Lily, Ein, And Gene

She didn’t answer. The night smelled impossibly rich: wet dirt, rusted metal, pine sap, and something warm and wild lingering on the wind. Her stomach tightened. The bite flared.

Gene climbed another step. “You’ve been strange since yesterday.”

“Yesterday was strange.”

“You disappeared behind the science building.”

“I needed air.”

“You came back with your sleeve torn.”

Lily pulled her arm against her ribs. “It caught on a branch.”

“There aren’t any branches behind the science building.”

The lie sat between them, thin as glass.

Gene’s gaze dropped to her covered arm. “What happened?”

“Nothing.”

“Let me see.”

“No.”

The answer came too fast. Gene’s face changed - not angry, exactly, but wounded. He lowered his hand from the backpack strap.

“You don’t trust me?”

“I don’t trust anyone right now.”

The truth slipped out before she could catch it.

Gene climbed until he stood one step below her. Close enough that she felt the warmth of him through the cold air. He smelled like laundry soap and peppermint gum, ordinary things that suddenly made her want to cry.

“I’m not asking you to tell me everything,” he said. “Just don’t shut me out.”

Lily swallowed. Her teeth ached. For one terrifying second, the edges of his face sharpened - the pulse in his neck, the warmth beneath his skin, the quick beat of his heart.

She stumbled backward.

Gene caught her by the wrist.

Pain flashed through her arm. Lily gasped and tore free.

His eyes widened. “I’m sorry.”

The apology was immediate, sincere. That made it worse.

“I have to go,” she said.

“Lily, wait.”

She ran down the bleachers.

Her shoes struck the metal in uneven bursts. The stadium blurred around her, moonlight breaking into white streaks. She reached the gate and shoved it open, then stopped when a figure stood on the other side.

A boy leaned against the fence as if he had been there for hours.

Ein.

Lily had seen him at school before, always alone, always dressed in dark clothes that made him look untouched by the noisy brightness of the hallways. Tonight, the moon turned his skin pale and his eyes nearly black.

He looked past her toward Gene.

Gene reached the gate. “Who’s that?”

Ein’s gaze returned to Lily’s arm. He didn’t ask what happened. He already knew.

“Go home,” Ein said.

Lily’s fear sharpened into anger. “You don’t get to order me around.”

“You shouldn’t be here.”

“Neither should you.”

A faint smile touched his mouth, but there was no warmth in it. “That isn’t the same thing.”

Gene stepped between them, not quite blocking Ein, but close. “Do you know her?”

Ein studied him. “Not well.”

“Then stop talking to her like you do.”

The air changed.

Ein’s eyes flicked to Gene’s throat, and something hungry moved across his expression before disappearing. Lily saw it. She felt it, too - the sudden cold that seemed to come from him, the way the night grew still around his body.

Vampire.

The word surfaced from every whispered rumor she had dismissed as a joke.

Ein looked back at Lily. “You need to leave.”

“Why?”

His jaw tightened. “Because the scent is getting stronger.”

Lily’s fingers closed over her sleeve. “What scent?”

“The bite.”

Gene stared at her. “What bite?”

Lily’s stomach dropped.

Ein moved closer, and the pull she felt toward him was immediate and confusing. His presence made the pain in her arm quiet for half a second. It was like standing near a door in a burning room and realizing cold air waited on the other side.

“You were bitten by a werewolf,” Ein said.

Gene’s face went blank.

Lily’s breath caught. “You don’t know that.”

“I know exactly what it looks like.”

“Then help me.”

The words came out smaller than she intended.

Ein’s expression shifted. Not softer. More dangerous, somehow. “I can’t.”

“Can’t or won’t?”

“If I stay near you, I may make it worse.”

His eyes dropped again to her bandage. Lily became painfully aware of how close he was. Cold radiated from his skin, but beneath it she sensed something controlled and violent, like a locked door being tested from the other side.

Gene looked from Ein to Lily. “We’re leaving.”

Lily turned on him. “You don’t get to decide that.”

“I’m trying to keep you safe.”

“So is he.”

The words hung there.

Gene flinched. Ein went very still.

Lily wished she could pull them back, but the bite had made every feeling too bright. Fear. Anger. The strange, aching attraction toward Ein. Even Gene’s hurt landed inside her like a stone.

Ein stepped away first. “Tomorrow morning, find me.”

“Where?”

“You’ll know.”

“That’s not helpful.”

“It’s the only warning you’re getting.” His eyes held hers. “The bite will not stay hidden, Lily.”

Then he turned and disappeared into the dark beyond the fence.

Gene stared after him. “That was reassuring.”

Lily hugged her injured arm. The ache had returned, deeper now, spreading toward her shoulder.

“I need to go home,” she whispered.

Gene didn’t touch her this time. He only moved beside her, keeping a careful distance as they crossed the empty parking lot.

For the first time, Lily wondered whether he was afraid of her.

• * *

By morning, the hallway was too loud.

Lockers slammed. Shoes squeaked against the polished floor. Someone laughed near the drinking fountain, and the sound stabbed behind Lily’s eyes. She pressed two fingers to her temple and kept walking.

She had slept for twenty-three minutes.

Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Ein’s face and heard his warning.

The bite would not stay hidden.

Her bandage felt damp beneath her sleeve.

“Lily.”

Gene fell into step beside her. He had waited near her locker, holding a paper cup with both hands.

“Coffee,” he said. “You look like you need it.”

She took the cup. The heat seeped into her fingers, but the smell made her stomach twist. She handed it back.

“I can’t.”

“You liked coffee yesterday.”

“Yesterday was before…” She stopped.

“Before what?”

His voice was quiet now. Not accusing. That was harder to resist.

Lily opened her locker. The metal door reflected a pale, distorted version of her face. Her pupils looked too wide. A strand of hair clung to her cheek, damp with sweat.

Gene leaned closer. “You’re burning up.”

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

His hand lifted toward her forehead, then stopped before touching her. The restraint made her chest tighten.

“Can I?” he asked.

Lily nodded.

His fingers brushed her skin.

The hallway vanished beneath a rush of sensation. Gene’s pulse beat through his fingertips. She heard it clearly, steady and bright. Her mouth filled with the taste of copper.

She jerked away and knocked the coffee from his hand.

The cup hit the floor. Dark liquid spread across the tiles.

Several students turned.

Gene looked at the spill, then at her. “You could have just said no.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You keep saying that.”

“Because I keep hurting you.”

His expression softened despite himself. “Then let me help.”

“You can’t.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do.”

The sleeve of her uniform split open at the seam.

A dark line of blood appeared beneath the bandage.

Gene saw it.

His face changed. “Lily.”

She slammed the locker shut and ran.

The hallway stretched impossibly long. Her hearing caught every startled breath, every whispered question. The blood beneath her sleeve felt hot against her skin. She shoved through the side door near the old music rooms and found herself in a narrow corridor where the lights flickered overhead.

Ein stood at the far end.

Of course he did.

He was leaning against the wall, arms folded, as if he had been waiting for her. In the bright hallway, he looked even less human. Too still. Too pale. His eyes went straight to the blood.

“You ran toward me,” he said.

“I didn’t know where else to go.”

“That is not the same as trusting me.”

“I don’t trust you.”

Ein pushed away from the wall. “Good.”

Lily laughed once, breathlessly. “You’re impossible.”

“And you’re bleeding through your bandage.”

She looked down. The skin around the bite had turned dark red, the marks curved like teeth. Her knees weakened.

Ein reached her before she fell. His hand closed around her elbow, cold enough to shock her.

The pain vanished.

Lily stared at his fingers. “How did you do that?”

“I didn’t.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

His grip loosened, giving her room to pull away. She didn’t.

Ein’s gaze moved over her face. “The bite reacts to supernatural blood.”

“Your blood?”

“I’m a vampire.”

The words should have terrified her. Instead, the pull between them strengthened, quiet and undeniable. She could feel the distance between his mouth and hers as if it were a physical thread.

Gene’s footsteps sounded from the corridor behind her.

Ein heard them too.

“Go with him,” he said.

Lily looked over her shoulder. Gene had stopped several yards away, breathing hard, his eyes fixed on Ein’s hand around her arm.

Then she looked back at Ein.

“Why?”

“Because he’s alive.”

The answer struck deeper than it should have.

Ein released her. The pain returned at once, hot and vicious.

Lily caught his coat. “Wait.”

His eyes dropped to her hand gripping the black fabric.

“You said to find you.”

“I said the bite won’t stay hidden.” His voice lowered. “I didn’t say I could save you.”

“Then tell me what happens next.”

Ein’s face tightened with something that looked almost like fear. “You change.”

Behind her, Gene stopped.

Lily’s fingers curled tighter in Ein’s coat. “Into what?”

Ein leaned close enough for his cold breath to touch her cheek.

“Something that will make everyone you love afraid of you.”

The warning should have sent her running.

Instead, Lily held on.

Gene said her name, hurt and uncertain.

Ein looked past her toward him, then back to Lily. “Choose carefully who you let close.”

Lily knew he meant Gene.

She also knew he meant himself.

The bell rang, flooding the corridor with noise. Ein stepped away, leaving cold on her skin and the bite burning beneath it.

Lily watched him disappear through the music-room door.

Gene came to stand beside her. “What did he mean?”

She looked at the blood soaking through her sleeve, then at the closed door where Ein had vanished.

“I don’t know,” she said.

It was the first honest answer she had given all morning.

And when Gene reached for her hand, Lily hesitated - not because she wanted him to stop, but because some part of her was still reaching for the vampire in the dark.

End of chapter one. 4 more chapters in the full book.