"This is cold," Eliza thought.  "This is really cold!"  It was only slightly below freezing but there was a heavy fog and it was freezing on everything it touched.  The sidewalk was coated with a thin ice slick, street lamps were coated in an ice overcoat, trees appeared to be made of crystal.  It was beautiful in an eerie, obscure way, but even with her love of the cold, the occasional breeze that whipped the curling fog into moving gossamer curtains seemed to suck the life from the body.  She very uncharacteristically shivered and wished she was in her apartment.  

Her face was stinging and her pale cheeks were fiery red but she was taken by the frigid beauty of it all.  She was concentrating on fishing her apartment key from her pocket when the first hint of danger tingled through her consciousness.  She spun and saw a massive airborne form launched in her direction.  She was dropping to her back just as she was struck.  Slamming her back to the pavement, the weight of her attacker drove the wind from her lungs.  Drawing her knees to her chest, she pushed the attacker from her and rolled.  After slipping on the ice twice, she managed to regain her feet and faced her opponent with a drawn knife, gasping for the air that her lungs so badly wanted.

"Now is that anyway to greet a poor freezing buddy?"  Christa pouted, spreading her legs and putting her hands on her hips.  

"Ahh . . .  Urr . . ." Eliza croaked trying to catch her breath, but the knife vanished as if my magic and she grabbed her and hugged her tightly.  "You have no idea how glad I am to see you!" she finally gasped.  She stepped back and gazed at Christa.  "You must be freezing," she said grabbing Christa by the hand and pulling her down the steps to her apartment. Standing in front of the door, she realized she'd dropped the key in her scuffle with Christa.  She blinked back up, easily spotted the shiny key and blinked back down into the stairwell.

"That is absolutely freaky when you do that!  Can't you walk up and down stairs like normal people?"  

Eliza grinned and flashed Christa a fang filled smile.  "Do I look like a normal person?"

Christa shook her head and threw up her hands.  "When you're right, you're right.  Now, please!  Open the door and let us in.  I'm freezing out here."  

They both wrapped their hands around hot coffee laced with a strong plum brandy and enjoyed the biting aroma and the warmth.  "You know, I've been crazy worrying about you," Eliza said.  "You just seemed to vanish from the face of the earth.  No, goodbye, no by your leave, nothing.  I don't know whether to cry because I'm so glad to see you or to be pissed cause you've worried me so much."

Christa reached across and grabbed her arm.  "I really didn't just run off, Liz, and I'm really sorry.  Honest, I've gotten back as quickly as I could."  She took a sip of the coffee and lifted her eyebrows.  "Now that is coffee with character!" and she took another sip.  "You remember I told you about that place Sandy and I went to?  You remember, where we met the clan?  Well, when Adam came over that night, I left to give you  some talking room.  I just sort of wandered around and ended up in the park.  I went in and everything seemed normal but then it really started to get dark.  I mean really dark.  Liz, I couldn't see anything and I was actually starting to get scared when I saw a glow.  It was coming toward me, not fast, but steady and I felt this sense of relief.  At this point, I realized something was happening and all I could do was go with it."

Christa stared at Eliza, wide eyed, and Eliza realized that her friend was upset.  Eliza could see that she was all right, but she was tense and gripping her arm with an unnaturally strong grip.  She wondered what her friend had been through.  She gently rubbed the hand that was gripping her forearm.

"Liz, it was him.  He took me by the hand and led me away.  It felt so good, so right, that all I could do was following.  We went back to the clan and I was greeted and felt at home.  Sandy was there."  Christa hesitated and smiled. "Damn, it was good to see her and she looked happy." Christa sighed and continued her story.  Eliza sat and listened to the tale of wild hunts, battles with were-dogs and other creatures, mystic ceremonies, sexual excess and satisfaction.  Christa got a far away look in her eyes as she talked and she almost seemed to be reading a script.  She spoke in a low monotone voice, and while what she was saying was not particularly disturbing, tears began to trickle down her cheeks.  

Eliza realized that Christa was distressed but she couldn't figure out why.  She wanted to help but she didn't know what to say, so she listened.  As Christa talked, her voice got lower and lower until it finally faded to silence and she just stared at Eliza, tears running down her cheeks.  She sighed and finally said, "Sandy's not coming back and it's my fault.  I got her involved."  Now, Eliza understood.  She slid next to Christa and put her arms around her.  Christa held her tight while making very small unhappy sounds.  Eliza held Christa and made soothing noises, not really saying anything.  What could she say?  Even more, she wondered what she should say.

It was even colder and spookier than when Eliza had first come home but neither seemed to care.  What had been left of the plum brandy was warming them and Christa was wearing one of Eliza's warm capes.  They had discovered the need to make a late night run to the liquor store.  Eliza had come up with a woeful lack of spirit beverages but she knew of an all-night liquor store not too far away.  As Christa had said, what was to consider?  Some things you just have to do.  

They walked quickly toward the all night liquor store.  Entering they made their purchases, two bottles of Plum Brandy.  Paying for them and exchanging small talk with the young guy on the register, they called a goodbye and made their way back the way they had just come.  Now walking more quickly, as sleet had started to form.  The wind had picked up and it was a thoroughly nasty night. 

They didn’t talk much until they arrived outside Eliza’s apartment building.  Going in, they made a beeline for the warmth of the apartment.  Toby was there to greet them as they ran in the door.  Walking around, weaving in and out of their ankles, he made them welcome.

Making another pot of strong coffee, they sat at the table and waited for it to brew.  Cracking open a bottle of the brandy, they added it to their coffee.  Taking quick sips, they both relaxed.  Eliza turned to Christa, hesitantly asking if there was anything she wanted to talk about.  

“I know Sandy’s not coming back is really bothering you.  Do you want to tell me what happened and why she isn’t returning?” Eliza questioned.  “You said she’d gone back to the clan.  Do you have that option too or were you excluded?  If you do have that choice, would you go back too?”  She asked.  Eliza really wanted to know, she was feeling a little lost at this point.  It seemed like she was losing all the ones she cared about.

Bluntly, Christa said, “Sandy isn’t coming back because she’s pregnant.  She decided to stay with the clan and raise her child there.  You have to remember, Eliza, that both of us were accepted into the clan and yes I could go back and stay if I so wished.  I don’t.”

“There are so many things I can’t tell you.  It’s not the clan way.  I can tell you it is a great feeling to know you’ve been accepted and taken in by them.  Their ways are so different, not human of course, yet not that different.  They protect and care for their own.  There are eleven of us.  Four males and seven females and they are all family.  That’s the way the clan is.  They take care of each other.  Sandy is staying because of the baby.  The clan will care for her and the child.  This child will have many mothers and fathers, it will be much loved,” Christa explained.

Looking at her seriously, Eliza came out and asked, “Are you going back, Christa?”  “You seem to miss it all so much.  Not even mentioning Sandy, you seem to miss the clan very much, or is it the Clan Leader you miss?  I saw the way your face changed when you spoke of him,” Eliza teased.

Pushing her tawny hair back, Christa sadly said “she wouldn’t be going back anytime soon.  It’s not that easy to go back.  Leader must lead me there.  But that is another thing I may not speak about.  It is not of this world.”  

Looking at Christa steadily, Eliza asked what she was going to do.  “I don’t want to pressure you to tell me things you are not able to.  I just want to know, I guess, if you will be here now.  Will you move to this part of the city? 
So many things have changed since you disappeared four months ago.”  

“I wanted to ask you what was happening in the park, Eliza.  It feels like I was gone forever.  Are you still with Jesse?  Do you still hang out with Vicki?  How are they all?  Tell me, tell me.

Laughing, Eliza recognized Christa’s need to change the subject.  She launched into the tales of what had been going on after Christa left.

“I just don’t know what’s happening with Jesse, Christa.  I haven’t seen him now in over two weeks.  There must be something wrong with me, I can’t seem to keep a man.  First John, now Jesse.  Everything just seemed to fall to pieces after Jerry’s death.  Oh God, I forgot you didn’t know about that.

She told Christa about the attack on Jerry.  How the were-dog or wolf had gotten to him and done a lot of damage.  How she’d found him, took him into his place and done some healing.  She told her of the fact that Jerry’s wounds just didn’t heal like they should have and how it was that he would have become one of them if he hadn’t died. 

Christa looked hard at Eliza and saw that she was deeply emotional about this.  She knew that they had been good, close friends and that Jerry’s death must have hit Eliza hard.

She lapsed into silence, Christa sitting and watching her.  She didn’t even realize she’d stopped talking as she lost herself in memories.  Shaking her head, she continued on with the story.  Looking at Christa, she said, “I killed him, Christa, I did.  I had to. I couldn’t let him become one of them, I just couldn’t.  You know he wouldn’t have wanted that.  I had promised not to embrace him and I kept that promise.  He’s happy now, I know he is,” she sobbed.

Lowering her arms to the table, she dropped her head into them and sobbed.  She cried like she cried the night at the club.....................oh Gods, another thing to tell her about. “ How do I explain this one?” she thought.  Raising her head, she gave Christa a teary smile.

Eliza stood and made her way to the kitchen, grabbing some tissues and wiping her face.  

“Christa, do you know anything of the people called Immortals?  Not like you and me, but truly immortal.  You know the guy you met tonight in the park?  Well, he’s one.  He knows I’m a vampire and it doesn’t bother him.  He doesn’t know about you.  I hadn’t time enough to tell him.  That may be a good thing, though,” she murmured.

“Ummmmmm, Christa, I killed an immortal tonight.  That was the fight you came on in the park.  He’d been stalking Adam, that’s his name, and I.  He attacked me in the park and I fought back.  As you can see I’ve learned a few things since you’ve been gone.  I’ve had to,” Eliza said quietly.  “That was the second time I’d fought him.  The first was really a draw.  He’d attacked Adam and I, couldn’t let him get away with it.  Adam can hold his own in a fight, that sword of his is something else.  Apparently the only way to kill an immortal is to cut off his or her head.  Then, well, then the winner apparently takes on the energy of the loser.  WHAT A RUSH,” she breathed.  Better than sex, well almost.”

“Adam is supposed to come and tell me about what happens now.”  Looking confused, Eliza wondered if this made her immortal and if it went further than the tentative immortality of a vampire.  

Laughing now, she looked at Christa and apologized.  “I’m sorry Christa, I seem to have been monopolizing the conversation here.  Oh Geez, I’ve been talking almost 3 hours straight.  You should have stopped me,” she exclaimed.

Grinning too, Christa replied, that it was fine and she still had more to tell as far as she was concerned.  I asked about Vicki too, remember?  But you can leave that for tomorrow, if you want to,” she told Eliza.   “As for knowing anything about Immortals, I can’t say that I do.  If you’d asked me about the were-cats, dogs and wolves. I could have talked for hours.  But this is something I know nothing about.  I must say though that I am curious too.  I wonder if Adam would mind if I sat in when you talked about everything,” she wondered.  “Now tell me about Vicki, why you get that look on your face every time I mention her name.

With a wry look at Christa, Eliza started to tell her about Vicki. Starting with the fact that Vicki and Jimmy were a twosome.  “He’s trying to look after her, but she doesn’t seem to want it.  She’s sinking deeper and deeper into the drug world.  This all happened when she was attacked by the dog creature.  I’m beginning to think she’s drugging to forget what she saw.  I think she knows it wasn’t a true attack or mugging. She never has money, always borrowing and then spending it on more drugs.  It gets old quickly Christa,” Eliza said quietly.  Just as quietly, she said “I miss her.”

“I know you do, Eliza, just as I know you two were great friends.  If you’ve tried your best, all you can do is wait until you are needed. If she’s as bad as you say, you’ll be needed soon.  Jimmy can’t cope on his own, work and take care of her too.  When was the last time you talked to either of them?” she asked.

“Not for a couple of weeks,” Eliza answered.  “It got too hard, every time I turned around, she was borrowing money.  Never repaid it just wanted more and more.  I couldn’t do that Christa.  I just couldn’t help her destroy herself that way.  I’m sitting here waiting for Jimmy to call.  I know it’s coming.  I just don’t know when.”

Looking up, she tried to smile, “ I know I glossed over Jesse.  I just don’t know what to say about him. Everything was fine until shortly after the attack on us.  He doesn’t believe that were creatures exist.  I had wanted him to see and meet you, when the transformation was on you.  You were gone on the next full moon.  He is still skeptical.  He believes we were attacked, although he thinks it was muggers with knives.”  Shaking her head, she muttered, “for someone so knowledgeable, he sure is dumb.  He just seemed to have no time for me after that.  He felt he taught or showed me all he could and I’d have to learn the rest on my own.  I thought we had more than a teacher, student relationship, but I guess I was wrong.”

Eliza lapsed into silence and stared at the wall.

“Then I guess we’ll just have to show him, won’t we Eliza?” Christa said quietly.  She looked at Eliza and grinned a toothy grin.  No fangs, just teeth this time.  Knowing the full moon had passed and they’d have to wait a while, they made their plans to introduce Christa to Jesse and Adam.

Eliza giggled at the thought of Jesse’s face when he finally saw Christa in full transformation.  She knew they’d seen each other before, but he would be shocked when he saw her transformed.  

Adam, she knew, would be more open to the fact of were-cats.  He accepted vampires, although he’d never met any before.  So why not were-cats, dogs and wolves?  She knew Adam would probably see Christa transformed before Jesse, as they were going to meet soon to discuss what would happen now that she’d killed and taken Kristo’s energy force.  Probably nothing would happen that was any different from what was happening already.  She doubted she’d be immortal or any more so than she was already.  That was the most weird feeling, to know you were going to die or were dying and then to be alive again.  

Looking at the clock, already knowing it was near to dawn, Eliza poured one last cup of coffee for each of them, adding one more dollop of plum brandy to each cup.

With a toast to Christa, she said “I feel better talking to you.  It’s been so hard not having anyone to talk to.  I’m glad you are here.”

They drank their brandy laced coffee and slowly headed down the hall to the bedroom.  They were both totally exhausted and in need of the deep sleep they knew was coming to claim them.  

As they fell asleep wrapped in each others arms, neither saw nor felt the presence that watched over them in the dark.