Aftermath

With the scene behind the carnival littered with dead lizard creatures and blood slowly running through the concrete drainage grooves, Cassandra knew they could not stay there another minute.

The distant sounds of carnival music and laughter felt surreal now.

Like they belonged to another world.

Cassandra scanned the darkness one last time, crimson eyes narrowed.

“Are you able to move?” she asked Taylor carefully, one eyebrow raised.

Taylor looked down at her transformed arms in horror.

The blazing crimson wings trembled once before beginning to shrink.

The feathers receded slowly back into skin and flesh in a deeply unpleasant twisting motion that made Joey’s stomach turn.

Bones shifted.

Joints cracked softly.

Within seconds her arms were normal again, though Taylor herself looked pale and nauseous afterward.

“Yeah,” she said weakly. “I’m okay.”

Joey was pretty sure she absolutely was not okay.

Honestly, none of them were.

Cassandra turned toward him immediately.

“We need to leave before someone discovers the bodies.”

“Way ahead of you,” Joey answered quickly.

Taylor still looked shaky as Cassandra stepped forward and wrapped both Joey and Taylor beneath her living shadow-like cape.

The darkness swallowed them instantly.

That sensation still sucked.

Joey felt like his body was being pulled through freezing water and crushed into smoke at the same time. The world vanished completely for one horrible heartbeat before reality slammed back into place.

The three of them reappeared in the alley outside Joey’s apartment building.

Taylor bent forward immediately, gripping her knees.

“Oh God,” she groaned. “I think my soul just did a cartwheel.”

“Yeah,” Joey muttered, swallowing hard. “You never really get used to that part.”

Cassandra looked entirely unaffected, of course.

“Come inside,” Joey said quickly. “We have… a lot to talk about.”

“That may be the understatement of the century,” Taylor whispered.

A few minutes later the three of them sat awkwardly in Joey’s living room.

Joey took the couch.

Taylor sat curled tightly into one corner of the armchair.

Cassandra lounged calmly near the window like terrifying supernatural royalty.

The tension in the room was thick enough to chew.

Cassandra and Taylor kept cautiously studying one another.

Not hostile exactly.

But definitely wary.

Joey dragged both hands down his face before finally speaking.

“Well,” he said nervously, “I think there are probably some things we should all come clean about.”

Cassandra immediately looked directly at Taylor.

“I am a vampire,” she announced smoothly.

Joey winced.

Cassandra continued without mercy.

“Joey and I are mystically bound together.” She tilted her head slightly. “Also we have slept together.”

Joey immediately choked on his own spit.

He coughed violently while staring at Cassandra in disbelief.

Through the bond he could feel her smug amusement radiating off her like heat.

“You could have eased into that!” Joey wheezed.

“I could have,” Cassandra agreed calmly. “But this was funnier.”

Taylor’s cheeks flushed bright red as she looked between the two of them.

Then she looked down at her hands.

“Joey…” she said quietly, “I didn’t mean to hide things from you either. I just…” She swallowed nervously. “I didn’t know if you’d be afraid of me.”

Joey blinked at her.

“Taylor, after the last few months my standards for ‘weird’ have changed dramatically.”

That actually made her smile a little.

She took a breath.

“I’m Avalorian.”

Joey frowned.

“…Bird goddess?”

Taylor looked genuinely surprised.

“You figured that out fast.”

“I watched your arms turn into giant murder wings and decapitate a lizard man,” Joey replied. “I felt like ‘bird goddess’ was a reasonable guess.”

Cassandra actually snorted softly at that.

Taylor relaxed slightly.

“Do you remember at the zoo,” she asked Joey carefully, “when you mentioned the birds acting strange around me?”

Joey nodded slowly.

“Yeah. They all kept staring at you. Some of them looked like they were bowing.”

Taylor ducked her head shyly.

“That’s because most avian creatures recognize what I am instinctively. Avalorians are… rare.” She hesitated. “Very rare.”

Joey sat back slowly.

“Huh.”

Then Taylor’s blush deepened again.

“And… Joey and I have kissed,” she admitted quietly.

Cassandra’s eyes slid toward Joey immediately.

Joey pointed defensively.

“In my defense, she’s really pretty.”

Taylor made a strangled embarrassed noise.

Cassandra sighed dramatically.

“Yes, Joey. We are all aware you enjoy beautiful women. This revelation shocks no one.”

Joey rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly before looking back toward Taylor.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Cassandra,” he admitted honestly. “She’s bound to me and things got… complicated really fast. I didn’t want to lie to you, I just genuinely had no idea how to explain any of this without sounding insane.”

“You forgot the part where you let me feed on you,” Cassandra added helpfully.

Taylor blinked.

“…Feed?”

“It was medical,” Joey said quickly.

“It absolutely was not only medical,” Cassandra purred.

“CASSANDRA.”

Taylor’s face somehow became even redder.

Joey groaned into his hands.

“I am drowning.”

To Joey’s surprise, Taylor suddenly laughed softly.

Not jealous.

Not angry.

Just nervous and overwhelmed.

“I care about you, Joey,” she admitted quietly. “Honestly… after tonight I don’t think I get to judge anyone for having supernatural secrets.”

That hit Joey harder than he expected.

Some of the tension eased out of his shoulders instantly.

Then Taylor looked cautiously toward Cassandra.

“How do you feel about me and Joey?” she asked hesitantly. “I don’t want to come between you two.”

Cassandra studied her silently for a few seconds.

Then, surprisingly, her expression softened.

“Joey and I have similar tastes in women,” she said dryly. “Also, I encouraged him to pursue you.”

Taylor blinked rapidly.

“…Wait, really?”

“Oh absolutely,” Cassandra mused. “You smelled interesting.”

Joey pointed immediately.

“That sentence remains horrifying every single time you say things like that.”

Taylor laughed despite herself.

Then she looked toward Cassandra sincerely.

“Well… thank you. For helping us tonight.”

Cassandra inclined her head once.

“You are welcome.”

The warmth in the room faded slightly a moment later when Cassandra’s expression sharpened again.

“Do you know who those creatures were working for?”

Taylor’s face fell immediately.

Slowly—

reluctantly—

she nodded.

“Yes.”

Joey sat forward.

“Who?”

Taylor’s golden eyes lowered toward the floor.

“My betrothed,” she whispered.

Silence.

Joey blinked.

“…Your WHAT?”

Taylor looked deeply uncomfortable now.

“I’ve been hiding from him for over twenty years.”