There Is No Me Beyond You

~4~

Lia ran to us the moment Lucas opened the door of the house. I could see Stoker trailing behind her cautiously, Aurora cooing and kicking happily on his arm, and even Nicole, walking like a silent shadow behind him.

"Goodness gracious me! What happened to you?!" Lia called, staring at my moss green t-shirt now stained with blood in several places and the long black skirt, torn along one of its seams all the way to my thigh, covered with dust.

"I'm good. How is she? Did you feed..." I demanded, looking at my baby.

"Her wrist is injured, you should have a look at it." Lucas interrupted me, taking me by my left arm to show it to her, and making me hiss with pain.

"Up you go." Lia ordered after she examined it carefully. "It's not broken but it needs to be cleaned, along with your other scratches, and you'll need some ice on it. And you must take a shower. You two stay here, I must talk to both of you!" She continued, turning to the two men.

In the bathroom, Lia cleaned the wound on my neck. It was the only one that had bled, apart from my lip, luckily not much. It was a superficial scratch, not a proper vampire bite, so I could at least assure her that I was not going to have a fever for days, like I had after my previous close encounter with a vampire.

Then I took a shower as well as I could, trying not to count all the scratches and bruises covering my body. Once I was dry and dressed in my pyjamas, I threw the torn clothes in the bin and Lia helped me dry my hair.

I let her take me to bed and put an ice pack over my wrist, now turning blue and swelling up fast, and I was just about to ask her to bring Aurora to me when Lucas appeared in the doorway, carrying her.

"Thanks, Lucas, for everything. Thanks, Lia." I mumbled, feeling incredibly exhausted as I snuggled down next to my baby girl who was already half asleep.

I woke up in a couple of hours, the moment Aurora started stirring. I pulled myself up cautiously, feeling pain in every single inch of my body, and managed to reach the dark corridor guided by the light creeping in through the gap in the curtains. But before I could switch on the light to walk down the staircase, I was met by the sound of voices coming from downstairs.

I couldn't hear well enough to understand what their conversation was about, but recognized them as Lucas and Nicole, talking by the front door. Not wanting to disturb them, I waited until I heard the soft rattle of glass when the door closed, followed by the sound of the key turning in the lock. Then I moved towards the light switch and jumped when Lucas' figure appeared only a few steps away from me.

"I just wanted..." we both said at the same time.

I smiled at him as he said, "Go back to bed. I'll get it for her."

"Who left?" I asked, when he entered my room a little later. Lucas passed me Aurora's bottle, then pressed a new ice pack to my wrist, making me shiver with cold and pain, before he sat on the bed next to me.

"Uncle. He took Nicole home, but he'll be back."

"What time is it?" I asked, smiling at him. To me it was the middle of the night, but they all behaved as if it was the middle of the day. As if it was the most normal thing for Nicole to leave now.

"Half past two. You should sleep. You need to rest after..." he said, and I was sure I saw anger flashing in his eyes before he looked away. "Why don't you let me take her to her cot, there I could feed her the next time she's hungry, without waking you up." He added, his features composed again as his eyes met mine one more time.

"No Lucas, please, I... don't want to be alone." I admitted, passing him the empty bottle before I put Aurora back on the mattress and laid down next to her, pulling the blanket up to my chin, trying to fight off the sleep long enough to at least hear his reply.