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"You ready to do this?"
"I could make a comment about being born ready, but that'd be superfluous."
"I can't believe I'm this nervous."
"You'll do fine. Everyone must have a first time sometime."
"That was intentional innuendo, right?"
( Continue reading )
Thursday
To say Arturo ambushed her in the kitchen would be an exaggeration, but not by much. She'd been filling up a bowl with cereal all on her lonesome, only to turn around and find him standing by the table, a folder in hand and a grim look of determination fixated on her.
"Good morning?"
"Do you have a moment?"
A laugh escaped Jayla, nerves fighting with how overly dramatic this face-off had to look. "Sure. Is this the weirdly serious confession conversation that Vivian's been foreshadowing?"
Arturo hovered by the table until she took a seat. He gave off huge 'panicking during a job interview'-vibes which got Jayla's adrenaline pumping out of pure empathy. He opened the folder without preamble.
"You going to tell me what I'm looking at or am I supposed to guess?"
( Continue reading )
(Chapter 12) - (Epilogue)
Isha walked on shaking legs, Rahul's hidden hands on her shoulders. Rapid puffs of air stirred the hairs on the back of her neck in a panicked beat. Her breathing wasn't any steadier, even though he'd made the dash back and forth to the lab on his own before joining her. She only had nerves to blame.
She pricked her left thumb, her right already wrapped with a plaster. A pearl of blood formed on her skin. She drew it across her wrist, a thin trail of sticky discomfort. Giving her thumb a squeeze, she encouraged it to continue leaking, needing more to paint her throat with.
That should be enough. It supposedly wasn't the amount of blood that mattered when you dealt with vampires, just the scent of it in the right places.
Trial by fire for which of Woxell's teachings were lies and which weren't.
( Continue reading )
(Chapter 11) - (Chapter 13)
Jayla woke in sheets sticky with cold sweat. Her jaw ached, her skin prickled with the chill of sleeping on her own in a far too large bed, and her thoughts struggling to exit the dream that had thrown her half-awake.
"Hey! You're okay, you're okay."
Vivian's bright brown eyes took up Jayla's sleep-blurred field of vision and warm hands took her gently by the shoulders. Her presence kicked the last of the nightmare under the rug. Jayla finally managed to take a deep breath.
Her face went from clammy and cold to burning. "Sorry for the drama."
"You have nothing to apologize for. Don't you think the rest of us had bad dreams after our first big showdown with creeps?"
Jayla's face turned the heat up a notch. If only. No, her subconscious had to cook up an 'it was all a dream' scenario, where she woke up in her parents' basement with a sarcastic invitation to Brandon and Carla's wedding. As if Carla would settle for Brandon.
"Where is everyone?" Jayla's lingering unease from the far too mundane stress dream bled over into the fact she and Vivian were the only two people in the living room. "What's wrong with the light?"
( Continue reading )
(Chapter 10) - (Chapter 12)
Isha's right leg throbbed with each step, threatening to buckle under her weight. Her pants were stiff with unhelpfully drying blood. At least it's not mine.
She swallowed against both her heart and bile rising in her throat.
"Where are we going?" Rahul shouted. He had a steady grip on her arm, the two of them hobbling along together. They'd likely need to run soon. Isha considered asking him to let go of her.
"Downstairs, main room!" Jayla shouted back over the piercing shriek coming from the 'music box' that a minute ago had been a man. "We need to have Jesse," she nodded at said wailing box, "down there as soon as possible. Can you run?"
"Doubtful."
( Continue reading )
(Chapter 9) - (Chapter 11)
Warehouses tended to look like warehouses. Which was like saying people tended to look like people and cats tended to look like cats, sure, but not quite. Warehouses, in Jayla's experience, had an air about them that told you they knew you weren't supposed to be anywhere near them and that, had it been physically possible, they would have called your mother to tell on you.
Jayla took one last look at her phone before she turned it off and tucked it in an inside pocket. 4.03 am. Less than four hours until full sunrise.
"Everybody ready?" Lisa spoke in her ear. With the headset on it began to sink in that they were about to, basically, enact a heist.
It's both ridiculous and awesome that they had a whole set of these on hand. I wonder if they need to break into places often? It would have been pretty damn exciting, if the goal hadn't been to rescue a possibly tortured friend and if she didn't have to go in partly blind.( Continue reading )
(Chapter 8) - (Chapter 10)
"It can't be as simple as that," Vivian said for the third time.
Jayla almost jumped out of her seat and shrieked her frustration to the ceiling. Only exhaustion and Ginger cuddled up in her lap stopped her.
"We know we can get into the hunters' camp, thanks to Jayla," Dorothy said, with a nod in her direction. Gratifying, but not a solution to their constantly looping discussion. "We also know one of the hunters can be spoken to without lethal results. Doesn't that help?"
"The hunters won't let the vampires stay near their camp. Visit, apparently, but not sleep there. As impressed as I am with your daring, Jayla, we can't risk contacting your hunter directly again. Even if the one you spoke to by some miracle isn't out for blood, there's no guarantee she's an ally either. Too many unknown variables." Lisa pushed her glasses further up her nose and leaned back in her chair, her head hitting the backrest with a soft thock. Jayla flinched on her behalf. "Ava will be here any minute. Please be patient."
That would have been more convincing if Lisa hadn't been chewing a hole in her bottom lip.
"God, I wish she'd allowed me to come over and escort her. Or that she'd allowed me to go with her to her meeting."
"If Merrihollow is swarming with an alliance of hunters and vampires, traveling alone might be safer for her." Dorothy took Lisa's hand in a motherly fashion. "You know she's a supremely talented witch. Don't underestimate her."( Continue reading )
There had been better evenings in Jayla's life. Having to drag a semi-conscious, sobbing barely-adult back to her terrified friends had been all kinds of not fun, especially the part where she had to lie through her teeth. Better than leaving the girl in the dark about her close brush with danger-possibly-death, but it beyond sucked to know no one would be finding the 'black van' or 'creepy looking guy' they'd made up. There would be no resolution for the girl, only a life long 'what if', if things went well. If the vampires came after her again, who would save her then? Were there protection spells they could put on her?
Jayla and Vivian left when one of the girl's more industrious friends dragged in a beat cop from the street. They narrowly dodged having to give a statement. Jayla kept the guilt about that at bay by staying alert for possible ambushes as they made their way back to the mansion.
"She'll be okay," Vivian said, almost convincingly. She looked to be distracting herself by keeping in touch with Lisa and the rest of the pack. Texts flew back and forth, constant updates about what street corner they were on, how close they were to Sledge or home, and how no one had spotted any vampires. Yet.( Continue reading )
Light seeped into Jayla's new room, gently nudging her to wake up and face the day. Contrary to her usual routine this time she had no trouble getting out of bed, rested and eager to be up and at them. She'd almost forgotten what said day had on offer.
She had a few seconds of blissful ignorance, then Lisa knocked on her door.
"Meeting in the dining room in ten minutes. Ava's got something to share."
That should have stressed her out. Really, it should have. Instead she got caught up in how heartwarming is was to be 'one of the gang' so quickly. The threat of people with magical tattoos faded with the daylight, bogeymen her brain refused to accept as real. Being here was real, being called down to a meeting was real, waking up with a friend and said friend's mattress on her floor was real. Even with the deadly circumstances and the random way they'd all met Jayla couldn't stop being delighted by her current predicament. They were all in this together, cliche as that was. No specific concern for her, no awkward silences, no 'special treatment'. Them against the world, if you wanted to be dramatic about it.
"You don't know how to make real friends," Brandon had told her, first as a supposed joke and then with venom when they'd broken up. She'd show him. Him, and Carla, and Nia and all the other concern trolls. As soon as things were safe she'd start spamming social media with pictures of her new friends. She'd upload videos of their game nights. If they were okay with that.( Continue reading )
"She's back!"
Arturo took off his headphones and rested them around his neck. His hearing might not be as keen as a werewolf's, but he'd gotten pretty good as zeroing in on interesting conversations. Public ones only, of course. Unless there was an emergency.
He brushed aside the week-old guilt summoned by that thought and concentrated.
"I'll make sure to cook for an extra mouth," Dorothy said from the kitchen, positively bubbly. Arturo smiled despite himself.
"She's holding a cat carrier and she's got that shapeshifter guy with her," Vivian said. Her voice was coming from her room, likely having taken up position by a window. "Do we have any cat food left?"
"I'll go get some if we don't!" Melissa shouted from the living room, forming the third corner of the gossip triangle.
Arturo stared at his computer screen, torn. The pack had been on edge all week, in their own ways. Since Jayla had run off, Lisa had drowned herself in research; Dorothy had cleaned until the bathtubs shone and you could see your reflection in the hallway floor; Melissa had read all course literature for her current term; Vivian had gone out drinking with her coworkers and ended up in three bar brawls. Their excitement now caught Arturo between relief and mounting dread.
Jayla must have come back for a reason. Her bringing the shapeshifter proved that.( Continue reading )
Jayla stared at the empty chair. Arturo had been sitting in it. She was sure of that. Pretty sure. Now it was lying on the floor and Arturo wasn't in the room. Starting to suspect vampires can teleport.
"I'm so sorry." Dorothy leaned down and righted the chair, giving Jesse a smile that screamed sitcom homemaker covering for her unruly children. "Arturo gets a little jumpy when he's sleep-deprived. You should have said you were a shapeshifter! That would have required a lot less tiptoeing around last night for many of us."
Many? Wasn't Melissa the only one to turn? Had they had guests over? Maybe she was begin cautious around Jesse? Were shapeshifters, like, the enemy or something?
That's when the word 'shapeshifter' caught up with her.
"You were taller than me when I first met you!" Jayla whirled around in her seat and stared at Jesse, unsure if she wanted to yell at him or applaud him for that level of sneakiness.
"I was wondering when you'd catch on."
Jesse looked completely at ease, smiling and leaning back in his chair. Did that mean everything was fine? Arturo had vanished into another dimension for all she knew, but Dorothy looked more embarrassed than worried and Vivian hadn't stopped eating her breakfast.
"In your defense, we were both pretty drunk and I only shrunk half an inch at the time. Didn't want to be too obvious as I'm sure you understand. There's stretching the limits of magical protections and then there's being foolish."( Continue reading )
Waking up in someone else's house at the crack of dawn wasn't a new thing for Jayla. Waking up next to another woman wasn't either. Waking up buck naked on the living room floor without as much as a towel for cover was, however, a completely novel and not exactly wished for scenario.
Blinking owlishly in the dim morning light, Jayla did her best to take in her surroundings. A cozy lounge suite dominated the corner she'd been sleeping in, alongside a TV, a gaming console her sleepy mind couldn't put a name to, and a ton of bookshelves. A large table occupied the other side of the room. That had to be where the D&D magic happened on Sundays. A battle map sat ready on it, miniatures left mid-combat.
Out of nowhere a bathrobe landed on her.
( Continue reading )
"You sure it'll be okay to have my cat here?" Jayla stared at her open wardrobe, trying to decide which shelf her T-shirts should end up on. Being this nervous and thrilled called up the memory of her first sleepover. Hope this one gets a better ending. That said, teen me should have known horror movies aren't for everyone.
Vivian bent down to pet Ginger. He accepted the attention with glee, half climbing up her leg and baring his chin for scritches. Vivian had actually laughed at the silliness of naming a black cat Ginger, unlike Brandon who'd rolled his eyes. Why had she ever hooked up with a tweed coat in human disguise?
No more thinking about Brandon. Brushing that annoyance aside, Jayla directed Melissa to place the last box in the bookcase closest to the windows. She hadn't brought all her stuff, to avoid looking desperate or creepy. Getting clingy was a guaranteed way to ruin any budding friendship. New town, new me. No making old mistakes.
"It'll be fine," Vivian answered. "Arturo likes cats. He can look after Ginger. In the very unlikely event that things go tits-up, vampires are faster than us werewolves." Her words held grudging respect.
( Continue reading )
It's funny the things that spring to mind when you're being chased by a big, hungry-looking wolf.
Jayla had always thought the mind went blank when thrown into life-threatening danger. At least, she'd thought that'd be her reaction. She'd been sure she'd freeze up; locked muscles and hollow head. Though, as dread went, failing an exam couldn't be compared to this. Angst over an F could be fixed by going home to cry and binge eat ice cream.
The wolf's panting breath stayed close. The noise brought on flashes of scrapes she'd luckily gotten out of. If they'd gone on longer or been worse, would she have managed to think beyond a litany of oh shit, oh no, oh shit then too?
Feet smattering against snow and asphalt Jayla ducked under the odd branch that grew over the path, lungs burning. One part of her focused on running, on the growling right behind her and her weakening legs. Another part noticed that the park she was fleeing for her life through was pretty nice. Unlike her crappy new apartment this would be a pleasant place to spend an afternoon, when summer hit, and the forest it bordered offered hiking paths. There were plenty of comfy-looking benches made for reading a book and enjoying a hot cup of coffee on.
Too bad she'd be dead before she could finish that library book she'd accidentally stolen. Karma?
Fangs snapped at her heels. Jayla dodged off the path and darted in among the trees. The wolf let out a promising yelp of pain. Drawing in a desperate breath she forced her shaking legs to run even faster. She weaved between the trees as randomly as her panicking brain knew how.
Outrunning a wolf. Yeah, this was totally going to work.
( Continue reading )
(Chapter 12)
Someone was shaking her. Dylis reluctantly cracked one eye open to see who dared disturb her sleep. Maybe she should be grateful for it. Wherever she'd fallen asleep it wasn't very comfortable. Everything ached.
Reality caught up with her. It was Glaw who was shaking her and he was framed by the naked night sky. The darkness above had taken on a blue tone. Sunrise had to be close.
'We're never doing that again,' Dylis managed to sign. With a smile she watched Glaw laugh, tears dripping from his eyes. 'Unless someone who didn't deserve it died, I don't want to see any crying. Cheer up you weepy rat!'
He helped her sit up. She bit back a groan as her ribs protested this. They were on the plains, not far north of Growth if the stars could be trusted. Hills and grass stretched as far as the eyes could see in all directions. Good, means we probably didn't land on anyone. There were pieces of blimp everywhere and a surprising absence of body parts.
'The Adviser?' she signed, raising a hand to rub at the back of her head.
( Continue reading )
(Chapter 11)
Dylis woke up to pain. Her lungs were burning as if she'd been holding her breath too long, and her aching head told her she'd knocked it against something on the way down. The rest of her body didn't seem to have fared better.
Her legs were the worst. She had broken a bone or two before, but this was beyond that. She couldn't make herself look down, partly because her neck refused to raise her head more than a centimeter off the floor and partly because she was afraid of what she would see.
The world around was coming into view, with her legs remaining the focal point of her attention. Dust rained from the mess that had been the floor - the ceiling in the place she now was located. The air was full of it, making it hard to see more than an arm's length in front of her face. For all she knew she was surrounded by armed guards, waiting for the dust to clear before they stabbed her to death.
She fought back the panic. If she was to die, it wouldn't be curled up and weeping like a child. She breathed in through her nose, trying to ignore how that made her ribs protest and tried to make out any kind of silhouettes in the falling clouds.
( Continue reading )
(Chapter 10)
'Are you sure this is a wise decision?' Thais had made her way to the edge of the roof and was looking down at the barracks. She looked less than convinced and the rest of the squad were matching her expression.
Dylis stood alongside her and was doing her best to not let her doubts show. 'No, I don't, but he's the only chance we've got.' And I need to know if he's a traitor too. Her mind shied away from the word. If Huw had betrayed them, he would have been upholding his promises to the Empire, like she very much wasn't.
The conflict was giving her a headache and she didn't have time for that.
She took stock of her squad. Nikon and Aelius were keeping to the back of the group, under the watchful eye of Vita, which Dylis was glad for. She'd had enough of betrayals to last her a lifetime and if another one was coming up, being ready for it was better than letting the unpredictable element out of their line of sight. The problem was just that Vita might overreact. Hopefully, Nikon would be smart enough to keep a low profile. They needed all the fighters they had for this.
Bernike and Myrrine were staring at each other in a way that Dylis had come to realize meant they were talking to each other with their thoughts, which made her feel twitchy and on unsteady ground. She hurried to turn her attention to Cato and Aculeo, but they were being equally still and staring, so that was little to no improvement.
And Glaw...
( Continue reading )
(Chapter 9)
Dylis had always been a good swimmer. She'd more or less been living in the sea from the day she'd learned to stay afloat on her own and she'd made sure to keep her skills sharp. When you lived in cities where everyone traveled by boats and barges, it was a vital ability when you had to chase suspects wherever they went.
This notwithstanding, swimming with your hands and legs bond, after a five-meter-long drop, was no walk in the park. That the fall had knocked the breath out of her was no help.
Unable to kick or push her way up, Dylis implemented a wave-like motion, as if she were a child playing at being a dolphin. Her boots were filling up with water and her jacket grew heavier by the second, so it took her two attempts to get some air. She was sinking again before she knew it.
( Continue reading )
(Chapter 8)
'What were you thinking?!'
Dylis' hand movements were fast. It was only years' experience of being woken up by his sister at the crack of dawn that allowed Glaw to interpret them as signs. 'Sorry,' he managed to answer. His limbs felt heavy and warm as if he'd been lying in the sun all day. 'Water?'
There was an arm helping him to sit up. Glaw pressed his face into Dylis' jacket and took a deep breath, rejoicing in the familiar smell of it. His sister's solid presence had been returned to him and as he gulped down delicious water he carefully pushed aside all that had happened before their reunion. His brain would catch up with him soon enough. He just wanted to cling to Dylis for a little bit, soak in the feeling of utter safety.
"Idiot."
Glaw gave a laugh, making sure to turn his head and chest so Dylis would feel the vibrations the sound caused. 'The chocolate helped.' It was a nice memory to fixate on, a nice moment to think of instead of what he might catch a glimpse of if he took his eyes off the stains on Dylis' shirt. 'We got food, and a horse, outside Growth. Made it all the way to the demon forest. That's where we met the others.'
"And then you were stupid enough to go all the way back to Palace and get yourself recaptured."
Hearing Dylis speak such a long sentence started Glaw enough for him to tilt his head up and have a look at her face. It was her; the same scars, the same square jaw, the same piercing eyes. But she sounded all wrong.
( Continue reading )
(Chapter 7)
They only rode the horses until they were out of sight from any human eye and then set the animals free. They left the saddles and tacks on the ground for whoever next passed that part of the open plains. The link they'd broken some time ago, both to Glaw's relief and disappointment. It was with some trepidation that Glaw took a hold of Lykos' shoulders, but thankfully his body proved too tired to do anything embarrassing at their close proximity.
<Are you sure you're strong enough for this?> Glaw asked as they made ready to jump, doing his best not to feel awkward; they were speaking face-to-face, practically nose-to-nose.
The small smile Lykos gave him was all cheer. <I could run all the way back on the clouds should I need to!>
It felt odd not to be able to sense the emotions and thoughts that went along with the words, but on the other hand, it felt good to not have to have the thoughts of two people whirling around in his mind anymore. His own were distracting and confusing enough as it was. <Right.>
( Continue reading )
