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"No!" I managed to squeak. "I...I can't let you die. Not now, not ever! You have to have some faith, Lillith, don't think about death, don't think about it, just...just stop, okay? You're gonna be okay, 'cause, uh...'cause I'm gonna help you." Who was I kidding? I was no doctor, and even a surgeon would get squeemish at the sight of her right now. "Just breathe, you're fine, okay, breathe." I nearly gagged seeing her belly wound gush with blood, restraining myself from it. The scent would reach another vampire in no time, I was sure. Tears cascaded over my cheek, but strength was needed from me now, so I held back as many as possible. Her body was torn and mangled and the pavement. "Help!" I groaned, my head directed to a higher aid. I leaned back and screeched the word, "Please!" She was the one who should be as frantic as I was, but her life was slipping away too fast. "Lillith," I swallowed, "I need you to think really hard now, as hard as you can," I looked to her torn head, and realized the fault in my words. "Think of the happiest thing you've ever done, close your eyes and picture it. Think about how it smelled, how it tasted, how it felt. Detach yourself from the pain, think really hard!" Funny, this was the same pep-talk Dusk gave me when I scraped my knee on the playground, years back. "Now trick yourself into thinking it is happening now, that you're not here, you're there. I will solve everything as long as you do that."

"Sorry to dissapoint, ma'am. That information lies with my general, which is why I lead the girl here. Thought I would pay a trip to him and ask the same questions. Of course, I imagine he would see it a bit odd for me to bring two lovely women to a private fort, wouldn't want to give him the wrong idea." That was true. Soldiers brought dates with them all the time on weekends, for little tours, really, to show off their weapons, or whatever. But I can't imagine what would happen to me if I brought two, it certainly wouldn't look like a little date, or I would hope not, at least.

I merely smirked at her exagerated little lecture. "Madam, you don't care if we get caught?" I pursed my lips to look like I was thinking hard, "How very peculiar. What would happen to the others, if something should become of you, eh? Dawn would be lost in a sea of confusion, if you don't mind how simply cliche that sounds. Oh and Mallory, who would care for him, miss? His father would be in a wretched state when he found that you'd died, too much so to see to it that his boy is being taken care of." I sighed sarcastically. "And by coming with us, you would be putting Dusk in much more danger than she'd be in with only me with her." I shook my head, assuming she had close to no idea what I was talking about. "Our side of the city doesn't play by the rules, Miss Alexia, not even the military. They suspect us even slightly, and we are dead." My words were the truth, last year one of my friends opened a bottle of water, which was filled with iced tea, and one of our commanding officers shot him in the leg, thinking he had brought alcohol into the training post.

"Dusk comes with me. Alexia you can say all you want, but the fact of the matter is that as stubborn as you are, I will always be a step ahead with it. You can stand here and grip my neck for as long as an eternity and I will still stand right here, waiting for you to realize something that you're doing is wrong, or you wouldn't be waisting all that time!"

At Dawn's coaching, Lillith thinks of the one thing that makes her happiest. Her voice, though barely a whisper, still holds the notes true as she sings a song she learned early in her life:

The hills are alive
With the sound of music,
With songs they have sung,
For a thousand years.
The hills fill my heart,
With the sound of music.
My heart wants to sing every song it hears.

My heart wants to beat like the wings
Of the birds that rise from the lake
To the trees.
My heart wants to sigh
Like a chime that flies
From a church on a breeze,
To laugh like a brook when it trips and falls
Over stones on its way
To sing through the night,
Like a lark who is learning to pray.

I go to the hills
When my heart is lonely.
I know I will hear
What I heard before.
My heart will be blessed
With the sound of music
And I'll sing once more.

Mallory sighed and decided now was the time to take Lance's advice if he wanted any calm. Mallory slowed his breathing and concentrated on sealing himself off, as Lance had shown him before. He still leaned against the man, arms around him and eyes shut. He found it comforting somewhat and so he really had no intention of letting go.

Lance breathed softly and slowly picked Mallory up into his arms. "Shh. I'm sure he will be fine." He said and ever so slowly carried him into his father's room. Her shot Mallory's father a look as if to say, 'Get out.' and laid Mallory down in the free bed. He laid own beside Mallory and soothingly hand his hand down the boy's back a few times. He kissed the boy softly and smiled. He was so young and innocent it made him a tad self-conches to think that this boy did not have any prior experience to work off of.

The man looked into her eyes in curiosity. "Tommy?" I repeated her, looking toward him. He didn't look away from her face. "Yes, yes that's me. Do..I...know you, miss?" My head whirled in confusion. "Lillith, you know him?" I was holding her head up now, so that she could adress the stranger and get a better look at him. Fiance. "Lillith, didn't you say your fiance's name was Tommy? But he di..." I swallowed and looked into the man's face again, wondering what to say. The air was thick and humid, I guessed it may start raining again soon, not that it mattered really. "Fiance?" he repeated under his breath, only low enough for me to hear. "No, my fiance died in a fire while I was at war. You see I was held up at one of the forts, they thought we'd never make it out alive. But by some miracle the enemy soldiers lost our scent. As soon as I was out I paid a visit to the club she worked in..." he paused, "burned into the ground."