51 comments/ 50896 views/ 38 favorites Sisters of Fate By: StangStar06 Hi Folks, I'm glad you liked last week's Halloween story. That one was meant to be scary but funny. This time alround it's more myeterious and actiony (is that a word?) Anyway as usual it's only meant in fun so don't take it too seriously. Thanks as usual to the incredible mikothebaby for her great skill in editing, Happy Halloween! SS06. * * * * * * I sat down at the kitchen table, barely awake as she set the plate down in front of me. She leaned over and kissed me, her tongue probing my mouth energetically. "Ugh, Honey, you really need to brush your teeth before you eat...morning breath," she said. Her smile still lit up the room. "Someone drained all of my bodily fluids AND all of my energy last night," I said. She stood back and put one long fingered hand on one of her hips. She tilted her head to the side and set off a waterfall of tawny colored curls tumbling over one shoulder and down her back. Her succulent lips stuck out another millimeter and her expression changed. "You really should have become accustomed to it by now," she said. "But we could stop doing that and watch television or something. After all, we have been doing it for a year now." Her entire expression told me that was the thing she wanted least. I quickly stood up and took her in my arms. The pout receded and became a smile. I dipped her backwards as if we were dancing the way they did in all of those musicals from the forties. I lowered my face to hers and she automatically closed her eyes and puckered those cherry red lips my way. I lowered my face and then stopped. When the kiss she'd been expecting never happened, she popped one eye open with her lips still puckered and looked at me smiling at her, while I had her bent backwards and dangling in mid-air. "I shouldn't kiss you," I said. "Why not?" she whined. "Morning breath, remember?" I smirked. "Shut up and kiss me," she said. "I like your morning breath." Our lips met and it became a crescendo of emotions and sensations. My dick hardened immediately and her nipples sprang to life as if they had a mind of their own. "Let's take the day off," she said. "You're sick." "Wouldn't that be a lie?" I asked. "It's really just a question of interpretation," she smirked, using one of my favorite lines against me." "How so?" I asked, waiting to hear this one. "Well," she said innocently. And that was one of the things I loved the most about her. She's twenty six years old. She has an incredible slim but curvy body, but she still manages to look and seem so innocent. Perhaps it has more to do with the way she was brought up and the fact that all of this is still so new to her. "You're actually depraved," she continued. "So in a way that means you're sick," she smirked. "How am I sick?" I asked exasperatedly. "You know," she hinted. "All of those things you make me do in bed. Most of that stuff is NOT in the bible." "I MAKE YOU, do those things?" I asked sarcastically. I just looked at her crazily as she nodded her head very quickly. "So who was the one screaming, "Do it again, and this time, stick it in my..." I began before she silenced me by pinching my lips together. "I have to experience depravity, in order to fully understand it so I can fight against it," she said quickly. "It's research." "Well, when you were screaming that with my sperm all over your face, it really looked like you'd thrown yourself into your research," I laughed. "But I think you've forgotten that fighting against depravity and sin is no longer your job." "What is my job now then?" she asked. "Your job now," I smirked. "...Is to be my woman." Her face got red and she tried to hide her smile. She liked it when I claimed her. She wrapped her arms around me as I straightened up. That pulled us into a hug. My arms were around her thin waist and I dropped my hands onto the full globes of her ass. I couldn't resist it, I squeezed it a little and she moaned. She pressed her pelvis into mine and my dick moved from hard to near diamond level. "We have to go to work," I said. "We have more than enough money," she said insistently. "We both have cars, we have this nice house and we have plenty of food. Let's take the day off." "If we take too many days off, we won't have jobs, or cars or food or the house," I said. "Okay, Jason, but right after work, we're getting really depraved," she said. "Honey, have you forgotten what day it is?" I asked. "We have to go to church after work." Her eyes opened wider and she looked at the calendar. "I'd almost forgotten," she said. "You're making me as sick as you are. We're going to need to go out and check after church you know." She never unwrapped her arms from me but she looked away. "I know it's not my job anymore, but I need to check," she said. "Just in case." I smiled at her and nodded. I kissed her one more time and our tongues circle and fought. "We're going to have to check really quickly, though so we can come home and..." she began. I shook my head and laughed. "Well, you know we won't be able to do anything tomorrow. It's a holy day," she said. "Doesn't the bible say that the Lord said something about being fruitful and multiplying?" I asked. "But we're not being fruitful or multiplying," she said. "We're just fucking." I was so shocked at hearing her use the word that I didn't say anything. I just got the most shocked look on my face. It was like hearing a four year old girl say it. She never used profanity so it had so much more impact. "Honey, you got that totally wrong," I said. "Maybe we're not trying to get you pregnant yet, but we're doing a lot more than just fucking. We're making love. We are physically expressing our deep emotional and spiritual commitment to each other. When people love each other, it makes a lot of difference." She smiled as she thought about my words. "You love me that much?" she asked. Her smile got wider and more intense as she thought about what I'd said. I nodded. "I liked it when you expressed your deep emotional and spiritual commitment to me last night," she smirked. "I especially liked it when your emotional and spiritual commitment was so deep in mine that I could feel you all the way into my stomach. I came so hard that I almost blacked out." I swatted her on her ass and told her to go to work. She kissed me again and then headed for the door. On her way, she ran her fingers lovingly over one of the swords mounted on the wall. As she grabbed the keys to her 2012 Mustang convertible off of the counter, she smiled at me again. Then she daintily donned her Dunkin Donuts cap and opened the door. "And don't spend the day bending over in front of guys," I ordered. "Just give them their fucking donuts and coffee. I don't want anyone except me looking at my ass." She smiled again and then wiggled her ass at me. "Maybe you should come over here and kiss YOUR ass to remind me," she said. I walked over to her and buried my face in her pants covered rear end. "Ohh," she moaned. "Never stop doing that." I slapped her sharply on her upturned rump and she jumped and screamed. She rubbed her ass and looked at me seriously. "You know I'd never do that, right?" she asked. "You know I'd never do anything with anyone else, don't you?" I nodded and she smiled and headed out the door. The next thing I heard was the sound of her rear tires screaming in protest as she backed out of the driveway. That woman went through more tires in a year... I headed up the stairs and into the bathroom. I needed a shower before I went to work. I still smelled like sex and bacon. But I had to admit that I loved her. I loved her far more than any person I'd ever known. I sensed on some level that we would always be together. I'd never felt that way about any person before. An hour later, I was sitting at my desk waiting for the latest of my designs to render. My company insisted on using an older version of NX. And to top it off, our computers were so slow that even for tasks as mundane as getting email; they lagged far behind both my iPhone 5 and my original iPad. It was really silly. At any given point in time, I might hear a chirp that announced that I'd received an email on my iPhone. Two to three seconds later, I'd get an answering chirp on my iPad. The iPhone got the mail quicker because it was on a 4G LTE network. My iPad was only 3G. The scary thing was that my office PC, which should have been far faster than any of the mobile networks was far slower than either. It sometimes took more than two minutes for the same email to show up on the PC. At lunchtime she called me. "Can you get out for a quickie?" she asked. "I love you, but you're going to have to call one of your other men," I said. "I'm kind of tied up. I want to get this part done, so I can stay home and not have sex with my woman tomorrow. There will probably be a lot of praying and no sex." "Okay," she said. "I'll call one of the others." She hung up. And I was pissed. Less than a second later my phone rang again. "Jason, can you get out of work long enough for us to have a quickie?" she asked laughing. "My regular man is unavailable. "Oh so you're trying to make me jealous, huh?" I asked. Laughter was her only answer. "I'm only working until two today," she said. "Can I come over and watch you work?" "I don't know..." I began. "Last time I let you WATCH me work, you sat there and teased me and we ended up almost getting caught in the supply closet." "I'll be very good this time," she promised. "Shit, you were REALLY good last time," I said. "That's why we almost got caught." "I'll see you in a couple of hours," she said. I could have sworn I heard the sound of someone kissing the phone as she hung up. As if I wasn't distracted enough. I'd had a rough life over the past year. It isn't easy having the most gorgeous woman you know in love with you, but I guess someone had to do it. So it might as well be me. My life wasn't always like that. Almost on cue, the phone on my desk rang. It was the building's security desk. "Jason, I hate to be the bearer of bad news," said a voice on the other end. "But you have a visitor. It's her and she has a guy with her. He's an older guy." "I'll meet them in the cafeteria," I said. "Good luck," he said hanging up. I saved my drawing just in case we got a power outage or something stupid happened while I was away from my desk. I walked down the stairs and then across the building to get to the cafeteria. "Hey Jason, there's some lady in the cafeteria waiting for you," said George Steele. George was a QC engineer and he had a terminally cheerful disposition. He also talked to everyone he met and smiled way too fucking much. "She's not a lady, George," I deadpanned. "She's my wife." He erupted with laughter and then looked at me strangely. "But I thought that hot woman who you're always..." he blurted out. "Exactly," I said, walking away with him standing there unsure of whether or not I was joking. I loved leaving people confused. When they say something nosy or just stupid, if you say "exactly," it makes them think that they were right about something and they also feel stupid if they still don't get it since you've implied that they have. Most of them, even the nosiest, will just walk away at that point. I walked into the cafeteria and waved at a couple of my co-workers. I walked over and sat down at an occupied table in the far corner of the room. "Hi Jason," said the woman seated there. I'd hoped that the man with her would turn out to be a lawyer, but it was her dad. "Hi Pete," I said, extending my hand to the older man. He shook my hand warmly and the festivities began. "Jason, I know you heard your wife speaking to you," he said. "It hurts her feelings when you ignore her." "Pete, I heard your daughter speaking to me," I said. "I no longer acknowledge her as my wife. She refuses to acknowledge my wishes and hides behind archaic rules that have no bearing in modern times." "That's because you and I don't have the same wishes," spat Terri. "In fact, our wishes are complete opposites. You want us to get a divorce. I want us to stay married." "We haven't been married in almost a year," I said. "Get it through your thick head. We are over. In fact there is no WE to even end. I'm happy with my life the way it is now. I didn't ask for things to be the way they are. I don't think I could possibly have even dreamed of things being the way they are, but I'll take it." "Jason, you know that we're Catholics," said Pete. "We don't really do divorces. We believe that when two people make a commitment to be together forever it is binding." "It is bullshit, Pete," I snapped. "The Catholic Church has some pretty archaic rules. They won't give us a divorce, but if we get a civil divorce, they will allow an annulment. The annulment has already been pushed through. Since ours is a very special case, a Cardinal came over from Rome and rubber stamped the annulment. All we have to do is get the civil divorce. Normally, the civil divorce has to be done first, but as I said, ours is a special case." Pete looked at me and then back at his daughter. Terri looked away from her father. "Is that true, Honey?" he asked. "Daddy, I love him," she said, ignoring his question. "We just need to talk. We can work this out. We can still be happy." "Terri, Honey, you haven't been telling me the truth," said Pete. "What is going on here?" "Daddy, I just want him back," whined Terri. Her father realized for the first time that things were not the way they seemed. "I guess I've known for a while that things were kind of weird here," said Pete. "The damned Bishop is always asking me about Jason and Jason isn't even Catholic. Neither he, nor the priest, ever ask me anything about you any more Terri. They don't even ask why you don't attend mass anymore. Just what did happen last year?" "I'll tell you later Daddy," she said. "I'll tell you now," I said. "She'll probably continue to lie to you." "Jason don't," she said. "Are you going to give me the divorce?" I asked. "Never," she said. "Pete, roughly a year ago, just a few weeks before Halloween, I was really happy. I was married to a woman that I loved and I really thought that she felt the same," I began. "I did feel the same," snapped Terri. "I still do. You just won't give me a chance." "Like a lot of young couples, we worked too hard, but I had nothing but love and trust for Terri," I said. "I just feel so stupid now, because I pretty much built my whole world around her. The sun rose and set over my wife. I had no idea. Anyway, we were living in a nice condo but saving for a house. We didn't really want to have any kids until we owned the place we lived in. We also wanted to have plenty of room for kids to grow up in." "I guess in a way that's what started this. I mean with both of us working long hours and us both being on slightly different schedules, we were under a lot of stress. So, when Terri started going out with the girls on her job a couple of nights a week, I thought it was a great idea. After the first few times that she did it, things were really better between us. And shit, we'd only been married for three years. I never suspected anything." "One of the benefits of her girl's nights out was that we seemed to be having a lot more sex, so it was fine with me. One Saturday, I was doing some light cleaning around the house and I accidentally knocked Terri's purse off of the table. All of her crap spilled out and as I put the stuff back into the purse, I found a half empty pack of condoms." "Terri being a good Catholic girl wasn't supposed to be on the pill, and we really didn't use condoms, so I got really pissed. I started to watch her more. I didn't say anything because...well, like I said, I loved her so much I thought I would die without her. I really didn't want to start anything or accuse her of anything without proof." "Remember back when I took that bag of marijuana from my younger brother, and Terri found it in my jacket? She thought I was some kind of drug addict and wouldn't believe me when I told her I was only trying to prevent my brother from becoming one." "I hoped that the condoms in Terri's purse were something like that. So for my own piece of mind, I followed her on her girl's night out. The first time I followed her was pretty uneventful. She and a few of her friends from work went to a bar and spent a lot of time drinking and acting silly." "I did notice that she looked at her watch a lot, as if there was somewhere else she wanted to be. After a couple of hours, she got up and hugged all of her friends and left the bar. I quickly ran through the alleys to get to my car so I could beat her home. Luckily, she walked pretty slowly. She'd parked right across the street from the bar and I'd parked a block away. " "But there was really no contest, I took the back streets and got to the freeway before she did. Her Impala is a nice car, but it was no match for my Boss 302. Despite the fact that it costs less than a Shelby GT 500, I truly believe that the race inspired Boss is the best Mustang made." "As soon as I hit the freeway, I was doing over a hundred in a heartbeat and pulling far away from Terri with every passing second. There was an overpass about two miles from our house, where the local PD loved to post a traffic control car. I slowed down to 65 mph there until I saw that no one was there. I did 140 for the last mile and a half. I could have cooked a hotdog in the heat coming off of my ceramic brake pads when I pulled into my driveway." "I quickly ran into the house, took off my shirt and pants and changed into a pair of sweats. I snatched a sword off the wall and went out onto my deck. Just as I started doing drills, I heard the sound of Terri's car in the driveway. A few minutes later I heard her clunking through the house looking for me." "Finally, she came out onto the deck. My sword was a blur as I pretended to be so into what I was doing that I hadn't heard her." "I just don't understand why you do this," she said smiling. "But I have to admit that I love the results." "She ran her hands over my chest and though I'd only been at it for a few minutes, I'd already worked up a light sweat." "It's too cold for you to be out here without a shirt on Honey," she said. "Come on in the house and let me show you how much I missed you." "Ordinarily, I'd have dragged her into the house and let her show me, but that night I begged off. There were things still bothering me. While it was true, that I hadn't caught her doing anything, something told me that there was something going on. Terri had been having weird assed mood swings lately and she went from dying to fuck me to not wanting to touch me. Then of course, there were still the condoms to explain. I decided to let her go without while I figured out what was going on." "For about a week, things seemed to be normal. Terri was every bit the woman I married. Her mood swings seemed to have gone away and she was actually bugging me about sex. She certainly wasn't acting like a woman who was getting it somewhere else. But that persistent little itch in the back of my mind was wary." "For about a week, I watched her during her lunchtimes. Terri and a couple of her coworkers, who were both female went to a different place for lunch every day. They went to the most boring places. It was like following a group of teens. One day they went to McDonald's, the next it was Wendy's, then Burger King, followed by Taco Hell and they finished up the week with KFC. No wonder Terri's ass was starting to spread. If she kept eating like that, she'd weigh three hundred pounds by the time we were thirty." Sisters of Fate "All I'd accomplished by following her at lunchtime was to miss my own lunches for a week. But still, I was sure that something was going on. When Terri's girl's night came around again, I found myself following her yet again. She went to the same bar and it was as busy as ever. Terri and her girlfriends were there acting just as silly. I watched Terri as the women at her table came and went. A couple of the women got up to dance and returned; Terri didn't. A couple of them got up and went somewhere else, presumably to use the ladies room." "As I watched the bar, out of the corner of my eye I noticed movement on the rooftop behind me and to the side. I turned my head and caught a glimpse of something or someone there. Whoever or whatever it was ducked behind a projection on the roof." "I turned back to the bar and noticed that something was different at Terri's table. I counted the women there and noticed that there was one of them missing. It wasn't Terri, so I didn't worry about it very much. It just didn't seem important." "A few minutes later, I noticed Terri's friend Crystal coming across the street into the parking lot. I ducked behind a car and watched her. Crystal was walking with a guy and they went to her car. I'd never seen the guy before but I knew he wasn't Crystal's husband Ed. Ed is a fucking longshoreman and a fucking giant. Ed would snap this guy in two without breaking a sweat." "Crys and the guy got into her car, but they didn't get in the front. They both got into the back seat. I crept over to the car and looked in. I pulled out my iPhone and started videotaping them. Thanks to a streetlight that illuminated the car, I got a clear video of Crystal's head bobbing up and down on the guy's dipstick. I wanted to make sure they knew the jig was up and to make sure that neither of them had any fun. I knocked on the window and snapped off a couple of still photos of their surprised faces as they looked up at me." "The car door opened and the guy got out while Crystal started trying to put her boobs back in her bra and button her blouse." "What the fuck are you doing, buddy?" asked the man with her. "I know you don't I?" I said. "You work in the same office as Crystal and Terri. I don't know your name, but aren't you married? I remember you from the company picnic." "Jason, what are you doing?" asked Crystal. "Fuck what I'm doing Crystal," I spat. "I was just driving past the parking lot on my way home when I saw you and this asshole holding hands and walking to your car. He didn't look like Ed. So I thought that you might've been in trouble. I decided to come and speak to you just in case you needed help, but obviously Ed is the one who needs help." "Why does Eddy need help," asked Crystal. Her voice was barely a squeak. "Well he's going to need a good divorce lawyer," I said. Her eyes got as big as saucers. "He's going to need evidence. And he can use the video I just took and the still photos. He can also use them to identify your friend here." "I looked at the man as I continued talking." "You do remember her husband Ed don't you buddy?" I smirked. "He's damn near seven feet tall and close to three hundred pounds, all muscle. And he's insanely in love with this cheating whore. I don't think there will be much left of you when he gets his hands on you. They'll probably have to soak whatever he leaves up in a dishrag to get enough DNA to identify you. And, of course, while you're in the hospital they'll have to notify your wife." "That was when he took a swing at me. The punch was laughable. I blocked it and held his arm. I thrust my arm into his elbow and then bent his arm back on top of it. I had him in a very painful elbow lock that I'd learned as a teenager in a Tien Shan Pai Gung fu camp I went to in the mountains of West Virginia." "As I pressed the hold he went down to his knees. I saw tears forming in the corners of his eyes." "I'm sorry," he said. "You're damned right you're sorry," I spat. "I hate cheaters. But you'll be a lot sorrier when this is done. After Ed kicks your ass, I'll tell your wife about it if she hasn't found out any other way." "Hey, I'll pay you," he said. "...Whatever you want. My wife doesn't need to know about this. This whore isn't worth my marriage. I just come down here occasionally to let off some steam. I just heard that she was a good fuck. This is the first time I've done it and I swear it will be the last. I'll write you a check for...three thousand dollars. I know you're thinking I'm trying to fool you but I don't have much cash on me. You cash the check and after you cash the check you destroy the pictures. If the check isn't any good then you can just use them. I swear the check will be good." "Hm," I said. "The cost of my iPhone 5 was three hundred dollars with a two year contract. The price you've put on these pictures and the video, three thousand dollars. Destroying the marriages of two scumbag cheaters so two nice people can move on in their lives...priceless. I do want something, but you ain't gonna fucking buy it with a Master Card." "I let go of his arm and told him to give me his driver's license. He started shaking his arm to restore the circulation to it. He gingerly handed me his license and I took a picture of it with my phone." "He looked at me crazily." "That's so I can contact either you...or your wife, if I need to," I said acidly. "But what should I do?" he said. "Pray that Crystal does what I ask her to," I sneered. "He took off running back for the bar, then he remembered that he'd parked in the lot he'd just run away from. He looked back at me tentatively." "Can I get my car?" he asked shakily. "Get the fuck out of here," I told him. "Jason, you have to understand. I love Ed," whined Crystal. "This isn't about love. I want to spend the rest of my life with Ed. This is just about fun and letting off some steam. I swear I'll never do it again." "Why Crys?" I asked acidly. "Are you thinking about how badly you'll hurt Ed, or just how badly he'll hurt that little bitch that just ran out of here after calling you a whore and saying that you weren't worth anything? That guy ran out and left you here and doesn't give a half a God damn about what happens to you. Big Ed would have died for you." "Don't you think I know that?" she screamed. "I feel the same God damned way about him. This wasn't supposed to happen this way. It was just supposed to be some fun until I got it out of my system, that's all. I have no intention of leaving ED for anyone or anything." "Let me guess this is some kind of fifty shades of stupidity thing, right?" I asked. "She looked at me as if she was trying to figure out what to say." "No Jason, this is more about YOU than anything else," she spat. "Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Terri getting up. It looked like she was about to leave." "Crystal, you and I are having lunch tomorrow. Be in that park near your job at noon and be prepared to answer any and all questions I have for you. And be prepared to answer them honestly. If you lie, your marriage is over. She just looked at me and nodded." "Don't tell anyone about me catching you. Do not tell a fucking soul. Do you understand?" I hissed." "She nodded her head quickly, and I left before Terri came out of the bar. As I left the parking lot, I was sure I saw a hooded figure crouching in the darkness of the rooftop next to that parking lot. I figured it was a security guard. I had to make another of my super quick trips home. But at least this time the visit to the bar had been worth it. By the next afternoon, I'd have all of the information I wanted or at least more insight on what was going on with Terri." "Crystal must have known I was serious because she was waiting for me when I got to the park the next day. She looked nervous. She came over and got into my car as soon as I pulled up." "Do you want to do it here or go to a motel?" she asked. "Do what?" I asked. "You know...have sex," she said, looking around as if she was looking for a camera." "Are you out of your fucking mind, or are you just that big of a whore," I screamed. "I'm not a cheater. I have never cheated on Terri; not once and I never will. Why do cheaters always assume that everyone else is doing it?" "I'm sorry," she whined. "It's just that when you turned down all that money that Nick offered you and you said that our marriages depended on something that I had to do, I just assumed..." "You have far too high an opinion of yourself," I snapped. "I don't want your disease riddled, stretched out pussy. All I want is some answers and the truth. I will be checking other sources and if you're lying to me, I visit Ed." "As soon as I mentioned Ed, she shrank down in the butter-soft leather of my seat, as if he was watching her." "I'll tell you anything you want to know," she said. "You started the girl's night out a couple of months ago. Was cheating the main reason you ladies started doing it?" "No," she said. "Of course not. We started getting together after a really stressful job ended successfully and we thought that we all deserved to relax and to celebrate. Accomplishing any difficult operation tends to form a bond among the members of a staff or a team. We're all different. Some of us are married. Some of us are divorced and a few of us are single. We're all different ages too. The only thing we have in common is that we work together." "You said that I had something to do with your cheating. Explain what you meant," I told her. "Jason, I didn't mean that literally," she said. "It's just that Terri loves you so much that she's always bragging about you. She talks about your muscles and your swords and your work outs. But she also talks about and we've all seen the way you just show up and bring her flowers for no fucking reason except that you were thinking about her. She talks about the way you treat her in bed too and a lot of us are really jealous of that. I wanted to find someone like that and play around with him, just for a short time. I mean I love Ed, more than life itself, but in bed he's..." "He's what?" I said. "Shit his dick has to be huge." "It is," she said. "Men...You guys are so hung up on size. If it was only about having a big dick then the one guy with the biggest dick in the world would be the only one getting any pussy." "Then why do so many women leave their husbands for men who are more well-endowed?" I asked. "Because they're stupid. They leave their husbands during the first few sessions with the big dick guys. They don't find out until later that really good sex requires variety and creativity more than size. It also requires that the person ringing your chimes or trying to, feels something about you. Ed has the big dick all right, but he uses it like a fucking club. He climbs on, forces his way in, stabs me with it, roughly 10 or twelve times and then grunts, squirts, tells me he loves me and falls to fucking sleep." "His dick is so big that it hurts sometimes. There's no way I'm letting that thing anywhere near my ass. If he even tried it, I'd run out of the house naked and leave him. I just wanted to experience some of the things you give to Terri." "Do all of the women in your little group cheat?" I asked. "Hell no," she said. "Most of the married women wouldn't even think about it. And of course, the single women are free to do whatever they want, but most of them also don't go after married guys." "She looked at me as if she could sense what was coming next and steeled herself for it." "Does Terri cheat on me?" I asked. "She looked away from me then. I know it was hard on her but she had a choice to make and I think she knew from the beginning where the conversation was going. It was her friendship with Terri matched against her marriage." "Yes," she said. "...But only a couple of times with a couple of guys. Well the old guy makes three. But Jason, you have to understand, it's not what you think. ...At least not with the first two guys." "Get the fuck out of my car," I growled. I was having trouble holding it together and I didn't want this whore to see me cry. "No," she said. "You have to let me explain." "Say what you have to say and then get the fuck out of my car," I snapped. "Jason, Terri loves you. She would die for you. But women are hard to understand. You two have what most people would consider the perfect marriage, but women want variety." "I give her variety," I snapped. "Yes you do," she said. "...In some ways. But in other ways you're just like Ed." "I looked at her like she was talking gibberish." "Jason, I've heard all of the stories," she said. "I know that you two have done costumes and games and role playing and even experimented with some light B&D and a lot of wilder and milder things too. But there are two things that you miss, Honey. Number one, no matter what you two do, she always knows that you love her. She told me that you chained her to a post in your basement once, but instead of just fucking the hell out of her, you put lotion all over her wrists so the padded handcuffs wouldn't chafe her. Every once in a while she wants you to treat her like shit. She wants you to be really rough with her." "My mouth dropped open." "I don't think that's a deal breaker though," she said. "The biggest problem is you, Honey. That girl thinks you hung the sun, the stars and the moon. She's sure that someday you'll just get tired of her. She sees herself getting older and she's sure that you'll go after one of those younger women in your office. All of the things that you guys do in bed are things that YOU come up with. She wanted to experiment a little bit so she could bring some new things to you. She wants to be mysterious and creative for you too. If she fucks your brains out, you won't leave her. And lastly, Jason, she's already realized that part of what she was looking for was just stupid." "She slept with a few guys before you, but she was pretty limited in her experience. She just wanted to try out another guy, to see if what the two of you have really is as special as she thinks. After trying out two guys who she said were just awful compared to you, I think she knows and was ready to quit until she met the old guy." "Had," I snapped. "Huh?" she said. "You said what Terri and I HAVE is special. You should have said what Terri and I HAD; past tense," I said. "Jason, you have to be kidding," she snapped. "That girl can't live without you. What she did is wrong as hell, but it's not worth losing your marriage over. Did you know that almost fifty percent of married people cheat one time or another? In most cases, they're never found out and their marriages go on without incident. In cases where they are found out, if the affairs were brief, most people with common sense forgive their mates and it never happens again. The cheating spouse usually understands so much better what they risk losing and never even thinks about doing it again. You and Terri are perfect for each other. Don't throw that away. Do you really know anyone who'd make you happier than she does?" "Before you try to ram any more of your Dr. Phil bullshit down my throat...have you ever heard the expression once a cheater, always a cheater?" I asked. "Tell me about this old guy, as you call him," I said. "Well he's not that old," she began. "He's just older than us. He's really hard to describe, but you don't have to worry about him. He hasn't shown up in over two weeks. He just shows up when he does and Terri leaves with him. He doesn't even come over to our table, he just appears in the doorway or outside and Terri gets up and goes to him. You don't have to worry about him though. I don't think they have sex." "Then what do they do?" I asked. "Shit, Terri doesn't remember," she said. "When she comes back, she's always weak and woozy and never remembers leaving. It's like he hypnotizes her or something stupid like that. We know they're not having sex because once when he came to get her, she was on her period. When she got back, her tampon was still in place and there was no blood or anything on her panties. Plus, she's usually gone for less than five minutes and according to her she isn't even wet down there. She isn't even sure why she goes with him, but she always does. Maybe he's just moving really slowly with her." "Here's my phone number," I told her. "I'm going to be watching her. I need evidence to help me in the divorce." "No Jason," she gasped. "You have to give her a chance." "Shut the fuck up whore," I spat. "Do you want to see one marriage end or three?" "She remained silent." "Crystal, you did your duty to Terri as a friend. You tried to stick up for her. You tried to defend her, but you have to look out for yourself. To thine own self be true and all of that bullshit. All I need you to do is call me if he shows up. For all you know, I might already be there. But if you don't, I'll still file for the divorce. The difference is that you'll go down with me. If you help me, I swear that Ed will not hear about what you've done from me. I will also not show him the video or the photos. "Do we have a deal?" "Yes," she said coldly. "It's not as if I have a choice is it? But Jason, I need to tell you one thing. No one is perfect. Look at you. You have a temper and a short fuse. You judge people, and you enjoyed hurting Nick yesterday when he tried to hit you. You also don't seem to be able to forgive people. Terri made a mistake and a big one. But she really does love you. And the tears in the corners of your eyes that you're trying so hard to hide, tell me that you love her too. Are you cutting off your nose to spite your face?" "What the hell should I do?...Slap her on the ass and say don't do that again? Maybe I am too harsh Crystal, but I do have this thing called self respect. If I let her get away with this, I'll never be able to look myself in the face again. Hell yes, you said it yourself. I LOVE Terri, I always have...but not enough to let her shit on me. Like you said, we experimented with a lot of different types of sex. But shitting on each other isn't something I'm interested in." "I'm never going back to that place," she said. "This girl will only have nights out with her husband from now on." "Fuck that," I said. "You have to keep going until I get my evidence. Then you can quit. If you tell Terri what's going on or do anything else to hinder my efforts, I'll not only send Ed the video but I'll post it on the internet. Am I clear?" "What's my name?" she asked. "I almost laughed as I said "Crystal." "Later that day when I got home, Terri was all over me. I could barely stand to look at her. Luckily she could sense that something was wrong with me and asked me about it." "Jason, are you okay?" she asked. "No, I'm not," I snapped. "My words and my tone were more harsh than I'd intended and I didn't want to give anything away until it was time." "I haven't been feeling well lately," I said. "And I got some really bad news today." "Her face softened and she smiled and put her arms around me." "It'll be okay. Honey," she said. "You still have me. Tell me all about it. Maybe we should just spend tonight in bed together. We'll just snuggle up with some popcorn and a good movie. And once we get to rubbing against each other, who knows what might happen." "I have to work out," I said, turning away from her. "Jason, you shouldn't go out running it you're sick," she said. "And surely the other two Musketeers can handle it if you don't pick up your sword for just one night." "I just walked away from her. As I left the room, I could hear her screaming at me." "If you have that much energy, maybe you should channel some of it into having sex with your wife. We haven't done it in two weeks," she yelled. Sisters of Fate "I changed into running gear and headed out to run. One of the reasons I'd picked the neighborhood that we lived in was because it was very close to both a park and had a great school system. The park would give me trails to run on and even though we didn't have kids yet, the high school gave me a track, for track workouts. From the looks of things now, we probably wouldn't be having any kids to worry about. I really doubted that my marriage would last the month. "The only reason I hadn't confronted her that day was because I needed leverage for the divorce. It's really strange that in the greatest country on the face of the earth, a country that prides itself on truth and justice for all, we don't know how to handle a divorce fairly." "Divorces in this country are all about women and sex. If a woman cheats on her husband, even though he didn't get any pussy, he gets screwed. He ends up losing at least half of their assets even though he didn't do anything wrong. The victim gets further victimized." "On the other hand, if it's the guy who's screwing around, then he gets screwed twice. He gets to fuck his secretary or whomever and then he gets screwed by the court system. If I went into court with a bunch of he said/she said and my gut feeling that Terri was cheating on me, I'd lose badly. Even if I went into court with a statement from Crystal proving it, that wouldn't be considered to be conclusive proof either. I wished with all of my heart that it had been Terri I had caught in that car. This entire charade could be over with already." "As I ran along the trails in the park, I tried to think about my next move and how I wanted my life to go. I went home and picked up the sword I usually practiced with. Terri had been right about one thing. It was too damned chilly outside for me to go out there without a shirt on." "Even after the run which would usually put me in a mellow mood, I was still keyed up. I decided to just work on forms. In Japanese styles, they call them Kata. In Chinese styles, they call them sets. What they are is groups of movements that mimic an actual battle to hone a set of skills. The Kata that I worked on was developed by my Kenjutsu Sensei. He was very modern in his teaching and stole from everywhere. He always told me that if you steal from one source it's plagiarism, but if you steal from many, it's research." "So when he developed this Kata for the Katana, he included several different styles of Japanese swordsmanship, but he also included some Chinese sword skills, a few Korean sword moves and even a few lunges and thrusts that he'd taken from European fencing." "As I lost myself in the movements, all of my problems seemed to melt away. I leaped and slashed and thrust. I parried and sidestepped and ducked. And in the end, I was victorious. None of the imaginary bastards I killed got up and not one of them was able to put his blade on me. In my mind, every one of those imaginary bastards looked like the faceless old bastard who was screwing my wife and had destroyed my marriage. I truly did not believe a word of the bullshit that Crystal had given me. What kind of fool did she take me for? All of that crap about Terri not fucking this old guy made absolutely no sense. But it didn't matter, because I had her helping me whether she wanted to or not." "There was also the fact that even though she was probably lying to me, I would keep my word to Crystal, but I was sure that somehow she'd get hers in the end; cheaters always do." "As I finished my drills, I noticed that Terri was standing there." "I never get tired of watching you do that," she said. "I always imagine us back in the past, with me wearing one of those beautiful hoop dresses and you fighting for my honor." "I had to bite my lips to keep me from blurting out my first thought." "What?" came from my lips. And she smiled thinking she'd surprised me. "I'd been about to ask her what would I have to fight over since whores don't have much honor. But I held my tongue." "I went into the kitchen and made myself something to eat." "I thought that we'd just order a pizza," she said. "Maybe we can talk about what's bothering you." "It's just stress," I said. "And some kind of bug, maybe." "Honey, you need to find something to let off steam. Maybe go out once a week or every couple of weeks with your friends. My girl's nights out do wonders for me." "I'll bet," I said. "Maybe you're right. Some of the guys at work play cards every week. I'll see if I can get into their game." "When I said, "I'll bet," she got nervous. I could see the way she tensed up. I threw the bullshit about playing cards in to put her back off of her guard but I'd gotten the reaction I was looking for." "I don't know if it was guilt or genuine concern, but for the next few days, Terri was on her best behavior. She filled my head with how much she loved me, whenever she wasn't whining about us not having sex. She also talked about us getting away and taking a vacation to someplace romantic. I wasn't buying any of it." "When her next girl's night out came around, I got a phone call from Crystal." "Jason, do I have to go tonight?" she asked. "Going out to a bar with guys hitting on me isn't the kind of thing a married woman should do." "If a woman wants to stay married, she should be able to handle the temptation," I said. "What if we just started having the girl's nights at one of our houses?" she asked. "I really don't give a rat's ass what you do after I get my divorce," I said. "But until then, it's business as usual." "Jason, I don't think she's ever going to do it again," said Crystal. "Lately she's been more and more upset. She thinks that you don't love her any more. She keeps going back and forth between thinking that she's done something wrong to thinking that you've found someone that you love more. Why can't you be considerate of her feelings?" "You mean the way you were about Ed's." I spat. "Or the way she was about mine? Just do what you're supposed to and maybe you won't get hurt in all of this. As a matter of fact, if any guy hits on her, you should encourage her to take him up on it." "Why the hell would I do that?" she asked. "Are you crazy? Do you really think I'm going to encourage her to do something so you can dump her? Why the hell would I do that?" "Because if you don't help me get rid of her, I'll help Ed get rid of you," I said calmly. "You already know the game; all you have to do is play it." "You really aren't very nice," she whined. "This was only for fun, she loves you." "Well she got to have all of the fun," I said. "All I got was hurt. Giving some of it back won't make me feel any better. I'm not going to feel better for a very long time. But at least I'll know that it's over. And I can start to rebuild my life." "What about rebuilding her life?" she asked. "She can go out and fuck anybody she wants," I said. "So she'll be getting exactly what she wanted. And at least SHE had a choice in how this all started. So I think it's only fair that I get to say how it ends." "Shit, why don't you just take a gun and blow her fucking brains out," she said. "I don't own any guns, but if she wants one, I'd buy it," I said. "When Terri got home that evening she was nervous." "Terri, I know this is your girl's night out," I said. "...So would you mind very much if I went and played cards with the guys, tonight?" "No Honey," she said. "I don't mind at all. I'll probably be home early though. The nights out with the girls aren't as much fun anymore. Maybe we should switch to date nights. You know, one night of the week where you and I go out and do something together. We could alternate who gets to pick what we do. And then at the end of the evening, you could try to get me drunk and take advantage of me." She smiled and looked at me. "I pretended that I didn't have clue about what she was talking about." "You wouldn't have to worry though," she continued. "For the right guy, I'm a pushover. I'm a real GP date." "GP?" I said. "You mean like PG. Doesn't that mean parental guidance?" "No silly," she laughed. "PG movies are boring. GP stands for Guaranteed Pussy, for the right guy of course." "Who would that be?" I asked. " "She started laughing and then she looked at me. I wasn't laughing." "You, of course," she said nervously. "If you don't want to, we don't have to do date nights." "Let's just see what happens," I said. "She got ready to leave and came over to kiss me goodbye. As she puckered up, I turned my head and caught her kiss on the cheek. She just looked at me and told me to have fun with my card game." "As soon as she left the house, I left too. I knew where she was going and I knew where to park so there was no need for me to follow her and risk getting caught. Besides, even if they'd switched to a different bar, I could simply call Crystal and find out where they were." "With it being fall, it seemed to get darker even earlier every week. It was already starting to get dark as I parked my Mustang. I parked it near a really interesting looking Chevy. As I walked towards my usual vantage point, I saw it clearly for the first time. It looked like a guy in a fucking cape had just climbed up the side of the building next to the parking lot and on an angle to the front of the bar." "Who did he think he was, Batman?" "It just seemed ironic to me. Some clown in a costume skulking around on the rooftops, while I sat out here in my jeans, freezing my ass off while I watched my marriage go down the tubes. He did this to get his jollies off pretending to be a superhero while I was forced to do it by circumstances that I really wished had never happened." "I ducked between two parked cars so I could watch. It was also good because the cars kept most of the blowing wind off of me and kept me warmer." "I watched the scene in the bar and things were just beginning to start. The place was still pretty empty except for Terri and her friends. Three of the women at the table, a younger, really cute one, a middle aged one that looked like she was already drunk and a fat one, who looked like she was trying not to be self-conscious were up and trying to dance. The younger one was in the middle and she appeared to have some moves. She gyrated her hips in a way that most strippers would be ashamed of. The older, chunkier women tried to do it and just looked silly." "I noticed that Crystal and Terri seemed to be talking. Crystal was making all kinds of emphatic gestures with her hands as she spoke. Terri looked depressed. I began to think that maybe she truly regretted what was going on. But then again, perhaps it was simply a case where she could tell that I was pissed at her for some reason. Then as I looked at Crystal, who was practically screaming at Terri, I got angry. If I didn't know any better, I'd have sworn that Crystal was warning Terri about what was going on." "I called Crystal. As I watched her, she picked up her phone and looked at it." "Hello," she said. "What the fuck are you doing?" I asked. "Even as I watched, she got up and walked away from the table." "Are you telling her that I know what is going on?" I asked. "Because if you are..." "No," she pleaded. "She's just so down. She thinks that you've fallen out of love with her. This is your fault you know. You're doing a shitty job of pretending everything is normal. I just told her the truth. I told her that if she really loves you, she should fight for her marriage and not let you get away. I'm telling you the same thing. Instead of just letting some guy take your woman, you should fight for her." "If I'd had a chance to fight for her, I'd have done it gladly," I said. "The thing is that I never had the chance to fight for her. She did it all behind my back. And what good would it have done for me to fight for a woman who willingly gave herself to more than one other man? If she intends to go out and fuck strange guys, she's within her legal rights to do so. And I'm within mine to divorce her. People have a right to do whatever they need to make themselves happy. I'm only sorry that I wasn't enough for her. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I have the right to try to get out of a situation I'm unhappy with and you have your choice in what you want to do too. If you double cross me, you'll be sorry, so stick to the program." "As I turned back to watch Terri, I noticed that she was sitting at the table with her head down on it. She clearly didn't want to be there. I remembered her telling me that the girl's nights weren't as much fun anymore. "Then I watched a guy pass by in front of the bar. It was the weirdest thing I'd ever seen. Even as he walked, it seemed as if he spurted across the walkway. It reminded me of that strobe light effect. I'd see him and then I'd see him again but he'd be ten or twelve feet further down from where he previously appeared. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. Somehow I just sensed that this was going to be a problem." "He seemed to be older than most of the people heading towards the bar and that set off alarm bells in my head. Almost as if on cue, the bastard stepped inside the bar and although I had to really concentrate to see him among the other patrons, he wasn't hard to spot. He raised his arm and Terri stood up as if she was a puppet connected to him by hidden strings." "She started moving towards him as he turned and headed for the door. He paused outside of the bar, with people milling around going into and leaving the bar. Terri walked out of the bar robotically and stood in front of him. He took her by the arm and started walking her around behind the bar. " "I'm not sure of how I still felt about Terri at that point, but there was something weird going on here. As he led her towards the darkness of the alley behind the bar, I was moving before it even registered. I also noticed that my reactions were off. I think it was then that I noticed that I got a headache when I looked at the guy too closely." "As I crossed the street and headed towards the alley in pursuit of Terri and the guy, I heard footsteps behind me. I ran into the alley and fortunately the moon was up. Although all of the lights back there were out I could see well enough to make out my surroundings and what was there. There were a bunch of homeless people back there. They were sitting on empty crates and trash containers. They also looked at me as I ran into the alley." "Hey," I screamed. "He turned around and sneered at me. Terri didn't even react to my presence. I knew then that there was more to this than just a case of cheating. She was drugged or mesmerized or something like that. She didn't even know who I was. Her eyes were vacant. Only he registered." "Get the fuck away from my wife," I yelled. "He growled at me. It was like he was an animal or something. He started looking around and the homeless people started to become more animated. I guess that was supposed to be a warning or something. I felt weird. Everything in my brain said run. My mind told me that I was done with Terri anyway. But something else told me to stay." "No one had ever taken anything I wanted away from me, ever. I was about to get rid of Terri's cheating ass anyway, but I wouldn't allow someone to take her." "He turned back towards Terri and she leaned her head backwards. He leaned in as if he was going to kiss her neck and then I saw his teeth. His canines were elongated and he opened his mouth far wider than should have been possible. The word vampire flashed through my mind. I didn't miss a beat. I reached down into the muck of the alley and grabbed the biggest rock that I thought I could throw. I chucked it at him as hard as I could and it smacked him in the side of the head. I routinely threw knives and even throwing stars as part of my weapons regimen. The rock made an extremely solid sound as it hit him. I expected it knock him out and possibly kill him, but shit, there were no witnesses back here except for those homeless people. And even if there were, he'd tried to attack my wife; fuck him." "I'm not sure which one of us was more surprised when the rock hit him. He'd been wearing some cheesy wrap-around sunglasses and the rock knocked them off. His clothes were dirty and out of style. His shaggy hair was limp and lifeless. His fingers ended in claw like extensions that bore more resemblance to the claws of an animal than they did human fingernails. An unholy odor emanated from him." "The smell was like the sickly smell of death mixed with the earthy odor of raw earth, with a touch of raw sewage thrown in for shits and giggles." "As the cheap shades fell off of his face after being shattered by the rock, his mouth opened and he growled loudly. There was a big bruise on his head where the rock had struck him and his head twisted to the side as if the impact had broken or sprained his neck. There was an audible clacking sound as he straightened his neck out. His eyes glowed. They were a sickening red color as he looked at me." "My mouth dropped open in shock at the same time that his did in indignation. We regarded each other with mutual, yet differing versions of the same thought; surprise. He was surprised that I was still there. I truly believed that he expected whatever mental projections or thoughts he was trying to influence me with to have made me leave and forget about Terri. At the same time, if his mental trickery hadn't worked, I should have been so terrified that I should have gotten the fuck out of Dodge." "At the same time, I was gobsmacked that being hit in the temple area with a baseball sized rock thrown as hard as I could hadn't killed him or at least knocked him out. And as I watched the huge bruise on the side of his head seemed to be healing at a rate that was miraculous. Within only a few moments no one would be able to tell that he'd absorbed a blow that should have easily killed him." "He threw Terri to the side and swung his arms at me. He had no technique to speak off but he was blindingly fast. So what, I was fast too. At least I'd always thought that I was. The only thing that saved me was his pure rage. If he'd calmly swung at me and used those claws, I'd have been dead. I was able to dodge his first two wild swings but he had me on the retreat and pushed his advantage. I sidestepped the first swing, ducked the second and caught the third by blocking it with my stomach." "I've been hit in the stomach by some really big, really good fighters. I'm not an unarmed combat expert, I specialize in weapons. I love swords, knives, axes, spears, maces, clubs and everything else you can think of except firearms. But I frequently spar with boxers and MMA fighters to hone my combat instincts. I have never been hit that hard in my life. I was barely able to roll with it and divert some of the force of the blow. If he'd hit me straight on I'd have died. As it was, the glancing blow flung me back at least ten feet. I landed awkwardly in a puddle of what I truly hoped was mud." "He roared his anger at me yet again and positioned himself to charge at me. There I was sprawled in the muck, too dazed to get to my feet with an honest to God Vampire coming after me." "At that moment, when all seemed lost, when I knew that I wouldn't be able to get up to even run away let alone continue to fight, I felt the footsteps next to me. I turned to the side even as the monster who'd bested me with only a glancing blow sneered and bared his animalistic dental work." "The first thing I saw was a pair of thigh high red leather boots trimmed in white. On the other side of me appeared slightly bigger boots made of thick green leather. I turned back to the red boots and followed them up to find a body dressed in a hooded cloak made entirely of soft, shiny red leather. I couldn't make out a face but the presence was overwhelmingly female." Sisters of Fate "I was still out of breath and with a surprising amount of energy I was able to croak out a warning." "Get away from here, fast," I croaked. "He's a..." "...Foul demon of the night who shall soon be slain," spat the woman in the green hood. "The woman on my left in the green outfit was staring at him, while the one on the right seemed to be more concerned with me." "He roared again and the woman in green stabbed a five foot long pole mace with a vicious spike on top of the mace head and a thick blade on the opposite end into the ground. It made a thunk sound as it struck the ground with a surprising amount of power. The vamp looked at her while her hooded friend dressed in red tried to help me to my feet." "I couldn't see their faces because of the hoods but the vamp looked at them with far more concern than he'd shown me. As he looked at the woman in green, he was struck in the shoulder, only inches away from his heart by a crossbow bolt. He screamed in pain and snatched it out still smoking. He started to run away with that strobe effect of his at full blast. A third woman melted into view from the darkness. She was dressed in head to toe white leather with a hooded cloak that was very similar to the other two." "Before any of them could try to follow the vamp, all of the homeless people in the alley attacked us like zombies. The woman in white vaulted onto the top of a dump truck sized trash bin and started shooting them with her crossbow. The woman in green began bashing them with her pole mace. The woman near me in red started slashing them with an incredible spear." "There are too many. We should leave," said the woman in white. "I was feeling better and my strength was returning. There was no way I'd let a bunch of women defend me while I did nothing. The woman in red was very close to me and didn't consider me a threat. As her cape flashed open with her movements, I saw that she wore a Daisho. The Daisho is the traditional pair of samurai swords. I grabbed her Katana and she turned to look at me in shock. Even as she raised her spear to defend against me, I cut down the man behind her who was trying to brain her with a rock. Her cloak swirled in the darkness and she nodded her head at me in thanks." "After that, the battle was too pitched to spare time for anything except fighting." "I hate...let me reiterate...I hate using other people's swords. But in this case it was necessary for survival. The one thing going for us was that the people we were fighting had no technique and they were also in that same drugged or mesmerized state that Terri was in. I tried not to kill anyone and noticed a lot of head shaking from my temporary allies. They mumbled incessantly as we cut through the homeless zombies." "Only one left," said one of the women. "I turned and looked just as she said,"I've got her." "I moved faster than I ever have in life. I covered the space to stand in between the woman in green and Terri, faster than I've ever run. I caught the staff of the pole mace against the back side of the Katana's blade. The woman in green clearly didn't understand my attention." "Aren't you greedy?" she laughed. "The voice that came from beneath the hood was filled with mirth, aggression and perhaps a little bit of anger." "As she spoke, the other two joined us." "Fine," she said. "You can kill her. See sisters, this is why we don't work with men. They're all the same. They're all egotistical and greedy." "I'm not going to kill her," I spat. "Then get out of the way and I'll do it," said the woman in the green leather. "She raised the pole mace and again I blocked it. This time, I blocked it before she could even swing it. The mace had a huge head with an almost needle sharp spike on the end that was at least four inches long. The wicked spear like blade on the other end was very sharp as well." "No one is going to kill her," I said. "Says you," said the woman in green. "This time she swung the pole mace at me. I easily blocked it but the attack had only been a feint. She brought the other end up and I leaped backwards out of range. She pressed her attack and I sidestepped a vertical strike. As the heavy head of the mace descended to my side I brought the edge of the Katana down on it forcing the mace head into the dirt. Then I raised my foot and stomped on the shaft breaking it. She jumped back in surprise finding herself left with only half of her weapon." "The woman in red stepped between us ending the fight." "Why use weapons when words will solve the problem?" she asked. "He is a fool sister," said the woman in green angrily. "The woman is far worse than all of the others combined. Most of these fools were simply glamoured. They would have awakened up and had no memory of what happened. We killed them because they were weak and would have been especially vulnerable to the vampires will. He could have contacted them over great distances with but a thought and willed them into doing anything. But that woman has been tasted by the fiend. She WILL turn and then we'll have two of them to deal with. And this vamp is very old and very nasty. He actually had the stones to go into a public tavern with people about. Both of them have to die. And for the greater good, if this fool wants to die defending her, so be it." "The woman in red turned to me. As she did, she let her hood drop and I saw her for the first time. It was as if my world had been black and white for all of my life and suddenly there was color. Her long unruly hair was a very light brown. The highlights and differing shades and hues in her hair alone would take hours to categorize. There were hints of gold, blond and even red mixed in with the brown. I swear I could have spent hours staring at that hair. But those same hours would have been wasted because her face was far more exciting." "Her large, innocent, hazel eyes were so expressive that they gave the impression she could tell you everything she thought and felt with just those eyes. At one moment they appeared innocent and mirthful. The next you could see that she'd experienced so much pain and death that it was a wonder she still breathed. Her nose was a perfect little button with a very small almost unnoticeable bump on its ridge. I'd seen that same imperfection on a lot of fighters. It told you that their noses had been broken. In her case, it only added to her beauty somehow. I guess the phrase that a far more literate person than I would use is that her slight imperfection only added to her beauty." "Then there was her mouth. The expression Cupid's bow had to be invented to describe those lips. The weird thing about them is that her natural coloring made the need for any lipstick or cosmetics negligible." "The strangest thing about it was that as I stared at her, she stared right back at me. I don't know how long we stood there locked in each other's gazes. Time seemed to stand still with neither of us willing or able to look away." "The woman in white finally broke up the staring fest. She pushed her hood back and lowered her crossbow until the business end of it rested on the ground. Her hair was nearly as white as her leathers. She appeared to be older than the woman in red but that could have been only my perception. She too was beautiful. Her unlined face made judging her age difficult. She could have been anywhere between early thirties and early sixties. She was shorter than the other two and from the opening that I could see in the cloak, far more slightly built. Besides her crossbow, she wore two weapons that were either very short swords or very long daggers. They hung from a frog on her left side under the cloak." "Sister Penance," she said. "Perhaps we should inform him of the danger and let him make his own decision. He has earned that right." "At that point, the woman in green pushed back her hood as well. Her hair, unlike that of her friends, was a very short pixie cut. It was red and her creamy Irish skin and freckles hinted that it was natural. She was taller and thicker than the other two as well. Her thick arms and legs spoke of great strength. She also had a slight gut and huge breasts. This woman was an Amazon. I could see hundreds of men with domination fantasies happily groveling at her feet." "Look dummy," she said angrily. "Or can I call you Ken? Ken, Barbie as you know her, is gone. She is under the control of a very strong, very ruthless bastard who now sees you as a threat. Unlike us, you don't have the training, the discipline, or the smarts to handle this. Barbie's life is over. Her existence will be a living hell from now on. The best way to save her soul is to put her out of her misery. Look at her." "She snapped her fingers several times in front of Terri's face. Terri didn't respond." "See Ken," said the woman in green. Her voice dripped sarcasm. "The best thing for us to do would be to end this for her. She won't even know it happened. It will be quick and painless." "Sister Penance," said the woman in white. "Perhaps you should let someone else explain it. You are a bit too...direct." "Man," she said looking at me. "Your...lady friend is at the very least enthralled and possibly halfway to becoming like the creature you saw. If he wills it, she will kill you in your sleep. She is no more than an extension of his will at this point. The kindest thing to do would be to end her torment. If you care for her as Prudence seems to think you do, you wouldn't want her to suffer. And if you are the kind of person that I think you are, you have to realize that she is a danger to everyone around her. The being that controls her has no morals and no sense of honor. He exists only for blood and his own selfish needs. He would not hesitate to have her strap a bomb to her chest and wander into a school. He could be paid by any unscrupulous person to do that and more. She needs to have her torment end." "Jason," said Prudence softly. "Are you sure you know what you're getting into?" "I was shocked on two fronts. The first was because she somehow knew my name. It was kind of disconcerting. I'd never seen her before and she knew who I was. And she spoke to me as if we were friends or had some kind of connection. Sure, she was beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, but I had trouble with the fact that she apparently knew a lot about me; while I knew nothing about them." "My second problem was that she somehow thought that she could tell me what I needed to do or anything about my relationship with Terri." "She moved even closer to me and I knew that something was wrong then. I saw her eyes pop open even wider and I could tell she felt it too. Her presence was overwhelming. She smelled like soap and fresh air and just...magic. Standing close to her was like being near a generator. Energy came off of her in waves. She started to fidget even as she spoke to me." "Jason," she said again. "Good Lord, what the heck is wrong with her?" asked Penance. "Forget it. Patience, Prudence, let's just go. If she tears his fool head off, it's not our problem. We did try to warn him. He's a big boy. Let him pick his own toys. It's not our fault if he chooses blood sucking Barbie with the Kung Fu grip." "Penance, if you don't want to stay, then don't," said Prudence. "As a matter of fact, maybe the two of you should try to find another lead on the vamp. I'll try and explain to Jason what he's gotten himself into while trying to do our job." "The other two looked at each other and then back at Prudence as if she was crazy." "You're going to go off with some MAN alone?" asked Penance. "She knows what she's doing," said Patience. "I'm sure her actions will prove to be very prudent in the long run." "Go with God sister," said Patience to Prudence. "If he tries anything, call me and I'll gut him, or HER...or both of them," spat Penance. Then they walked away, leaving us alone except for Terri, or what was left of her. "I didn't know what to do. So I handed her the Katana I'd borrowed from her. She smiled and pulled a cloth out of a hidden pocket and wiped down the blade and then returned it to the Saya or scabbard that she wore from a low slung double belt on her hip. The way she carried the swords was interesting. They weren't thrust through a sash the way the samurai wore them. They dangled on her hip, hung from a double belt in a style similar but different from the way fencers carried their rapiers during the seventeenth century." "We should get her to your place and secured so we can talk," she said. "Wait, who are the hell are you three?" I asked. "And why do you call yourselves sisters? You don't look like you're related. The other two have accents. They're very slight but still there. None of you look the same." "Jason, we're burning moonlight," she said. "But I promise, I'll tell you everything you want to know. I'll even tell you the things that I shouldn't. You did save me back there." "I smiled and told her she'd saved me first." "I'm parked near your car," she said. "She gently took one of Terri's arms and I took the other as we headed back towards the parking lot. The early evening had faded and darkness had fallen. We truly were, as she said, burning moonlight as we walked back past the bar, with Terri walking between us. She looked like she'd had too much to drink which simplified any explanations we might have had to give." "On the other hand, there was simply no way to explain Prudence. How exactly do you explain a six foot tall golden haired goddess dressed entirely in red leather? How do you explain that she's carrying a spear and wearing two swords under her ankle length hooded cloak? Halloween of course." "As it turned out, we didn't need an explanation. Although we did get more than a few stares, no one stopped us or questioned us. We made it to the parking lot without incident. We loaded the still zombified form of my wife into my car, then Prudence stored her weapons in hers. The weird looking Chevy that I'd looked at before turned out to be her car." "As the eerily silent Volt followed my Mustang home, I kept thinking about that old joke. You know the one where the kid tells his father about the dog that followed him home and asks if he can keep him. Shit, Prudence had followed me home. Did that mean I got to keep her?" "Mentally, I slapped myself. I was still married to Terri and I was already having thoughts about another woman. What kind of asshole did that make me?" "Probably a very healthy one since Terri had cheated on me with multiple men and then gotten involved with..." "I was still having a tough time calling that thing a vampire. I just didn't want to believe that they existed. And if they had to exist, why the hell couldn't they look like Kate Beckinsale? Vampires should be all sexy in shiny black armor and work boots, with a pouty expression and a subtle British accent. She should drop ten floors off the top of a building and walk away from it just to sashay over to me and stare at me with her incredibly blue eyes and then..." "Shit, I almost ran through a red light. Luckily my huge 14" Brembo brakes stopped me before I drove into the cross traffic. Terri strapped beside me in the passenger seat, still stared directly ahead without noticing anything." "A few moments later, we pulled into our driveway. Prudence got out of her car and came over to help me with Terri. As we entered the house, she politely asked if she could take off her cloak. She'd left the spear in her car but carried the swords with her." "If I'd been lulled into inactivity before when I was locked into her eyes, seeing her body was even more stupefying. Prudence was almost six feet tall but very shockingly put together. In fact, she looked as if someone had just gone through a catalog of high performance lady parts and built the perfect woman." "She had long shapely legs with thick tapered calves. Her hips widened atop those legs and her ass tempted me to smack it just so I could watch it jiggle. Her waist was so tiny I was sure I could get both hands around it. Her breasts weren't huge but they weren't tiny either. They were perfect and since I could see the nipples poking out and tenting the leather of her tunic, I was sure she wasn't wearing a bra under all of that leather. I know that it was rude to stare, but she seemed to welcome the attention." "She insisted on checking out the house to make sure that there were no unexpected visitors. I heard her walking from room to room looking over the house and suddenly I didn't hear her moving anymore." "I sat Terri down on a couch and went to see if she was okay. I found her in my workout room. Her eyes were glowing as she looked at the swords displayed on floor to ceiling racks along one wall." "I knew it wasn't just luck," she said, when she noticed my presence. "Your moves were too practiced for you not to have some type of training with weapons. That is unusual in this day and age. Someday you'll have to tell me why a guy like you has so many swords. Some of these pieces are beautiful. There are very few antiques here though. And your swords are all dead." "I didn't know that swords could live," I said. "She followed me back into the living room, where Terri sat just as I'd left her." "Jason, I'm not your enemy," she said. "Far from it, in fact. I probably shouldn't tell you this but I'm amazed by you. I envy you, the choices you make and the things you do." "I thought that sounded funny since I'm just a normal guy who likes swords." "What's with you and your...uhm... sisters?" I asked. "You still didn't clue me in on that." "It's really simple, Jason," she said. "We're from a very special order within the church. We're called the Sisters of Fate. Our job is to handle threats like this and we..." "You mean all of this shit is real?" I asked loudly. My voice was so shrill and so loud, that even Terri turned to look at me." "Prudence just nodded her head. She looked at me with real concern on her face." "Vampires are real?" I asked. "What about werewolves...what about..." "Yes, there are werewolves," she said. "Do they get all hairy and transform?" I asked. "Where does the hair come from? Where does it go when they change back?" "As much as we can tell, it's all the result of fantastic spikes in hormones," she said. "When they change back, it's not exactly like the movies. All of the hair just drops off from the inappropriate locations." "What else have you seen?" I asked. "Well, not all of our cases are in the US," she said. "That's why most of us are from different locations. Patience is of course Russian and Penance is Irish and..." "Wait," I said. It hit me very suddenly. "You said that you were from the church; the Catholic Church? Are you supposed to be some kind of nun? You can't be a nun..." "Why not?" she asked. "Because you can't be," I said nervously. "You're too..." "Too what?" she asked. "Too young? There are many nuns including Penance who are younger than I am. We have some who are just out of high school." "Too hot," I said angrily. "What does hot mean?" she asked. She rubbed her forehead and then mine. As we made contact both of us shuddered. "I don't seem to feel any hotter than you do," she said smiling. "Hot means...attractive," I snapped. "Oh, so nuns have to be ugly?" she asked smiling. "Okay, clearly, that isn't the case..." I said. "...Because if it was, you wouldn't have been allowed in." "So you're saying that I don't have what it takes to pass the ugly test?" she asked smiling. "I was beginning to feel weird so I changed the subject." "So what are some of the things you've run into?" I asked. I noticed that the twinkle in her eyes got brighter and she finally took her hand off of my forehead. 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."