Bitter Blood (BBi)

Chapter 20: Domestic Werewolves

Chapter Twenty
Domestic Werewolves

Christmas closes in and with only two short days left before the big event, I find myself setting up a Christmas tree at Avery's house and excepting an invitation to spend the day with her and Rhys. Past Christmas's haven't been much of a celebration at my house. It was kind of lonely, really. Lara spends the day with her family, and Stacey usually spends Christmas with her mother in New York, so there was rarely someone I could spend time with.

But this year is different. I'm actually looking forward to it; a real celebration with Blue and Avery and Rhys. Maybe they'll even invite Tori and the others, too.

Currently, I'm standing in Avery's kitchen, watching her bounce around the open space, making cookies. She's in an awfully cheerful mood.

"I'm going to give you five facts about werewolves that you should definitely know." She says and sprinkles a cup full of chocolate chips into the cookie mix.

"Oh, really?" I smile and lean against the bench, plucking a few of the chocolate drops out of the bag.

"Fact one; we're fatally allergic to wolfsbane. In most forms, it can kill us. " She says, then continues before I can ask questions. "Fact two; on full moons, only one thing can keep us human and that's pain. Fact three; when a human is bitten, they spend the first several weeks after shifting back and forth between wolf and mortal form."

"Several weeks?" I interrupt. "It can really take that long?"

"Maybe even longer. It's different for everybody." She replies. "Okay, fact four; we don't live in packs. There's a whole explanation behind that, but for now, that's just it. There's no reason for us to be in them, no reason to form bonds like that because the full moon only lasts three days."

"Fact five..." She trails off and taps her spoon against the rim of the cookie dough bowl. "Hmm...I'm not sure what other vital information there is to tell you."

"We aren't allergic to silver."

Rhys walks into the kitchen and steals a few chocolate drops from my hand.

"Fact six; Werewolf gangs are incredibly dangerous." He pops one into his mouth. "Just like the one we ran into just a couple days ago."

"We aren't talking about that," Avery declares with a finger up to stop him from talking anymore. "Christmas time is a disaster-free time."

Rhys puts his hands up in surrender and pinches a few more chocolate drops from the bag on the counter.

"Alright then, who knows a Christmas carol?" he asks. I frown at him. "What? If we can't talk about disasters then we might as well get in the cheerful, holiday mood."

"How about..." he trails off as he racks his brain for a Christmas carol title. "Silent Night?"

He ruffles Avery's hair and she's ducks out from under his arm. She jabs at him with her cookie dough covered spoon but he steps out of the swing zone with a wide grin. Avery starts singing an off-key version of Silent Night, which only makes me smile, then laugh until my lungs hurt.

Christmas eve has us in Avery and Rhys' lounge room, surrounded in colorful lights from the Christmas tree and the smell of eggnog in the air from the cups we're all holding.

Jennifer sits with her legs hanging over the arm rests of the chair she's in, with Tori lounging in the one across from her. Jeremy is playing some kind of game with Micah and Rhys that has something to do with sticking cards to their foreheads. Maylin and Avery are watching me with Blue, closely paying attention to the gentle way I'm patting him and his own calm, even breathing.