Embracing Forever

by K. Aten

  “What happened? Are you okay?”

  Keller grabbed Sarah’s hand and pulled her into the living room. “Let’s sit down and talk. Things have escalated with Marcel and Marie, and it’s not good.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Anger washed over Sarah’s face and she answered Annie’s question. “What she means is that Marcel, Marie, and an unknown third man attacked Jill this morning after we dropped her off. They assaulted her, breaking nearly every bone in her body while they were in half-wolf form, and left her for dead. Keller was forced to infect her just like she did with me or she would have died right after we got there.”

  Annie paled. “Jilly?” Sarah nodded. “Shit!”

  Always the one for details, Jesse looked at them in confusion. “Three? Who is the other guy?”

  “We don’t know, only that he was stocky and was wearing a knit hat so she couldn’t tell what color his hair was. She said he didn’t speak and she never saw his face, just the back of his head. Jill’s description of the other two perfectly matched Marcel and Marie, right down to the fact that they were speaking French.”

  Sarah looked at Keller suddenly. “They were speaking French!”

  Keller looked at her curiously. “Yes, I just said that.”

  “No, Marie was speaking French to the two men. Jill said she was telling both of them to be careful in French. That must mean the third man must speak fluent French as well! You should let Louve know.”

  Annie looked at the older couple fearfully. “You think they’re going to come after me next, don’t you?”

  Sarah looked at her for a second then nodded. Jesse was still trying to figure out who the third person would be. “Do you think they would have infected someone else in order to make more rogue wolves?”

  Keller shook her head. “No. It would be months before the man could be trusted not to lose control. Plus, how many fluent French speakers live in Columbus that wouldn’t mind murder and assault as a pastime?”

  Sarah looked at her abruptly. “I’m serious, Keller, you need to call Louve right now and give her the full description that Jill gave us. The third man kept his head and face hidden and he didn’t speak. What if he was the one in control, not Marcel like we thought? What if the third man is one of her people that we haven’t met, or even one that we have? She needs to start looking on her end.”

  Annie snorted. “And I would have got away with it too if it hadn’t been for those meddling kids!” When three serious looking sets of eyes turned her way, she immediately sobered. “I’m sorry, I know it’s not something to laugh about. And I know I’m in danger, but I guess all the mystery just struck me as funny.” She shrugged. “So what do we do in the mean time?”

  Keller looked at the little group. “We’re going to have to change our routine. Annie, are you willing to take a leave of absence from work?”

  “Are you nuts? We have Columbus Pride in a month, and our manager is leaving.” She gave Keller, her manager, a pointed look. “There is no way I can take time off right now!” When Sarah looked like she was going to protest Annie cut her off. “And I’m not going to either. This is my life and my career, and I’m not going to let them make me afraid to live it! We’ll find another way.”

  The elder Colby sister punched the couch cushion next to her. “Why are you so stubborn? This is serious, Annie! They’ll kill you!” Tears threatened but Sarah’s anger at her own helplessness in the situation wouldn’t let them fall. There was nothing she wouldn’t do to keep Annie safe but the younger woman didn’t seem to understand the level of danger she was in. Of all people, Sarah thought that Annie would understand her fear. Annie was the one who begged Keller to save Sarah’s life the previous year. Yet Sarah’s pleas fell on deaf ears when the situation was reversed.

  Hazel eyes looked back at the closest thing Annie had to a parent. Annie knew her sister was overprotective, but she wasn’t always right. But for Annie’s own piece of mind, there were just some things in life that she had to do, regardless of what Sarah wanted. She trusted her strange family to have her back, and she didn’t want to live her life in fear. “I said we’ll find another way. Look, I won’t ever go anywhere without one of you three. I won’t even stay at the house by myself.”

  Jesse leaned toward her girlfriend and put an arm around her shoulder. “I’ll watch out for her, Sarah, I promise.”

  The bar manger ran a hand through hair that had given up on any sort of style for the day. “Jesse, I know you’re strong and that you mean well, and I know you’d give your life for Annie. But that is exactly what you’d be doing. You can’t face three older werewolves alone. They will kill you and then they’ll kill Annie.”

  “Why don’t you stay with us at the condo?”

  Annie wrinkled her nose in disgust at her sister’s suggestion. “I love you guys, but with your vampirey-succubus thing going on, you two seriously scrump all the time! The condo is big, but it isn’t that big. No can do, sis.”

  The singer raised an eyebrow. “Like you’re one to talk! What about Jill then? She lives in that big house and she could definitely take care of you both. I also think she could use a little friendly company now since the attack. I’m worried about her being alone right now.”

  “Sarah, I love Jill, you know that. But she still calls me ‘kid,’ just like when you were dating.”

  Sarah gave a curious look. “What’s wrong with that?”

  “You dated, like, ten years ago! I’m not a freakin’ kid anymore. Besides, I’m sure the last thing she wants right now is more strangers in the house!” Sarah sat back, slumping against the cushions of the old couch in defeat.

  Keller thought about Jill’s seeming fear and revulsion at the thought of werewolves. The attack had definitely affected her and potentially any relationship she might have with Louve. Maybe a little exposure of the “good kind” might help her come to terms with stuff. “Actually, I think Sarah has a good idea.” When Annie shot her a dirty look, she tried to explain. “Listen, right now Jill is traumatized from the attack. She has dealt really well with being infected, and with learning that there are more things out there than we learn about in school. But she was tortured and left for dead, all by three people she watched turn into half-wolves. She was broken, Annie, as broken as a human can be and now she is alive and very much afraid. They turned into things she’s only ever seen portrayed as monsters. She needs to see that not all the monsters are the bad kind, that some of them are people.” She turned and looked at Jesse. “Do you think you can help with that?”

  The young werewolf geek looked skeptically back at her. “I don’t know, Keller; I’ve only met her twice when Annie and I have gone out. She seemed cool at the time but she has every reason to hate my kind now. And from what you’ve said, she could snap me like a twig. I don’t want her to take all that anger out on me.”

  Keller shook her head. “I don’t think she will. And I’d also like the opportunity to teach her how to feed on energy. Hypothetically, vampires can drain a werewolf enough that they turn human again, if they drink deeply of every bit of their energy. Now, I don’t want to test out that particular theory on you, but I’d like to at least show her the basics of feeding on a wolf’s energy.” She looked back and forth between the two younger women. “Jill is emotionally vulnerable right now, and I sense that she could use all the friends she can get. Especially ones that she can talk to about all this. What do you say?”

  Annie looked back at Keller, then glanced at Sarah. She stood and grabbed Jesse’s hand. “We need to talk about this first.” She turned to her sister and waved her fingers near her forehead. “And no listening in with your mind thing either!” After she dragged her girlfriend through the door to the kitchen, Keller turned to Sarah and started laughing.

  “Doesn’t she realize that we can just hear them from here and it has nothing to do with mind reading?”

  Sarah shrugged. “I’ve explained it many times, she never believes me. You do real
ize that even if they agree, we still have to convince Jill.”

  Keller nodded. “I’m aware and I’m leaving that to you. She’s your ex, you know her better than anyone else. I’m sure you’ll find a way to persuade her.”

  Before Sarah could respond, Annie and Jesse came back into the living room. Annie looked irritated but resolute. “Okay, we’re fine with the plan. What do we do now?”

  The elder Colby sister looked at Keller expectantly. “Yeah, Doctor Headshrinker, what do we do now?”

  Keller thought for a minute. “Well, normally people would be more comfortable in their own home dealing with new things, because that is where they feel safe. However, I don’t think that Jill feels very comfortable in her home right now. At least that’s the impression I got from her before we left, despite all her reassurances of being fine. Why don’t we all go over to our condo where it’s kind of neutral ground?”

  Everyone agreed with the plan, which left Sarah to make the call. Five minutes later she came back into the house, having stepped outside for a bit of privacy. “Well, she wasn’t too happy about it, but I think she was less happy sitting at home by herself. I told her Annie and Jesse would be there and surprisingly she didn’t comment. She seemed almost in shock.” She looked at her girlfriend. “Maybe you were wrong with your assumption that she’d have a problem with wolves now.”

  Keller shook her head. “I don’t think so. It’s easy to be brave when you’re not face to face with your fear.” She stood and stretched. “All right, let’s get this over with. Even vampires need more sleep than what we got last night.”

  JILL ARRIVED AT the condo around three in the afternoon. Though she’d never admit it, she was relieved to get out of the house and be around familiar faces. The hours she spent staring at the door felt like years. Sarah and Annie were playing guitars in the living room while Jesse tried to follow along with a tambourine. Keller went down to get Jill when she buzzed the intercom. Jill looked wary when she followed Keller into the elevator and Keller could make out the faintest traces of fear through the other woman’s shield. Neither one for small talk, they rode in awkward silence to the fifth floor. Jill neither smiled nor emitted any other emotions until she walked into the condo and heard the Colby sisters playing. Then it was as if a calming blanket settled over the veterinarian and Keller watched the woman’s face relax. She thought to herself, “Ah, familiar is good.” The trio was so engrossed in what they were doing that they didn’t even realized Keller had left, let alone returned with another person. Keller gave a little trilling whistle. “Hey, look who I found on the front step!”

  Annie and Sarah both stopped, and the younger woman set her guitar aside and jumped up. “Jilly!” She ran over to her sister’s ex. Despite all her complaining that Jill still called her “kid,” Annie thought of her as an older sister. Jill and Sarah had been friends for a long time. With so little support and affection in her own house, Jill spent a lot of time at the Colby’s. Annie practically grew up with her.

  Jill accepted the hug with some trepidation but her smile was completely real. “Hey, kid, how’s it going?”

  Annie stepped back and scowled at her. “How many times do I have to tell you, it’s Annie, you big ginger Amazon!” She emphasized her point with a poke to the chest. Jesse looked at her girlfriend in shock while Sarah burst out laughing.

  The ginger amazon growled at her. “Big. Ginger. Amazon? Really? You know, kid, you’re never too old for the claw.” She held up a hand and spread her fingers wide, the same way she used to do right before tickling a young Annie Colby senseless.

  The younger woman’s eyes widened. “Eeep! I give, sorry Jilly. I won’t call you ginger names anymore!”

  Jill gave her a warm smile. “It’s okay, A, I understand. So things are crazy, huh?”

  Annie looked at Jill, then around at the rest of the people in the condo who were watching them. “Yeah, things are crazy. Life, you know?” She sighed then abruptly shook off her mood.

  Duke was sitting idly by, waiting his turn to say hello. Jill followed Keller and Annie into the living room area to take a seat in the recliner. The big dog decided that was his cue to climb into her lap. Sarah immediately scolded him and stood to pull him down by the collar. “Duke, get down. You’re not a lap dog!” He managed to wedge himself between the chair and Jill’s hips, then sprawled the rest of his body across her lap.

  “He’s fine, leave him.” She ruffled his fur and accepted his doggy kisses. “He’s just a big lovey boy, aren’t you, Duke? Who’s my handsome boy, hmm? Who’s my beautiful baby?” The two couples watched the veterinarian lavish attention on the husky. When she saw them looking she stopped what she was doing. “What? He’s my favorite patient! He’s not drama queen like literally every other husky I see.” After accepting one more kiss, she patted her lap to get Duke to lie down. “All right, you got me over here, let’s talk about the situation. I want you to fill me in completely, starting with last year and ending with now.”

  It took a while, but between the four women, they were able to paint a pretty good picture of what life had been like since Sarah had been infected by the vampire virus the previous year. They explained all the things she’d had to deal with as she came to terms with having other blood. They also told Jill what it had been like for Jesse, after she had been infected by Marcel. Jesse talked about how difficult and painful the transformation was at first, even mentioning that her first form was the half-wolf thing that she saw her attackers change into. To lighten the mood a little, Sarah talked about Jesse trying to eat her first meal of pizza and Dr. Pepper after the initial transformation. Her story had all of them rolling in laughter, even the veterinarian. When they calmed down again, Keller laid out their plan to Jill, explaining that the trio would most likely go after Annie next.

  Jill sat forward on the chair, tense. “I won’t let them touch her! I’ll be damned if she has to go through what I did! It was—” She took a shaky breath and shut her eyes. When Sarah broke up with her nearly a decade ago, she had been devastated. Even though half of the break had been her own fault. Jill had spent most of her life feeling alone until she met the tall gangly Sarah Colby. She had so few people in her life that she truly cared about that she couldn’t bear to lose Sarah once they were no longer dating.

  The biggest reason they became friends after the breakup was because Jill simply wouldn’t let the singer walk out of her life. Sarah and Annie had been her family for so many years that it was something she would never willingly give up. Now, the friendship she shared with both women was one of the bright spots in her otherwise fallow life. Sarah looked at Annie and something unspoken passed between them. The younger Colby got up from her seat and went around the back of Jill’s chair. Bending at the waist, she wrapped her arms around the stoic woman and just held her from behind.

  “It’s going to be okay, Jilly. Sarah and Keller will do everything they can to make them pay. You’ve got all of us so don’t be afraid to cry, okay? We’re right here, sis.” Sarah got up from her seat and went over to Jill as well.

  “You became an honorary Colby when we were freshmen in high school. That doesn’t change just because we stopped being a couple. Let us help you, and you can help us.”

  Keller cleared her throat, catching everyone’s attention. “Jill, anyone who could remotely be related to me is centuries dead. But what we have right here, right now, this is more family than I’ll ever need. We are all family now, and we will get through this together.”

  Jill looked from one person to the next, until she came full circle around the four of them. “You’re right, you’re all right. We’ll stick together and lean on each other when we need it.” She turned to look at Jesse. “Is it true? Are you really like them? You can turn into that half-beast monster too?”

  Jesse nodded, causing her dark hair to flop over her eyes. It was short on the sides and back, but the front continuously drove her crazy. She pushed it out of the way before she spoke. “A
ctually, I can turn into the half-wolf, or all the way into a wolf. Half-wolf is nice because I can still talk to Annie, watch TV, and eat people food.” She blushed a little, remembering the pizza and soda story. “Well, with a little help. But full wolf is different, it’s…freeing. To be able to run and sense things on an entirely different level is just awesome. It’s really hard to explain.”

  The younger Colby sister laughed and walked around to sit on the arm of Jill’s chair. “Actually, sometimes I take her and Duke to the dog park to play. It’s pretty funny watching them together.”

  The veterinarian cocked her head curiously. “So do you speak dog? Does he understand you, and can you still understand us?”

  “Oh, I understand people just fine when I’m the wolf, I just can’t speak. But animals are different, they’re cruder. It’s like talking to a two-year-old, they only understand basic things.” She thought for a second, then lobbed the idea out into the middle of the room. “Do you want to see?” When Jill paled, Jesse tried humor. “I mean, I haven’t had my shots or anything and I’ve been looking for a good doctor in the area. You see I have this pain right here…” She trailed off, vaguely gesturing toward her side.

  That worked. Jill cracked up laughing. “Oh God, that’s exactly what my friends who are people doctors go through. Every time they meet someone who finds out they’re a doctor they start talking about all their aches and pains!” The tension was finally eased in the room, which only left Jill curious. “Okay, so does it take long to change? Does it hurt? Is your anatomy the same inside when you change? How does that work?” The last question was directed at Keller, who seemed to be the most knowledgeable about things of other blood.

  Keller looked back at her and smiled. “There’s only one way to find out. Let’s have Jesse change then you can give her a full physical. After that, I’ll teach you how to feed on a werewolf’s energy.”

  Jill nodded and Jesse shrugged. “Okay, everyone ready?” Annie abruptly got up from the arm of the chair and headed to the far side of the condo. Sarah watched her walk away in concern, then looked back at Jesse. The young werewolf gave her a sad look. “She doesn’t like to watch me change because she knows how much it hurts. She can’t stand to hear me in pain. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s a lot better now. But it’s still kind of agonizing.”