Renfaire Fantasy 1: Brian Returns (Patreon)

One Week Later

With a sudden jerk of motion, Brian sat up in bed, displacing bed covers that had been drawn up part way over his chest. He opened up his eyes wide, blinked rapidly, then squinted as the fog of an unnaturally long sleep cleared. This was his room—this was his bed, back at his apartment, and he wasn’t alone.

“Whoa, whoa,” Emily held up her hands. “Easy, easy, take it easy—”

“Emily?” Brian paused, too stunned by the figure beside her to think about what Emily was doing here. “Kelly?”

“Hi Brian…” Kelly greeted in a weak voice.

He yanked back the covers and hopped out of bed to discover he was wearing a pair of boxers that he didn’t remember putting on. A pair he wouldn’t have put on. This was that random green pair of boxers that was always shoved to the back of the drawer with the other old ones from that set, he never wore them because they had that weird uncomfortable habit of riding up whenever he extended his stride for a longer step or twisted certain ways. Someone else had dressed him.

Shit. What time is it—am I late for work? Brian saw light coming in through the window and started to feel a sense of panic rising up. Fuck me, I’m ABSOLUTELY late for work, I’m scheduled every fucking day after the con. What DAY is it?!

“Brian, Brian stop stop stop, slow down—” Emily tried to stall his panic.

“What—” Brian paused, working his mouth. His mouth felt weird. “—the fuck?”

“Calm down, calm down, we can explain everything!” Emily insisted, taking him by the arm. “Sit down. Brian.”

Ignoring her futile attempt to push him back onto the bed, Brian ducked down to slip an arm beneath the back of her legs, and easily scooped Emily up into the air. Her unruly mess of hair that was once a slightly overgrown pixie-cut was dark again, with only an inch of the vivid bright blue still there along the outside edges. It gave her hair a mottled look with sharp contrasts when her hair was tousled like this. Turning his attention from the squirming girl in his arms to Kelly, he discovered the buxom girl likewise had long hair that had returned to black, with only brilliant red tips remaining.

“Hey—hey!” Emily protested with a laugh. “Brian.”

“Christ, thought I was gonna wake up and all of that was gonna have been like, a dream or something,” Brian smothered Emily’s forehead and cheek with kisses. “Like—holy shit am I glad to see you guys. Both of you. Is Stephanie…?”

“She’s finishing out her semester, still,” Kelly explained—she had a nervous, wary look about her that filled Brian with the need to put her at ease. “So, uh… how much do you remember? What’s the last thing you remember?”

“Rebecca turned into a bunch of trees and was like, trying to soothe me?” Brian planted an extra sloppy kiss between Emily’s brows and then tossed her haphazardly on the bed. “Or uhh, no that was probably a dream, huh? Fuck. What time is it? I uh—shitfuck, my phone’s still gone. How late for work am I?”

“Over a month,” Emily exclaimed, fighting the tangle of covers to get back up to her feet. “Brian, you’ve been out for—”

“Kelly?” Brian asked.

“She’s… not kidding,” Kelly said with a small wince. “You’ve been asleep for a month. Month and some change.”

“Okay,” Brian froze, unable to process that for a moment. “A whole month. Did—”

The two girls waited as that unfinished sentence of his hung in the air, but his crashing thoughts had already displaced whatever he had intended to say, and he stood in the middle of his room with a confused frown. What was the last thing he remembered? He recalled the surreal events of the convention weekend—which was a LOT to take back in all at once—he remembered the terrifying and somewhat thrilling sex he’d had with Kelly right there in a booth of the crowded vendor’s room, and then—

“Is… Chloe okay?” Brian asked. “That was Chloe getting like, assaulted out there, right? In the alleyway?”

“Chloe is…” Kelly frowned. “Well. You did save her, back there. She didn’t get raped.”

“Okay, stop, stop,” Brian stepped forward. “Time out, here. What’s wrong?”

“I uh,” Kelly almost flinched back. “S’my fault. In the first place. I got you hurt. Fucked everything up, like I warned everyone I would. Brian… if I hadn’t sent you out there—”

“—Then Chloe would have gotten raped,” Brian finished for her with a slight scowl. “I mean—fuck, sure as hell not thrilled with Chloe, but no one deserves to be raped. Right?”

“Right!” Emily agreed, jumping off the bed and latching her entire body onto Brian’s back. “And—you did save her sorry ass!”

“Still my fault,” Kelly insisted. “You got hurt because of me.”

“True, true,” Brian nodded, hunkering slightly to shift Emily up enough that he could get a hand beneath her butt to support her weight before righting himself. “So—yeah. You owe me, big time. Let’s say two—no, three kisses. They’ve gotta be good ones, too.”

“And some head,” Emily chimed in. “Ask for—bro! Ask for some head, too. C’mon.”

“It’s okay if you blame me for what happened,” Kelly told him in a serious voice. “I mean it. If—”

“Shut the fuck up and kiss me,” Brian stepped forward with Emily still on his back and kissed Kelly.

Stealing Kelly’s lips felt good, they were deceptively soft and once again those tingly pop rock sparkles of power appeared in the back of his mind as he fully embraced her. He felt her body relaxing into his arms, felt her tension wick away as those red beams of starlight reconnected them on a deep, primal level. It felt good to be back, felt great to be back here, sandwiched in between Kelly and Emily, and he held the kiss a moment or three longer than necessary before finally allowing the girl to breathe again.

“Hoooly fuck,” Kelly swore, blinking rapidly as a flush or relief seemed to color her features. “Forgot what it was uh, what it was like having that work the other way again.”

Her long hair was completely red again, her nipples were now standing out against the fabric and attempting to bore holes through the top she was wearing—one of his own shirts, he just now noticed—and Kelly looked more herself again. That Kelly confidence he remembered had been steeped with unfamiliar tension that he had needed to dispel, seeing her smile again seemed to make the entire world light up, and—

“Fuuuck, do me! Do me!” Emily slapped the top of his head. “Bro—c’mon. My turn, big guy. Do me.”

“Alright, alright, hold on,” Brian griped with a smirk. “Just—one second. You said it’s been a whole fucking month?”

“Brian kiss me,” Emily demanded. “Kiss me—no wait, whip it out. You can fuck my mouth. You can—”

“Emily, hold up, Christ,” Brian protested, letting her drop back down behind him. “Take it back down a notch. So, uh—level with me. On a scale of one to ten, how fired am I?”

“You’re uh—you’re on leave of absence?” Emily was already ripping her clothes off. “There was this—you see, when I called them about the whole thing, they—”

“Shitfuck,” Brian swore, running his hands through his hair. “If it’s been a whole damn month, they sure as hell hired on another forklift driver. I need to get over there—uhhh meet me in the shower?”

He took the still dreamily-smiling Kelly by the shoulders and moved her to the side, because he needed to get into the bathroom, and there wasn’t a ton of space in his apartment here. Stepping past her and into the little bathroom enclosure, he flicked the lights on to reveal unfamiliar toothbrushes and toothpaste things on the sink. Likewise, shampoo and bodywash bottles he didn’t recognize were arrayed on the little shower shelf across from him now, and a white loofah was hanging from the opposite side of the towel rack. He wasn’t a stranger to women’s products being in here; Chloe had possessed a dark purple loofah and a bunch of expensive products. None of these were Chloe’s. With all of these details present, it was really only now hitting him that these girls had been living here in his apartment. For a while. Maybe a month really had passed.

“Brian, wait—” Emily finished shimmying out of her shirt and threw it on the carpet in a huff. “Hold onnn! Come back here right now, mister! Fix me up. Creampie my mouth. Shoot your goo, my dude, pew pew pew! Blast a big ol’ milky load—cum right down my throat!”

“Emmie—Emily, alright just wait a sec,” Brian chuckled at seeing her enormous grin. “Just—”

“You were supposed to contact them at the packing plant, soon as you were able to again,” Kelly said, holding Emily back by the shoulders. “Do you want to drive out there? We have all your paperwork stuff from the hospital, it’s on your desk.”

“Uhhh,” Brian froze again. “Hospital? Did—was I—fuck, hold on, Emily. Let me brush my fuckin’ teeth, goddamn. I feel all weird.”

“Don’t swear at me, you stupid sexy shithead!” Emily tried and failed to sound cross as she shrugged off Kelly’s hands.

The horny Latina immediately dropped down onto her knees in front of Brian, and grabbed for his boxers.

“Your teeth are fine, chill. You never even smelled bad, all the magic bullshit took care of that! You don’t need to shower.”

“Emily, cut it out,” Brian smacked her hands away and pulled his boxers back up. It was hard not to stare at the teacup-shaped little titties Emily was now baring for him, but Brian refused to allow himself to be distracted right now. “Just—just give me a second. Time out. Hospital?”

“Yeah, fine,” Emily snorted, fidgeting with energy as she tried to resist the urge to pounce. “Broken ribs, uhh, busted orbital, mega-concussion, and your one wrist was like, fuckin’ smashed. It’s whatever; you’re all fine now. See? If—”

“Kelly?” Brian asked, turning back to the source he could somewhat trust.

“She’s… telling the truth,” Kelly admitted. “Basically.”

“Bro—you don’t gotta check with her!” Emily protested, flailing her hands out. “As if I’m just like, makin’ all this stuff up. I mean—what the fuck. Bruh. Bruh!”

“Yeah, well I just—this is a lot to fucking catch up on, I guess,” Brian shook his head. “Can you uh, can you gimme a minute? I apparently haven’t pissed in like, a month.”

“Oh,” Emily deflated. “Wellll, you can—nope. Better not even say it. Too soon, huh?”

“Get outta here,” Brian swatted her out of the bathroom and closed the door.

*     *     *

Much to Emily’s apparent disappointment, Brian spent a full ten minutes in there by himself, just taking a searing-hot shower and trying to run everything he remembered back through his mind. He was in a relationship with several incredible girls now, which was fucking amazing. Being knocked out for an entire month felt like it was pretty implausible, though. His dick was annoyingly erect from Emily teasing him, but then also… she probably wasn’t even playing around with him. She would have just started blowing him if he hadn’t stopped her. It was very strange to think about, and although he wanted to be enthusiastic, it all felt unreal enough that he just needed a bit of time to adjust.

Kelly’s here, living with me, too, Brian thought as he massaged shampoo suds throughout his hair. Goddamn this is distracting. What the fuck all HAPPENED?

Aside from the trippy stuff with a Rebecca made out of trees talking to him, the last thing he remembered was that shoving match back and forth with those assholes in the alleyway, the ones who’d been assaulting Chloe. It hadn’t been going well, and he was pretty confident one of them had kicked him in the face. After that… he didn’t remember much of anything after that. Which was ominous. But—he felt fine. Better than fine, he felt great right now. Full of energy, like he was in tip-top shape.

Definitely not like he’d been some bed-ridden invalid for an entire month.

He sputtered for a moment as he let the shower spray run over his face, rubbed thumbs down his brows and cleared the water from his eyes before opening them, then turned to let the current rinse the foam from his hair, running fingertips along his scalp. There was too much to consider all at once right now, and he needed answers. The water was shut off, Brian yanked open the shower curtain, and—a once-again dressed Emily was revealed waiting for him in the open bathroom door.

“Sorry,” Emily bit her lip and failed to suppress a grin as her lascivious look raked up and down his naked figure. “I, uh. I just—I really missed you. I’ve missed you. A lot. Lots.”

“Emily. Give him space,” Kelly admonished from somewhere in the living room. “Jesus.”

“Yeah, so I’ll…” Emily trailed off, staring at his erection and seemingly unable to look away. “I’ll be… right over there. When you need me. For anything. Anything.”

“Help me dry off?” Brian suggested with a smile.

“Yeah!” Emily leapt forward. “Dude—I’m on it. I’m all over it.”

“Towel?” Brian reminded her. “With a towel.”

“Right, yeah I was thinkin’ that too,” Emily was nodding her head in a steady bob as she groped blindly for the towel. “S’what I use to dry too, when I dry off. When I dry off my body. Towels. Man, you have a nice dick, you know? Look at it. But uhh, yep yep, yeppers. Towel-dry, that’ll do it. That’ll, uh, that—”

“I love you,” Brian said.

“I love you,” Emily squeaked out, finally managing to pull the towel from the bar. “I love you. Love you love you love you. Sorry I’m, uh, I’m super hyped up, I—you were knocked out for way too fuckin’ long, and I uh, I-I missed you. I missed you so fucking much.”

“I’m back now,” Brian assured her, accepting the towel and quickly ruffling it through his hair. “I’m here.”

To his surprise, Emily didn’t lunge in or take advantage of his nude body, and after a few more seconds he dropped the towel to see she had tears in her eyes.

“Emily, s’okay, it’s okay,” he assured her, stepping up to give her an awkward half-hug that didn’t get her clothes too wet. “Everything’s gonna be okay. Alright?”

Indifferent to the moisture cladding his naked figure, at his invitation Emily latched onto him with both arms and hid her face against his wet chest. Brian let the towel hang from the edge of the sink and held her for a long minute, stroking a hand through her blue-and-black hair as the swirls of steam from the shower dissipated out into the rest of the apartment.

“Sorry,” Emily rubbed her face as she finally disengaged with a nervous laugh. “I love you. Kelly’s uh, Kelly has Stephie on the line, ‘cause she promised her we’d call soon as you were up again. They’re probably waiting?”

“Alright,” Brian said, leaning down to kiss the top of her head. “I see both you and Kelly started to lose your color?”

“Oh, uh yeah, from us when we, we put the magic into your healing thing,” Emily explained, taking the towel and actually helping dry Brian off.

“You had a healing spell frame thing, we got it all lit up—it only took for fucking ever. Magic spells and shit, kept you from waking up ‘til uhh, ‘til your bones all unfucked themselves. You were a mess, my guy. Face was all bashed up an’ everything. So ah, so we put magic into your thing by kissing you. Five times a day.”

“Okay,” Brian said, trying to imagine it. “So, I was just—laying there, all this time?”

“Yep,” Emily confirmed, peeking up at him. “You didn’t need to be hooked up to anything or take in sustenance besides magic, I guess. Somehow. How do you feel?”

“Pretty great,” Brian admitted, taking hold of her wrists to stop her rubbing the towel up and down him. “Should I… you know? Kiss you? See if the blue comes back?”

“Yeah,” Emily answered honestly, staring back up at him with wide eyes. “You should. Please?”

Unlike the stiff surprise and then tension giving way he had just experienced in kissing Kelly, making out with Emily was wet. The kiss began open mouthed, and she was suckling on his lower lip and trying to french him almost right away—joy bubbled up through them in shimmering blue surges of raw affection. His tongue slid against hers and she moaned into his mouth, swaying against him, and the taste of Emily was saturated with blue in a way he couldn’t explain. Their kiss was needy, sloppy, and Emily grabbed his forearms tight and hummed with satisfaction as if some inner pressure wheel had finally been turned and water pressure was restored.

When they broke apart, Emily’s lips were glistening with saliva, her messy shock of hair was once again that brilliant shade of blue, and she looked up at him with dazed eyes.

“Hhhfuckme I, uh, I needed that,” Emily admitted, trying to regain her balance. “Like, a lot. Uh. Yeah. Wow. Wowie-wowzers. Socks knocked off bro, damn. Socks status; knocked. Off. Sorry, I’m babbling aren’t I? Yeah—I’m babbling. Damn. Cool, cool. Cool. So uh, if you wanna, do you think we can—?”

“Stephanie demands her Brian,” Kelly reminded them from the other room.

*     *     *

“So—uhhh, yeah. That’s everything that happened,” Emily finished.

“Okay,” Brian could only give a slow nod as he tried to grapple with everything that had apparently gone down in his absence. “Uh. Kelly—how much of that really happened?”

“Hey!” Emily gave him a playful smack and her mightiest pout. “All of it happened. For real.”

“She left out most of the other timeline stuff, but yeah,” Kelly said. “That catches you up on what happened here with us.”

A whiteboard was propped up in front of the TV across the room from them now, covered in a dense sprawl of Emily’s illegible handwriting that no one but her could decipher. Towards the bottom, she had doodled giant-eyed chibi versions of each of the girls in their ‘harem,’ even having taken the time to switch between the different colors of dry erase markers to accurately represent their hair. As much time and thought as Emily had put into it, the super deformed depictions done up in Emily’s less-than-stellar drawing style had done nothing but lowered the credibility of the entire insane magic harem thing Brian was trying to come to terms with.

“Chriiist,” Brian blew out a long breath, running his hands through his hair. “I can’t even—just, fuck. What the hell.”

“I know, right?!” Emily tried to snuggle in closer to him on the sofa.

“Steph, are you still there?” Brian asked, turning his attention to the coffee table where Emily’s phone sat.

“I’m here!” Stephanie’s voice came through the speaker, with a rustling noise as something on the other end shifted. “Sorry, I ah, I didn’t want to interrupt.”

“You should cut class,” Kelly suggested. “Just for a few days. Or maybe take, like, a week off. Spend time with us, for however long you want.”

“Rebecca, too,” Emily said. “Yeah.”

“But, okay wait—this… then what happened with the Rebecca thing?” Brian asked, wiping his eyes. “Did she wind up kissing me, while I was unconscious? Did that work? Or, uh, did that unlock her stuff again? I don’t really understand it.”

“No,” Emily made a face. “Stupid Rebecca. I tried and tried, I told her and told her, but she was just all ehhh and wussed out and got cold feet. When we got her right there standing over you. She was so freakin’ close. If she’d just—”

“Rebecca wanted to kiss you,” Kelly explained. “But, in the end she wasn’t comfortable doing it like that, in those circumstances. She wanted to be able to talk about all of it with you first.”

“Oh?” Brian arched an eyebrow at Kelly. “Okay.”

“What’s that look for?” Kelly narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips in a glare… that Brian thought was much more cute than she had probably intended it to be.

“It’s—I dunno,” Brian gave the beautiful redhead a searching look. “You sound like you agree with Rebecca on that, and yeah, I do too. I appreciate she wants to put thought into this, talk things through with me first. Just, that seems contrary to… I don’t know. Contrary to what I’d normally expect you to go with. You’re always against all the uh, the hesitation, the stopping to work everything out. Talking about everything. I thought you’d be more in wanting her to just say fuck it, and she should just kiss me. To see what happens.”

“That’s what I say,” Emily purred. “S’not like she can go wrong with Brian—Brian’s the best. Obviously. Duh.”

“Emily wasn’t this annoying when you were in that deep sleep,” Kelly remarked with a scowl. “But. Yes. Yeah. You got me. I don’t know what else I can say. This all with you guys isn’t something I can afford to… approach as casually as I would have before. Because I went and caught feels. So—so now… I don’t know what you want me to say. Stephanie was right, all of it’s more than worth it. But, Rebecca joining the harem or whatever you want to call it is a big decision, and it will affect all of us, and—yeah. She was right wanting to wait for you to be able to have your say.”

“Kelly…” Stephanie’s voice from the phone sounded worried.

“Okay, sorry,” Brian sat forward. “Really. I don’t mean to be judgmental, I wasn’t going for some kind of… I told you so, or anything. Just, all of this seems super abrupt to me, because… I guess I was knocked out for all this time while you guys have been adjusting to this whole… thing. To me, it’s like a couple hours ago you were about ready to bail on us completely, and then I managed to get you distracted talking about garlic bread? And then we fucked, right in the middle of the vendor’s room.”

“Wait what,” Emily’s eyes shot open. “You what?!”

“Or, maybe we didn’t?” Brian frowned. “Hard to say how much of that was a dream. Especially if, from what you’ve said, Rebecca really does turn into talking trees? So, that part wasn’t a dream?”

“No, she—that’s just in the dreamscape that she’s trees,” Emily sat up. “The dreamscape isn’t real. Well, it’s real, but it’s not—it’s not real, real, it’s a mental thing. Like, Rebecca is trees, I’m a river. It’s super deep and symbolic, actually. If you think about it.”

“Is it?” Brian tried not to sound as skeptical as he felt. “Is it, though?”

“Because… Emily’s last name is Rivera?” Stephanie guessed.

“No, not just that—the water element for me and everything,” Emily argued with a fit of exasperation. “It’s super spot on. There’s colors and shit for everyone, too. It’s one hundred percent anime magic bullshit. Steph can fucking read minds, sorta. Mostly, anyways. Kell gets magic transmissions from her future self.”

“And then, you’re a river and Rebecca is… trees?” Brian gave her a lopsided smile. “How does that fit into the theme? Mind powers, future sight, river, trees?”

“No! No, I’m—okay, I’m not super set on my superpower yet, but like, Kelly is comets or stars, and her motif is red. See? Red hair, red stars and stuff. Steph’s pink, and then in the dreamscape her thing is fire. But, she’s actually an empath. When you—”

“I’m sorry, I know all of that seems fitting and symbolic,” Brian said. “But, isn’t it also sort of like astrology? To where you can look at whatever zodiac sign is supposed to match up with you and say, yeah, sure, these super vague traits apply to me. If I look for them in myself. When really, they’re made generic enough to apply to anyone and anything?”

“Here we go again with Brian being a typical Taurus,” Emily shook her head in apparent dismay. “Stubborn and intractable, as always. You know, if—”

“The problem right now is Chloe,” Kelly interrupted. “Guys. We have to do something about her. Soon. We can’t have Rebecca basically imprisoning her indefinitely.”

“Well, we can’t let her go,” Emily muttered under her breath. “I know it sounds shitty, but… if you think about it, there’s really only one option we even have. We can’t risk letting her live.”

“Emily, we’re not murdering Chloe,” Brian groaned, resting his forehead on his hand. “No.”

“S’not murder, it’s self defense!” Emily insisted. “If we let her go, she’ll go to the Masters to try to fuck us over. She said she would. Sorry, but that’s the final nail in the coffin, far as I’m concerned. I don’t even understand how we’re still discussing this. You let her free, she will immediately bend every fiber of her being towards fucking us over. To the greatest degree possible. You know she will.”

“That’s not our only option,” Kelly said.

“It is,” Emily’s voice rose. “I know it sounds shitty, but it is our only option. At every fucking turn crazy fucking Chloe just comes back even fucking crazier and tries to fuck us over. At what point do we still just—keep letting that happen? Sorry, I’m done turning the other cheek, and I’m all outta patience with her. What’s it going to take for you to realize putting the bitch out of her misery is what we need to do? Something happening to me? The Masters coming for Steph? If we—”

“Emily, shut the fuck up,” Kelly’s voice was calm, but her eyes were anything but. “I had to see that happen, in one of the sends. That is not a fucking joke.”

“I know it’s not a joke,” Emily threw out her hands. “That’s exactly what I’m fuckin’ saying! Tolerating more punishment from Chloe just needs to stop, and there’s only one way it’s fucking going to stop, and everyone knows it.”

“So, you’re saying we just—kill her?” Brian gave her an uneasy laugh. “Emily… are you serious?”

“Sorry,” Emily huffed and crossed her arms. “I’m just saying out loud what we’re all thinking. We can’t let her go free. She will fuck us over.”

“Not if we can help her!” Stephanie chimed in.

“Not if we get her back to being Christine,” Kelly argued. “She was fine as Christine. She protected Brian from the Masters as Christine.”

“Her issues as Chloe are like a mental imbalance,” Stephanie added. “She was a broken mirror before, and then when she was put on a magic path, the mirror was whole and intact, and she didn’t have all the hate and rage controlling her.”

“And… ‘Christine’ is this alter-ego of Chloe’s, supposedly,” Brian looked from Kelly to Emily and back again. “Who I’ve never met. Who also happens to be a vampire?”

“Not technically a vampire,” Kelly scowled. “She was just starting in that direction. Blood magic, instead of love magic. But; yes. Christine was like having Chloe, but without the crazy. She was… okay.”

“None of that redeems her from anything she’s done!” Emily insisted. “Even guarding Brian, back then—that’s like, self-interest on her part. Since he’s the source of her powers, and she won’t want cut off, if he can do that. Who knows if he can or can’t? She doesn’t know for sure. Also, if Brian did go with the Masters and learn The Laws or whatever they have, probably the first thing he’d do as Evil Brian would be to go after Chloe. Nip that issue in the bud. Permanently.

“That’s the same thing you’re suggesting we do now, though,” Brian pointed out, incredulous. “Thing is—I’m not Evil Brian. Okay? So, just. Fuck, can we just say killing her is off the table? We’re not killing her. That’s final.”

“Fine,” Emily glowered. “Fine.”

“Thank you,” Stephanie’s sigh of relief could be heard through the speaker.

“That isn’t even a serious conversation I ever thought we’d be having,” Brian leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “Just—fuck me, you know? This all escalated really quickly. One minute it’s all flirting and fun and talking about garlic bread, the next it’s all Masters and mind control and planning actual murder?”

“Now I want garlic bread,” Stephanie said in a small voice. “Shoot.”

“Not to mention the future timelines,” Kelly nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, not to mention those,” Brian chuckled. “Just… fuck. We’re not just gonna kill her. I guess for now… we need to drive out there and see what we can do.”

“There’s no guarantee kissing her will fix her,” Emily grumbled. “We’ve already established that she was charm-zapped before, and still okay with going completely psycho on us.”

“She was Focus activated, but not initiated,” Kelly gave Emily a superior smirk.

“You don’t get to say that!” Emily protested, jabbing an accusing finger across the room. “I gather up all the rules and terms we know, I write them on the whiteboard, and you, you just turn your nose up at all of that, because it’s oh, it’s stupid silly Emily stuff! You don’t get to diss on my whiteboard and then also borrow the terms whenever you think you can use them against me. Okay? Fuck off.”

“Emily! Kelly!” Stephanie warned them both. “Be nice to each other. Please?”

“Sorry,” Kelly actually managed to look chastised. “I just—most of the time I don’t have patience for the magic bullshit. Except for the great kisses and mindblowing amazing sex, all of it just seems stupid and unnecessary to me. I do… appreciate that Emily is willing to deal with it, so that I don’t have to.”

“Thank you,” Emily thrust a middle finger of exasperation at Kelly, but didn’t seem upset anymore. “Just don’t come crawling back to me when I unlock teleportation, or flight, or something super badass like magic spells. Normie.”

“Emily—you take that back!” Stephanie scolded from the phone on the coffee table. “Don’t call her a normie!”

“I can’t even tell which one of you is making fun of me anymore?” Kelly remarked. “I am a normie; I am completely normal.”

“Okay, okay, so ‘Focus active’—that means Chloe touched the charm, right?” Brian gently took Emily’s raised arm and middle finger and lowered it back down. “Primed into magic, or something. Initiated means, what? That we had to have kissed?”

“Maybe,” Emily grunted, crossing her arms again. “Rebecca proved that the Focus activation thing is temporary. From there, kissing seems to initiate one onto the charm magic path, blood obviously puts you instead on the road to being a vampire. But, thing is—we don’t know if it’s just kissing, because it might be a lot more than that. My hypothesis is that it requires a certain degree of compatibility, or uh, or interest. You know, attraction. Something. This is all like, feels magic, I think the feelings for one another play a huge part and that it’s not just the actual act of kissing.”

“Okay,” Brian considered that. “So… you’re saying it’s probable that Chloe was only ever going to be compatible with the blood magic path in the first place. Because of the whole uh, deeply and intensely hating my guts thing.”

“Exactly,” Emily looked up into his eyes. “So, I think just kissing her and hoping the crazy stops is, well, dumb. It doesn’t guarantee—well, anything. We don’t know what could happen. She could just randomly go full vampire again, because that’s a path that’s already a part of her now. She could pretend to be cured of the crazy for just long enough for us to relax our guard, and then—bam, she runs off the Masters with our names and addresses and all the details to use against us. We can’t fucking risk it. Sorry.”

“She has made it pretty damned hard to trust her,” Brian admitted, blowing out a slow breath of vexation. “Fucking hell.”

“What do you think we should do?” Stephanie asked.

“I think… we’d better at least drive out there and try to talk to her,” Brian sighed. “We have the directions, right? It’s a ways out there, though, so… I guess I can get into storage and find wherever the hell my sleeping bag went.”

“Rebecca has loads of spares,” Emily mentioned. “She has at least one at her grandparent’s place, in their garage. I think there’s a second one at Aunt Mattie’s place, Mike and them were borrowing it. Oh shit, you should probably go see them real quick. So they know you’re still alive.”

“I’m coming with you,” Kelly said. “I can sleep in the car, or whatever. Don’t have another shift until Wednesday.”

“Stephanie?” Brian asked. “Can you make it?”

“Umm,” Stephanie paused for a long moment. “I… can. I do want to be there for, um, for whatever happens. If it’s okay, I can ask Megan to drive me over and drop me off at your apartment? Tonight, after her last class ends. Then, we can all go out together tomorrow.”

“Yesss,” Kelly hissed in excitement, leaning forward. “You can be here tonight?!”

“It’ll be late, but yes, I think so,” Stephanie confirmed. “Maybe… ten or eleven o’clock?”

“Sounds like a plan, then,” Brian said. “It’ll be—honestly, it’ll be great just to see you again. I know I was completely out of it for however long, but… Steph, I really, really miss you.”

“I’ve missed you too,” Stephanie admitted, and her bright smile was so loud they could almost hear it. “I love you!”

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