Sisters of Fate

"Well, in this area alone, you have some of the strangest cases. By this area, I mean the Midwestern area of the US," she said. "We ran into a high school track coach who is married and very happily, to an honest to goodness witch. There's a Native American who actually has Shaman-like skills. And he seems to have a relationship with the spirit of the great lakes. She was too powerful for us to handle. There's even a car like yours that..."

"There's an evil Mustang out there?" I asked.

"I wouldn't actually call it evil," she said. "It's just overly protective. It seems as if the spirit of the owner's first girlfriend inhabits the car."

"Did you guys kill the witch?" I asked. "You know like in the bible. Thou shall not suffer a witch to live."

"Nope," she said smiling. "She turned out to be one of the nicest people I've ever met. If we had even looked at that woman funny the whole town would have descended on us like a plague."

"Well what about the Shaman?" I asked.

"We didn't even get to talk to him," she said. "He sat down on the beach in front of a lake. I think it was Lake Superior. Every time we got close to him, the winds would whip up to a hurricane like force. The winds were actually blowing our cars around. It was simply too dangerous, not only to us, but to the people in the surrounding areas, to continue. He also hadn't hurt anyone or done anything wrong. So we decided to go with the Beatles instead of the bible. You know, "Live and let live."

"At that moment we were interrupted by a moan coming from Terri."

"She's coming out of it," said Prudence. "We should use the next few minutes to get the answers you've been looking for."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Jason, I've been watching you from the rooftops for a couple of weeks now. I heard your conversation with that awful Crystal woman. Right now, your wife is still dazed but becoming lucid. If you ask her the things you really want to know about, she'll tell you the truth. Coming out of the mind control is almost like truth serum. She doesn't have enough awareness to be evasive. At least this way, you'll have the closure and the answers you need. What you do with the information is still up to you."

"Terri," I said.

"She moaned again and looked towards me."

"Why did you cheat on me?" I asked.

"Didn't cheat," she mumbled. "Cheating is wrong...just experimented a little. Wanted to see what it would be like."

"How many experiments did you do?" I asked.

"Only four," she said. "Stupid men. None of them was any good. I'm lucky to have my husband. None of them knows how to fuck me like he does. They're all too fast, too slow or just not any good. I love Jason."

"She was smiling stupidly and then she looked at me and her smile got bigger."

"See what I mean?" asked Prudence. "At least you know now."

"She looked at me crazily while Terri's head lolled to the side. Terri looked like a broken doll. Her head popped up at certain times and she started to look around the room. I think that what surprised Prudence wasn't Terri, it was me."

"Why are you crying?" she asked.

"Prudence really looked upset that I was crying, but she had no idea why. That told me that there was something wrong with her. Most people in our situation would have understood that I had loved Terri for a very long time. When you've been involved with another person for any length of time and you give them your heart, a betrayal of that trust is very painful."

"I looked up at the golden haired goddess pretending to be a nun. There was no guile in her smile. She was genuinely not aware of what I was going through."

"Haven't you ever been in love, Sister Prudence?" I asked.

"Of course," she said. "I'm in love right now. I love God and I love the church."

"I'm sorry," I said. "But it's not the same thing. It's just a different type of love. When you give someone your heart and your complete trust, finding out that they betrayed you by doing something that is supposed to symbolize your love and commitment to each other with someone else, it really hurts badly."

"Do you want me to kill her then?" she asked. I shook my head no.

"She's really already dead. The vampire will eventually call her again and he'll either drain her or turn her. And either way, she'll either be undead or just dead."

"So there's no way for us to save her?" I asked. "There's no spiritual or magic technique to save her."

"Why do you care?" asked Prudence. "And what did she do to betray you anyway. She didn't sound like she told someone else that she loved them. In fact, she said that she loves you. What did she do?"

"She had sex with those other guys," I said.

"Oh, that," said Prudence.

"Yes that," I said.

"What does that really mean?" she asked. "Would you get upset if she ate with a different guy? Sex is just another bodily function. Don't read too much into it."

"Sister Prudence," I said exasperatedly. "Before you were a nun didn't you have boyfriends? I mean you're beautiful, you must've had plenty of them."

"I've always been a nun," she said. "Members of our order are raised in the convent."

"So you're a..." I asked.

"A what?" she asked back.

"You've never...?" I asked making a motion with my hands.

""No," she said. "I've never slid one of my fingers back and forth inside the other closed hand."

"I mean you've never had sex..."

"God no," she said in surprise. "Why would I want to do that?"

"Prudence, it feels REALLY good and it kind of links you to another person. It's a way to...join souls with a person you really care about very deeply," I said.

"Ohhh!" she said. "So it's like prayer. You pray to this harlot?"

"Uhm...no," I said. "It's not like prayer. I'm not sure I can even explain love to you because I'm not sure I feel it anymore."

"Then okay," she said smiling. "Since you don't love her anymore, let's kill her and have this whole thing over with."

"God damn, you're blood thirsty to be a nun," I sighed. "Even if I don't love her anymore, I still don't want her dead. It just means that I don't want to have a relationship with her any more. I don't want to live with her anymore, not that I want to send her kicking and screaming into the afterlife."

"How do you know when you're in love?" she asked.

"Pru, aren't we supposed to be talking about some way to possibly save Terri?" I asked.

"If we have to," she sighed. "If we end the bloodline all of his halflings and thralls would be freed. The halflings and thralls would be free, but any full vampires that he created would lose all of their powers or die."

"So Terri would be okay?" I asked.

"She nodded her head and kept looking at me."

"Jason, do you realize though exactly how hard that would be to accomplish?" she asked. "You've already seen what the creature is capable of. You hit him in the head with a rock and all it did was to knock his glasses off. A blow like that would have killed an elephant. He's faster and stronger than five men. If you damage him, he heals up immediately. He has the cunning of most large predators. He's ruthless and relentless and he..."

"But what about you guys?" I asked. "Don't you do this for a living? Aren't you like the God damned ghost busters?"

"Her face was composed but non-committal."

"Truthfully, I've never seen an older vampire taken out," she said. "Fledglings, can sometimes be taken out; halflings go down too. And the thralls are easily vanquished. But with the older, experienced ones, the most we can expect is to move them around. They move into an area. Someone convinces their priest. The priest calls a Bishop, who calls a Cardinal, who calls the Vatican. We get sent out. We do research and comb the area. Most of the time, it never results in a confrontation with them. All they have to do is sense that we're in the area and they pack up and relocate. The sight of us is enough to let the smarter ones know it's time to go."

"But this guy was different," she said. "It was as if he wanted to see what would happen. It's like he wants to test us. When Patience hit him with that crossbow bolt that had been soaked in holy water, he fled. If she'd been able to hit him in the heart, it would have ended him. It would have acted as a stake. That let him know that we were serious, so he's probably clear of the area. If we can't find him, we can't kill him. If we can't kill him, there's no way to save your woman."

"Save me from what?" asked Terri. She was holding onto her head and looked at me and then up at Prudence. Terri is 5' 2" and Prudence towering over her at 5' 11" with about three feet of golden hair, she thought she was still out of it."

"Honey, what's going on?" she asked. "Who is this woman?"

"I didn't say a word. I ignored her. She stood up and walked over to me."

"Jason, are you angry at me?" she asked. "What did I do? I haven't done anything."

"So I guess you call screwing around on me nothing," I said. Her face fell.

"It's not what you think," she said softly. "I just..."

"I know you just needed some strange dick. Terri, get away from me. I don't want to talk to you right now. You don't even know what you've gotten yourself into. I just need to find a way to save you so we can get a divorce and go our separate ways. This marriage is over."

"Terri started crying loudly then. I just stood there and watched her. As much as my compassion wanted me to take her in my arms and to comfort her, I was so angry at her for the betrayal that I just didn't want to deal with her."

"It reminded me of those little kids who fall over and start crying. As soon as they notice that no one is going to pick them up, they stop crying."

"When Terri noticed that Prudence and I were talking about other things while she cried, she stopped crying and walked over to see what was going on."

"Jason, your lady friend needs to leave so we can talk about our marriage. I don't want a divorce. I love you. And I'm a Catholic. We can't have a divorce, so we're going to have to work this out," she said. "I promise it won't ever happen again and..."

"You CAN have a divorce," said Prudence. "I'll get you one. The process is really simple...okay maybe not, but in this case it will be. Step one, he files for the divorce. I'll get a Catholic judge to speed up the process. After you have your civil divorce decree, you have to go to your priest who goes to the Bishop, etc. What you usually get from the church is an annulment, which means that in the eyes of the church there was never a marriage. I'll call the Vatican and have them fast track the process for you. He can probably be free in a few weeks."

"That's impossible," snapped Terri. "A divorce and annulment is supposed to take years. That way people don't enter into it lightly."

"You mean the way you cheated on me to scratch your itch," I spat.

"I'm not going to worry about this," said Terri. "We're not getting a divorce."

"Prudence just leaned back her head and laughed. She pulled out a cell phone. It looked like a normal iPhone 5 but it was red with white trim like her leathers. She made a call and started speaking in Italian. She said a few words and asked me what my last name was. It was just to be sure, she said. Then she spoke again using my full name and Terri's."

"She stood there holding the phone for a while and then smiled."

"Is your name Theresa Eunice Grant?" she asked. Terri nodded her head.

"Prudence gave her the okay sign and kept talking. Then she hung the phone up and started talking to me again about our plans."

"What did you do?" asked Terri.

"Wait for it," said Prudence.

"Less than five minutes later the phone rang. Terri nervously picked it up and answered it. Her eyes got huge."

"Someone must be playing a joke on you," she said. "We're not looking for an annulment. It's not going to happen. I have to go."

"For a good Catholic girl like Terri, hanging up on a Bishop was incredible."

"You bitch," screamed Terri. "You called the Vatican for real. How the fuck did you do that? Stay out of my business."

"Prudence didn't consider Terri's anger threatening so she turned away and ignored her the same way I did."

"Terri turned to me and started yapping at me then."

"Jason, I don't want a divorce. Please, Honey, give me one more chance."

"Terri, you should probably call Crystal and tell her that she lied to me to try to save you. She totally misrepresented how many guys you cheated on me with. Tell her she knows what it means. Tell her that I won't be doing anything until I handle this situation with you, but she should have her AFFAIRS in order."

"I went back to speaking to Prudence. Prudence and I talked into the night. An hour or so after midnight she drove off to wherever she was staying. She promised to return before twilight the next day."

"As soon as Prudence left, Terri was on me. She whined, she cajoled and she begged. The interesting thing that I noticed was that she remembered the guys she slept with but she didn't remember anything or know anything about the vampire. Prudence and I had a plan for that as well. We figured that the next evening he'd try to contact her or call her or whatever it was he did. We figured we'd use Terri as bait and let her go to wherever he called. After we made sure that he didn't get her, we'd follow him back to his lair."

"I don't think Terri realized it, but I was done with her. I wanted to save her life, but our life together was over. As soon as Prudence left, I started getting ready for bed. I should have been starving but all of the activity, the stress and the emotional upheaval had taken their toll on me. All I wanted to do was lie down and just go to sleep."

"I took a quick shower and got into bed. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out. I don't know how long I'd been asleep when Terri came into the room. She slipped under the covers and tried to get into bed with me. My eyes snapped open and I realized two things. The first was that if the vampire was going to try to use Terri, I could have been dead. During the night time hours while he was awake, there was no way I should try to fall asleep around her. It was just too dangerous."

"The second was that I didn't want her to sleep with me, or be anywhere around me."

"Terri, what do you think you're doing?" I asked.

"I'm going to sleep," she said. "...Unless you want to make me a better offer. You haven't touched me in two weeks."

"Her eyes dropped as she realized why."

"Jason, I haven't done anything with anyone other than you in more than a month," she said. "All of that is over. I found out that I didn't need to experiment. I had the best man for me in my bed all along. I never stopped loving you, Honey. And I never loved anyone else. I just wanted to see what it would be like. Crystal does it, and so does Sarah. I know that it sounds really stupid but it was only sex. I wasn't a virgin when I met you. And you weren't either. But Jason, you'd been with a lot more people than I had. I guess I loved what we do so much that I wanted to learn more about my own sexuality. And maybe I wanted to try some things that you and I hadn't done so I could teach them to you. I didn't do it to hurt you Jason."

"I also went against my values for you. I used condoms. I had to make sure that I didn't catch any kind of disease. I also had to make sure that I didn't get pregnant. I only want to have your babies, Honey. I know that I was wrong and I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me. Can't we start over again?"

"I forgive you," I said. "We can start over again."

"She pulled the covers back and tried to get into bed. I pushed her and she lost her balance and fell to the floor beside the bed."

"That was mean Jason," she laughed.

"Terri, you need to go sleep in the guest room," I said.

"For how long?" she asked.

"Forever," I said. "At least until the divorce is over and we have separate living spaces."

"But you said we could start over," she said. "You said you'd forgive me."

"Her eyes teared up and she started to sniffle."

"I do forgive you. I forgive you because I don't have the time or the energy to carry all of that hatred around with me," I said. "And we can start over. We're starting over from square one. Only this time, I know what a whore you are, so I wouldn't count on us getting together again."

"It's that woman isn't it," she hissed. "Okay Jason, I made a mistake. And now you want to use that mistake to try and replace me with your tall, blond supermodel."

"Terri, just stop talking before you say something really stupid," I said. "Prudence is a nun. She's also a virgin."

"She's also a woman and I saw the way she looked at you," snapped Terri. "Why don't you go ahead and fuck her? Then we'll be even and we can get our marriage back on track."

"Terri, I warned you, but you just went ahead and said something stupid anyway, didn't you?" I said. "Good night."

"She stormed out of the room and I locked the door after her. I had one of my favorite swords on the wall in the bedroom. My Paul Chen Golden Oriole Katana was probably one of the most beautiful swords I owned. It wasn't trimmed in gold or anything like that, but it was a well made functional Katana that was truly nice to look at. I pulled it down from the wall and put it on the bed beside me. I also set the alarms on the house. If Terri or the vampire who controlled her tried to get into the room, they'd have to break the door down and then get cut."

"I also knew that it would be morning in a matter of only an hour or two. This close to dawn in a strange area wouldn't be smart. I figured the vamp would wait until the next evening."

"I was awakened by a thumping sound. It was persistent yet soft. I unlocked and then opened my bedroom door to find Terri asleep on the floor just outside the door. I stepped over her and noticed how pretty she was asleep like that. I picked up her sleeping form and laid her on the bed in the guest room just down the hall. Even as I laid her down, the thumping came again. It was someone knocking on my front door softly. I looked at my watch and saw why I was still so God damned tired. I'd only been asleep for about forty minutes. It was barely four in the morning."

"I headed towards the front door, ready to give whoever was there, the worst verbal ass reaming they'd ever had. As I yanked the door open, I had to suck the breath I'd been ready to expel back in when I saw who it was."

"What's wrong Pru?" I asked.

"From the general expression on her face I could tell it was something bad."

"I hate to come here," she said. "But I can't think of anywhere else to go."

"Sister Prudence, you're always welcome here," I said.

"She smiled at that, but the smile didn't have the intensity that I'd come to expect from her. I noticed then that her car was in my driveway and it wasn't empty."

"What happened, Pru?" I asked.

"We need help," she said.

"I followed her to the car. I was shocked by what I saw. Penance sat in the passenger seat huddled over and in pain. Patience was in the rear leaning against a small man who appeared to be in some kind of shock."

"When I got back to..." Prudence began.

"Let's get them inside first," I said. "I reached to help Penance out of the seat and she glared at me and snatched her arm away. The movement caused her pain and despite her bravado she whimpered."

"I moved the seat forward and tried to get the small man in the back seat to come out. His eyes appeared to be glazed. He just stared straight forward, not recognizing anything. Prudence touched his shoulder and he recoiled. She spoke to him in a calming voice and he turned to look at her. She gently took his arm and pulled him out of the seat. I saw Patience slumped in the seat and leaned in. I got one arm behind her back and the other under her small legs at the knees and lifted her out of the car. She obviously couldn't stand so I carried her into the house and kicked the door closed behind me."