Blood From Stone: Chapter 21

“No…” Liliana murmured, movement beside her making her stir from the depths of a dead sleep. She slid over, climbing on top of Aubrey as he tried to sneakily get out of bed. Stuffing her hands under his arms and burying them beneath the pillows, she wrapped her legs around his, slipping her feet behind his knees. She nuzzled her face into his neck, sighing heavily. “Don’t tell me it’s time to get up, already.”

Aubrey’s chuckle of disbelief rumbled against her cheek. “With you crawling on top of me and holding on like a horny koala, how could I be anything other than up, Liliana?”

“Shaddap. I’m wearing clothes. You’re all warm and comfy, and I’m chilly.” She said with a pout. Liliana wriggled her hips without meaning to, more to get comfortable than to cause trouble. “Besides, that thing’s like a demon. If I don’t acknowledge it, it has no power over me.”

Aubrey snorted, his big hands and warm palms settling on her thighs. “Just goes to show how many demons you’ve met. And the answer to that is clearly none. If you ignore them, they just pursue you harder.”

Liliana pursed her lips, frowning slightly, but refusing to open her eyes. “I’m not even going to acknowledge that you just told me demons exist. I’m going to toss that tidbit into the back of the filing cabinet until after I’ve had some coffee, because… No.”

She let out a surprised squeak as Aubrey stood with her still clinging to him, and she tightened her grip to keep from falling. Despite her attempt to stay exactly where she was, gravity betrayed her and neatly deposited her ass directly into his waiting hands. He didn’t strain in the slightest, even with her full weight resting in his hands. Their eyes were level with each other, and his voice was coarse, gravelly still with the remnants of sleep.

“You know, Liliana… As much as I love your sass and the unadulterated spite that flows through you, there is just something about you being all mewling and vulnerable for me…” His soft lips slid against hers, the wet tip of his tongue against her lower lip wringing a moan from her. “Hell, yeah. Just like that.”

Liliana’s breath came heavy and quicker than she liked to admit. “Thought I told you to shaddap, huh?” Her lips crashed onto his and her fingers slid up the back of his neck to tangle in his long blond hair. Her thighs gripped his waist tightly, ankles crossed behind his back as she purposely ground her heated core against the swell of his cock, a few thin layers of cloth the only thing separating their bodies.

She pulled her lips back suddenly, both of them breathing unevenly. “I love when you’re an arrogant, confident asshole, Aubrey… But I also love it when you’re a completely undone mess for me. From the way my body makes you feel.”

He inhaled sharply. “You’re playing with fire, Liliana.”

“Mm… As the prophecy foretold.” She couldn’t resist a chuckle, her lips hovering over his as she spoke. “Now... put me down, or I know Leon is going to kill us both if we’re late to breakfast.”

Aubrey sighed, letting his forehead thunk against her shoulder. “Damn it, Liliana,” he growled. “Why do you have to go making sense this early in the morning?”

She couldn’t keep the grin from overtaking her features. “I may not make many dollars, but I do make a lot of sense.”

Aubrey froze, lifting his eyes to stare into hers, something dangerous glittering there. “Nope. Fuck it! Let Papa Leon be mad.”

He tossed Liliana back onto the rumpled blankets, covering her body with his. He twined his fingers with hers, pinning her hands to the mattress as he peppered her neck and shoulders with teasing kisses that had her squirming and giggling.

She grabbed his face in her hands, pressing her palms to his cheeks and pushing him up and away from her sensitive, and still bruised, flesh. He gazed down at her, a warmth in his normally glacial blue eyes that made her heart skip a beat. She bit her lower lip, trying not to laugh at how comically scrunched his face looked between the pressure of her hands.

"You're the only woman I've ever met who can be pinned down by a vampire and laugh in their face, all in the same moment."

Lily gave him a soft smile, caressing his cheek as she brushed a lock of blond hair back behind his ear. "One of the reasons you love me, I'm sure. I always knew I'd get killed trying to pet something I shouldn't."

Aubrey snorted, pressing a soft kiss to her lips. "Pet, huh? Is that what the kids are calling it, now?"

She trailed her fingertips up and down his bare arms. "You seem to have a pretty good grasp on the way us young'uns speak, old-timer."

Morning shafts of sunlight shined through the windows, casting one side of his face in warm, golden light, and sending the other into shadow. Liliana observed him silently for a moment, taking in the sharp lines of his nose, the full curve of his lips, the pale blue of his eyes nearly white from the extra brightness of the sun. "It should be illegal to be as pretty as you are, you know," she said softly.

The eldest Winterbourne smirked and sat back on his heels, resting his hands on his thighs. "That's all just part of how vampires survive, Lily. Male vampires, anyway. Back before television and internet made us into celebrities, how else could we make sure we had a steady supply of food?"

"What do you mean? I get that being gorgeous would be a good lure, but only men? What about the female vampires?"

He got to his feet and stretched his arms above his head, like he was purposely teasing her by showing off. His monochrome tattoos all shifting slightly as the heavy muscles beneath his skin flexed. "Female vampires are scary as hell, Lily. But I think that's one of Leon's planned talking points for today, so you're in for a treat."

Liliana grabbed her phone and checked the time. "Sounds like a good reason to move my ass, then. Although I have to say... It's really the coffee I'm after."

"Me, too, hun. Me, too."

*****

As breakfast was wrapping up, Liliana leaned back in her chair with a heavy sigh, her stomach pleasantly full and her mug of coffee filled for the third time. "Hey, Leon?"

He turned to look at her, finishing off the last dregs of caffeinated fluid in his own mug. "What is it, Liliana?"

"Something... interesting happened. Last night." He tilted his head curiously, urging her to go on without a word. She frowned a bit, suddenly feeling embarrassed and unable to meet his gaze. Glancing down at her hands in her lap, she clenched them tightly into fists.

"Aubrey and I..." Her tongue darted out to wet her lips. "Jesus... Out with it already, Lily..." she half growled at herself. "Aubrey bit me last night, and I didn't have any side effects. Not even from a second bite."

Her declaration had been firm, but not loud. Somehow, the entire room fell silent at her confession. Leon pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose firmly with his fingertip. "That's an interesting development, for certain. You don't need to give us the play-by-play, as we all know what Aubrey gets up to... But was there anything in particular that made the experience different? Anything you thought, or maybe said, that could have lowered your body's defenses so it didn't react to the venom?"

She gnawed at the edge of her fingertip as she pondered, finally looking across the table to meet Aubrey's gaze. She wasn't sure if she was asking his permission, or for assistance, or just wanting a supportive acknowledgment. As she watched his normally hardened expression melt just from eye contact with her, she felt like she had the correct answer. The answer that no amount of research had been able to uncover, despite hours and hours of poring over information.

"I felt guilty about it, but it crossed my mind that I'm..." She tried to ignore the color she felt creeping into her cheeks. She exhaled heavily. "I'm falling in love with all of you. Obviously not for the same reasons, but... That's it. I didn't even say it out loud. Even though Mister Pot-Calling-the-Kettle-Black-Masochist over here heard me think it."

"Hmm..." Leon tapped thick fingertips on his empty mug. "Could it really be that simple? We were looking for all these intricate, convoluted solutions, and it was right under our noses the entire time?"

Liliana scoffed. "Yeah, because getting a woman to simultaneously fall in love with seven men is so simple."

Leon waved a hand as if to swat her anger away. "Love invokes certain chemical responses in the body, Liliana. Even if it's not purely physically based, this is excellent news. A step in the right direction."

Liliana leaned back, crossing her arms over her stomach, eyes still downcast. "So what does this mean, moving forward?"

He settled his hand on her shoulder, the warmth of his skin on hers reassuring despite the fact that she wanted to run and hide from the embarrassment of just casually expressing her love for the Winterbournes aloud in front of all of them. "It means whatever you want it to, Liliana. If you're not willing to test it out with each of us just yet, don't. I'd recommend making sure that there's no feeding when we're all present, for the sake of your safety."

"We know that my body regenerates blood faster than a normal human's. What could the actual danger be?"

"Do you really think--" Orion began, leaning forward with his elbows on the table, fingers interlaced beneath his chin.

"--that the seven of us couldn't accidentally suck you dry?" Oberon finished, mirroring his twin's pose.

Lily sucked her lower lip between her teeth, nibbling at it as she stared at the twins, feeling a brief stab of fear towards them that she hadn't experienced since her first encounter with them.

Without warning, Leon flung the water from his glass at the twins, splashing both of them across the face with it. Clearing his throat, he cast them a withering glare over the top of his glasses, and they both looked down sheepishly with muttered apologies.

"Fucking savages," Leon snarled. He closed his eyes for a moment, taking a few deep breaths to center himself. "While they're absolutely not wrong, Lily, the reality is this... If you lose too much blood too quickly, it can stop your heart. Which then leads to all sorts of other issues, oxygen deprivation to your brain, other organs potentially shutting down, etcetera.

"As much as I'm sure we're all eager to be able to test out the truth of this hypothesis, we need to do so carefully, and strategically." Leon turned in his chair to face her more fully. "I take it when he did bite you, he didn't hit any major arteries."

She shook her head, pulling the thick strap of her tank top aside to show a shiny pink pair of scarred over puncture marks on her shoulder. Her fingertips brushed the wound and her hand froze. "Holy shit. Is that..? Are there seriously no scabs on the bite?"

"May I?" Leon asked, reaching for her curiously. She merely nodded and he rubbed the smooth pad of his thumb over the scars. She did her best to resist the urge to shiver at his gently probing caress. "You are something else, Lily."

Seeing the confused and fascinated expression on his face, she felt like a butterfly pinned to a board. "I take it that level of healing isn't just something from happy vampire saliva."

He shook his head. "Definitely isn't. We'll have to refer back to that chart and see if any of the species listed there match up with what's happened here. Otherwise, I couldn't even begin to guess at what your genetic 'otherness' might have come from."

"Maybe she should go down and visit Daniel today. Give him this new information so he can run it through his net." Jax said from the other side of her.

"That's not a bad idea, Jaxon." Leon agreed.

Lily took a sip of her coffee, eyes sweeping around to each of them before settling back on Leon. "Aubrey said you had some 'talking points' about vampire powers, to share with me."

"Did he?" Leon shot his older brother a look of mild irritation. "I didn't plan on it, but I can certainly answer any questions you might have." He rested his cheek on his fist and his golden eyes assessed her, studying her and patiently awaiting her query.

"Male and female vampires have different types of... powers, right?"

"Yes. We call those powers 'vigors'. To sum it up, male vampires have seductive vigors to lull and soothe our prey so we can feed more easily. Female vampires have more... attack based, offense vigors. To protect their children and be able to overpower any stubborn male prey they come across, as humanoid males are typically larger than humanoid females."

Lily nodded. “Which is why Fear could summon fireballs, for lack of a better word. Because they were born female.”

“Right.”

“And why you guys all just ooze sexual tension from your pores, like Axe body spray wafting off a Chad.”

Draven and the twins chuckled. “That’s one way to put it, Lily Guns.”

She crossed her legs, resting her ankle on the opposite knee. “Aubrey’s thing is reading minds, obviously. What powers do the rest of you have? I’ve kind of experienced Jax’s, but I wouldn’t know what to call it.”

“Pheromones,” Jaxon offered. “My vigor is a bit less useful than some, because I need to be close enough to touch someone for it to kick in. The two times I’ve used it on you, you might remember I had a hand on your shoulder, so my wrist was in quite close proximity to your nose.”

Liliana nodded. “So that’s what made my head all fuzzy.”

“And helped you calm the hell down when you were so nervous at the gala that it was almost rubbing off on all of us.” Jax said, casting a sideways glance at Leon.

“Fuck off, Jaxon.” Leon snarled.

Liliana tilted her head, blinking rapidly. An outburst of that sort was very unlike the second eldest brother. She was almost certain she’d felt his energy lash out, the force of it summoning the sensation of an army of ants marching along her skin. It made her think twice about saying anything. She decided it was better not to get between them.

Jaxon snorted, not backing down in the slightest. He squared his shoulders and faced his brother more directly. “Who pissed in your Cheerios this morning, Leonard?”

Leon opened his mouth, about to raise his voice, and saw Liliana flinch from the corner of his eye. Thick fingers clenched into a fist, and he closed his mouth abruptly, the muscles in his jaw visibly flexing with restraint. He exhaled heavily, shoving his glasses back up his nose with a violent stab of his fingertip. “You’re right, Jax. My apologies. I’m not feeling like myself this morning.”

He got to his feet, resting his hand lightly on Liliana’s shoulder for a few seconds. She looked up at him with dark grey eyes, uncertainty swirling in them. “I don’t ever want to see you look at me with fear in your eyes or your heart, Liliana. But if you had any idea how gods damned intoxicating you smell right now…” His honey hued irises were practically glowing from the heat they regarded her with. He shook his head and pressed the gentlest ghost of a kiss to her hair. “Please go visit Daniel today. Let him know what happened. I’ve got a class to teach, and I’ll be going back through the tomes.”

Lily nodded, giving him a small, tight smile. Her voice sounded thin, reedy. “Sure thing, Leon. Get some air, ok?”

He bowed his head to her lightly, not bothering to make eye contact with any of his brothers as he exited the dining hall, the entire room swallowed in suffocating silence for a moment after his departure.