｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

Lilith

"Her hands were bound, her throat cut, toenails removed-" The show drones on in the background as I listen to Bianca ramble on about the Poe Cup in an attempt to distract me from what's going on.

"-not listening are you?"

"Sorry?" I wince in question and look at my friend with guilt eyes but she only huffs at me with a small smile, passing back the tub of chocolate chip icecream.

"You don't have to pretend lil." Her voice is soft and gentle in a way that has me stiffen at her tentative care. "We both know that with all that knowledge you've got up there in that pretty head of yours that you would be talking my ear off if you weren't so distracted."

I sigh, knowing full well that Bianca isn't going to leave until I've said my piece. I turn back to the laptop, watch the Criminal Minds team chase after their unsub in an attempt to save the kidnapped girl.

"Is it because your stuck here?"

"No." I answer immediately because that's not the problem. "It's Rowan."

"Ah, freaky zombie boy."

"Biiiaaaa." I admonish, with a wide smile as she shrugs.

"What?" She huffs around a mouthful of incream. "He's a weird loner and we were all better off when Xavier wasn't stuck with the guy."

"I thought you guys were friends-" We both pause to sigh as the buff form of Derek morgan kicks down yet another door with muscles rippling.

"Seven Kingdoms he's hot." Bia sighs and hum in agreement. "But do you ever get the feeling he's-"

"Just a bit too muscly?" I finish, thinking back to a certain boy.

"Yes! Obviously he's a tv character so he's been reduced down to a few key traits but I'm not sure I could date someone that confident and-" She gestures widely to the tv and I laugh, leaning back on the pillows of my art-shed-bed. "Like he's hot and I would most likely respectfully ask him to rail me but his personality and actually dating-"

"Biiiia!" I cry through my laughter, clutching at my stomach as I grip the ice cream tub in my other hand so as not to drop it, "I think you're overthinking this."

She sighs, "true, true."

"Now stop avoiding and-"

"Ugh, saints, fine. We were friendly-ish. Like acquaintances and you know he was in the nightshades with us before the whole-"

"Psychotic break." I finish, passing the ice cream tub back to her.

"-that." She points her spoon at me. "And his mother had premonitions that were accurate yet vague. As in things did happen that she saw but it was hard to interpret what they meant before it happened."

"Yet he had that page when I was with Wednesday, and said it was from one of his mother's journals."

"His mothers-" Bianca breaks off with a dramatic huff and frown. "That little bastard. He broke into the Nightshades."

I chuckle at her protective rage. "It's not like you can easily change the password Bia."

She huffs, "we could have threatened him a little more."

We pause for a moment, clicking continue to the next episode before both settling back down with a sigh.

"Now what is it I hear about a certain date?" I groan and she laughs at my embarrassment.

"He told you."

"Of course he told me." She retorts, "The poor boy was practically bursting with excitement despite the fact you literally ran off after he asked you."

I wince at her accusatory glare. "Sorry."

"Apology accepted. Now what kind of outfit do you want to wear and I'll help work the date around it with Xavier."

"Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?" I frown, fighting down the urge to suggest a few dragon courting traditions. She waves me off, Bianca has always been a fan of breaking traditions. "Fine, something nice. Like a sweet dress. Casual but still putting effort in. I still want it to be us, not some fake little version that is only brought out once every few months."

She nods, giving me a knowing look and I swallow nervously. Sebastian and I's first date has been at a fancy restaurant, with suits and dresses to wow the reporters waiting for us outside. The date had never been about us.

"How are you getting on with mother dearest's task?" Bia asks, scraping out the bottom of the ice cream tub as we watch the man and screen be brutally beaten to death by the women he raped. "I don't understand why you have to complete them."

I let out a long-suffering sigh, "As I have told you many times, it is an ancient tradition that reflects the child honouring their forebears and returning the care they received growing up. Hence the personal meaning behind each task. It symbolises child and parent becoming equals before they enter into wider society."

"It is not a way for my mother to control me." She ignores my pointed look with a dramatic eye roll.

"Sounds like it could be turned into a method of control."

"You don't do well with maternal stuff do you?"

"No I do not!" I snigger at her fast response, desperately smothering my laughter as Bia barely cracks a smile at her own expense.

"Besides, how hard can it be to learn an ancient language, transcribe three books-"

"Which I have to find first." I point my spoon at her and she nods in agreement.

"And find a long lost dragon egg, care and hatch the poor thing, before handing it off to complete strangers after you've reared it to a certain age."

"I-" I pause, giving the siren I consider a sister a peculiar look but she only shrugs at me.

"What? You're not the only one who can effortlessly ramble about random topics and have moments of otherthinking wild scenarios."

"It's not exactly far-fetched though is it?" I murmur, staring down at my receding claws. In my two days of confinement I had learnt how to retract them and even how to shift my hands back into my human flesh. The scales and small spines appearing on my arms had also disappeared but my face...

"I think you look hot as fuck with the eye." Bianca comments with a resounding nod as if she had been reading my mind. "They're badass and powerful, own it."

"I don't want to spend the rest of my life with them." I wince, "I'll-"

"What? Stand out." SHe arches a brow. "Amongst the boys with snakes for hair, the girls with tails and scales, the ancient granny vampires and the literal wolves that race around full moons."

"You and Xavier were just preaching the necessity of keeping my dragoness hidden until we worked out the backlash."

She pauses, opening and closing her mouth a few times before taking a steadying breath and looking at me with such sincerity that I pause.

"This is temporary, Lil. We're not trying to hide you out of shame or disgust. Seven Hells, if this had happened under any other circumstances I would have thrown you a damn party to celebrate you and your heritage and your infallible beauty." My eyes water a little at her words as my insecurities are easily solved by my Siren. "But at the same time we all know of the hunters, of the political climate that's building against dragons and the eagerness for the power of the old ways."

She swallows nervously, "I don't want to see you hurt."

"I know." I whisper, gripping her hands. "I know."

A/N: Are they right to keep her hidden?