The car hadn't yet pulled into the driveway, but she'd already jumped out and dashed toward the open door of her house. She knew something terrible had happened; she'd felt it on the drive back, and had forced Robyn to break the speed limit.
Seeing that the door was open, her stomach did a lurch.
"Lissa," she called, panic in her voice, in her steps, as she ran into the living room.
And then she saw her. The scream that escaped her mouth didn't seem to come from her. Everything seemed to be happening to another person, and she was merely an observer.
"Jean, what is it?" Robyn called.
Jean crumpled to the floor, her knees sinking into the pool of blood that had gathered there.
"Oh dear God," Robyn mouthed, having finally arrived and seen the damage.
"She's not moving. She's not moving," Jean screamed. She pulled the lifeless body into her lap, desperately feeling for a pulse. "Please, baby. Come on. Please don't leave me."
She felt it in her chest. A faint beat, but it was definitely there.
"She's still alive," she said, tears blurring her vision.
Robyn didn't move, just stared at the scene. And she noticed the wound, something Jean had missed in trying to revive Lissa.
"Jean, she isn't dying..." she said slowly, cautiously.
"What are you talking about," Jean asked, hysterical, clutching the body to her.
"She's lost a lot of blood, but she's not dying. Her blood's been poisoned. Look at the wound..."
She hadn't paid any attention to the source of the blood. But as she looked at it, saw the bite marks, she knew their origin. The yellowish fuzz surrounding it could only have meant one thing. The attack must have happened during the transition – those thirty or so deadly seconds when a werewolf bite was poisonous.
Her body shook as she erupted with tears.
"No," she sobbed, holding Lissa to her chest, letting her tears fall onto her head. "No, not her. Not that. But you said...you said the full moon...there wasn't one. How is this possible?"
"I don't know. I'm sorry."
"I can't leave her like this. We'll never be able to be together. We'll be natural enemies."
"There's nothing you can do."
Jean wept like a woman who truly had lost everything. She felt like ending it, retrieving the platinum dagger and twisting it into her heart. Because this was a fate worse than death. This was her worst nightmare realized.
"I can't live without her. I can't let her be one of them. I have to stop it."
Robyn looked at her as though she had gone completely mad. "You're not suggesting... Jean, that isn't your choice to make."
"Who else is going to make it?" she bawled. "We can never be together if she's like this. Don't you see that?"
"This isn't about her, this is about you not wanting to be alone. That's selfish! You can't make this decision for her. You'd be sentencing her to death."
"I'm saving her from that life," Jean said. She was trying to convince herself more than Robyn. In that moment, she could only see one thing, and that was her and Lissa reunited, lovers again, just like before.
Except it wouldn't be like before. It could never be like before, no matter what she decided now.
Robyn shook her head. "She'll never forgive you for this, I hope you know that. When she finds out you took away her chance to continue tasting food and walking in the daylight, she'll hate you forever."
"She won't find out. Nothing that happens tonight can ever get back to her, do you understand?"
As she lifted Lissa into her arms and took her down to the lair, she did so with a heavy heart. The heaviest. And although she didn't know how Lissa would feel when she woke up, confronted with her new future, at least one thing was certain: the love or hatred Lissa would feel for her would now be eternal.
THE END