Blood from Stone, chapter 12

Chapter 12

11.11.2021

Normally, Liliana would be only too happy to be awakened by the heavy drums, aggressive guitars, and growling vocals of some metalcore band. However, the music was suddenly so loud out of nowhere that it startled her awake. She sat up rapidly, her pulse in her throat and adrenaline roaring through her veins, instantly regretting it as aches throughout her body made themselves known.

"Fucking hell," she murmured, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

Draven's hand blindly fumbled around on the nightstand, finally grabbing his phone and silencing the alarm with several angry smacks from the tip of his finger. His arm dropped limply, hanging over the edge of the bed. "But why, though?" Liliana grumbled. "The sun isn't even up yet!"

Before she could complain further, Draven dragged her into his arms, spooning against her back and resting his chin on her shoulder. "You act like you didn't always get up stupid early when you lived at the compound," he murmured into her neck, his voice gravelly from sleep.

Liliana cleared her throat, squirming a bit in his embrace. "I did. But I was also always so exhausted that I was asleep before nine, so getting up at five was no big deal. This napping in the middle of the day, being... occupied until crazy late, then getting up after a few hours... Nuh uh. Not a fan."

His lips curved into a smirk against the skin of her throat, her pulse speeding beneath the ghost of a kiss. "Didn't hear you complaining last night."

She closed her eyes and took in a slow, deep breath, focusing hard enough on her heart rate that it noticeably slowed. "You most certainly didn't." she responded levelly.

Draven whistled softly. "You must have done some amazing meditation to be able to slow your heart right back down like that."

Liliana snorted. "If all it takes to get you lot going is hearing my heart race like a rabbit, the last thing I need is getting jumped on by a bunch of hungry wolves."

He laughed. "Even without hearing your pulse, I'm pretty sure we'd want you, regardless. I know I would."

"Speaking of..." She turned in his arms to face him, looking into his eyes from a few mere inches away. "How the hell are you waking up to Pierce the Veil? Did my father send you screenshots of my playlists or something?"

Draven chuckled. "You know I'm only two years older than you, right? You think nobody else our age listens to the same music? I'm not a fossil like the rest of my brothers. Mav's a bit more into eighties style rock, but he's the only other one with any decent taste in tunes."

"I'll bet the twins like some good music, if they were around for 'Nam."

Draven shrugged. "If you're into dinosaur rock, I guess."

She lightly smacked his arm. "I like rock and metal from all eras, thank you very much."

"Weirdo," he snarked, moving in for a kiss.

Liliana leaned back, shoving her hands against his chest to put some distance between them. "Uh-uh. I don't know if I can let a music elitist back into my personal space."

She squealed when he effortlessly grabbed her with one arm, pulling her under him and just letting his weight hold her in place. "Come to the Dark Side, Lily Guns. We've got cookies."

Both of them were laughing and she cradled his face in her hands. "Fine, fine," she huffed, leaning up to press a soft kiss to his lips. "I was always one foot in the mosh pit, anyway. But now get off me, ya giant. We've gotta get ready, or Leon's going to kill us."

With a heavy sigh, he agreed, getting to his feet and offering her a hand up. "The fact that you've got his personality pegged already is hilarious, but you're right. Go get changed. I'll meet you at your room in a few minutes."

Draven's room was a few corridors away from hers, and it felt strangely comfortable to be walking down the hallway barefoot, carrying her clothes from the evening before. She had a stray thought that she should be worried about what the others would think if they saw her in nothing but one of their baby brother's t-shirts, but she shrugged it off.

In the peaceful morning quiet of her bedroom, she quickly washed her face, swiped on some deodorant and put on her normal workout gear: a black tank top that fit her like a glove, and leggings to match. She sat on the bed to lace up her shoes when there was a knock at her door. "Come on in!" Her voice was loud enough to be heard three doors over, much less just through one.

The door swung inward, and she was met with the smiling faces of the twins, with Draven sandwiched between them. His expression was neutral, but she could see the barely contained panic in his eyes. Him being a few inches taller than the twins meant nothing. They were easily fifty or sixty pounds of muscle heavier than him. Each.

She took a moment to drink in the sight of them standing there, the blonds shirtless and Draven sheathed in a shirt similar to the one she wore. "Are you three trying to look like the cover to a romance novel, or what?" she asked with a laugh, getting to her feet and going to join them.

"Romance novel, she says." Oberon cackled, making air quotes with his fingers. "Now we know what kind of stuff you're in to. You just doomed yourself, woman."

She waved her hands at them to shoo them out the door. "Doomed? Sounds more like setting myself up for success, to me."

The corridor was wide enough for Liliana and the three vampires to walk side by side. After living in purposely small quarters for her whole life, she didn't think she'd ever get used to the enormity of the estate. They had to pass from the primary building back to the one with the gymnasium in it. Although the passageway between them was covered and enclosed, the chilly autumn morning air raised goosebumps on her skin as they moved along. She rubbed her hands vigorously up and down her bare arms as the doors to the breezeway shut behind them, the friction warming her slightly.

They walked past the gymnasium where she'd encountered the twins for the first time just a few days ago. She tried not to dwell on it, following the sounds of voices to an open door. Somehow she'd gotten ahead of Orion, Oberon, and Draven. They made a solid wall of flesh behind her and she stopped two steps inside a sizeable weight room. She glanced over her shoulder at the three of them. "Hope you're enjoying the view back there, gentlemen." Their grins in response were sheepish, but not apologetic in the slightest.

The others looked up from their activities. Leon and Maverick were sparring, the latter halting his advance so Leon could greet her. "Thought we were going to be starting the day without you," he said simply.

Seeing him in casual athletic attire, and without his glasses, threw Liliana for a loop. "You don't mess around when you say 'early', huh? How long have you all been down here?"

"Not long, honestly. But long enough that these three should have known better." He cast a withering glare over her shoulder at them, amber eyes narrowing. "Well? As you were. She's mine this morning."

Her stomach did a little flip at his words, so she focused her attention on the boxing pads strapped to his arms. They didn't just cover his hands, but wrapped around his forearms, as well. "Starting off the morning with some sparring?"

"This'll be your warmup. If I haven't managed to take you out after five minutes, Maverick's ready to join into the fray." The other vampire in question pressed his fist to his opposite palm, bowing his head to her but keeping his eyes up.

"Shit. Alright. In times of peace, prepare for war, I guess."

Leon nodded and the three of them moved to the open area they'd been posted in a moment before. The floor was covered in dense rubber mats, not nice cushy tumbling mats. It was going to hurt like hell if she did get knocked down. Glancing at the mats, she noticed that both Leon and Maverick were barefoot. Without even asking, she took off her shoes and stuffed her socks in them, setting them off to the side.

Liliana stepped into a wide stance, her arms held up in a loose guarding position. Leon mirrored her, the pads up and ready. She surged forward, landing a cross to one pad and an elbow to the other. She hopped back, expecting a return strike. Leon was completely motionless as he watched her movements. She felt like a mouse under the gaze of a snake, being thoroughly examined and studied. "You gonna just stand there looking pretty all day or are you gonna make me work up an appetite for breakfast?" she teased.

His only response was a slow smirk. He motioned with the pads for her to come at him again, and she responded in kind. He began to shift his hands and she kept up with each new position, her eyes flicking back and forth as his movements sped up. She knew he was still going at a human pace for her benefit, but it was starting to rankle. Rather than just punches, she swung a kick towards his head and he took the impact on his forearm, blocking it with the thin pad that shielded his ulna.

"Come on!" she growled. "You said you were gonna put me on my ass, and all you're doing is dodging. Fucking come at me!"

Their gazes locked, but her peripherals were focused on his body, waiting for any sign of movement. The muscles along his left collarbone jumped and she ducked low as his right arm swung outwards towards her. She grabbed the edges of the pad with both hands, driving her knee up into his palm and shoving him back with the force of it. "Better," she half purred. "But I know you've got more than that for me."

She almost didn't hear the movement behind her, she was so focused on wanting to wipe that smug expression off Leon's face. Liliana spun to the side, ducking low and catching Maverick's ankle with her hands. He'd put on sparring boots, but that thin layer of foam wouldn't have meant much if he'd managed to land a hit.

"Not bad, for a human." Mav's blue eyes were full of mirth.

"Tch. Bring it on, bloodsucker."

The icy blue color darkened before her eyes, his irises going dark like someone had poured coffee into his skull. Rick flashed her a grin full of fangs. "Challenge accepted, juice box."

Leon and Rick moved like parts of a machine with a shared intelligence. She could barely keep up with their attacks, but she'd managed to stay on her feet despite the continual stinging slaps of the foam pads against her skin. She vowed to wear a long-sleeved shirt next time. She knew their movements were slower than they were capable of being, but their speed was enough faster than even an athletic human that her adrenaline was through the roof. If they'd really meant to hurt her, she'd have been done for. That inescapable truth stung worse than the sparring pads smacking against her flesh.

Regardless, she kept on. The two men were silent aside from the shuffle of their feet on the mats and the creak of the pads they wore. She couldn't hear them breathing, and that was an eerie reality that would take some getting used to. They were apex predators. Their bodies were designed to prevent their prey from noticing their presence. At least that meant that she wouldn't have to worry about their well-being.

She wasn't totally useless as a guardian, judging from the fact that they still hadn't managed to incapacitate her. Her lungs were starting to burn, her muscles screaming from the incessant blows and motion. She sniffed once, wiping sweat from her upper lip as she ducked low, dodging a swing from Leon and a kick from Maverick at once. She didn't want to resort to underhanded tactics, but in a real fight, etiquette didn't mean a thing. Her stamina was starting to wane, and she didn’t want to go down without giving them a run for their money.

Surging to her feet, she gripped a fistful of both of their shirts, yanking them towards each other quickly enough that they stumbled into each other. She moved away from the tangled mess of limbs they became and crouched low, her guard up once more and her chest heaving from exertion. Her pulse was so loud in her ears that everything else in the room was reduced to static.

A hand settled on her shoulder, and she swung a backfist without bothering to look behind her. A bare hand caught it and Aubrey’s voice was low, disarming. “Breathe, Liliana. I think they’re done, and so are you.”

“Bullshit,” she huffed.

The eldest brother was the epitome of calm. “I need you to take a second and look at the clock, Liliana. You’ve been sparring for almost an hour already.”

“They used to take a pint from me and make me fight my stepbrothers for longer than that,” she snarled, eyes still focused on Rick and Leon.

“That’s fucking awful,” Draven’s voice chimed in, his concerned tone hitting her harder than a fist to the gut.

“Not my fault that humans are the real fucking monsters.” Liliana’s voice cracked, a tear rolling unbidden down her cheek.

Leon and Rick shared a look, both stripping off their sparring pads immediately. Aubrey’s fingers trailed lightly down her arms, the muscles under his fingers slick and singing with tension.

“It’s ok to let that shit go, Liliana.” His voice was gentler than she knew he was capable of, and it was infuriating and confusing to her all at once.

Her hands dropped slightly for the barest of seconds and she clenched her fists tighter, shaking her head. “No,” she insisted, her eyes wide. “None of it is ok,” her voice trembled and her lip quivered.

“Damn it,” she murmured, unable to hold back the tears any longer. The tension drained from her body and she sank to her knees on the floor, exhausted in ways that weren’t just physical.

Maverick was the first to join her, wrapping his arms around her and holding her close. “Let it all out, Lily.” His soft voice in her ear was all the permission she needed to completely come undone at the seams. She pounded the heels of her fists against his chest, sobbing uncontrollably as wordless cries of sadness, rage, and frustration all crawled their way from her lips with claws made of splintered glass.

The others sat around her, resting a reassuring hand anywhere they could reach, none of them knowing what to say. They offered her comfort in the best way they could manage in the face of her debilitating breakdown. As suddenly as it began, it ended just as abruptly. Liliana couldn’t help wishing it hadn’t happened at all.

Her cries finally abated, dissolving into an occasional quiet sniffle. She breathed in deeply, her inhalation shaky. Maverick pressed a soft kiss to the top of her head, and she lifted her red-rimmed eyes to stare at him. “Your eyes are two different colors,” she said softly.

He blinked and they were both blue again. “It happens sometimes. Are you gonna be alright? Can I get you something?”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry.”

“What the fuck are you apologizing for? Leon and I are the ones who pushed you so hard that it dragged all your trauma skeletons kicking and screaming out of the closet. We should be apologizing to you.”

Her eyes were distant as she looked away from all of them, teeth worrying at the edge of her lower lip. “You’re not hurt, are you?”

A humorless bark of laughter came from Maverick. “Not in the slightest, sweetheart.” He smoothed loose strands of damp hair back from her forehead, bringing her focus back to him. “But you are. We knew you had it kinda rough growing up, but we didn’t know it was so… extreme.” His voice grew darker, and his left eye turned a rich brown hue. “Would killing him help? It’s only a few hours’ drive from here. If it’ll help you heal, consider it done.”

Liliana couldn’t help but laugh. “If I thought it would improve anything, I’d agree in a heartbeat. But no. My father’s death wouldn’t make this better, not even if it was by my own hand.”

“Fine, fine.” Maverick said with a disappointed sigh. “Trauma-ste, Liliana.”

She smirked and rested her forehead against his. “Trauma-ste, Maverick.”

The bloddukke and her vampires sat together on the floor of the weight room, their embrace lending her strength. For the first time since she’d become an adult, Liliana felt like she’d finally come home. That being right here, in this strange castle with these men, was exactly where she was meant to be. If this sense of belonging was the result of the atrocities she’d endured, so be it.

Somebody’s stomach growled loudly and everyone turned towards the source of the sound. Aubrey ducked his head and had the grace to look embarrassed. “I’m just over here trying to be supportive, but that doesn’t stop this thing from being empty.” He grumbled.

Liliana laughed, her whole body feeling lighter from the release of the unpleasant emotions she’d subconsciously been bottling inside of her, letting them fester and eat away at her like a corrosive acid. She was certain it wouldn’t be the last time, but she hoped future outbursts wouldn’t be so explosive.

“I could definitely go for some coffee—”

“And food,” Leon cut her off.

Liliana rolled her eyes. “And this is why Aubrey calls you Papa Leon.”