliana took an involuntary step backwards, her footfall louder than it should have been as it crunched in the snow like the snapping of tiny bones.

“If I was going to hurt you, Juice Box… do you think I’d have bothered announcing my presence to you?”

The last time Rick had been solo piloting Maverick was the morning after she’d moved into the Winterbourne’s home. She clenched her fist at her side, forcing herself to take a slow, steadying breath.

“That’s fair enough, I suppose.” Lily conceded with a bone-weary sigh that temporarily fogged her vision. “What can I do for you, Rick? I was kinda running down my own mental demons, out here.”

He stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets, looking sheepish as he cast his gaze down at the ground before bringing his eyes back to her. “He gets to be with you on his own, we get to be with you together, but I’ve never…” Liliana arched a brow at the color that bloomed in his cheeks, understanding crashing into her heart like a freight train.

Without a word, she hugged the vampire tightly. Even though the more feral part of Maverick’s personality put her on edge, Rick was right. If he’d meant her harm, she’d be bleeding out on the snow. He was the protector, the defender, by any means necessary. He was the only reason Maverick as a whole still existed. It seemed unfair to only embrace the soft and cuddly parts of him, especially after the recent developments with both Aubrey and Jax.

His breath left him in a huff from the impact, muttering under his breath: “Shit, bloddukke. You don’t have to make it weird.”

Liliana snickered. “Sorry, leech-on-legs. You want solo time with me, random hugs are part of it. Especially when I know you need it.”

Rick lifted her chin with two warm, rough fingertips, gazing down into her stormy grey eyes from mere inches away. “It’s not like I asked you to stop, Juice Box…”

His lips were soft as they brushed against hers. Tentative, oozing with uncertain caution, as if he expected her to bolt at any moment. His breath was a gentle, shaking puff of heat that Liliana found completely irresistible.

She reached up to cup the sides of his face in her gloved hands, returning his kiss carefully. Her movements were teasing, unhurried, lips and tongue caressing with a calculated passion that she fought to keep under control. Rick’s hands settled on her lower back, pressing her body flush against him. Despite her efforts to stay calm, her pulse pounded in her ears, her breathing growing heavier the longer their intimate contact went on.

He was the first to break away, his expression a combination of desperation and something she could only define as fear. “Fuck’s sake, Lily… No wonder my brothers lose their damned minds when they’re with you.” His words were coarse, husky like he’d been screaming her name for hours on end.

Liliana pursed her lips to try to keep from laughing, resting her forehead against his shoulder as the wave of emotions flowed over her. The unbridled giggles that fell from her lips were the most pure sound Rick had ever heard. It made his chest feel tight in a way he couldn’t explain. He said her name softly and the young woman looked up at him with a crooked smile.

He stroked the pad of his thumb across her cheek, swiping away the happy tear that had trailed down her skin. “I won’t ever let anyone take that smile from you again. I only know some of what you went through before you came to us, but you’re as much our charge as we are yours.”

She leaned up to press a quick kiss to his lips. “Love you, too.” She stepped back and took off at a quick sprinting pace. “Race you back to the house!” She glanced over her shoulder as he stood dumbfounded. “And no vampire cheats!”

He let her get a bit ahead of him before following, a fang-filled grin overtaking his features as his eyes became bi-colored once more. Their laughter rang together in the clear winter air as they stumbled through the snow. Maverick vowed to protect and nurture this woman’s happiness with every ounce of his being. And if that wasn’t true love, he didn’t know what was.