Percy was tough, for a mortal, though it couldn’t exactly be said he was as used to dead bodies and bloody fights as I was. Where I’d gladly stopped on the way home to get a milkshake for the ashy taste left in my mouth, gotten lunch to go with it, went to my dad’s home with him with no problem, he’d been a bit worse. Silent once everything set in for him, refusing to touch the food I got him at first, and the first hour in his room spent staring at the ceiling before he finally did eat.
I didn’t mind, it was still an excuse to say I’d visited even if I didn’t spend much time with my dad. He’d thought I was dead for six years, was a monster hunter and somehow surprised I, a child of a werewolf, could turn out to be one. Something he was…well, doing his best with, even if I knew he didn’t like the constant reminder of what I was now. The fact being a werewolf changed the body to the soul, and it was how I realized I was trans, meaning that was easier said than done.
All the same, at least Percy lived here for me to have a reason to force myself to visit more.
Basically a brother I’d never had, we’d practically grown up together, mostly training with my dad or his uncle nearby when he wasn’t visiting his own family down south. He’d moved in to help my dad out when they thought I’d died, and was a lot more accepting of me being a werewolf which made it easier to sink back into things with him again.
Or at least, that was the plan, foiled by the need to clean my eye in the bathroom mirror. Only interrupted by a gentle knock at the door as my dad asked, “you in there, um…Mary?”
“Yeah, I’ll just be a minute, just cleaning my eye,” I told him, knowing he probably wasn’t just waiting for the toilet even as I continued cleaning the scarred mess of my right eye. Shot out several months ago by Percy, before he knew who I was, it’d been healed by a combination of my increased healing and some magic for as little as that did for me. Nowadays little more than a ball of whitish pink scar tissue, an eyelid that was always half closed now, and a pink channel carved in the first part of the temple.
Nothing to see through it except the vague impressions of light and nothing from it except the occasional leaking of some sort of fluid I couldn’t begin to understand that needed to be wiped up.
Apparently not a gross enough fact to stop my dad, who stepped in without asking, standing halfway in the door as he started, “I was just…well, we were making an early dinner soon and I was just wondering if you wanted to stay. My mom’s not going to be here until tonight I’m pretty sure, she hasn’t answered my texts in a bit, so it’d be fine.”
I narrowed my eye a little at the phrasing, hoping he noticed it well as I slipped a piece of clean gauze into the inside of my eye patch and strapped it back in place. Letting the silence hold until I eventually told him, “I didn’t even know grandma was coming, we usually had to go down to Norfolk when we wanted to see her.”
My dad nodded, clearing his throat awkwardly as he shuffled in place and confessed, “I um…I guess I forgot to mention, she’s come down every year since you…well, since she thought you died, and I guess I hadn’t thought much about it.”
I had to smile despite the urge to complain about that, letting out a small laugh as I admitted, “well, I guess it’d be good to see her again, I haven’t really gotten to meet a lot of family since-”
“Hawk,” my dad interrupted with a name ruining what little joy I was holding, cringing even as he sighed and rubbed his eyes while trying to correct course, “Mary, she doesn’t know you’re alive, and well…you’re a werewolf, it might just-”
“Not be a good idea to let her know you had a kid with a werewolf,” I finished for the man, “yeah, I get it. Is Percy staying somewhere else? You turned my old room into a nursery already.”
“I moved the bed down to my office, with some the other stuff. I hardly used it anyway these days, it just seemed right to have a place for it.”
I was trying to figure out what he meant, over analyzing the words and letting them turn over in my head on repeat. Trying to keep my face straight until the conversation was interrupted by my phone going off. One of my few custom ringtones, Bella Lugosi’s Dead at Sigyn’s recommendation, which was a sign to answer immediately.
Ignoring my dad as I held the phone up, half-leaned against the sink, and answered, “I thought you were giving me a vacation.”
“Thought I was giving you vacation,” The Lady repeated in her normal slow and drawn out fashion, sounding tragically bored of me already, “well, you were the one who was…performing independent work, pet. I was just calling to inform you I needed your help tonight, if you would so mind. Unexpected meeting and I oh so like having my right hand there to make a point of it.”
“I thought you were taking a vacation too,” I muttered a little annoyed, even as I looked down at my pleated skirt and borrowed band shirt while asking, “How soon do you need me? I’m not exactly dressed like you like for meetings, so I’m gonna need to run by the covenant first and that’s going to add a good thirty minutes to getting to you at best.”
“How soon, how soon,” The Lady muttered as though she were trying to figure it out herself, “three hours time, and I’ll provide you with a supper afterwards, how does steak sound? You know I like to make sure my pet is well fed. Besides, I have a…uniform for you in mind for tonight, so no need to worry about your own clothes.”
“I’ll be there in three hours then, and I’ll take mine blue,” I told her, and hung up with no pleasantries as I turned back to my dad, “I have dinner plans with The Lady tonight, I’ll try and come by again between now and Christmas though, or…well, I’ll see what I can do.”
“I thought you said you were getting a week off?”
“I have a life,” I countered, not exactly in the mood to go into the specifics with him just yet, “besides, if grandma’s going to be around I imagine you want me to keep a distance. I know you’d hate to tell people I’m actually alive if you didn’t have to.”
My dad shook his head at that, his lips shrinking to a thin line in his gray and scarred beard as he held back the worst of what he wanted to say. Shifting his weight, running a hand along his chin, until he slowly declared, “you don’t know how hard this is on me, alright? You were gone almost seven years and you come back and you’re a werewolf, you’re a girl now, how am I supposed to tell my mom about that? I mean, is there anything else you’ve been meaning to tell me?”
Well I had a son, and was hoping to introduce them this week, but this felt like the wrong time to bring that up. Besides that, I was starting to get the urge to punch him, and instead pushed past him to step out into the hall when he added on to it all, “Leila wanted to ask you about something too.”
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“I’ll talk to her before I leave.”
Making my way down the hall I didn’t even bother pretending I was entertaining seeing my step mom first, instead going back to Percy’s room. A simple set up, no more than needed in terms of furniture, I was glad he was at his computer playing a game as I flopped onto the queen sized bed. Laid back, legs crossed as I scrolled my phone and halfway watched him fighting hoards of humanoid rats in some game while occasionally declaring some strategy or placement.
Not sure who he was playing against or with, I kept quiet not to bother him, and spent a while laid on the bed reading on my phone after texting Sigyn you get Lady’s message? Until Elizabeth decided to call me. A quick glance at Percy confirming the man was too entrenched in his game to actually pay attention as I answered.
“Hello?” I muttered, barely a whisper even with Percy wearing his headphones.
“Hey, Mary, just wanted to make sure you were still good to pick up that box tomorrow,” the witch answered, even as I thought she had more on her mind seeing as she called me.
Well, I was excited to get that done with anyway and she was old, maybe she didn’t think about texting, “yeah, have to pick up your payment from Goodfellow tomorrow, but I’ll be there that afternoon. Storage place, not your house, right?”
“I’m grabbing some old dresses anyway, could use help getting a trunk loaded into the car,” Elizabeth admitted, the conversation going awkwardly silent before she broke down and asked, “so, um, you still doing alright?”
Right, yeah, that was what this was about. Ignored what she told me about not touching stuff one time, and she was worrying about me for a month now.
Just needed to put up with it as long as I could, “I told you, Elizabeth, nothing bad happened, I’m healthy as ever.”
The witch’s sigh didn’t sound convinced, and she nearly begged asking, “well, nothing going on right? Anything weird happened since then?”
I looked over to Barbie standing silently in the corner, considering the woman for a second before shrugging, “nothing I can think of.”
“Alright, sorry I keep asking, I’ll let you get back to it,” the witch finished, hanging up before I could get any regrets and tell her.
Elizabeth dealt with, Sigyn still not responding, and still some time sitting in silence, I dug around on Percy’s bedside for a few seconds before grabbing a pair of earbuds and waved them in the air for his attention. The man only glancing back at me long enough to give the thumbs up before I had them plugged in and was carefully scrolling videos.
A dangerous proposition for me, as strange as that sounded, being a werewolf had made my senses stronger than most mortals. I could smell people across the room, I could taste the finer details in flesh, I could see the slight details others couldn’t and, most annoying, I could hear like crazy.
Strong hearing when I needed to tell there was someone in another part of the house or that someone was following me? Perfect.
Strong hearing trying to use earbuds without playing music too loud or clicking on a video that would have screaming or loud surprises? A lot harder when Percy and I liked to watch the occasional Horror Lets Play or Sigyn had gotten me more into goth and punk music. I already needed to keep the volume down low, having it suddenly spike was always a painful experience.
After a bit of searching I settled on a video about eighteenth century fashion, an interest I could honestly say a ghost cursed me with, and settled back until finally Percy pushed back from his desk. A low groan coming from him, his headphones tossed to the side, and his hands running through blonde locks as he said, “sorry about that, Cataclysm difficulty, there wasn't much breathing room to talk.”
“I was watching a video anyway, it just finished,” I lied, clicking out of the half-finished video as I sat my phone aside and smiled tiredly to him, “I have to head out in a couple hours, so not much time to do anything. If you want to keep playing you can.”
“It’s fine, one of our party members had to pop out anyway and I have a couple friends coming over soon,” the man admitted with a shrug, making me frown at the idea.
First my dad didn’t want me meeting up with my own grandma, now Percy was meeting up with friends and hadn’t even told me? What was that even supposed to mean? Did he not want me here, did he want me to leave early, or just not care if I was here when they showed? He knew we were working together today, that I usually hung out after, maybe he’d-
“Sorry I forgot to tell you,” he finished with a groan as he pushed to his feet, walking over to a pile of clothes in the corner to dig through. His words a few seconds of grumbling and muttering nonsense about various ideas until eventually he declared, “knew you were going to be really busy tomorrow, not even counting the shopping when we get around to that all, didn’t want to be a bother. They’re just some hunting buddies of mine, going to college up north so we don’t see each other often. It goes like normal we’ll probably just be nursing a gallon of vodka until three in the morning and-”
“You don’t need to explain, works out anyway,” I admitted with a small laugh, “still love to-”
There was a knock at the door, and Percy walked to the door with an utterance of, “speak of the devil,” as he opened it.
Percy barely had the door open before a body lunged into him, and I resisted the wolf’s urge to let out a small growl. Instead I slowly sat up on the man’s bed, resting my cheek on my hand as the woman released my friend from the hug and pushed herself away.
She was a taller woman, probably a little shorter than me with buzz cut black hair and a rose tattoo on her neck. In a faded tank top and jeans, a pair of practical black studs acting as a small bit of jewelry on her, and a cocky smile that only broke as she saw me.
“Whose this, Percy? You’ve been holding out on us,” she said with something between teasing and curiosity as she paced over to me with a raised brow, a hand held out for me as I finally got a good whiff of her natural scent; well soaked in from perhaps not changing for a few days and air freshener thickly sprayed over.
Not sure what else to do, I shook her hand, my eye focusing on her with some slight suspicion until Percy answered for me, “this is Mary, think I told you about her. Known her all my life, like a sister to me.”
“I don’t remember you mentioning her,” the woman added, frowning a little bit at that as she glanced down at our joined hands, “She from down south? She never hung out with us.”
Percy cringed at that, and I realized he was probably realizing she’s that boy Martin never let hang out with people was an excuse that would lead to them knowing I was a werewolf. That…something that was probably a necessary risk with family, but not with random monster hunters.
This time doing my best to save him, I jumped to the first lie I could, “we’re cousins yeah, I moved up here a couple years ago.”
The woman nodded a moment, her look one I couldn’t describe until she gave herself a small smile and declared, “well, glad I got to meet you. I’m Anna, me and Percy friends growing up too, though not as long as you I imagine. We didn’t hang out much until High School, so it’s nice getting to finally meet people he’s known longer. You be sure to tell me any embarrassing stories you know.”
“Hey, I never got the chance to meet many of his friends since we got back together, I’m happy to see anyone I haven’t introduced him to.”
“Feelings are a bit mutual, though…” she frowned, looking me over again for a long moment, a sinking feeling coming over me as I realized she kept glancing at the tattoos on my bare arms, “have we met before? I’m getting the weirdest sense of deja vu.”
I frowned, slowly moving my arms back as though I could hide them from memory, hoping she didn’t know Purists tattoos, and putting on my most innocent smile told her, “I don’t think so, face and name aren’t pulling anything up for me.”
“Probably just saw your picture,” she brushed off, staring towards the door hands on her hips, “Martin threw the vodka in the fridge, I’ll go check what we have to mix it with before I call Don and Shady.”
“I’ll finish getting cleaned up here and come down,” Percy laughed awkwardly, helping her out of the room before closing the door. His body relaxing almost immediately, a deep sigh escaping him, and walking silently over before he asked with a whispering chuckle, “cousins?”
“You had a better lie?”
“Well, might have held off on that excuse until she was pushing things, or you weren’t wearing one my favorite shirts and laying on my bed,” Percy admitted as he sat next to me on the bed, “Anna’s pretty understanding though, just keep the Purist thing on the down low. Her family’s old fashioned, lost some people in the past, so we can work her up to werewolf, but that might be far.”
“I’ll let you decide when.”
“We’ll get you there,” he told me with a comforting hand resting on my knee.
“You go do whatever you need to do, make sure my dad’s not coming up for anything,” I told him as I laid myself back down on his bed, “Gevaudan’s flying down tomorrow morning, I need to know where I’ll be staying this week with them.”
