Blood Moon Ch. 05

Over the Pacific Ocean

2007

Casey looked out the windows of the private jet as questions whirled around in her pounding head. From the moment Lilith had stepped into Casey's apartment everything was a blur. The conversation went from going somewhere safe to packing Casey's necessities to Lilith making a call and then suddenly they were boarding a private jet. All Casey recalled was saying she wasn't going anywhere and then things got blurry and she woke up in a plush leather seat.

Lilith gave Casey a hesitant smile as Casey tried to focus her view on Lilith's face. She already knew the first question Casey would ask. Now whether or not to tell Casey that she had used mind manipulation on her was something Lilith was debating. She supposed if Casey asked a specific enough question, Lilith would be forced to reveal more than she'd want to.

"Um...how did we get here?" Casey wasn't sure if she was missing something. She didn't want to sound forgetful, but at the moment, she had no idea what was going on.

"We took a cab from your place to the airport and then boarded this plane." So far, so good, Lilith thought as she tried to remain as vague as possible.

"Well I mean...why is it that I can't remember how we got here? I remember we were at my apartment and you said it wasn't safe. Then I lent you some clothes since you were naked. After that you went crazy and started stuffing my things into my suitcases while calling some woman named Elizabeth. Next thing I know, I'm here. What is going on? Where are we going?" Casey began to massage her temples as her head pounded painfully.

Lilith downed her Vodka and offered a shot to Casey. Turning down the alcohol in fear of making her headache worse, Casey blinked expectantly at Lilith. It took another drink until Lilith finally spoke.

"We are going to Kauai. I recall you saying you're from there. I am going to drop you off with your family. Um...we're on the run from my crazy ex who was once known as Roderick McElroy and is now known as Derek Elroy-" Casey cut Lilith off with a choke.

"Derek Elroy? Multi-billionaire, playboy, Derek Elroy who just expanded his company to Seattle? He's your ex-boyfriend?"

"Uh...sure." Lilith said uncertainly. "Multi-billionaire you say? How do you know about him and I don't?"

"Wait, just so we're talking about the right guy. He's about 6' 2", dark brown hair, chocolate eyes, sexy crooked smile, barely a hint of a Scottish accent, and this dangerous, arrogant air about him?"

Lilith blinked a couple times, shocked that Casey knew him. "That sounds like him. But it's an Irish accent although there isn't much difference since it's a Northern Ireland accent. Normally there is a difference between a Scottish accent and an Irish one. He lived with his mother's brother in Ireland for ten years since he was three. How do you know him?"

"I saw a thing on MTV about the hottest bachelors. Wow...so Derek Elroy. Why is he so psychotic? I don't understand why a man who can have and throw away any woman he wants would chase after one in particular. Unless!" Casey gasped. "Did you steal from him or something? I hear men with egos like his don't like to be made a fool of."

"Casey!" Lilith shouted to get her attention. She swallowed a couple times before she decided to tell Casey the truth. Lilith was well aware that Elizabeth would maim her.

"I will tell you something that is forbidden among my kind to tell mortals. And I'm only doing this so you know better to protect yourself. And when you are safe, I will erase all this knowledge from you so you can live your normal life. I will explain everything I know to you and you will not ask me a single question nor utter a single comment until I am finished. Are we clear?" Lilith looked into Casey's eyes, pleading for understanding.

With a slow nod, Casey accepted the terms. Lilith drank more Vodka before she began her explanation. It wasn't as though the alcohol affected her any, but it made her feel better.

"I am a vampire. Derek is a werewolf." Lilith saw Casey about to say something. "Please, let me explain. I have been a vampire for nearly 600 years as Derek has been a werewolf his whole life. Derek and I have a very long history together. I fell in love with him when he saved me from drowning. Back then he was known as Roderick McElroy, firstborn son of the village leader. I was known as Lilith Caldwell, the blacksmith's daughter." Lilith took another sip of Vodka.

"I confessed and he rejected me. When I was about twenty-one, he became engaged to a neighboring clan's daughter. I went to him and we had a one night stand. I ran away the next morning because I couldn't stand the thought of him marrying another." Lilith was quiet for a moment as if she reminisced over the things Rowan told her. She shook herself out of her thoughts and continued.

"A son resulted from the one night stand. Vampires and a scorned suitor of mine were in a league to kill Roderick and the villagers. To save my son, I betrayed Roderick and nearly his entire clan was slaughtered. My son, Bran Roderick, was among those killed that night. For the longest time I believed Roderick had killed my son as retribution to what I had done to his clan. But that was not true. He wants me dead. Any questions?" Lilith sat back and waited for Casey to gather her thoughts and speak.

Casey looked down at the notepad she scribbled some things onto. When Lilith first started, Casey thought it was a little story to relieve some tension...but currently, she was thinking Lilith was a bit crazy. But seeing as she was on a plane going to who really knew where, Casey was not going to be calling Lilith a liar anytime soon. So Casey played along. True, she grew up with stories about Pele, the Goddess of Volcanoes and Papa (Earth Mother) and Wākea (Sky Father) as well as many other tales of Hawaiian mythology.

Casey was a very superstitious person when it came to her Hawaiian heritage. She never stole lava rocks nor entered sacred areas when she was menstruating. Camping once, Casey swore she came across menehune who would have killed her had she not thrown herself face down on the dirt and lie absolutely still until the beating of their drums and pitter-patter of their small feet faded into the distance.

So why was it difficult for Casey to believe Lilith's story? Although Casey had always respected and believed in her Hawaiian heritage, her rational way of thinking prevented her from accepting what Lilith was saying. None the less, Casey was planning on playing along until she was safely off the plane.

She cleared her throat. "Well...I guess my first question would be...knowing what you now know about Derek. Do you still love him?"

Lilith was surprised with that question. She had flitted in and out of Casey's mind as Casey tried to think of the best way to deal with a crazy person; that crazy person being Lilith. She was expecting Casey to humor her, but the question completely caught Lilith off guard.

"I don't know. I believe a part of me will always love Roderick. Derek is not him. He is so much different from the Roderick I once knew. And I think Derek's hatred for me is too deep to simply clear away with a confession. He doesn't know why I betrayed him...although Rowan might have told him by now."

"So...was that a yes or a no?" Casey was sure her wellbeing was connected to the conversation, so she was doing her damnest at keeping it alive.

"A yes and a no, I guess."

"If he forgave you, do you think you could fall in love with Derek?" Casey thought she may as well try to have a bit of melodramatic fun with it.

"No." Lilith said after much thinking. "There's too much history between the two of us. When he's with me, all he will think about is his clan being slaughtered because of me and the fact that I failed to protect our son. Not to mention...the thing he did to me...I would not have thought he was the type of man to have done what he did. I don't know what else he would be capable of."

Casey sighed. She really liked Lilith and a part of her wanted to believe Lilith's crazy story. Casey was sure that if she had a little more proof, she could be convinced. It was such an intriguing notion.

"Do you drink blood on a daily basis? Can I see your fangs? Do you like live victims or do you drink from blood bags?"

"I try not to drink blood on a daily basis. Maybe once every three or four days. My body cannot digest solids, but I do love my liquids. I will drink from blood bags if I have no other choice, but I prefer live feeding...it's much more...stimulating and fulfilling. As for my fangs," Lilith allowed her canines to elongate and she flashed Casey a huge smile.

"Oh. My. God." Casey said slowly, realizing Lilith was the one going around and biting people. Casey leaned forward and looked at Lilith's teeth. Why hadn't she noticed those before?

Lilith closed her mouth and then smiled again, her fangs gone. She stared at Casey for a minute. "You still don't believe me do you?"

Lilith picked up the Vodka bottle and smashed it against the edge of the table. She stabbed it into her arm as Casey screamed and reached for her.

"Are you insane? What are you doing?" Casey held Lilith's arm, watching as the wounds healed up around the shards of glass. "Impossible," Casey breathed.

Plucking out the glass, Lilith cleaned her arm and returned them to Casey's grasp for more inspection. Casey traced the scars on the insides of Lilith's arms and looked up with questions in her eyes.

"I tried to kill myself. That was the night I was turned into a vampire. Failed attempt at suicide and I'm left with these two scars. Any other wounds inflicted after my transformation heal without scars. I usually cover them with makeup." Lilith explained.

"Okay, I believe you." Casey said more to herself than to Lilith. "I'm just in shock right now. Don't mind me, I'll be freaking out soon enough. So...about vampires not being able to go into the sunlight, is that a myth?"

"No, it isn't. Because we are dead, our body will rot much quicker out in the sun. Our mutated cells will combust out in the sunlight. Other than that, our cells are made to regenerate to the time of when we died. I am a defect vampire and am able to go out into the sunlight."

"If you're dead...does that mean you don't have a heartbeat?" Casey's interest overrode her panic.

"I'm not supposed to have a heartbeat, but sometimes I feel as though I have one. There are moments I swear I can feel my heart beating. And as soon as I try to focus on that feeling, it's gone. I'm a bit scared what it would mean if my heart started to beat again." Lilith admitted.

"Can I, um, listen?" Casey stood and walked around the table to Lilith when Lilith nodded her head okay.

She placed her ear on top Lilith's left breast and held her breath. After twenty seconds, Casey took a deep breath and stared up at Lilith in amazement. She hadn't heard one sound. And Lilith felt so cold; it was almost frightening how real things were.

"That is really weird. I think I'm going to have to lie down for a bit." Casey got up and moved back to her seat. "Um...Lilith?" Lilith pulled her gaze from her glass of Vodka to look at Casey. "How is it that a reporter can afford this private jet?"

Lilith laughed humorlessly. "I would say a friend lent it to me, but calling Elizabeth a friend would be an insult to her. She's a vampire acquaintance of mine. And believe me, Elizabeth never forgets a favor." Lilith sighed as she checked the time on the screen behind Casey's head. "I think we should both take a short nap. We still have four hours of this flight and I think we both need some rest. One of the crew members will wake us an hour before landing."

The lights flicked off as Lilith finished her sentence and dim lights went on in the dark cabin. Lilith listened as Casey's breathing slowed. When she was certain Casey had fallen asleep, Lilith allowed herself some sleep as well.

Derek and Rowan hated flying. They both considered themselves wild animals. To be caged and not even in contact with the ground was frightening. When they had nearly busted down Casey's door, they both discovered that the two women had left in a hurry. Casey's belongings were thrown about the place as if she had hastily packed.

Neither had any idea where Lilith and Casey would have gone from that point. It wasn't until Rowan bumped into Casey's next door neighbor had they gained valuable information. The woman had said that she overheard Casey and Lilith saying they would head somewhere that Casey was comfortable with. Since the woman was on her way out to buy groceries, she wasn't paying much attention to Casey and Lilith's conversation. She provided the information that Casey said if she could choose anywhere to go, it would be back home to Hawaii.

Having read up on Casey, Rowan was pretty sure she'd choose to go to her home island, Kauai. So Derek had called Thomas, their personal pilot, and demanded he get his ass to the airport. Derek was in a sour mood when they arrived at the airport before Thomas and his mood worsened when he had to wait about an hour until his jet was prepared for takeoff. His irritation gave way to anxiety as the plane took off. As the ground got farther and farther away, Derek had to bite down on his base instincts to growl and snap until he was safely back down. He knew Rowan was feeling the same by the way his brother kept his eyes shut tightly as his lips moved quickly in silent prayers.

Derek watched his brother for a moment and recalled the numerous times Rowan was trying to tell him something. If it wasn't for the fact that neither of them was feeling so well, Derek would have asked what it was that Rowan wanted to say. But since opening his mouth made Derek feel like throwing up, that particular conversation would have to wait.

So Derek closed his eyes and began to contemplate why he did such a spontaneous thing as follow Lilith to some rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. He kept telling himself it was because he needed to shut her up, but with technology now-a-days (as his brother would put it), chasing after Lilith to keep her quiet was a moot point. Although she said that she did not involve herself with vampires in the last fifty years, Derek highly doubted she didn't know how to contact some important few in the network of vampires. And if he could get Lilith to divulge the whereabouts of a few vampires he had been hunting for awhile, Derek wouldn't mind making her death quick and painless.

With a light shake to her shoulder, Lilith got up instantly, scaring the co-pilot that had gone to wake her up. Lilith looked around the cabin worriedly before she remembered what had happened. She gave the pilot an apologetic smile as she thanked him and he returned to the cockpit. Casey was still dozing when Lilith reached over and shook her gently.

"I had the weirdest dream..." Casey trailed off as she opened her eyes and realized it wasn't a dream. "Never mind." Casey quickly said as she saw Lilith looking at her with a rueful smile.

"We'll be landing in about forty-five minutes. This is my first time in Hawaii. I always wanted to go, but I'm sensitive to sunlight. Although I don't burst into a ball of flames, I get sunburned easily."

"I'm going to have to make the best of this. Oh, there's a bunch of places I'll have to show you when we get there then. Um...would it be safe for me to stay with my family?"

"Aye. It would actually be better if we stay with your family. Derek wouldn't want to cause a scene. And I don't think he'd try anything when your family is involved. He knows what it's like to lose loved ones...so he wouldn't do anything to you or your family. He wants me and until everything is resolved, I hope you don't mind that I'll be sticking around." Lilith looked out the window in vain hopes of spotting something, but it was still dark out.

"That's the first time I've heard you sound remotely Scottish." Casey laughed. "You know, the 'aye' part. Why isn't your accent as strong as Derek's or Rowan's?"

Lilith smiled again. "Because I've had near 550 years to learn different languages and curb my accent. I recall a vampire once saying I sound like a stuck up British trying to sound American. Though I have lived in England for about a hundred years until traveling to Asia and the Middle East for the next hundred before I took a ship from France to America and I've been in between Canada and America ever since. Of course, both had just been newly named such by the time I arrived there."

When the plane landed, Casey practically fell over herself getting out and stretching. She had breathed in deeply, making noises of contentment over being home. Lilith watched with mild amusement as she wondered what it would be like to go back home to Scotland. She wished she knew where Bran Roderick was buried. The only two people who she knew would know would be Derek and Rowan. Seeing as she was planning on avoiding those two for the rest of her long life, she didn't think she'd learn about her son's burial place in her lifetime.

Lilith had warned Casey about using any of her credit or debit cards. Instead, Lilith handed Casey a small bag filled with money, adding another tick to the list of favors she owed Elizabeth. Lilith had insisted on taking a cab, but Casey made a quick call on the payphone to her brother. So the two women made their way to the front of the small airport and sat down on the wooden benches out front. It was a bit chilly in consideration that it was 11 PM. Lilith was jet lagged and surprisingly Casey was not. She was talking a mile a minute about growing up on Kauai and the pranks she would pull on her older brother. The stories caused Lilith to smile as well as think back on her own childhood. The thoughts saddened Lilith, so she tried to concentrate on Casey's light hearted tales as an alternative.

By the time Casey's brother arrived to pick them up, it was near midnight. He grumbled as he pulled up to the curb. Lilith was afraid that he would be angry, but when he got out of his truck and spotted Casey, his frown broke out into a huge smile as he picked her up in a big hug. Lilith was standing to the side, admiring his common, but attractive features. He was maybe 6 feet with tanned skin and a toned, surfer-body. When he turned his hazel eyes at Lilith, his gaze turned quizzical.

"You wake me up at 11PM and you don't even tell me to expect a guest." He laughed at Casey.

Casey punched her brother's arm as she made introductions. "I bet you were at a party, don't act as though you were actually sleeping before 1AM. Lilith, this is my annoying brother Keola. We call him Keo for short. Keo, this is my friend Lilith. She'll be staying with us for awhile."

Keo rubbed his arm before extending a hand to Lilith. "Nice to meet you Lilith. Casey has told me many things about you in her emails to me. Mostly about the way your boss treats the two of you. Now correct me if I'm wrong...but didn't you send me an email saying Lilith was kidnapped a few nights ago?"

Lilith shook Keo's hand as her eyes shot to look at Casey. Keo was looking at his sister, waiting for an answer.

"Well, yes. And she's back now and we both decided we needed a vacation from all that so we decided to board the next plane here."

Keo decided not to push the whole kidnap subject, if that was even true. For all he knew, they could have come up with it to skip out on their shitty jobs. "A little warning would have been nice." Keo loaded the two bags into the back of his truck. "So are we headed to mom and dad's or are you two staying with me?"

Casey looked at her watch and shook her head. "I think it would be better for us to stay with you while we're here. I'll go visit mom and dad later."

Lilith and Casey got into the truck as Keo got into the driver's seat. He lowered the volume on the station playing local music as he and Casey caught up. He asked Lilith a couple questions here and there to keep her involved in the conversation, but Lilith wouldn't have minded if she was excluded completely. She laid her head on the cool glass window and closed her eyes as she listened to Keo and Casey talk about the family gossip.