"Lil wake up."
...
"Lillian!"
...
"I know you're not dead, so wake up already!" Lex shouted.
...
Kaeron sighed and looked at his sister through the rear view mirror. She had basically become physically attached to Lillian's right-hand side ever since they had found her beaten within an inch of her life. Kaeron couldn't say for sure that Draefin was behind it all, but it would be one hell of a coincidence that he was just conveniently around, and willing to let Kaeron go as easy as he did without getting the information he wanted, at the same time that Lillian was clearly tortured for information.
What had she told them? That was the question on Kaerons mind, but whatever she did or didn't say had to wait, so after treating her as best he could in their hotel, they laid her in the back of his newly restored car and headed deep into the forest, not stopping until they came upon a nasty looking stream of mucus green water.
He couldn't stand seeing Lex like this. He wanted to tell her to stop, that Lillian couldn't hear her, and that all she was doing was giving him a migraine. He wanted to tell her that it would be fine, and Lillian would be fine, but instead, he fumbled around with the contents of his car's center console, searching for the rock that had been burning a hole inside it for the last two years.
If there was any time to die, it might as well be while making his sister smile again.
He felt the cool press of the rock up against his fingers and grabbed it, lifting it from its place at the bottom of all the junk inside.
He rolled the reflective black moon shard around in his hand for a moment, then opened his door and stepped out into the chill of the morning.
"Where are we." Lex asked, finally taking her attention away from Lillian long enough to see what was right in front of her. His plan was already working. "Kaeron? Where are we.. and what's in your hand?"
He twisted his neck to look her in the face and give her his best, "Big brothers got this" smile.
"Kaeron! What's in your hand!" She squealed, trying to get to him, but Lillian was in her way, and it wouldn't have mattered if she wasn't. It was already too late. He flicked the rock into the water, like a coin, into a wishing well.
"You self-sacrificing idiot!"
"It was the only way."
Something came flying at him. Fast, and it hit its mark, knocking him off the ground and sending him flying back a few feet.
"Kaeron!" Lex shrieked.
Before Kaeron even had a chance to move, a familiar pressure pressed up against his throat, pricking it in three different places. Warm blood trickled downwards as he held his head high, staring in the face of his captor.
"You shouldn't have come back here, Lycan."
******
"Hey."
...
"Lillian!"
Lillian's eye's shot open, and she braced herself for the incoming blow, throwing up her hands, attempting to intercept.
"It's me. Sebastian." The voice said, an urgency in its words.
That did the trick. She was now wide awake and alert. The darkness that veiled the room told her that she couldn't have been asleep for too long. Maybe an hour, but Sebastian never came to her room before the morning...
And then she heard it. The screams and the shouting. What was going on out there!?
He spoke before she could get out the question. "I'm sure you're confused, but for now, all you need to know is that Talion has many enemies that would love to see him gone, and one of those enemies has made a move, and we are going to use the distraction to get you out of here, tonight."
Lillian was stunned. Sebastian was helping her escape... she was about to escape! She couldn't find the words.
Her eyes had adjusted enough to see the urgency written all over his face.
"We have to go. Now!" He grabbed her wrist too tightly and had to readjust his grip when she yelped in pain.
He hurried her out of bed and then out the open door, into the hallway, saying quickly, "No time to change." Laying up against the wall opposite to them was an unconscious Baxter who was both bound and gagged.
Sebastian let go of her wrist and quickly picked up the unconscious soldier as if he weighed no more than a feather, disposing of him in the room and locking the door behind them.
He took her hand again, and they rushed down the hall.
Lillian's heart was racing. "What about the inescapable door?"
They turned the corner, and the door to the elevator was open.
He stopped their progress and looked at her, that arrogant smile of his returning. "How do you think I got up here."
On any other day, Lillian might have rolled her eyes, but if this was any other day, she'd have no hope of escaping from this bird cage she had been trapped inside of for the last six years.
So she stole the moment.
He tasted like wine and smelled like sweat and just enough of that stupid cologne he wears that he smelled... like him.
He tensed up and pushed her away.
"Lillian I..." He tried, staring at her, clearly looking for the right words.
She rose up onto the tips of her toes again, this time bringing a finger to his lips and smiled. "No time for rejections."
He laughed, and this time, she was the one leading him, into the elevator, to her freedom, or possible death.
He regained his composer as they hit the f4 button, and the doors closed shut.
"Stay behind me, and no matter what happens next, you get out. Do you understand?"
She shook her head. She couldn't leave without him. It wasn't even an option.
He turned to her, and all signs of amusement, or the usual confidence that always lined his face, had been stripped away, and all that was left was pure misery.
"Listen to me, Lillian. I won't leave you to face that monster, especially after an escape attempt. I would rather die, so please, Lillian, if something prevents me from coming with you, please. "Run Lillian, run somewhere he will never find you, run until you can't run anymore. Don't tell me where you're going, don't tell anybody. I will come find you when I can."
The intensity in his eyes clamped her mouth shut. She couldn't leave him, she wouldn't know what to do, or where to go, and she wouldn't be the only one on Talion's bad side if they were caught, and the difference was, Talion wouldn't think twice about killing Sebastian, but she had never seen him like this before.
Her voice broke, and tears began to form. "That's unfair. You're practically begging me to leave you here to die."
"I know."
Wrong answer. "Jerk. Why do you always have to be such a damned jerk!" She cried, throwing a punch expecting him to block or dodge it like how he always did when she was mad at him.
Whack. Her fist made contact with his steel frame, and she instantly regretted it.
"Are you done?"
She shook her hand as if that would help the throbbing. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that hurt me more than it did you anyway."
"Good."
Ding! The elevator slid open.
"Because we're here."
She did as she was told as the doors opened, and even before she saw the scene in front of them. She was able to smell it. Fresh bodies, all bloody, and all of them had defecated on themselves.
It was easily the most disturbing scene she had ever seen in her life, and her stomach was threatening to add to it.
"I know it's bad, but we have to go before Talion can send reinforcements." Sebastian said, grabbing her wrist and pulling her forward.
She snatched her hand away. How had she never noticed? This handy work had to be his, and yet he didn't have a single scratch on him. She knew that Talion kept him around for more than fetching his tea, and she had seen how the soldiers guarding her door treated him with a certain amount of respect that no regular butler would get, but she had never known he could do something like this.
And that's when it really set in. He was doing this all for her... He had known some of these guys way longer than he had known her. Some may have even been his friends, and he had cut them down like it meant nothing to him, all for her. So the one thing she wouldn't be to him was a burden. "I can walk on my own. You need to focus on what's ahead."
He looked at her, and she lifted her head, daring him to challenge.
He nodded once and turned back towards the sounds of death. "Keep up."
They began to move, turning the corner and running smack into a young soldier.
"Sebastian?" He said, looking from him to Lillian. "You had the same idea as me." He gave an awkward smile to Lillian. "Don't worry, we'll keep you safe."
"Yeah, sorry about this." Faster than she could register, Sebastian stole the pistol from the man's hand and slammed it into his head.
They guy never had a chance. He crumpled to the floor, and Lillian felt bad for the guy.
"You could have just tied him up."
He huffed a breath. "How about we escape now and apologize for how we escaped later?" He said using his supernatural strength to break the pistol in half.
"Let's go."
They made it to the stairwell without any more incidents, but that's when the real battle started. A group of three humans were stabbing one of Talions soldiers to death. Blood squirted everywhere, from everywhere, and it made Lillian sick all over again. This was no simple difference of opinion. This was rage and deep-seated hatred...
"Are these the human rebels that have been kidnapping high-profile children and strapping bombs on them, and using them like exploding assassins against their own family and anyone who gets in the way. Or the innocent passersbys who just happen to be walking by at the wrong time?"
"I didn't have a notebook full of groups ballsy enough to take on the Atriuem's, So I've had to take what I could get, and now isn't really the right time to get judgemental." He said, taking a deep breath.
Five comebacks immediately popped into her head, and she would have used one of them if it weren't for Sebastian's face. It was turning... grey.
"Sebastian? Your face. It's turning gray."
"Damn it already? I knew I'd have a tough time readjusting, but this is ridiculous." Sebastian took out a half blue half black pill with a dragon symbol on it and shoved it in his mouth.
The grey vanished almost instantaneously, as if it were all her imagination.
"No time to explain." Sebastian said as if reading her mind.
He drew three daggers. "Don't fall behind." Without another word, he sprung into action, launching the daggers one at a time. Each made impact with the heads of the humans who had just finished brutally murdering the soldier they had ganged up on.
At least he wasn't really working for people who would do something so heinous and take pleasure from it. She shook at the look in their eyes... their eyes...
She stopped moving.
Sebastian turned around and glared at her. "What are you doing!? We have to go now!"
She met his stare with her own confused look. "I know what happens next."
"What?"
Everything flickered. Something was very wrong.
"We make it outside, and you get... got bitten by one of the tigers that escaped its cage..."
"Lillian, stop." Another flicker, but this time she could swear she felt the earth shake as well.
"... and then you kill it, and just when we think we're home free."
"Lillian!"
"We were intercepted by Talion and an army of his men!"
She looked up at him as soon as she finished the thought, but they were no longer in the stairwell. They were outside, being backed down by Talion and his men.
Talion put a hand up, and his men stopped their advance.
"I'm so disappointed in you, my precious, stupid flower." Talion said in that terrifyingly calm tone of his. The one he uses before he lashes out. "It took you this long to realize that this was all just a dream. How stupid can you be? Thinking you can escape from me! You're nothing but a frail, helpless little girl who's bound to eventually get everyone she cares for killed, all in the name of protecting herself. How pathetic!" He spat.
The words hit her like a wrecking ball.
"You're not real. You're just a product of my imagination. All I have to do is wake up, and you'll be gone." She hoped that she sounded more confident than she actually was.
His smile grew demonic. "Maybe, or maybe, me and you are the only real ones here, and I'm just distracting you as I probe your brain for where you are and where you're headed."
Was that really possible!? She had never heard of such technology nor a spell that could do something like this. She looked around frantically, hoping to find anything to prove him wrong, that all of it, including him, was a dream, but it was as if the entire world had stopped, besides the two of them. Even Sebastian was standing completely still.
Talion let out a harsh laugh. "See how easy it is to manipulate people! All it takes is one question; one, statement, to call everything they know into question." His eyes grew dark. "You should know. You do remember what you did to poor Sebastian here?"
She stared at him, shaking violently, trying to block out the memories.
He cocked his head to the side. "You don't? Here, let me show you!" His men started marching again as the scene began to play out as it had happened on that day.
"Take this Lillian hurry!" Sebastian said, pushing a phone into her hand.
"What Is That!" Talion scowled. The advancing army was only 50 or so feet away now.
Sebastian double tapped the screen and said the word, "Survivor." The phone began to glow an amber.
"This is a very expensive, very difficult item to get your hands own. It cost me almost everything I own, just to get this one. It'll send you to the first place it was activated, I apologize in advance for where you get sent to, I couldn't go too far without arousing suspicion. Oh, and it's only a one-way trip. It will self-destruct once you arrive."
Lillian began to glow amber as well, and she wanted to yell and scream at the moron. He was sending her away to safety while he stayed behind to be killed, like a moron. She wanted to tell him that it should be him taking this way out, not her. She wanted to tell him just how much she missed him and that she's kept the promise so far. She wanted to say so many things. But she didn't and then. There was darkness.