“Now, cover yourself up and go straight home. You’ll want to drink some orange juice and get some rest,” she said and puther fingers into her mouth to suck. “Delicious,” she repeated on her way out of the room.
Heading toward the front of the bar, Cassia stopped in her tracks when she saw the woman she loved sitting in one of the booths, her hand on another woman’s neck, stroking her pulse point and staring deeply into her eyes. Cassia was used to Iro having her breaks to explore the world, but she hadn’t ever needed that, perhaps because she’d done so much of her own exploring before Iro had even been born and then remade. Iro had also more than enjoyed their time together for decades before requesting that first period of time apart. It had been brief initially, and Iro had returned to her, but the requests had continued to come, and they’d been longer and longer nearly every time. Now, Cassia was watching Iro lean into this woman, who looked like any other ordinary human on the planet, as if she wanted to devour her, but not in the same way Cassia had just devoured the woman in the storage room. Knowing all Iro’s looks well, she could tell Iro wanted more than mere sex with this human. Iro was, for some reason, enamored with this average girl.
“This just won’t do,” Cassia said to herself, shaking her head.
She didn’t want to watch anymore. Interrupting Iro now would only upset her, and Cassia didn’t want to deal with an upset Iro. Besides, she loved when Iro returned to her after their breaks. Iro was usually ravenous for her then, taking her in every way on every surface for several weeks before finally turning into the soulful poet Cassia had fallen in love with, sharing her new poetry with Cassia while they lay naked and sated by the fire or between lovemaking sessions. She loved all sides of Iro, and she knew Iro hadn’t ever met anyone else who loved all of her.
As she watched Iro and the woman she was with stand, her fangs reemerged on their own accord when she saw Iro takethe woman’s hand and entwine their fingers as if they belonged together.
“No, this simply willnotdo,” she said to herself again and left the bar.
???
“What they don’t tell you about losing a child is that even after years, you still wait for them to come home from school. You still expect them to come into the house and tell you about their day or ignore you and rush off to their rooms to do their homework or play video games,” the woman she was watching said before she broke down and cried.
Cassia sat in a chair at the back of the room. She didn’t frequent support groups, but occasionally, she stopped by to see if there was anyone who might be interested in what she could offer. Unsurprisingly, she found people at least every two out of ten times, but where it had used to be out of boredom, now she came for an entirely different reason. It wasn’t to provide relief to suffering humans, but to grow her cause.
When the meeting had ended, and that same woman was hugging another woman and still crying at the memory of her lost son, Cassia waited until she was alone.
“Your story really touched me,” she stated once she and the grieving woman were outside on the sidewalk.
“I haven’t seen you in the meeting before,” the woman replied.
“It’s my first since I lost my Shelly,” she said, using the name she always tossed out for things like this.
“Daughter?”
“Yes. She was sixteen. Gone a month now.”
“I’m so sorry,” the woman said with a sniffle.
“How long has your son been gone?”
“A year tonight,” the woman replied.
“Does it get any easier?”
“No, it doesn’t. It’s a lie when they say that it does. He is still dead because someone drank too much at a bar and drove home. I’m still all alone. His father left after he died. He couldn’t even stand to look at me. I couldn’t stand to look at him, either. It’s all horrible.” The woman sighed before adding, “I’m sorry. I’m sure that’s unhelpful, and you came here for support.”
“I’m surprised I left my house today. Honestly, I have really been struggling, thinking there has to be a way out of this horrible pain.”
“We’ve all been there. I took pills a month ago. My sister found me, and I’m still, unfortunately, here without my son.”
“You wanted to end it?” Cassia asked her, finally getting somewhere.
“Most days, I still do.”
“What if I could help end the pain?”
“Excuse me?” the woman asked back.
Cassia looked around and saw that they were relatively alone.
“That anger you feel – you can use it. You can find the person who killed your son and use it against him. No one would be able to stop you. In fact, you can aim that anger at whomever you want, and when you’re ready, if you want to end it all, I’ll show you how.”
“I’m sorry, I should really get going,” the woman said, looking nervous now, which only pushed Cassia on.
“You know, I was hoping I wouldn’t have to convince anyone tonight. I could’ve kept going until I got you to agree with me eventually, but I’m really tired, so I’m going to skip a few steps.” Cassia took the woman’s hand in her own and added, “I’d apologize, but I don’t want to.” She leaned in and whispered, “I don’t have to convince you at all, really. I can take whatever Iwant whenever I want, but it’s more fun this way after all these years.”
