I hated this bloody movie when it first came out. However, Bridget Jones has the right idea. Get monged out and sing the classics.
“All by myself! Don’t want to be, all by myself, anymore!” I sang along at the top of my lungs with the tele.
Miss Jones is not an entire munter; if she lost like two stone, did not talk, or try to act, and kept a paper bag over her head, she would be slightly agreeable.
Then again, what would I know? I had the love of a bloody six-foot super model, a goddess among mere immortals, who loved me despite me heritage and species, and accepted all of my little flaws and issues.
Bloody hell, she did not even get narked when me dim bitch of a sister tried to eat her!
“Sing it Bridget... All by myself! Don’t want to be, all by myself, anymore!”
“I told you he went completely insane,” Steffen whispered from the doorway.
I spun around to see who he was talking to, my heart raced with hope that it was Jay Dee, and I stepped on an empty bottle of whatever I had been drinking for the past eight hours, slipped, and my feet disappeared from under me, and I landed on my back.
“Ow,” I whined. “That bloody hurt.”
Jarvis and Steffen stood over me and each looked as is they were ready to laugh before having me committed.
“Dude, seriously? I thought Steffen was exaggerating when he said Bridget Jones Diary,” Jarvis said.
Steffen nodded. “Trust me, it’s getting worse. He ordered the best of Céline Dion and made Mom suffer through Titanic with him.”
“I will never let go,” I reminded them, then cringed. “I did let go, in fact, I shoved her off of the bloody boat.” I kissed the Polaroid picture of Jay Dee and me before I broke her heart.
“Dude, get up and get sober,” Jarvis said and tossed a wad of metal at me and it smacked me in the face.
I picked it up and unraveled the chain before looking at my ring.
“I’m taking Jay Dee out hunting in the morning so you’ll need that,” he explained. “It’ll be the only chance you’ll get to talk to her before I go back to school. After that, Yahto will be your only hope, and frankly, he hates you because of what you said and did. Yahto loves Jay Dee, he’s just too stupid to realize it.”
I groaned even louder; I had figured as much.
“She will run to the arms of her best mate, even though he is beyond daft,” I sniveled. “That is just bloody brilliant!”
Jarvis rolled his eyes. “It would never work between them, they’re too similar and he’s way too airheaded, and the biggest problem with their potential relationship is that she loves you. But, that’s beside the point. Get up and showered... Dude, you smell like my Uncle Alex after he drowned in that still of moonshine.”
“Ha ha,” I snorted and eventually pulled myself up into a sitting position. “Is she well?”
He shrugged, and cleared off a place on the couch to sit. “Exhausted, but that’s to be expected. She hadn’t eaten, fed, or slept in days. The doctor said she would be fine once she got her caloric intake regulated, and it appears to have worked for the most part.”
“Thank God,” I whispered and forced a smile.
I knew it was wrong, but I couldn’t stand not getting something to Jay Dee to let her know how sorry I truly was. I broke into her home like a common thief, a vampire stalker, and snuck in her bedroom window. When I found her naked and unconscious on the floor, I knew that something was terribly wrong. Every possible scenario involving the woman I loved being hurt or killed raced through my mind. The one that stood out above all was that she hurt herself because of me. Yes, I was giving myself way more credit than I was due. Jay Dee was a strong, self-sufficient and independent werewolf and would never hurt herself because of a daft vampire like me.
While I held her, waiting for her family to come with the doctor, her beautiful lips muttered quickly in Norwegian. I couldn’t completely make out what she was saying, but what I could understand confused me.
“Jarvis, does your sister speak any other languages?” I asked.
He looked at my curiously. “Just English, Jicarilla Apache, Salishan and a few other tribal languages...why?”
“No Norwegian?”
He laughed hysterically. “No. I don’t think she’s even heard it before. Are you that drunk?”
How peculiar.
“I will admit I am arseholed.”
Jarvis made a face. “Dude, open a window or light a match or something. I don’t want to smell that.”
Steffen laughed. “He means really drunk,” he translated. “Cousin, you might want to work on that,” he suggested and Jarvis nodded his agreement, still giving me a weird look.
Bloody Americans.
All night I tried to figure out what to say. Condensing over three hundred years of emotions and feelings, plus five days of Heaven on Earth, into sixty seconds was impossible. Mum sat up with me and listened as I rambled, took notes and then scratched them off as I went. Her only words of encouragement were to speak from the heart.
Jarvis suggested that I dress casually so Jay Dee wouldn’t immediately jump to the conclusion that it was an arranged meeting. If he wouldn’t have suggested it, I would have been wearing a tuxedo out of stupidity and desperation—who could tell a James Bond lookalike to sod off?
I waited in the field of lavender in an attempt to mask my scent; Jay Dee didn’t particularly care for the smell of the calming purple and green flowers.
I had been waiting for more than three hours, and was ready to give up hope and go looking for her, when there came a soft rustling of brush and snapping of twigs, and it made my heart race.
A snow-white wolf slowly strolled from the edge of the woods to the clearing, her large black eyes scanned the area many times, and her black and pink nose wildly sniffed before a menacing growl of a snarl rolled from the base of her throat.
Buggers, she caught my scent.
Just then, Jarvis’ large, black fur-covered body smashed into her, sending both of them rolling across the ground.
Jay Dee ended up on top of him, her lips pulled back over her razor sharp teeth and a threatening snarl rolled from her throat.
Needless to say, she wasn’t amused in the least.
Jarvis whimpered and playfully swatted at her with his paw.
She huffed and strolled away from him to the tall grass and flowers, then slumped down on the ground, resting her head on her paws.
Jarvis snorted and sulked away, seemingly disappearing into the woods.
It was now or never.
“I beg of your, do not attack me,” I pleaded as I got to my feet.
Instantly Jay Dee was snarling and growling at me.
“Please, Duckie, just sixty seconds.”
She picked her head up and continued to growl but didn’t run or attack. I was hoping and praying that she would at least be willing to listen.
“I was daft,” I explained.
She snorted.
Her silent, one-sided sarcasm wasn’t lost on me.
“Agree, that is putting it mildly,” I said. “I am the biggest arsehole who has ever walked the earth! There has not been a moment that has gone by since the words left me lips that I have not regretted them…been ashamed of them. Those are not me thoughts or feelings, I was surprised is all, and it just spewed out. One moment I was holding you, the woman whom I love more than anything in the world, thinking that the person I have waited over three-hundred years to hold, to love, to make love to and be one with, was going to die because some arsehole stabbed her, and the next she was healed and acted as if nothing happened. I was gobsmacked! Rage, fear, loss, and so many other emotions to the likes of nothing I have ever experienced before ripped through me, putting me on an emotional roller coaster from hell… Bloody hell, Duckie, I am not articulating this very well. I f*cked up. Majorly. Most likely it was the biggest clanger in the history of the world. Miss Jay Dee, I love you with every fiber of me being. I have never loved anyone like this before, not even Sam. You are the woman I have been patiently waiting me entire life for. And at the first sign of complication-”
She growled.
“I mean it...it is not a complication,” I stammered, struggling to find the words but it was near impossible. “Buggers. Only you can make me a rambling, incoherent, blurts out whatever is in his head, arsehole like this.”
She huffed.
“I betrayed your trust and I hurt you, and for that I can never forgive meself,” I whispered as I knelt in front of her. It wasn’t that strange apologizing to a wolf once I started doing it. The eyes are unmistakably Jay Dee’s; large, black, warm, and burning with intelligence and anger.
“Me Duckie, I love you. I need you. I simply cannot go through life without you. I am not strong enough to do this without you anymore. It was only five days…five days which you were actually speaking to me, but in those few days I felt alive and happy for the first time in over three hundred years. I cannot be happy without you, it is simply not possible.”
Jay Dee closed her eyes and shook her head.
“Duckie, you once asked me if I could have anything in the world, purchasable or not, what would it be? I did not know then, however, I unquestionably know now: it would be you. You are all that I want.”
She got up and shook her head before turning away from me and headed towards the woods.
“I cannot and will not stop loving you,” I called after her. “Even if it takes until the end of time, I will make this right. I will prove to you just how very sorry I am and now much you mean to me. I promise you, I shall do whatever it takes to earn your trust again.”
Jay Dee continued away from me, only pausing for a brief moment to snap at Jarvis as he approached.
Jarvis shook his head and sulked towards me.
“Do you believe that she will one day forgive me?” I whispered.
“I don’t know,” he admitted and plopped down next to me, naked.
Bloody werewolves and their casual acceptance of nudity.
“I’ve never seen her hold a grudge like this before,” he said, watching his sister’s retreating form completely disappear into the woods. “Usually she forgives everyone in ten minutes, a day at the most. I don’t know what to tell you, Dude.”
“Lovely,” I groaned and wrapped my arms over my head. “If me mum and dad could do it, and get past their issues, so can Jay Dee and I.”
“I’d suggest you stop with the chick flicks and the Céline Dion. You might switch teams, if you know what I mean.” Jarvis laughed hysterically.
I looked over at him. “My most heartfelt apologies, Mr. Jarvis, but no matter how much you beg me, I simply cannot shag you. In case you missed it, I am unequivocally in love with your sister.”
“Whatever,” he snorted. “I’ll try to talk to her…see if I can get her to calm down and listen to the voice of reason.”
“Do not fret, Mr. Jarvis. As you Yanks say, the ball is in her court now. I have hired sky writers, sent singing telegrams, countless flowers and gifts, and I know me cousins have been bombarding her at school. I have done everything I can, for now. I must give her time to reflect on what I most recently told her.”
“I hope you’re right,” Jarvis mumbled; he didn’t like seeing his sister in pain any more than I did.
After a while, I looked over at him and laughed; Jarvis had made a headband and garlands out of flowers which were adorning his head and neck. “You are amusing in ways that should be criminal,” I informed him.
He smiled wide and tossed a flower at me.
“If you would have asked me three weeks ago where I saw meself today, what I would be doing at this exact moment, never in a million years would I have said sitting in a field of lavender with a naked werewolf dressed in flowers, groveling for his baby sister’s forgiveness. It is rather amusing.”
“Is it me or my awesome flowers that you find this amusing?” he asked.
“Point made, it is not amusing in the least,” I assured him. “It is rather ironic though. More than a century ago, the man I call father sat down with the pack leaders from around the world and acted as the Scandinavian vampire delegate in an attempt to bring peace to our people. Your grandfather was there, acting as the one of the Native American pack leaders.”
“No shit?”
I nodded. “It took forty-five days before they reached a concurrence. It was easier than Toran thought it was going to be. There really was not anything that needed to be done other than to stop killing each other. Of course that was easier said than done. I will admit, they were hard times in the beginning. I suppose it did not affect me directly, but it greatly affected me father.”
Jarvis looked at me curiously. “What do you mean?”
“There is a reason why our coven is not highly regarded in vampiric society. Toran sided with the werewolves during the accords…he always sided with the werewolves, even when in the service of the vampire legion, thus tarnishing his name and stature in vampiric society. Prior to moving here, I had only met a dozen werewolves in me lifetime…truth be told, I was terrified of them. Their raw strength and primal animalistic nature was terrifying.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“I assure you, Mr. Jarvis, that is not a bad thing. The werewolves I did meet never wronged me, though most were rather unpleasant fellows. However, being around your sister, even on that first day, if she would have straight out said, ‘Tanis, I am a werewolf,’ I would have laughed at her and thought she was joshing me. I, honestly, would not have believed her, even if she had phased in front of me. Though, I suppose, it would not have mattered. I loved her before I knew her, and possibly before she was even born. The unrealistic idea of her, a woman who is impossible to find and the Gods would never create in fear of starting a war between our three worlds, I once held in me arms and had the honor and privilege of calling her mine for a few hours. Jay Dee is everything I did not know I wanted in a person, but more importantly, wanted in meself. And then I went and ruin it simply because I cannot keep from blurting out a large majority of the derogatory remarks I had heard my entire life from others who were not of our coven.”
“That you did,” Jarvis dryly agreed.
“There is something about your sister’s presence which makes me blurt out everything that is in me head, even when I obviously should not.”
He softly knocked into me. “Don’t take it personally, Jay does that to everyone. Some people are just more noticeably than others, perhaps because they’re used to keeping everything to themselves, like you. If you hadn’t noticed, everyone says what’s on their mind when around her. Jay somehow turns off the mental filters. Believe it or not, the annoying girl doesn’t even realize she’s doing it, and that’s what makes it so damn endearing. I love that about her and I hope it never changes, that’s why I haven’t told her that she does it. Either way, keep your head up, Dude, and I think she’ll eventually come around.”
“Thanks. When do you leave?”
“Friday.”
“If I may, allow me take you to the airport. I need to run to Sea-Tac for something.”
“If you like, Miss Daisy.”
“Shut up,” I groaned and pushed him over. “Come on, Pup, let us get a spot of tea.”
Jarvis laughed and flipped from his back to his feet, and four strides later, I was walking back towards his house with a large black wolf, which was, and it could have been my imagination but I don’t think it was, skipping through the brush, bouncing off of everything he could find.
Jarvis truly was a strange pup.