Lola stood up from the floor. Melissa did a double take, reluctantly tearing her eyes from Ash, and following Lola up on her feet.
"Something just happened didn't it?" Melissa said when she felt the air shifting around them.
"No nothing happened. I don't know how your sister survived." She said and looked at Ash. He rose and strode over the floor whilst Lola took a step back to keep the distance between them. He saw that she was wary of his closeness but Ash continued to walk until he had her pressed abasing the closet door. He stopped, reached out his hand, and grabbed the waistband of her robe, sliding it between his fingers. "Never in the history of our existence has a werewolf survived a bite from a vampire. Enter you." Lola tried to see if he knew something, if Jax had told him but she wasn't sure.
"Why don't you just appreciate the fact that your sister is alive and not question why or how? she's alive, isn't that all that matters?" Melissa said, including herself in the conversation. Lola forced back a laugh when she saw Melissa's lawyer-face as she called it. It was the way that her nose wrinkled, her brows arched and her eyes toughened up from their otherwise subtly doe look.
"I do appreciate it, immensely. But she didn't heal herself so how come my sister didn't die last night?" Lola pulled the strap back and shrugged.
"I don't know what to say, I had nothing to do with it."
"Maybe the vamp didn't bite her hard enough," Melissa said trying to help out but it only made Lola internally faceplant.
Ash turned his head and glared at the girls. "How much have you told her?" He asked. Lola's cheeks puffed out as she sucked in a breath.
"Oh, um, everything." She said and smiled.
Melissa smiled from ear to ear, pleased to have been filled in but she still hadn't seen the downside to knowing what she knew. Knowing about this world meant that you were a part of it and Melissa would soon see what that meant.
That thought scared Lola to her core but Melissa was strong and could hold her own, they would just leave fighting parts to the supernatural.
"Are fucking serious?" Ash growled. Melissa excluded herself from the situation, she took a step officially resigning as the mediator between Ash and Lola.
"It's not a problem, she's my friend," Lola explained.
"And you just signed her death sentence by telling her this shit. What do you think will happen when those leeches come after you and they see her by your side?" Lola shrugged a shoulder.
"It will be fine, I'll protect her." He scoffed. "With what?" He snapped.
"Lola you're human, you have no strength, speed, or otherwise physical anomaly that will stand a chance against them. I signed up to protect you but I will not be protecting every human that you decide to bring into this shit. Her life is on you. I hope you feel as good about your decision when they turn her into their snack." Lola stared puzzled as Ash turned around to storm out.
"Why do you always have to be such a dick!?" Her voice filled the room. Ash stiffened, he froze and his shoulders rose in a predatory bow.
He slowly turned on the spot and his eyes, now yellow, bored into hers.
"I guess you just bring it out of me." He growled.
Jax took the girls into town to get out of the mansion. Lola hadn't told him about hers and Ash's conversation but he was filled in on the fact that Melissa now knew everything that Lola knew.
Jax, unlike his cousin, didn't turn on her over the fact. He thought it was a good thing that Lola had someone else on her side with whom she could talk about every life-altering event that had happened.
They asked around the town square that consisted of a roundabout with benches under the shade of the trees. The trees at the moment were giving off beautiful colors as the coldness was coming.
There was a coffee cart by the road just before you walked in on the path leading to the roundabout where they sold the best coffee in town, it was even better than Wild Cliff Cafe.
"Three coffees with cream please," Jax ordered the coffee.
He handed the girls each a cup and took his own before they walked to the benches. The pathway to the roundabout consisted of flat, perfectly formed rocks that children would always paint on during the summer. They sat on one of the benches and didn't speak for a moment. One woman was reading the paper with a coffee in her hand and a thick scarf around her neck. A man was sitting with his dog just basking in the sunlight while it was out.
A dad with his daughter were sitting on another bench and she had a backpack on. Lola assumed they were talking about school or what they would do when they got home. Maybe an adventure they would go on. Whatever it was they looked happy.
"Are you freaking out from knowing everything, Melissa?" Jax asked with a hint of a grin shadowing his lips. She smiled and brought the cup down.
"No, but I am seeing things differently for some reason. It's like I'm wondering if anyone here is a vampire or a werewolf," she said and giggled. The giggle died down though when Jax answered, "There are werewolves here. That woman on the bench with the paper, she's a werewolf. That man standing by the tree over there and that couple by the coffee cart." Melissa leaned back and side-eyed everyone who passed by.
"Okay, that's not alarming." She squealed and looked at every person like it was a stakeout and nobody was above suspicion.
"Mell, it's okay," Lola reassured.
Lola turned her wrist and looked at the time.
"Wait don't we have school today?" She asked.
Melissa's brow shot up.
"You didn't hear? There was a gas leak, the school is closed for at least a few days." Lola's mouth was round and she looked at Jax. "You created an actual leak?"
"We had to make it believable," Jax said like it were nothing. "Relax, nobody was hurt. They did it after everyone had already left," Lola scoffed in disbelief.
"Well yeah alright then," she murmured with an indignant shake of her head.
"Ash took the news a lot worse than you did about my knowing what I know," Melissa laughed and sipped on her coffee. Lola pinched her lips together and looked down at her mug.
"Ash knows?" Jax asked. Lola didn't look up so he grabbed her chin and forced her head up to look at him. "Ash knows?" He repeated.
"He knows," Lola said, gazing into Jax's russet brown eyes.
"When?" He asked, controlling the anger that stirred.
"After Melissa and I talked Ash came in and apologized for how he'd reacted the night before," Lola said, mentioning something good before she told the rest. "He started questioning Ember's miraculous survival and we tried to deter him from the conversation but that just made him realize that Melissa was aware of everything we talked about. He asked how much I'd told her and I said that I told her everything. Then he flipped," she explained.
Jax's nostrils flared and he bit on his tongue to keep words at bay until he probably controlled them.
"Why would you tell him that?" He asked as calmly as he could, though not very effectively.
"because he asked and honestly, Jax, I don't care. Let him get angry, let him lash out, what's he gonna do?" Jax knew exactly what his cousin could do to worsen the situation for everyone but it wasn't Lola's burden.
"Just be careful about what you say to him. In fact, don't share anything with anyone in my family, only me." Lola smiled softly and graced his thigh with her hand.
"You're not very close with them, are you," he shook his head.
"They're not very nice people." He said and chuckled darkly.
Melissa didn't attempt to hide her puzzled expression.
"I've always thought they seemed lovely. Every time Mrs.Blackwood visits my mom she's always cheery and kind with a positive vibe." Both Jax and Lola stiffened.
"Mrs.Blackwood visits your mom?" Lola asked. Melissa nodded.
"A lot recently. Ever since you started seeing Jax she's been adamant about finding out more about you. My mom said that all mothers wanted to know who their child was seeing," Jax clenched his jaw and roughly grabbed the wooden bench. His nails rasped the layers of color and seethed.
"She asked about Lola?"
"A lot, my mom said that she was intrigued by Lola and wanted to learn about her."
Melissa caught onto the unsubtle ways that Jax and Lola shifted in their seats and the tension grew. "That's bad, isn't it," she exclaimed and her smile dropped.