Whipped - Drake Merwin x OC

Descent

  He found her. Obviously. Smiling that snake smile at the 'doctor'. Lillian got up and out the door with surprising catlike grace, giving her injuries. She closed it behind her. Quiet and deadly.
Drake managed to snap out of his thoughts in time for her approach.
"We're heading down to Perdido Beach. You're coming. They don't seem to be very powerful or influential but if they rebel we need someone to keep the peace," he commanded.
"When you say keep the peace, do you mean I should make them fear me or make them die?" Lillian asked with surprising apathy.
"Whichever you think will work best unless Caine or I tell you otherwise," he replied.
    She smiled. It looked like a cry for help more than a display of happiness. "I am under no one's control but my own," Lillian asserted quietly, but not weakly.
Drake almost felt the need to apologise. Almost yet not quite. Her fire had to be tended carefully. They could not risk it dimming. They could not risk it burning down their carefully made empire. Only then he remember what Lillian could do. Mind reading. Not just that, but she had fire. And if you play with fire, you're bound to get burned.
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   Unbeknownst to them, she was not just fire. And if her fire burned out, ice would take its place. If her ice melted, the water would come forth. If her water was turned to steam, darkness would avenge it. If her darkness was smothered, it would only be by her light. Lillian would creep into their minds and make them see what was not there, make them tell her all their valuable secrets then take their sanity and run with it. Heal herself from whatever they tried to throw at her. Shift her face, shift her form. An inconspicuous soldier, an unimportant animal. Do what she had to do to survive. As she always had. Burn so brightly that they were blinded, because right now she was fire. Who knows when she would burn?
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     Drake thought she might have succumbed to the bloodlust so clearly written on her face,if it was not for the 'doctor' demanding to know where "that nice girl" had gone. As if Rachel, the medic, cared. Although when Rachel looked at her... there was a new light in her eyes. Hope.
Surprising, seeing as Drake had broken her arm for disobedience three days prior. Rachel had been too afraid of him and claimed it was an accident.
He glanced at her right arm now, remembering fondly and noticed something was off.
She held her weight on her right side. Easily. She didn't look sick with hunger and her hair wasn't matted like it had been when Drake threw some snivelling child in there this morning. Lillian did this. But how? Fire and mind reading is one thing, but healing too? Something more than healing.This girl never failed to surprise him.
Caught in his reverie, Drake hadn't noticed Lillian speaking to Rachel.
"Lillian or Lilith. Call me Lily..Thanks for you help," Lily-Lillian- smiled.
"Well, you're welcome, but it's all on you! Thank you for helping with my arm! And my..well..everything!" Rachel gushed excitedly.
Well. It seemed as if the Coates kids already liked her. She'd be a real hit on the battlefield, but Drake got the feeling she was more subtle. Fire too, but mind-reading seemed to fit what he knew as her personality. Subtle, deadly, cunning. The healing would also come in handy, no doubt. Someone was always getting hurt, especially the young kids. Idiots.
Rachel glanced over at him nervously. Her hands were shaking as she seemingly registered that he had been the one to cause that broken arm. Realisation dawned on her face as she no doubt knew he could damn well do it again. Drake smiled. A cold, shark's smile.
Lily interrupted his little fear game by purring,"Play nice Drakie," in his ear.
Drake would have killed her for the nickname alone, but she vas valuable and not to be damaged. Also, he was sort of awed by her power. Not the fire, not the reading, not the healing but her power. Lily could manipulate and lie for all she was worth. She held - and kept- everyone's attention when she was in a room. He'd have to keep an eye on her. Or two.
  Something about her name nagged at him. Lillian he couldn't recall any connotations with his life, but Lilith..that seemed to ring a forgotten bell. Maybe a direct route would lead to the best answer.
  Drake turned and walked in the direction of one of the many empty classrooms in Coates.
Lillian (or should he call her Lilith?) followed.
Once they were both inside the classroom, Drake threw a chair haphazardly against the door handle out of habit.
"Lilith. What does it mean?" Drake demanded.
"Nothing,really. Adam's supposed first wife in the Bible, I think. I don't follow religion. Why?" Lily (he'd opted for the less formal name) asked.
  "I thought it was familiar," Drake found himself saying, despite not thinking he actually had wanted to. It seems Lily was able to pry secrets from anyone she wished. He wondered what she'd gotten from Rachel, if that had been her intention.
   Lily nodded as though this made sense, then said "I'll explain later. Far later."
  Drake found himself annoyed with Lillian once again. "Explain now," he hissed in her ear, reminiscent of the way she had before.
  Lily smiled cynically. A resounding no echoed in his head and he wondered what else she was hiding.
A lot came the cryptic reply. Drake rolled his eyes and mentally cursed her, even though she could hear.
'Don't leave your mind so open if you don't want people to hear, Drake' echoed in his brain long after she'd 'said' it. He pondered the true meaning of that. Lillian somehow managed to put astounding power in her words even unconsciously. Drake wondered if it was just her affect on him or if her siren spiel was just the same with everyone.
Lillian had apparently backed out of his mind now and looked at him expectedly, tilting her head to the right in a display that made something tighten in his chest. Her
white-blonde hair fell past her black, ripped jeans as she did it and he couldn't help but stare, entranced. Her torn jeans. Drake had forgotten Lily was hurt.
"How are your injuries?" he questioned with a hint of concern. If she was still hurt and Coates was attacked, that was one less asset on the battlefield. God. He'd only known her for a total of three hours and still he trusted her.
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Lily straightened her back and brushed off the question with an "I'm fine."
She was not. Every breath burned like fire and she'd almost never felt worse in her life. Almost. Lily hadn't eaten in ten days, despite being able to. She hadn't slept in about 17 hours.Hadn't had a drink in a day. The hunger, thirst and pain was eating her alive, slowly but surely.
I can handle this. I can keep going. Only a little longer. Keep up the facade a little longer.
Empty promises to keep herself moving forward. She was breaking, and she knew it.
You can't show weakness. You are strength.
Couldn't keep it up. The light in the room was too bright. Too many sounds. Hunger too great. Pain too unbearable. And then.. only darkness. Nothing after. The world went black.
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Drake knew she was not fine. He did not dare to push it but he could read it. It was written in her shoulders, curved inwards. It was written in her tired eyes and sad smile. It was written in her voice, trying and failing to be strong and persuasive when her very character did that anyway. She was not "fine".
  Then he saw her fall. A sudden, terrifying moment in which he just reacted and leaped out of his chair to stop her hitting the floor because it was stone and she was in no position to save herself and how could he not.
     Lily's face was drained of all colour and she looked so ill that Drake wondered how he had not noticed until she fell, but mostly he thought of how that moment would have gone if he had been late. Or had not helped at all. Drake shook those thoughts away and carried her back to the medic. That useless, idiotic child had endangered Lily and god help him if he did not see that was avenged. Lillian was his most valuable asset and even though Drake had not seen her fight, he had seen her flames-and that was enough.
Despite himself, Drake wondered why she had not healed herself. If she could. What exactly had caused that fall. His mind burned with questions that couldn't be answered right now.
Drake shook his head, ridding himself of the thoughts (or at least trying to). His priority was making Perdido Beach and Coates fall to the ground beneath him and he could get it done faster by manipulating Lillian and Caine. Even Diana if he was desperate. The younger ones, the less powerful ones, the ones with no skills- they bowed to him without hesitation. A fucked up hierarchy that he was at the very top of. Drake would not fall. Would not let anyone overtake him, even if it cost him. Cost him Caine. Cost him..Lillian. Maybe not. Maybe it would turn out Caine would be his best chance and Drake would....no. Not to Lily.
Oh, Lily.
He looked down at her and wondered what she was. Not human, not freak. Something better.
Despite the fact that freaks were unnecessary in his plan, Lily wasn't a freak. No, Lily was too powerful for that.
Drake looked up and almost smacked straight into the 'hospital' door. Not bothering to knock, he stormed into the room and gently placed Lily on the bed.
"You fucked up. You apparently couldn't be bothered to do your job right and almost cost me...my...Lillian," Drake stuttered. The words stuck in his throat and then suddenly he couldn't find them.
"Your what?" Rachel inquired.
"My nothing if you don't get her help."
Rachel immediately busied herself with analysing Lillian.
Drake mentally slapped himself for the stumble. Although, he could physically slap Rachel for asking..
The bloodlust consumed him as his anger rose higher. That stupid bitch could have ruined a good...a good fighter. He snuck a look at Lily.
Lily stirred and asked Rachel weakly,"Why does Drake look like was planning to murder me before I woke up?"
Drake internally laughed at that. A good sense of humour, Lillian had.
Rachel, it seemed, was too cowed by him to speak. Weakling. Then, she surprised him.
"You were dehydrated and about two weeks from dying of starvation, apparently," Rachel observed,"but now you're fine. I have no idea what you did or how you did it, but you're fine."
Drake got the urge to kill Lillian. Oh, it was strong. Fucking liar.
He left the room, Lily sighing then following. She caught up in no time.
"What's your problem?" Lillian snapped.
"What's my problem? You're my problem! You haven't helped us at all, you're lying about your abilities and all you're doing is slowing us down. I wonder how powerful you'd look lying on the floor, beaten and bloody," Drake threatened.
Lily's eyes transformed into a swirling sea of emotions, all warring to emerge.
Lillian then asked quietly,"How can I help you then? You've asked for nothing. I've never lied about what I can do. I was doing you a favour by asking you for help, Drake. I could just have easily healed myself or even gone down to Perdido Beach. I'm sure anyone there would have been happy to oblige without any promises."
Before he could reply, she went on,"Am I slowing you down or can you just not keep up with me? I'd like to see you try to hurt me, Drake. I really would."
  The non-psychopathic part of him shivered at the unspoken threat. Lillian felt it, he knew.
"Should I make three wishes?" Drake taunted.
"Name them," Lily ground out.
"Well, I'd really like a few people dead, could you maybe do that?"
He had her there. She wasn't colder than him. She burned but he froze. And in truth, he had no idea what he wanted. A voice in the back of his head whispered what he couldn't ask for. What he shouldn't ask for. What he wouldn't ask for.
Lillian saw, and she knew.
Shit. Let's hope she forgets that.
"Go to Caine and tell him we're heading for Peridido," Drake ordered with no room for argument.
Lillian, apparently, made room.
"And if I don't?" she simpered.
Drake didn't reply.
He turned to stalk off in Caine's direction himself when Lillian disappeared in a flash of white light.
How did she even have that much energy?