'You stupid little bitch.'
Lily's face stung as a result of the slap the mistress had so generously gifted her.
A slap was a far better punishment than Lily deserved for her blatant disobedience.

'Not only did you fail and put the stupid wolves on our trail, you also sent Hekyl into the fray. Now making the bloodsucking child aware of his existence.'

Lily barely held her tears of shame in check.
'Don't you dare give me that pitiful look. I don't even know what to do with you.' Said the latest skin the mistress wore. This week, she controlled the body of an old hag.

The demons standing behind her  snarled suggestions at her.
'I need to be a woman of my words. I warned you lily that the next time you messed up you'll be at their mercy.'

With a flick of her wrist the demons were on Lily. Needle like teeth sank into her flesh and yanked it with a force. Their hooked talons for fingernails, cut deep into her body, puncturing several agonizing holes in her body. The tearing and the biting seemed to last forever yet it was simply mere seconds.
Mercifully, the mistress ordered them to stand down.

Lily whimpered on the bare wooden floor of the Salty Seawater inn. The noise coming from downstairs drowned out her screams while the wafting scent of food, beer, sweat tears and blood covered the smell of her blood from her gaping wounds.

The demons made hungry sounds indicating they wanted to feast some more. The rabid pack was only held in check by the old witch.

'I hate punishing my friends even more than I hate the ruling families.'
She struggled to kneel beside Lily and when she succeeded, she stroked the poor girl's raw face.
'You have to understand why things must be handled this way. We have worked so hard and come too far for our plans to be unhinged right when it's coming together.'
Her wrinkled hands roughly grabbed Lily's raw chin to turn her face towards hers.
'I won't let them kill you. Not yet because I still have some use for you.'
The demons came to her aid when she attempted to stand.
After their help, she shooed the ugly creatures away.

'Go on and heal yourself. Tomorrow you have another job to complete and you can't meet your chaperone in this state.'

'Chaperone?' Lily croaked. Her entire body felt ready to explode. Pain raked every single inch of her existence, physical pain like she'd never felt before. Yet with all that, she was still able to feel the psychological hurt from the mistress's next words.

'Yes my dear lily, a chaperone. I can't trust you to carry out my instructions without messing it up. I'll have someone I can trust with you. Someone who can re-educate you on how I like my instructions carried out.'
She turned in her heels and left Lily alone in the small dark room.
Every syllable of the spell she uttered sent a fresh ripple of pain throughout her body. Even as her body healed, the blinding pain persisted and her cry of anguish bounced of the walls. Until finally, it ebbed away like the end of a bad headache.

Lily picked herself off the ground, her hands tried to hold her tattered clothes together for some semblance of modesty.
She weak legs wobbled under the stress of carrying her body down the narrow stairs from the attic to the small corner at the back of the inn.
She found her friend Loraine, a part-time waitress at the inn looking up, surprised to find her at the inn at all. Her look turned pitiful after fully accessing her appearance.
Loraine ushered her to a surprisingly empty booth and brought her of beer.
'Can I get something with more of a kick to it?'
Heaven knew she needed it to calm the angry storm that raged in her heart.
'One second okay? and when I come back you should stop crying, please.' Loraine excused herself and went to the bartender.
Lily watched her whisper something in his ear. He began to mix a couple of drink behind the bar then.
She swiped the tears from her face and reached for a suitable composure.

The modern Pub was full of supernatural beings: werewolves, vampires, ghouls, witches, and a few undead.
Not vampires, but zombies. They weren't very popular or well received in certain areas in the Valley. It genuinely surprised Lily to see that Salty Seaman allowed them in its establishment. The other supernatural beings could stand their smell.

Loraine placed a tall glass of greenish blue liquid before her.
'The boss has a must-wear-air-freshener policy. They also come here to buy them as well.' She explained when she saw what Lily was looking at.
These air fresheners were similarly named to the ones humans sprayed in their room or hang in the cars and these past years, even plug in. And in the broader scope of things, they did the same thing. Kind of. Air fresheners in the valley, were used by zombies. These were spelled little bottles of fragrant liquids which created a invisible preventive bubble around the zombies. So no one was at the mercy of smelling their decomposing flesh.

'Their favorite things on the menu are brains.'
She made a funny face when mentioning it.
'May have have one large serving of rat medulla oblongata? And maybe a side of boiled cerebellum?' She joked.
Her idiotic impression of a zombie ordering mage Lily laugh, despite her situation.
When their laughter died down Loraine grabbed her hands.

'Look, Lily. What have you been up to? I miss you.'

'I'm busy. Trying to save the world and all.' She told her old friend. The warmth of Loraine's hand felt like block of ice cubes on hers.

'Whatever it is that you've gotten yourself into, that's not saving the world.' She moved closer to the edge of her seat. Her eyes shone with the most sincerest care and love. I can help you get out of it. We can work here together or go somewhere else.'

'And do what with our lives?' Lily harshly asked. Her tart question had Loraine flinching in shock.
'I will not be just another nameless face bowing living a pathetic life and bowing to the power of stupid creatures.'

Loraine shook her head.
'I'm not saying...'

'That's exactly what you are saying. I'm making a stand for the small people like us because no one else would for us.'

'This is still about Kurtis.' Loraine knew her all to well. 'You can't still be angry about his death. It was an unfortunate accident.'
Loraine was her friend, she'd been her friend for as long as she had been dating Kurtis and sometime after his death. Maybe sometime before then and she respected that. But the was no denying that she was beginning to annoy Lily.

'That was no accident. I was there I saw the whole thing. Those damned werewolves and their lunacy.'

'It was a full moon, Kurtis knew to steer clear of their path.'
She was right, that was a fact.
Lily remembered begging Kurtis to walk away from the mocking pack of werewolves who, as in their nature during a full moon, were being disrespectful. Especially to her.
They'd called her all types of insults which pushed her lovers buttons.
He'd stood up for her and stubbornly refused to back down. Then the werewolf killed him in a scaffold that broke as a result.
They'd called it an accident.

'Why should we go out of our way to accommodate their animalistic behaviors. Why do we have to do all the compromising to make them comfortable.'

Loraine was taken aback by the change she saw in her. The darkness and hatred in her eyes and voice was not veiled.

'After his death, you know I went to the House like you adviced me to.'
Sonya had been away, but her greats grandson had been there to hear her story. Nothing was done to the guilty offender. He was the son a werewolf pack loyal to the Lynchs, their allies. For his affiliation, he was spared and Kurtis's death was left unavenged.
'They did nothing. He was an ally too because werewolves-shift. I even let that go. As hurtful as it was. But then, my parents were behind on their rent payments and the heartless shifters took everything they had. I couldn't be with my parents any more because they couldn't afford me.'
That had been the final push that led her to the mistress.

Loraine kept silent, yet her face said it all. The sympathetic lines were drawn around her eyes but her eyes held a small look of fear.
'You've really changed.' Was all she said. They sat in silence until Lily finished her drink.

'I have to get back to work.'
No see you later. No goodbye but still Lily knew that maybe the last time she called Loraine friend.

She stood up and left through the back door.
The journey back to her small home was almost completed when she stopped dead in her tracks.

The blue fires came to her fingers and a crazy light lit in her eyes.

'So you did notice me juicy one.'

The vampires light voice was carried by the wind from behind her. She kept the flames hidden until he came closer. Then a thought ran across her mind and the emotions from the whole night collided into one.
The blue fire died at her fingertips just when she turned and smiled at the Vampire.
'Do you want sex or blood? Pain or pleasure?' Her question took him by surprise.
He chuckled.
'I bring the pain honey.'
Not tonight.
With a dark spell she'd stolen from one of the mistress' pages, she began to torture the vampire. And when she was done, she burned him alive. And she enjoyed every bit of it.

A/N
I hope this chapter was as interesting as the rest.
This was basically a 'let's understand Lily a little more' chapter. Every villain or hero needs a backstory of sorts.

Isn't Lily just pitiful? But don't you think she's doing this all wrong?
Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
See you my lovelies next Saturday.

UNTO THE NEXT CHAPTER!!!!