by K. Aten
Sarah wandered in and sat next to her on the couch. “What’s up? Anything good in there?”
“Have you ever heard of a wild animal attack near Columbus?”
Sarah tilted her head in puzzlement. “No, why? Did something happen?”
“Apparently two hikers were found up in Alum Creek State Park, both dead from a suspected animal attack. The article says investigators are speculating that it could be a bear or a pair of large coyotes but they weren’t sure until they brought an expert in. Apparently the park isn’t known for having large predators but park officials have said that it’s not uncommon for them to wander in from farther off.”
Sarah peered down at the paper in Keller’s lap. “Isn’t Alum Creek State Park near Louve’s farm?”
Keller ran a hand through her messy blonde hair. “I believe she said it was on the other side of the lake.” She turned serious eyes toward her girlfriend. Centuries of life had gifted Nobel Keller with superb instincts and she had learned to listen to those instincts. If this attack had anything to do with Marcel, or wolves in general, it would surely only lead to more nightmares for Sarah. “There is something off here, and I don’t like it. Just a second.” She went to find her cell phone, dialing as she came back to the couch. When it was answered, Keller spoke in rapid French, then seemed to listen for a minute and nod her head. “Au Revoir.” The bar manager sighed again and tossed the smart phone onto the coffee table. She threw herself down on the couch in frustration and leaned forward to rest her elbows on her knees.
Sarah could feel the emotions swirling around in her lover. Foremost was worry, then irritation and disbelief. “Well? What did she say?”
“She said Marcel came back to pack his things and pick up his final check. He told her that he would be returning to Quebec and his family.”
Sarah looked into her lover’s serious blue eyes. “But you don’t believe her, do you?”
Keller scrubbed her face with her hands and blew out a breath. The last thing she wanted to do was worry Sarah further but she couldn’t lie either. “Oh, I believe her. I just don’t believe him. Call it a gut instinct, but they found two sets of tracks by the bodies. And it worries me. We certainly don’t need any deaths to draw attention to a community of people who are different.”
The musician took her hand before it could rake through the messy blonde spikes again. She reveled in how warm and alive Keller felt. “What can we do?”
Keller gave her a look that carried the weight of helplessness. “Nothing. There is nothing we can do but wait and see.”
HALF ASLEEP, ANNIE Colby squinted in annoyance. She had worked late the previous night, and since it was now Saturday, she knew she’d have to close again. The loud thump of music from the living room indicated that Jesse was up. She grabbed her cell phone off the nightstand and growled when she saw it was just after seven a.m. “What the hell?” Knowing her girlfriend would hear just fine, she yelled. “Jesse!” Then she covered her head again and waited.
Rapid thumping came down the hall and her girlfriend burst into the room. “What? What’s wrong? Are you okay?” Jesse had become paranoid about Annie’s safety since the incident at the farmhouse with Marcel. She knew the man was gone, but still she worried.
Annie peered out from under the pillow. Normally her obvious worry would prompt a fond smile but on just a few hours of sleep, it only set off more irritation. “It’s seven a.m., why are you blaring music so early? I didn’t get in until three.”
Jesse wore a contrite look. “I’m sorry, babe. I guess I didn’t realize what time you got home. I thought you’d just go back to sleep after I left for work.”
Surprised hazel eyes met Jesse’s brown ones. “Wait, you’re working? Since when?”
The IT professional swallowed, realizing that she hadn’t texted Annie to let her know her change in schedule. “Uh, since last night? My boss asked for a few volunteers to work this weekend, and I wanted some extra cash to upgrade my laptop. I was going to text you at work but I forgot.” She smiled hopefully. “But hey, why don’t you catch some more sleep after I leave and maybe we can do dinner and a movie later.”
Annie looked at her in frustration. “Apparently you also forgot that I work tonight as well. I have to go in early and close, which means I’ll be gone before you get home and you’ll be in bed when I return. I don’t get a night off until Sunday!”
“Well shit.” She knew Annie had been on edge since she had been training with werewolves out at the farm. Between Marcel’s threats and Marie’s blatant disregard of their relationship status, things had been rocky at home. She wracked her brain trying to think of a way out of their situation. “Um, do you want me to call in sick to work?” Jesse never called in sick, and just the thought of it only served to ratchet up her anxiety. “I mean, I’m sorry but I guess I figured since you worked last weekend that you’d have this one off.”
Annie ran a hand through her tangled dark hair. “Well, normally I would except Lynne and I are both picking up extra hours since Keller announced she was quitting. She’s only there half the time, and we still haven’t found another manager to replace her. So it’s crazy right now.” She leveled an exasperated look at her clueless nerd of a girlfriend. “But dammit, Jesse, no matter if I was working tonight or not, I don’t appreciate an early morning wake up when I work the night before. Seriously, what were you thinking?”
Angry at her own stupidity and being called out on it like a child, she responded with heat. “I wasn’t, okay? Jesus, Annie, I’m only human and I make mistakes.” In a fit of temper, she turned and stalked toward the door. “You want some quiet, fine! I’ll be out of your hair in five minutes, and then you can have as much quiet as you want!” Growling, she slammed the door as she left the room. The wood trim splintered as her wolf strength kicked in, and the door twisted on its hinges.
Annie stared wide-eyed in the direction of the hall. She whispered with equal parts fear and disbelief. “Holy fuck.” She stayed that way until she heard the front door slam, albeit with less force. It took another five minutes before Jesse’s car started and drove away. After that, exhaustion and anxiety caused Annie to curl into a fetal ball and fall into a nightmare plagued sleep.
IT TOOK FIVE minutes for Jesse to calm down enough to drive away. She sat in her car doing the meditation and breathing exercises Alain had taught her. She knew that losing her cool wasn’t an option, so she had to get her anger under control. It was so hard because she loved Annie more than life and she was desperately afraid of losing her. Jesse thought back over the events of the past six months. First the city had been plagued by a string of violent gay bashings and after that things just got weird. Her girlfriend had been through a lot. Annie discovered that vampires and werewolves were real and had both her sister and girlfriend turn into them, respectively. It was lot to take in. And Jesse knew that despite reassurance to the contrary, Annie was still jealous and afraid of Marie. They’d only been together a year and they’d already fallen into a pattern where they never saw each other.
Dread pooled in Jesse’s belly and slowly rose up to lodge in her throat. One year. Their one-year anniversary from the date they had become a serious couple was three days ago. “Sonofafuckingbitch!” The revelation that she had missed their anniversary caused Jesse to pull over to the side of the road in order to get her breathing under control again. The last thing her girlfriend needed was for her to think that she didn’t care. When she finally arrived to work, she was five minutes late. It wasn’t a big deal, and it wasn’t like she’d get penalized for it, but Jesse was always early. Always.
Her coworker, Jason, peered around the wall separating their cubicles. “What’s up, J? I almost thought you weren’t coming in today, you’re never late!”
Jesse sat in her chair and fired up her laptop. “I know, I know!” She ran a hand through her hair in frustration.
Jason looked at her in concern. “Are you all right?”
The brunette slu
mped in her chair. “We had a big fight this morning. I forgot to tell her I was working today. She worked late last night, I woke her up, and then it all went downhill from there. She’s working a lot of hours lately and—I dunno. Oh, and to top it all off, our anniversary was a couple days ago and I totally forgot!” Her hair, shaved short on the sides and back but long on top, hung over her eyes in the front. She peered at him through the messy bangs.
“Oh damn. One year, right?” Jesse nodded. Jason whistled. “You know you’re going to have to do some major ass-kissing, right?”
Jesse sighed. “You know the sad thing is that I don’t think she realized it either. We’ve just been under a lot of pressure lately. And now I feel like we never see each other.” Jesse had been pretty good friends with Jason since she had started working at the tech startup right after graduation. They had a great rapport. She knew all about his wife and new baby, and he knew all about her being disowned by her family, as well as about Annie, Sarah and, Keller. Well…he knew as much as he could be allowed to know. So Jason understood how important the Colby sisters were in Jesse’s life.
He thought for a minute, trying to come up with some way to help his friend out. Finally he grinned. “You know, Resurrection is coming to town and they’re playing at the Newport Music Hall on Sunday and Monday night. You should take a vacation day on Monday and see if there are tickets still available. Didn’t you say Annie was a huge fan of their music?”
“Yes!” Jesse spun in her chair and logged into her laptop. After a spate of rapid-fire typing, she found what she was looking for. Not only were there still seats available, there were some in the front row. She quickly added them to her cart and went to the pay method. She lost a few seconds when her eyes bugged out at the price, but quickly typed in her PayPal information and completed the transaction. Two thoughts ran like a freight train through her head: It’s a good thing I’m working today and I don’t need to update my laptop anyway. “Done!” She gleefully accepted the earned high five from Jason.
He grinned at her, happy to help out. “You know what this means though?”
She looked at him curiously. “What, that I owe you one?”
He laughed. “Well, that too. But it also means you’d better find someplace nice for dinner.” Jesse gave him a brief look of panic before spinning back around in her chair and attacking her keyboard again. He was still chuckling when he walked away calling over his shoulder. “If boss man comes by, let him know I went to drop the kids off at the pool.”
Jesse grimaced unseen at his childish euphemism. “You’re sick, man. I’m not telling him anything!” Meanwhile, she never stopped searching for the perfect restaurant. She had a plan, now she just had to get it all in place.
SATURDAY NIGHT AT The Merge was always busy. Annie had been running since she stepped through the door. She slept terribly, plagued by nightmares and thoughts of Jessie. She hated when they fought and hated the fact that her girlfriend scared her when she was angry. But she knew it would devastate Jesse if she ever told her that. It had taken them months to come to terms with everything when Jesse had been infected with the werewolf virus by Marcel. But even with all her training and meditation, Annie knew that her girlfriend wasn’t perfect. The younger Colby sister was currently checking stock in the back room in a rare moment of calm. Since no one was around, she was chastising herself for her own cranky attitude that morning. “This is why I should never speak on little sleep and no caffeine, I turn into a raging bitch.” Granted, Jesse was pretty clueless and sometimes didn’t understand some things that seemed like common sense to others. Things like “you can’t cook food twice as fast in the oven if you turn it up twice as high” and “if running the bathroom sink makes the water go cold while your girlfriend is in the shower, so too does flushing the toilet.” And the newest one was “don’t blast loud music a few hours after your girlfriend gets home from a double shift.” Clearly that one was still a work in progress.
Once Annie confirmed the liquor quantities on the shelf, she sat on a nearby stool. She thought back to when she and Jesse had first started dating. It was so exciting to find someone she really liked. Much to her own sister’s surprise, Annie had been saving herself for the time she fell in love. Once she finally gave in and had sex though, she and Jesse became ravenous. Of course, this only helped with their plot to get Sarah to move in with Keller. Now it felt as if they hardly ever saw each other, and the only time the younger couple had sex was after Jesse changed back to her human form.
Annie sighed. As much as she loved her job as assistant manager over the Voodoo Pony, more and more she wished she could just have a day job so she could spend more time with her girlfriend. Working nights got old after a while. Annie pulled herself off the stool and grabbed the clipboard she had set on the shelf. “I’m starting to think that Keller had the right idea to quit. Too bad we can’t all be independently wealthy vampires.”
Jesse had called Sarah and Keller, asking if they wanted to surprise Annie at the club. Even though her plans were mostly finalized for Sunday, she still felt bad for losing her temper on her girlfriend. They met Jesse at the house to pick her up, and even spent a little time helping the younger woman fix the broken bedroom door frame. Keller took one look at it and simply raised an eyebrow. Sarah was a little more vocal. “Is there something we should know, Jesse? Is everything okay between you two?” She leveled a green eyed gaze at Annie’s girlfriend, a young woman that Sarah had come to see as another sister. “I don’t have to worry about my sister, do I?”
Jesse realized in that moment how serious Sarah had taken the broken door. Her eyes got wide and she swallowed nervously. “Um, no! I swear Sarah, it was just a little fight and the bottom line is that I’m just a stupid jerk. I slammed the door and totally forgot my own strength.” She went on to explained how it happened and how she planned on getting back into Annie’s good graces. Keller left then to grab the tools from the basement and a few pieces of scrap lumber from when the contractors had remodeled the downstairs the previous fall.
Sarah nodded. “She loves that band. I think you made a great choice.” Sarah told her a brief story about how she and Annie had gotten tickets to see Resurrection a couple years ago, on one of her many short trips home. It was during the time that Sarah had spent as a “starving” musician on the road. Truthfully though, she had never been a starving musician. She spent years planning and had plenty of money saved up, on top of the insurance money from her parent’s death. Going on the road to play gigs around the country was never about making money. It was about the experience and getting her name out there. She had been chaffing at responsibility until Annie was old enough to be on her own. Once she got it out of her system, she was finally able to admit how much she missed home and family. That’s what finally prompted her to return the year before. She cocked her head and Jesse noticed that it was exactly the same mannerism as Annie.
“Where are you going for dinner?” Keller returned, catching only the tail end of the conversation.
Jesse answered with a pained look. “I have no idea! We haven’t gone out in forever, and I feel like I need to take her to a really nice place for dinner.”
Sarah shook her head. “No, you should go someplace where they have good food and it’s comfortable.” When Jesse gave her a surprised look, she continued. “You’d have to dress up for a really nice place, and you’re not going to want to wear those clothes out to a rock concert.”
Keller had a sudden thought and cleared her throat to interrupt. When she had their attention, she dropped her own little bombshell. “I uh, hmm, I just happen to know the lead singer of Resurrection, and can get us all back stage passes for the show.”
Sarah looked at her curiously. “How is it that you know a famous musician so well, and I don’t? I was the one traveling the country singing for my supper, so to speak. I met a lot of people.”
Keller winked at her. “Maybe I’ll tell you the story some time.”
The younger woman smiled at Sarah and Keller, and then her face fell. “Well, I would love it if you guys could come too, because I know how much Annie loves hanging out with you. And the back stage passes would be a dream come true. However, I know for a fact they are all sold out now. Jason tried to get tickets before we left work this afternoon and they were gone already.”
Keller gave them both a wide grin. “Oh, don’t worry about that. As a matter of fact, why don’t you give your friend Jason your tickets, and I’ll take care of the four of us. How does that sound?”
Jesse’s mouth dropped open, and only one word came out. “Epic.”
Sarah and Keller started laughing, but truthfully Sarah was just as excited. She loved the band as much as her sister. Keller looked from one brunette to the other. “Why don’t you two figure out where to go for dinner, and I’ll call my friend about the tickets.”
The singer gave her a serious look. “You’re sure your friend will come through? I don’t want any of us to get our hopes up.”
“I’m sure. Now if you’ll both excuse me, I’ll be right back.”
Sarah and Jesse stared at her in awe as Keller walked back down the hall to the living room to make her call. Jesse whistled. “I can’t believe she knows Grace Cadence! That’s some fucking shit right there! Wait ’til I tell Jason!”
The elder Colby sister shook her head and smiled. “She continues to surprise and amaze me.”
Jesse smirked and elbowed her girlfriend’s sister. “I bet outside the bed too, huh?”
Sarah lightly cuffed the back of the younger woman’s head. “Get back to work, pup! The sooner we fix this door, the sooner we can go see Annie.” Jesse mock saluted and started measuring the door frame for a new slat of wood. She was just giving the saw a curious look when Keller returned with a big smile on her face.
