Mike’s mouth closed with a snap.
Beth nodded in approval before starting again. “I trust Stephanie and if she believes that this world is in for a fight, then I believe her. I don’t want to run the risk of being attacked by one of these bad Weres, only to then turn into one of them and lose control of myself.” She grimaced at the thought. “I would rather choose the way I’m going to fight and which side I will fight on.”
Beth held out her hand to Mike and after a moment, he lowered his head, moved to her and took her hand.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jason’s eyes bulge and his mouth open slightly. Obviously, the earlier clues of Mike’s and Beth’s relationship had been lost on him.
“I understand if you don’t want to do this, Mike. I do, and I won’t care for you any less. But, for me, I want to do this.”
She reached out and stroked his arm with her other hand and offered him a sad smile.
Mike stared at her long and hard, as if searching for some way to chip away at her resolve, to turn her from this course of action. He apparently couldn’t find any.
“Fine. What do you need for us to do?” Mike capitulated.
Stephanie glanced at Jason to see he was as surprised as she at Mike’s reversal.
Beth on the other hand, positively glowed with an enormous smile.
Jason gave a mischievous smile, “Oh, this next part you’re going to love. We have to scratch you with our claws.”
“Then,” Stephanie continued with an equally mischievous smile, “you are going to almost die.”
Mike groaned.
Stephanie stepped into the bathroom and leaned against the doorframe as Beth fixed her makeup.
“So?”
Beth pretended innocence. “So, what?”
“Oh please! You. Mike! Come on big sis, dish!”
Still pretending innocence Beth finished up her makeup without responding. The moment she finished though, she spun around, a big smile on her face.
“I know! Right? I didn’t see it happening until it happened!”
“Well, tell me! Everything,” Stephanie pleaded with glee.
“Well. When you and Jason spirited off with almost no information . . .”
Stephanie rolled her eyes at the attempt to make her feel guilty, then rolled her hand to indicate Beth should move on.
Beth smiled teasingly. “When that happened, me and Mike started communicating more often as we kept checking to see if either of us had heard anything. Then one night he invited me over for a drink so we could talk about what had happened to you guys, and well, we talked about more than that. We laughed and joked with each other, and well . . . One drink led to another, and then one thing led to another.” Beth’s smile turned to a naughty smirk.
“Ah, so one of those drunken hook-ups you were always warning me not to fall into . . .?”
It was Beth’s turn to roll her eyes and Stephanie gave her a sweet smile back.
“Yeah, well, it’s just that I knew you would never forgive yourself for doing so.” Beth lifted her head imperiously. “I, on the other hand, wouldn’t be bothered by it.”
“Hmm hmm,” Stephanie murmured knowingly.
Beth’s eyes became slits as she peered quizzically at Stephanie’s response.
“Anyway . . .?” Stephanie prompted.
“Right.” Beth’s eyes widened again in excitement. “So, after that night,” she smiled again naughtily, “which was fun, by the way. We just sorta fell into this . . . thing. We hang out, we make out, we . . . do other things …”
“Ugh. I get it. You like fucking him!”
“Lil Sis! Language!”
Stephanie attempted to convey as much of a “give me a break” expression as she could into her look and stance.
After a minute of feigned indignation, Beth relented. “Yeah. I like fucking him.”
They stared at each other for a moment and broke out laughing.
When the laughter subsided, Beth turned serious.
“I really like him, lil sis. I didn’t think I would, but I do.”
Stephanie moved to her ‘big sis’ and gave her a long hug.
“I’m happy for you. I really am. Mike seems like a good guy, if a little dour. And he clearly likes you, otherwise he wouldn’t have agreed to do this thing.”
Beth lips dropped at the corners. “I know. I feel bad about it. He clearly doesn’t want to do this but is only doing it because I want to do it.
“I’m just afraid to tell him not to, because I don’t want to do this alone.”
This admission shocked Stephanie. Beth was one of the most fearless people she knew. If it scared Beth this much, perhaps she should reconsider asking her to do this.
“Look, Beth . . .”
Beth held up her hands to forestall anything Stephanie was about to say.
“I still want to do this, lil sis. I understand what is at stake here. But I would be lying if I didn’t say it scared the crap out of me. Not only the having to die first, but also the life being changed for, like, ever.”
Stephanie offered up a small smile. “Not forever big sis. You will be free as soon as I am dead.”
“Why would you say something like that!?” Beth’s tone was a mixture of fear and anger.
Stephanie shrugged. “I’m not a fighter, Beth. What we face. The things we face. This isn’t a game. This is life and death.” Stephanie felt a chill steal into her as she contemplated her own demise. “We faced only two of these monstrosities. Two and Kestrel. I have no doubt in my mind if Hank and Sim hadn’t shown up . . . we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
Beth gave her a flat stare. “As reassuring talks go, this one sucks ass.”
Stephanie couldn’t help herself and snorted out a laugh. Beth chuckled along. “Sorry. I just don’t want you to be under any illusions about what we face out there.”
Beth nodded. “I get it, lil sis. I get it. But the way I see it, if we let them have a free hand and don’t check them now . . . well, instead of facing a half dozen of them, we will be facing hundreds, maybe thousands.”
Stephanie couldn’t argue the point and truth be told, it shored up her own misgivings about entering this war.
“Well, I’m glad I will be having my big sis along for the ride.”
Beth hugged her. “I wouldn’t have it any other way, lil sis.”
The plan was simple. Stephanie would shift and would create a small cut into each of them in order to pass the lycanthropy on. Mike initially protested, but when Stephanie explained that if Jason cut him, he would be less powerful than Beth, who would have gotten her lycanthropy from a True. She would be a Pure and he would be just a Were. Or at least, that was how Sylvanis explained it.
Mike wasn’t about to let his new girlfriend be more powerful than him. It wasn’t, as he explained it, he couldn’t handle her being a strong person, only how would he ‘protect’ her if he was weaker?
To Stephanie’s surprise, Beth merely smiled and kissed him, instead of berating him for his use of classical gender roles. Stephanie could do naught but shake her head. It is amazing what love does to a person’s identity.
After she had given them lycanthropy, Jason and she would drive them to the hospital separately. Mike and Beth had not been too keen on this idea, but after Jason reasoned with them that two people showing up at the hospital together, going into cardiac arrest at nearly the same time would draw too much suspicion. They were already risking enough by going to the same hospital. The same hospital Jason had gone to where he had an unexplained heart attack as well.
They decided to wait until the next day, talking long into the night. Superficial words which shied away from the heavy topic that hung like a dense fog which made it impossible to see anything else. Exhaustion took each of them in turn and they fell asleep.
Light stole into Mike’s and Jason’s apartment, a soft light, dawn’s timid approach upon the sleeping group. Stephanie rose first, as these days she neede
d little sleep. Jason was quickly up beside her and they made their way noiselessly to the kitchen to make them all breakfast.
The sound of sizzling bacon and the scrape of a turner on a pan as eggs were flipped and scrambled were enough to wake the other two. Sleepy and bleary eyed, the couple walked like a pair of zombies into the kitchen to briefly say good morning before stumbling over to the couch and snuggling together, their eyes closed in either an attempt to sleep, or outright sleep.
After a moment, a soft snoring could be heard from the couch. As to whom it was, Stephanie couldn’t guess, but she offered Jason a beaming smile at the pair. She felt good about the two of them. She knew she was being a little selfish, as with Beth and Mike paired up, Jason and she would not feel awkward showing affection around them.
Stephanie sidled up next to Jason, who turned the heat off on the eggs and started transferring them to a plate. She wrapped her arm around his waist and pressed herself against the side of him, prompting him to look down at her. She pouted her lips and he answered with a pleasant, soft kiss before disentangling himself and getting the eggs taken care of before they burned.
Stephanie let him go, but not before harrumphing, to let him appreciate she hadn’t wanted him to go. Jason gave her an apologetic smile as he turned and moved to the kitchen table to distribute the scrambled eggs to the four plates Stephanie had placed on the table earlier.
As Stephanie watched him go, a warm full feeling enveloped her. She felt close to bursting with how much she loved him. This whole thing still seemed like a dream to her. She knew it was the same for him as well. They had longed for each other in shy solitude for so long. When they breached the wall that they had individually and unnecessarily put between each other, it was like two worlds had been spinning in opposite directions only to stop in the one spot where everything lined up perfectly.
She let out a soft sigh, and Jason glanced at her quizzically and she grabbed the bacon and moved to join him, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.
“Whatcha thinking?” he asked.
“Oh, you know.” She sat down.
“I love you, too.” Jason sat next to her and side-eyed her.
Stephanie didn’t look at him but gave a knowing smile.
They ate quietly so as not to wake the others. As they were finishing up their breakfast. Beth rose and joined them.
“Will I be as wakeful as you in the morning after this?”
“Yep,” Stephanie told her. “One of the perks.”
Beth grunted. “Is it?” She unceremoniously began to devour her eggs.
Mike fared a little better, pouring himself, and Beth a cup of coffee as he made his way over. Sitting down heavily, he grabbed a piece of bacon and chomped down on the end, chewed, swallowed and chased it down with a healthy gulp of hot coffee.
“Morning.”
“Morning, Mike.”
“Morning.”
Beth leaned into him a moment and back in a silent ‘good morning’.
Finished, Stephanie and Jason sipped at their own coffee while they waited for Beth and Mike to eat and wake completely.
When at last everyone was done, they sat in silence for a time. Now it had come time to do what they were going to do, no one wanted to be the one to initiate it. In the end, it was Mike who stepped up to the plate.
“Well. Might as well get on with it.” Mike stood and faced Stephanie.
She gave him a nod and stood, moving to the middle of the main room to allow her space to shift. Even after all this time and shifting several times in front of both of them, she still felt self-conscious. Steeling herself, she pictured herself in Werefox form and felt the tell-tale snap of bones and burning sensation which came with her body’s rapid transformation into her hybrid form.
The pain, distant now, felt as if it happened to someone else and they were describing it to her. Her discomfort now came more from never having wanted this power to begin with.
Though it had been Mike who had moved them to proceed, it was Beth who strode over to Stephanie now. Standing before her, Beth stared up at her with a mix of fear and awe on her wide-eyed face. It was more fear than awe as Stephanie could see Beth visibly shaking. Stephanie, once again, was about to call the whole thing off. She couldn’t bear the frightened look Beth gave her at this moment.
At that moment, a hard resolve came over Beth and she thrust out her arm, the agreed area Stephanie would cut. Stephanie looked hard at Beth, waiting for her resolve to crumble, but Beth thrust out her arm again as if knowing what Stephanie waited for. Stephanie sighed, reached out and made a quick drag of a clawed finger across part of Beth’s arm. She was precise so it wouldn’t damage anything more than needing some stitches.
Beth gasped and clamped her hand over the cut. Jason cut Mike off as he moved over with a sterile pad and gauze, sitting her down and quickly tended to the cut. Tears leaked out of the corner of Beth’s eyes as Jason wrapped her arm up, but she made no further sounds. Mike hovered over her like a hen protecting her chick from the fox, which Stephanie supposed, was an apt simile.
When Jason finished, he stood and moved away from Beth and Mike took his place, squatting down in front of Beth.
“Are you O.K.?”
Beth wiped the tears from her cheeks. “I’ll be fine. It just hurt like a bitch, that’s all.” She smiled. “Your turn.”
Mike grimaced but stood and moved over to stand in front of Stephanie. If someone could be less pleased about their situation than Mike, Stephanie didn’t see how. Mike seemed to be in a perpetual dour state. Too serious most times, but the expression upon his face now was like someone on death row.
“You don’t need to do this, Mike,” she growled.
Mike glanced back at Beth then back at her.
“Yeah, I do.” He held out his arm for her to cut.
Stephanie felt more and more like this whole idea of hers and Jason’s to recruit these two to the cause was the wrong thing to do, but she didn’t think she could back out now, not after already giving lycanthropy to Beth.
Once again, she reached out with a sharp clawed finger and cut Mike’s arm. A slice of skin. It was a moment before blood started to well out of it. Mike sucked in a breath between clenched teeth as Jason stepped over and clamped a pad onto his arm and wrapped it in gauze.
After Jason finished with Mike, Beth pushed him aside to move in and give Mike a long, deep hug. Their bodies seemed to fit so nicely together with little space to be found between them. With Stephanie’s acute hearing she caught Beth whispering to Mike. “Thank you. I love you.” Her voice trembled and Stephanie was sure she cried a little.
Mike held her for a long moment and Stephanie shifted back and stepped over to Jason. “We need to take them to the hospital. I am unsure of how long it will be before their bodies try to reject the lycanthropy.”
Jason nodded and audibly picked up Mike’s car keys. Beth disentangled herself from Mike and moved past him, not looking at Jason or Stephanie. She dragged the uninjured arm across her eyes and turned, offering a somewhat reassuring smile.
They spent the rest of the day wasting time and doing nothing but spending time together. It would be some time before they would need to go to the hospital in order to ensure they would be there when the rejection set in. Stephanie waited till dusk before suggesting they should head to the hospital. Beth hopped up, eager to get going.
“Right. Let’s get going.” She moved over to Stephanie and handed her the keys to her vehicle. It would be better if neither Mike nor her drove as they might go into cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital.
Beth gave Mike one last long hug before joining Stephanie as Mike joined Jason and they left the apartment to drive separately to the hospital.
They were silent on the car ride over. There was nothing more to say. The weight of what would happen next lay like an oppressive blanket over them, stifling any conversation.
The next few hours were spent sitting in the ER, filling out insurance
paperwork and medical histories. Stephanie and Beth busied themselves texting Jason and Mike accordingly. A nurse came in after what seemed like an eternity and stapled up Beth’s arm, explaining all the while how she had cut herself long enough to warrant stitches, an inch or so less and they would have simply changed bandages and sent her on her way.
Beth smiled tritely at the nurse, knowing full well it had been their intent all along to need stitches to maximize the longevity of the time they would be in the hospital, so when the attack came, they would still be there.
A short while later there came a bustle outside their little emergency waiting room, as nurses and doctors ran by. Beth’s eyes were wide with worry and she gripped the sheets of her hospital bed so hard her knuckles were a soft pink. Mike was dying.
Chapter Twelve
Stephanie grabbed her phone and immediately texted Jason, but he didn’t respond. Beth also attempted to text Mike to no avail. This was it. They both knew it. Mike had gone into cardiac arrest and now it was only a matter of time before he came through, or Stephanie gave no more thought to that outcome.
Whatever happened in a different part of the ER wing, they would find out when Jason or Mike replied to them, and they could do nothing but wait.
“How are you feeling?” Stephanie glanced at Beth.
“How am I feeling? How do you think I’m feeling? My boyfriend, the man I love may be dead, or dying . . . somewhere in this hospital, and I can only sit here, waiting for it to happen to me next!”
Stephanie examined her feet and shuffled them. “I told you that you didn’t need to do this.”
“Well, you didn’t make it seem like I had much of a choice!”
Stephanie knew the words were said out of a place of fear. A place where she might lose her new love, or worse, lose her own life, but they stung just the same. She had pitched this whole idea and had sold it as their only real option to survive what came next. She had used fear tactics and pressure to win them over to the idea. Mike had seen through it, but in the end had chosen to do what Beth had decided, out of love.
The Gathering Page 11