The morning began with rain and an ominous darkness. Nevertheless, Lola and Jax lay in bed with the drapes wide open, looking at the trickling rain and the cloudy skies. Lola rested her head on his chest, and he was running his fingers through her hair.
"I like this color," he said and pulled a lock between his fingers.
Lola smiled. "I like you," she said and listened as his heart began to beat faster.
The house was waking up, and the door downstairs opened and shut as people came and went.
"Lola," he said.
Lola fixed herself on the bed and put her chin on her arms as she gazed up at him. "Yes?"
"Don't let anyone know about your blood. Tell no one that you can heal humans or supernaturals. You need to keep that secret buried deep."
Lola furrowed her brows and nodded. "What did you tell your parents and Ash?" she asked.
That question had been on her mind since last night, but other things got in between a few times, and the question vanished.
She smiled when she thought about what they did instead of talking and how much she needed to forget. Even if it was for just a moment, that moment quieted her mind in a way that nothing else ever could.
"I told them nothing. We sat there, watching her slowly die, and when my mother left to change the cloth and Ash was talking to my father, I slowly slipped her the blood. It was incredible," he said and looked down. "She healed almost instantly. I washed the cup, pretending I had given her water, and everyone just saw it as a miracle," he explained.
"Do you think they'll look into it?" she asked.
Jax nodded. "They will. No werewolf has ever survived a vampire bite. The venom in their fangs spreads fast, and no one knows of a cure."
Lola fixed herself on his chest to see him better. "Why isn't it poisonous to humans? Melissa was bitten, but she is fine. So was I,"
"The poison attacks our wolves, and our wolves are connected to our essence. You can see it as if one of us dies, the other one dies. So if the vampire venom spreads to our wolf, they inevitably die, and their human goes shortly after."
Lola sat up and watched him. "You said you were stronger than them," she said.
Jax fixed himself to sit up in front of her. He saw how her face shifted in anger. "We are. Our poison is just as venomous to them."
Lola narrowed her eyes on Jax. "But if you're bit, you die," she said slowly. Her voice had an edge that stung his ears.
"Yes, but if we bite them-"
Lola jumped off the bed. "Oh my god!" She threw her hands in the air. "I was under the impression that you were stronger than them, that they didn't have the upper hand," she said and covered her face with her hands. She dragged her hands down and grabbed her robe from the chair to cover her naked body.
"We do! Lola, listen to me. They can't walk in the daylight. A werewolf bite kills a vampire, and our strength measures the same."
Lola scoffed, and a squeal left her lips. "Oh well, great then, if your strength measures the same, then it's all good! Now I'm not worried at all. We'll see who bites who first, and the other one gets to live!"
The sarcasm dripped in her voice, and Jax groaned. He wrapped the sheet around his waist and stood up to go to her. Before he came close, Lola reached out her hand, and her eyes narrowed in question.
"Vampires can't walk in the daylight," she said.
Jax shook his head and shrugged. "No," he stated.
"But Clay came to school. We went to the cafe, and there wasn't a cloud on the sky that day."
"There had to have been," Jax said as a matter of fact.
Was Lola mistaken? She had been so caught up in getting to know Clay that maybe she just didn't remember.
A knock on the bedroom door had Lola tying the robe tighter around her waist.
Jax walked over with only a sheet covering his lower body and opened the door.
Melissa smiled. She looked around warily, and when she saw Jax, her jaw dropped.
"Oh. I-I can come back," she said, gawking at his bare chest and prominent abs. Her eyes lowered to everything that disappeared behind the sheet. When she remembered where she was, who she was gawking at and whom he was dating, she quickly turned away and cleared her throat.
"It's fine, come on in. I'm glad you're here," Lola said, reaching out her hands.
Melissa walked in and they hugged.
Jax cleared his throat. "I'm going to go get dressed. You two have fun."
He stopped in the door frame and looked at Lola for a second.
"Melissa, yesterday in school, when you came to find me, do you remember what the weather was like?" he asked.
She hummed as she thought about it. "It was sunny, I think. I was wearing my sunglasses, so yeah, it was sunny. And that cute sweater I had on, I never wear if it's going to rain," she said, remembering the weather from the outfit she had worn that day.
"Huh." Jax turned around and left.
The door closed, and the girls were alone.
"You talked to Jax yesterday?"
Melissa winced. "After I saw you with that new guy, something felt off, and then I saw you two disappearing into the classroom. Considering everything that had happened, I thought that Jax could do more than I could if you were in danger."
Lola's eyes fell, and she fiddled with her fingers.
"I'm sorry if I-"
Lola shook her head. "No, I'm glad you told him," She reassured.
"Okay, good," Melissa said in relief.
The silence that followed was awkward and not something they were used to.
"I've missed you," Lola said and ran her fingers over the tassels on Melissa's scarf.
Melissa sighed. She stood up and took a few steps back, looking around the room and scanning everything in it. Lola realized that Melissa hadn't been here since everything had happened. She didn't know that Lola was legally married to Jax or that they were werewolves. She didn't know about Lola's blood or her family. There had been so much that Lola had kept from her, partly out of fear of rejection but also because saying it made it real.
"Lola, Jax killed someone in school. I was bitten by a- No. Ash broke your apartment door. They were there with you. Everything that has happened, and I know nothing. Every time I came looking for you, I was sent away and kept in the dark. What am I supposed to do with all of this? How can I be your friend if I know nothing about you?" Melissa asked, removing her scarf and taking off her jacket.
She threw them over a chair and paced around the room.
"And I mean this- what is this? Do you live here now?" she said and dramatically gestured with her hands around the room. She scoffed and laughed in frustration. "You didn't even tell me that you and Jax were dating!" Melissa squealed.
Lola stood up from the bed and ran a hand through her hair. Melissa was pacing, looking in the closet, only to see that all of the clothes Jax had bought for Lola were hung up and folded on the shelves. She scoffed and turned around with her hands on her hips. Her lips were pressed in a firm line, and she couldn't believe the new life that Lola had and that she had no idea about.
"We're not together," Lola said and braced herself. "We're married."
Melissa's mouth fell open. Her arms fell from her hips, and her eyes rounded.
"Huh?" It was a sound that left her lips as her mind tried to cope with the truth.
"Mell, if you're up for it and willing to listen, I will tell you everything. I'm ready to tell you the truth now, and I'm sorry I didn't do it sooner, but I was afraid to lose you. These days without you in my life have been hell. But I don't want to hide things anymore."
Melissa stood back. She nodded and started biting on her nail.
"I want to know the truth," she said after thinking about it long and hard. If they wanted any chance of being friends, then they had to be honest with each other.
"Do you want to sit or-"
Melissa shook her head. "No, I'll stand," she said and braced herself for the mountain-sized information that was about to be unloaded on her.