It was a week from the onset of Jenn’s transition before we saw any signs of it coming to an end. Sol and I were spent and exhausted because Jenn’s transition had been one of the most difficult we’d ever witnessed and participated in.
When she awakened on the seventh day and sat up on the bed, we all sighed in relief, even if it was far from over. She looked around lifted her nose to the air. “What is that delicious aroma?”
“It’s cruel for me to stay here,” Chansey said as she stared at Jenn.
Sol turned to Chansey and said, “It may be, but it’s necessary. This is part of the process and she has to learn control. If you leave, we are going to call in a Blood Swan. You’ve seen her through this far, so you might as well see her the rest of the way.”
Chansey was exhausted. The things she had seen and heard over the last week had taken their toll on her and I felt too much guilt to make her stay any longer. As I looked at her red eyes staring in Jenn’s direction, I wondered what I had done to my wife.
I reached for her arm and pulled her to me. “I am satisfied with what Chasney has seen and she has done what I asked of her. She is terribly exhausted, so call a Blood Swan. My wife needs rest because it’s been a long week.”
Chansey’s knees buckled and I lifted her into my arms to carry her to our bedroom. As I carried her up the staircase, I heard Jenn shaking the steel bars as she called out, “Don’t take her away. We can all share her.”
As I carried her to our bedroom, I realized this was my fault and I wondered if the things she saw had scarred her in any way. I hated myself for what I had done to her. She did all of this to please me, but it was too much for someone so good.
I pulled the covers back and laid her on her side of our bed. I pulled her shoes off and she was so exhausted she never opened her eyes to look at me. I pulled the covers up to her chin and looked at her beautiful face. Would she hate me after she woke up and had time to think about everything that happened this week?
When I woke up, it was very early. I was sitting in the chair at Chansey’s bedside and she was looking at me from where she laid in the bed. “What are you doing in that chair? Why didn’t you sleep in our bed with me?”
I sat up and rolled my neck. “I needed to think after I put you to bed and I wanted to watch you sleep. I miss doing that.”
She scooted over and lifted the covers to invite me to our bed. “You always got in the bed with me when you were watching me sleep before. You should have come to bed. I know you couldn’t have slept well in that chair.”
I didn’t, but I wasn’t sure I deserved to sleep too well. She continued holding the covers up. “Come. I want you next to me.”
I didn’t move from the chair. “I want to talk.”
She leaned forward and tugged on my arm. “I can feel what’s going on in your head and we can talk about it after you are next to me. Get in here now, Mr. Brennan.”
I slowly got out of the chair and slid in beside Chansey. She scooted up close to me and wrapped herself around me like a vine. “Now, explain to me what’s going on inside of your head because I don’t like the way it feels.”
I shut my eyes and shook my head. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that of you. It was too much.”
She slowly rubbed her palm across my chest. “I’m glad I did it. Don’t get me wrong; I’m glad the first stage is completed. I was so tired I don’t think I could have hung in too much longer, but I’m good now. I’m ready to finish this thing I started.”
There was no way I would expose her to this any further. “No, I don’t want you to and I shouldn’t have insisted you do it in the first place.”
She rose up to look at me and I saw something ignite in her eyes. “Is this your way of reneging?”
“No, I couldn’t do that to you after what you’ve been through this week.”
“Has it been tough to watch? Hell, yes. Do I want to quit now? Hell, no. I know it’s not what you want, but I will be a vampire one day because I’m going to be with you forever. I think I deserve to finish seeing this through. I need to see the struggle from the point Jenn is at to the point where you are now. You owe me that much.”
Yeah, I knew she was right. “You need rest first,” I conceded.
She sat up as she said, “I just slept.”
“No, it wasn’t enough.”
She closed her eyes and squinted them tightly as she grabbed her forehead with one hand and moved her other hand to the bed to steady herself.
“What’s wrong?”
“I think I changed positions too quickly and got a little dizzy. That’s all.”
“I want you to lie back down for at least three more hours. You haven’t rested enough for what you’ve gone through this week. Will you do that for me?”
“Okay. I will give you three more hours because I’m still tired, but not a minute more.”
I leaned over and kissed her forehead. “That’s my girl.”
I laid with Chansey until she went to sleep and then I slid out of bed to go check on Sol and Jenn. He was sitting in the same chair he had occupied all week and he turned to look at me as I returned without Chansey.
“Is Chansey okay?”
“She’s fine, but I told her she needed to sleep a little longer. Husband’s orders, you know?”
“No, I wouldn’t know, but Chansey strikes me as one that wouldn’t be too keen on husband’s orders.”
“Ordinarily not, but she was too tired to argue. How are things going down here? Any improvement in Jenn?”
“I think so. She went to sleep as soon as the Blood Swan left because she was so exhausted. She’s been talking in her sleep for the last few hours.”
“What has she been saying?”
“I think she’s repeating things she said to Avery when they were held captive by Vincent. She keeps shushing someone and saying that everything will be okay.”
“Sounds just like a big sister to me. Avery is anxious to see her.”
“No, it’s too dangerous,” he insisted.
“I wasn’t suggesting we should allow it.”
Sol looked over at me as he rubbed his palms over his jeans. “I’m sorry. This situation just feels so much different. I mean...we have sisters here with us. One is a new dangerous vampire we are trying to reform and the other is so...”
I waited to hear how he would describe Avery, but words failed him. “Avery is so what? Human?”
He dropped his eyes to the floor. “Yeah. She’s so human. What are we going to do with her? She can’t go home. Vincent killed their family.”
“I’ve been thinking about that. Vincent will be looking for her, so I guess she’ll stay here until Jenn is reformed.”
Sol ran his hand through his hair. “That could be weeks. Is it a good idea to keep a human here for that long?”
“I hope so. Otherwise, Chansey has to go,” I laughed.
“Chansey is different. She’s not all human.”
“She’s human the way it counts most,” I boasted, but regretted it the moment I said it.
“Yeah, you haven’t told me about that.”
So, he still wanted to know. “We haven’t really had the opportunity to talk much since we got back from our honeymoon.”
“I still want to know.”
“Okay. What do you want to know about it?”
“I don’t know,” He shrugged. “Nothing? Everything? I know it’s silly to ask. I feel like a teenage kid asking what base you got to on your first date with a chick.”
I leaned over and looked at my best friend. “Sol, I’ve knocked it out of the park and scored a home run. Lots of them.”
He laughed at my juvenile description. “I figured as much. So the vampire in you didn’t get in your way of being a human husband?”
“Well, since you’re asking...the bastard did resurface. It only happened once, but it was during the first time on our wedding night.”