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Gia and Lairah looked at me to explain.
I drew a deep breath while I chose my words carefully. “Life is going to be very unpleasant for Jenn over the next several weeks. The transitioning process is painful and frightening, but she must face the difficulty of learning to control her hunger if she wants to live among humans, which makes it twice as bad.”
“She is strong. She can do it,” Avery said.
“I don’t doubt that for a minute. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have made it out of Vincent’s coven,” I replied.
“When does Chansey begin her observation?”
I smiled as I thought about Jenn’s reaction to Avery and Chansey earlier. “Tonight,” I answered and Chansey swung her head around to look at me.
“Tonight? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I assumed you knew we couldn’t wait. The process is happening rapidly. If we wait, you’ll miss it and we’ll have to start over with another fledgeling.” When she didn’t have a response for me, I added, “We’ll go down after dinner. Gia and Lairah can keep Avery company.”
˜ ˜ ˜
Chansey and I descended the stairs into the basement and her heart was racing. “What should I expect?”
I vaguely responded, “The unexpected.”
She rolled her eyes at me. “Well, that’s not much to go on.”
“Even being Agápe, I don’t think I can prepare you for what you are about to see.”
She stopped a few steps shy of the bottom of the staircase and grabbed my shoulder. “You’re scaring me.”
I turned and looked at her. “I wouldn’t be doing you a favor by sugar coating it. You should be scared.”
I reached for her hand and she followed me into the basement where Jenn was being kept. We entered the room where Sol sat in a chair watching Jenn from behind a wall of iron bars as he wore a brooding look on his face.
Chansey walked over to the bars and watched Jenn as she lay motionless on the bed behind the bars. “Why is she in a jail cell?”
I pulled her by the arm. “Don’t get so close. I don’t want her to streak over and grab you. The bars are here so we don’t have to open the door to check in on her. That would increase her chance of escape. By having access to see her at all times, we can see what stage of transition she in.”
“What stage is she in now?” Chansey asked.
“It’s still early. Her onset may have been delayed, but something about you and Avery being in her presence at the same time ignited a sudden, ferocious onset.”
“Do you think she will transition well?”
“I don’t know. People handle it in different ways.”
“What does this stage feel like for her right now?”
“Do you remember when I told you I felt like I was free falling and I wasn’t sure if it was for minutes or days? We have found that the duration is different for everyone. Some go through this stage for less than 24 hours. Others may experience it for several days.”
“So, she feels like she’s falling from the top of a super tall building?”
“Yeah, but in the dark.
“That has to be so terrifying.”
“It’s not much fun,” I admitted.
We sat and watched Jenn’s motionless body for hours with no change in her status and then I saw some strands of her hair blow up from the mattress. “Chansey, watch her hair.”
Chansey turned to see what I was talking about and several strands of long blonde hair blew up from the mattress.
Sol slid to the edge of his seat and said, “Her transition is accelerating. She’s beginning to fall faster.”
Chansey looked on as we saw more and more of her hair beginning to blow. “What is happening to her?” Chansey asked anxiously.
“She still has a while to fall, but she will be plunged into darkness when she stops falling. It will be in the loneliest place she has ever experienced with only her thoughts and regrets to keep her company.”
“Is she in pain?” she softly asked.
“Not yet, but she will be.”
“When will the pain begin?”
“I can’t say. That is something that is different for everyone as well”
Chansey looked up at me with glazed eyes. “I don’t want to see her in pain.”
My heart smiled at her words and I found a little hope that Chansey might abandon the idea of becoming a vampire. “She will be in a lot of pain and there’s nothing we can do to help her. You may change your mind about following her, but I won’t change my mind about our agreement. I refuse to turn you until you fully understand the transitioning process.”
A tear rolled down her face and I reached to wipe it away as I said, “I don’t do this to be cruel.”
She was thoughtful for a minute before she replied, “I know and this is something I must do. It doesn’t mean I have to be turned the minute her transition is complete, but I need to be prepared for the future.”
“I need to talk with Sol, so I’ll tell you what. You’re not going to miss a thing with Jenn over the next several hours. Why don’t you go to bed and I’ll come and get you if anything happens? Does that sound okay to you?”
“Okay. I am really tired, so that actually sounds great to me.”
She leaned forward to give me a kiss and we heard Sol’s disgust. “Gah, get a room. Oh, wait...you have a soundproof one right upstairs.”
“Damn, you are an ill ass tonight. What’s eating you?” Chansey asked.
Sol turned his head away as I hugged her tightly in hopes that she might feel my intentions through our bond. She looked up at my eyes and I saw understanding in them, so she realized I planned to get down to the bottom of what was going on with him.
She turned and stopped at the foot of the stairs. “Come and get me if anything happens. I don’t want to miss something and you renege on our deal. Got it?”
“Perfectly, Mrs. Brennan.” She blew me a kiss and then disappeared up the stairs.
I wai
ted until I knew she was gone before I began my interrogation of Sol. “What is wrong with you tonight, my man?”
He ran his hands through his hair as he leaned over. “It’s Avery.”
Whoa! Did not see that one coming. “What about her?”
“She is scared to death of me. Every time I look in her eyes, she reminds me of the monster I used to be and it’s driving me crazy. I can’t get a moment’s peace.”
“It will get better,” I promised.
“Will it? Because right now, I don’t feel like it will.”
“She just needs a little time,” I encouraged.
“Did you see the way she recoiled from me at dinner?” he asked with pain in his voice. “She hates me and I can’t say I blame her.”
“She doesn’t know the Solomon we all know. She only knows you’re the vampire that bit her and drank from her. Give her a little time and once she sees the real Sol, she’ll love you.”
22 A Long Week
We spent the next three days waiting for Jenn to stop free falling and when she did, it wasn’t pleasant. Chansey was beside herself as she watched Jenn’s reaction to being plunged into the lonely darkness. She mournfully watched her cry for two days, but when her screams of pain and agony started, it was almost too much for Chansey and I wondered what kind of man I was to force my wife to watch such a cruel experience.
I pulled her close to me as she cried for Jenn. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have asked this of you. Your heart is too tender for this. You don’t have to continue to watch this.”
“No, I’m going to finish this out. I can’t stop now,” she argued and I heard in her voice that she wasn’t going to let this deter her from being changed.
I stroked her long hair as I said over Jenn’s screams, “It’s up to you, Love.”
Jenn screamed for two days. She clawed at the skin on her chest the first day of screaming until she shredded it open. It healed almost instantaneously and this gory cycle repeated all day. She tore at her skin and veins all over her body the second day, all while continuing to scream in agony.
