Chapter One

"I can't…control it!" Caleb mutters as he slowly opens the door to Lily's bedroom.

His inhumane urges are screaming inside his head, taking control of him and making his body move against his will. It's been way too long since he had his last dosage of nutrients in its required substantial form that suits his needs and is the only thing that can satisfy his unearthly hunger.

He takes a step further inside. Then another. And another. He has one hand pressed up against the wall to keep his balance and the other one clenching onto his chest and wrinkling the fabric of his white T-shirt. Slowly making his way to the bed towards the other end of the room, he is unable to keep his breathing quiet and he sounds like a panting dog on a hot day. His whole body feels unsteady, and he is sweating buckets.

At last, he is standing at the bedside, looming over the sleeping Lily. Snoring peacefully, she is covered by the blankets that lifted up and down with every languid breath she takes. Her bare shoulder is exposed as she lay on her side. This only increases the urges rapidly stirring and bubbling over inside Caleb's body.

He struggles against himself, but it's a futile fight as he ends up bending down over Lily's body. He can't help but think about the sweet and metallic and nutritious red fluid flowing through her veins, and all he has to do is take a bite. Opening his jaw as wide as it can go, revealing his pearly white fangs and all the saliva from the inside of his mouth, he then succumbs to his inhuman urges and is about to chomp on her shoulder and neck.

But Lily can feel it coming. She feels his warm breath on the nape of her neck, and with that, knowing this has happened before, it wakes her right up. Her eyes jolt open suddenly, and she reels back one arm and punches Caleb directly in the face.

"HIIEEEYYAAAHH!" she yells as her knuckles collide into his nose and eyes.

This stops Caleb right in his tracks, and he remains frozen in place as Lily lifts herself and sits up in her bed, still keeping her fist firm in his face.

To add insult to injury, she then looks at him sternly and says, "You ought to know by now you can't sneak up on me anymore!"

After saying that, she pulls back the blankets to reveal her legs and then kicks him in the stomach so hard that it sends him flying across the room until his back hits the wall.

Caleb finally regains his senses and his self-control upon impact, but all he can do was lean against the wall and rub the back of his head while his face and nose are now bleeding. Then Lily steps out of bed, her bare feet walking towards Caleb sitting on the hardwood floor, and she stops once there is only a few inches between them.

She crouches down to meet his eye-level and says, "Sorry about that. You okay?"

"Do I look okay to you?!" Caleb screams in her face with an infuriated tone.

"Oh, don't complain," Lily speaks very sassy, "You're a vampire. You'll heal in no time."

Caleb is indeed angry, but she has a fair point. Within seconds, his nosebleed seizes and he wipes away the blood from his upper lip. Sure, he's angry at the way she just hit him, and he's angry with her in general because by this point, and after all these years together, he can't understand her at all. But mostly, he's more furious at himself. These stupid vampiric urges he's been struggling ever since he was a little kid never seize to annoy the hell out of him. Still, he cannot deny it, either. His body is craving blood right now, and it's still willing to do anything to get it. Even the unthinkable is easily possible for Caleb when his insatiable hunger for blood hits him. He learned that the hard way.

But he's not about to let Lily become one of his victims. That's the one mistake he absolutely can't make. He'd rather die than hurt her because he couldn't control himself.

"Hey, Caleb, you're hungry again, aren't you?" Lily wondered out loud, still staring at him.

This snaps him out of a daze. He feels ashamed and embarrassed, but it's not like she wouldn't have figured it out eventually. He just sits there in silence. He feels numb, but his hunger gripped him tighter, and he slumps over and wrenched from the otherworldly pain it's causing him.

"Alright, come on," she stands back up, walks back over to her bed and sits on the edge, and then she pats the mattress with her hand to beckon Caleb to come sit with her, "Let's do this."

Caleb freezes for a moment. He just glares at her, but he soon realizes this is exactly what he was hoping for. So he too stands back up, wobbles over to Lily, and plops down on the bed next to her. But that's when the guilt strikes him suddenly.

"Um…sorry about, you know, trying to…bite you in your sleep again," he just had to get that off his chest.

"Don't worry about it."

"But if you hadn't woken up, then—"

"When was the last time you had any blood?" she inquires, interrupting him and changing the topic slightly.

"Uhhh…" he hesitates, "A few days, maybe. I think."

"So you don't know, then?"

"Well why do you care?!"

"Ah jeez! How many times do I have to tell you, Caleb?! If you need blood, just come to me and ask! This whole new fasting thing you're doing is only going to get you into trouble and you know it!"

"I'm not fasting!"

"Heh, riiiiiight," she says as she move her long dark purple hair back to expose the skin on one side of her shoulder and neck, clearly offering herself to him again, "Just drink it already, will you?"

A part of him wants to keep arguing about it, but the inviting lure of Lily's blood was just too much to resist. With his hunger getting the better of him, his arms quickly wrap around her torso and he holds her close to him, and then he bites down on her shoulder. She grunts a little bit from the pain, which she should be used to by now, but it always feels so awkward to be this close. The sweet and metallic taste enters Caleb's mouth, and he begins to suck it out and swallow it in small gulps at a time. He never needed much to get by, especially knowing she needs it as much as him, but he feels her blood is special. As addictive as nicotine. As satisfying as all other guilty pleasures. He really needs nothing else. Nobody but her.

Lily's warmth presses up against his torso as her blood enters his body. The gentle touch of Caleb's hands on her back as he holds her comforts her while the pain settles in. Both of them are enjoying these small sinful delights of a bond between human and vampire. Like there is nothing better in this world than that other person. In these moments, nothing else matters, and everything else is unclear to each of them.

Several minutes pass and Caleb finally has his fill. He releases his chomped mouth from Lily's shoulder and pulls away from her. She's still bleeding quite a bit, so she uses her hand to cover the holes of the bitemark he left behind. Then, she goes to grab the first aid kit she keeps underneath her bed for situations such as this. Both of them are still portraying warm blushes across their faces, desperately trying to hide them. Lily begins patching herself up with a large white bandage, and Caleb stays sitting and wipes his mouth and chin from excess blood and licks it from his fingertips. Neither of them looks at each other or says a single word while doing this.

That's when orange and golden rays of sunlight peer in through the cracks in the blinds covering the windows. Dawn has arrived a little too quickly.

Caleb heaves a sigh, feeling better, stands back up and says, "So, um…thanks."

"No thanks are necessary," Lily states, "It's just something I got to do."

Somehow, hearing that doesn't sit right with Caleb. Especially knowing that it's been only her blood that he's taken for years. Surely it must be taking a toll on her, but she doesn't let it show. And Caleb can't help but feel oh so guilty about it.

Lily has done so much for him, took him into her own home and has treated him like he's a real human being. She takes care of them both while also relinquishing her blood to him. And what has he done for her? No more than a few errands at night. It's not nearly enough to make up for all the good she's shown him over the years. It makes him wonder sometimes, how can he do more for her?

All of a sudden, Lily's cellphone starts vibrating and buzzing its ringtone, indicating a call is coming in, breaking the silence. Her phone is sitting on her nightstand, and she reaches one hand out to grab it and immediately presses the answer key on the screen without checking the caller ID.

"Hello?" she answers.

"Lily, are you there?!" an incredibly distressed teenage boy's voice shouts through the speaker on the other end, which can only be from the one particular person they know who is rather easily troubled, "What are we going to do?! It's terrible! Just terrible! It's a disaster!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Edwin, calm down! Take a deep breath and tell me what's going on," Lily says as she stands back up from kneeling on the floor and places her free hand on her hip.

"It's terrible! A bunch of guys of Keyframer's and also some gang members on the south end just stormed into our hideout in the twelfth ward's district warehouses in the middle of the night and smashed up everything! They tore the place to shreds!"

Lily almost drops her phone upon hearing this news. A slight sense of fear washes over her, and her eyes become wide open despite how sleepy she still is. Caleb also looks startled since he can hear Edwin's terrified and screaming voice through the phone even from where he is sitting.

"Oh, what do we do, Lily?!" Edwin continues freaking out.

"Alright, stop acting crazy, Edwin! And stop yelling into the phone! Now, do you know for sure it was Keyframer's men?"

"Yes, yes! A few of our guys said they saw them stalking around the place earlier yesterday!"

"Okay, but you said also there were guys from the south end there, too? What's that about?"

"I'm not sure! Um, maybe they formed some kind of temporary alliance? Or maybe those guys left the south end to join Keyframer? Jeez, I just don't know! I mean, I could come up with theories all day, but they might not be really true and—"

"Edwin, zip it!"

"Oh, sorry!"

Lily sighs as she slaps her hand to her face, clearly frustrated with Edwin's behavior at this point. She pauses to think before finally asking, "Is anybody hurt? What's the damage?"

"Just a few minor injuries, but the place looks like a tsunami hit it! A total disaster pit! This is just terrible!"

"Yes, so you keep saying."

"Lily, what do we do?!"

Lily pauses and glances over at Caleb for a moment before speaking in her typical gang boss's stern and powerful tone, "We're going to sort this out. Gather everyone together at our hideout in the twentieth district and we'll begin the briefing. I'll be there in a half an hour."

"Oh, okay!"

"And Edwin?"

"Yes?"

"You're a member of my gang, too, but you always let your fear get the better of you. I need to boost your braver side, so please try not to freak out until I get there. Got it?"

"R-Right!" Edwin replied.

"Okay. See you soon," Lily says before ending the call.

After she hangs up, she again glances over at Caleb who is still staring at her with his usual blank, apathetic expression.

"So, uh…" Lily tries to start.

But Caleb cuts her off, "It's okay, I already heard everything Edwin was saying through the phone. He sure does talk loud when he's scared out of his mind."

"Tease him all you want, but he's still a good messenger boy. Anyway, I'm going to take a shower before I leave."

Hearing what she just said, Caleb gets the message that Lily plans on going out alone again. That doesn't sit right with him. A chilly hand clenching in his gut gives him the sensation that something bad will happen, and if he's not there to protect her, he'd never forgive himself.

Thinking this, he stands up and starts following Lily as she exits her bedroom and walks down the hall heading to the bathroom. She soon feels Caleb's presence directly behind her and stops dead in her tracks.

She turns around to say, "What?"

"Well, it's just, do you think I can come with you?" Caleb asks nervously.

"Huh? Are you sure? It's daytime. I don't want you to get burned."

Another fair point there. As a vampire, his skin is extremely sensitive to sunlight, and according to legend, it can kill him. Although, it hasn't stopped him before, and with his mindset, he isn't about to pass up on the opportunity to help out Lily. Now that he's been reenergized from drinking her blood, he feels like he can do anything. He truly believes he can help. Like he's done so just once before.

"Look, I don't think…" she tries to get her thoughts to form on her lips.

But the determined glimmer in Caleb's crimson red eyes and the kind of expression on his face showing he won't take "no" for an answer is enough for Lily to see that he's coming with her no matter what she tells him. Giving it due consideration, she decides to let him tag along. Besides, she can use all the help she can get at this point, especially nowadays when the ambushes are getting more and more common.

"Ugh, fine! You can come, but don't come crying to me if it gets to be too much! So be careful, and don't push yourself too far again, okay?"

"Mm-hm!" Caleb nods with a new happy grin.