Author's Note: Sorry for the extended break! Thanks to everyone again—I'm loving the feedback this story is getting! Keep it coming, lol!
Also, this chapter included Nora POV (yeah, yeah, I know, the horror) but it's important to the plot. Nora won't be large part of this story—she's only around cause more angsty!Josh, then she'll exit scene left.
Just bear with her for another chapter or two, and then she'll be gone.
Enjoy!
Chapter Three: Waking Up
Nora sighed, setting the broom against the wall and taking a seat on the torn couch.
For better or worse, the house was as cleaned as it was going to get—much of the furniture had been destroyed, so 'cleaning' equated to throwing a lot of stuff out. According to Sally, that was pretty much the norm around here.
Sally.
Sally the ghost.
Jesus, what in the hell had her life turned into?
Knowing that no one was around to see her, Nora grabbed her head, curling up and fighting tears. Aidan and Sally were upstairs with Josh, probably mooning over him and talking to each other about all of the secrets she was never privy to.
Nora wouldn't go back up there unless she had to.
She hated this—this house, them.
They were close to Josh in a way she never had been—and probably never would be. A vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost becoming family—it sounded like some sort of low-budget sci-fi sitcom, but she'd seen how much they meant to each other, how much they cared, and Nora knew that it was something she could never be a part of.
Josh was holding onto her because she was his piece of normal, a symbol of the life he had to leave behind when he was cursed.
What would he do when he realized she was just like him now? That it was his fault, that he'd done this to her, that it—Nora shook her head, dispelling the thoughts.
More importantly, what would Josh do when he realized that, unlike him, she just couldn't deal?
It Nora five weeks to realize that she just wasn't strong enough to deal with this curse, with the prospect of never having children, with the realization that she was now part of a world where vampires and werewolves hated and loved and fought.
Nora just hoped that Josh was alive to hate her for what she was about to do to him.
"I think he's getting better. Don't you think he's getting better?"
Aidan didn't, actually, but Sally was trying so hard to convince herself that Josh would wake up any minute that he didn't have the heart to tell her otherwise.
"I mean, he's cooling down a bit, even though he's still got a fever, and we haven't noticed any more bleeding, plus—"
"I'm sure he'll be fine, Sally," Aidan interjected, breaking her endless sentence. He spared a glance at her before returning the work at hand—he'd only realized how pulverized Josh's right hand was a few minutes ago. Thankfully, the breaks seemed clean, but a bedroom wasn't really the best place for making the sort of splints the werewolf needed. Aidan could only hope that Josh's natural healing abilities took hold of it, or else the werewolf might end up with crooked fingers.
And considering this was the guy who couldn't bear a crooked tablecloth…
Aidan looked up again when Sally snorted. "Now that's a lie if I've ever heard one. Please don't treat me like I'm slow or something."
"Well, I'm sorry for trying to be reassuring," Aidan snapped, not exactly feeling up to dealing with Sally's admittedly flighty personality.
"I don't want you to be sorry or reassuring—I want Josh to wake the hell up. Hell, I would settle for knowing what's going on with him!" Sally disappeared for a moment, reappearing a moment later with a rather dazed look on her face. "Wow, haven't done that in a while. Josh needs to wake up before I lose all of my new ghost mojo."
Against all odds, a short bark of laughter left Aidan's chest. Leave it to Sally…
"And anyway, Josh has to wake up, otherwise you two might never get the chance to have that way long overdo conversation."
Aidan's eyebrow twitched. Not this again… "What are you—"
"You know," Sally began slyly, winking obscenely. "The conversation that starts off with you confessing your undying love for our favorite spastic werewolf and ends with you pushing Josh against a wall and ravishing him!"
"Undying love? Ravishing? Has Josh been flipping the pages of those terrible bodice rippers for you again?" Aidan queried, not rising to her bait.
"I'm passed that point now, lover boy. I can turn my own pages, thank-you-very-much." She sniffed indignantly for a moment before turning to him again. "But, don't change the topic—you need to tell Josh how you feel."
"Sally, we've had this discussion. I don't—"
"But you do." Sally said smugly. "If I had to count the amount of times you've said Josh's named during your private little naughty time…"
"I don't!" Aidan denied vehemently, glad that it was impossible for vampires to blush. Peeper ghost indeed.
"You so do."
"I don't!"
"Do!" She yelled almost happily, latching onto the conversation for what it was—a distraction from Josh's silent form.
"I DON'T!" Aidan yelled back, snapping before remembered that Nora was downstairs. "I don't," he said, hissing. "And even if I did, I think you're forgetting something… Nora."
"Hmm, Nora-shmora. Who cares?" Sally replied before she grimaced. "Okay, I'll admit that was kinda bitchy, but you get what I mean, right? Josh is like a commitment-a-holic, once he warms up to someone, he's ready for matching t-shirts! I'm sure Nora is perfect nice, and I'm grateful for what she's done to help Josh—plus it doesn't hurt that she's totally hot—but they don't have a future. You know that right? She is Josh's little slice of normal, but once he finally hits reality, the only person he'll want is the person that's always been there waiting. You."
Aidan wanted to deny her words, but something in them rang true. As much as he wanted to deny it, he knew he could make Josh happier than Nora ever could.
He just needed Josh to see that.
"So make him see," Sally said quietly. "Show him how much you care."
Aidan started violently, staring at the ghost with wide eyes. "C-Can—Did… Did you just read my mind?"
Sally shrugged, smiling wryly. "I think it's a ghost mojo thing. At first, I thought I was losing it, but its been happening more and more often now. And can I just say, it's like Aidan-and-Josh Animal Planet in your mind 24-7? I mean, I'm pretty sure some of those positions aren't humanly—or inhumanly—possible."
Aidan flushed, averting his eyes to stare and Josh's peaceful face. Leave it to Sally to make Aidan blush for the first time in over 100 years.
Just then, Aidan noticed something. A small twitch of Josh's fingers. "Josh?"
A pained grunt was his answer.
"Josh! Oh god, oh god, is he waking up?" Sally cried, nearly deafening Aidan in the process.
Aidan didn't respond; he was too busy mapping out the scrunched up features of his best friend. "Josh? You there buddy?" Aidan clasped the werewolf's uninjured hand, elated to feel the answering squeeze from the other man's weak fingers.
"C'mon, Josh, open your eyes," Aidan urged quietly. "Come on."
"Nrghh," was Josh's response, but Aidan chose to take that as a positive sign.
"Josh," Sally whispered tearfully from her perched position next to the prone man. "Please wake up."
At that moment, Josh's pale eyes fluttered open for a moment before closing again. He let out a sound of pain, his face scrunching up further. "Lights," he grunted.
In a moment, the single lamp on the bedside table shattered. Aidan gave Sally a warning look, but she just shrugged, unrepentant.
"W-Was that m-my lamp?" Josh slurred slowly. "Better n-not… it's an antique."
"Open your eyes and find out," Aidan replied in relief, the tense muscles of his shoulders relaxing. At least there wasn't any brain damage…
Josh's eyes opened slowly, squinting against the non-existent light. "Aidan?" he rasped quietly, his voice hoarse and confused. "I thought you were meeting up with Mommy Dearest."
Aidan closed his eyes against a sudden onslaught of tears. Josh, you infuriating ass… "Well, with you having your throat nearly ripped out, I decided to reschedule."
"Oh. Oh. I remember that. Not the highlight of my week," he smiled weakly at them both. "How I am alive right now?"
"Well, Aidan thinks you might turn into a hybrid of the Underworld variety. Is that awesome or what?" Sally said brightly.
Josh, who'd closed his eyes again, started so violently that Aidan pushed him back down onto the bed before he hurt himself. "What? What?"
Roland coughed wetly, spitting out the blood that had accumulated in his mouth, and slowly picked himself off of the floor.
He'd arrived to Leesville a few minutes ago—without Aidan, her newest pet interest.
Needless to say, Mother hadn't been pleased.
Fortunately for Roland, She attributed it to a rare spot of incompetence on his part rather than the veiled disobedience that it was. She was always arrogant that way—more willing to believe in the stupidity of others than in their capacity to disobey Her.
And, god, how Roland hated Her. His maker. His god.
But all of that would be changing soon.
Yes… soon he would be free of Her strangling influence. Soon, he would be free to live the life that was torn from him so many centuries ago.
And he knew just where to go.
Aidan, I hope that house of yours is still open for business, because you'll be getting another tenant soon.