Authors Note:
Woo! I got my first review. Admitted it wasn't the most creative but it was a start. So random guest, this chapter is for you because you so 'eagerly' asked me to update.
In other news, you get to meet Ilena now! Got any questions don't be afraid to ask them!
Chapter Four: Meeting the Sister
The Ventor siblings had two very different outlooks for the night. Both readied themselves for the drama to come, inside Sam's small apartment. Avery had taken the guest room, which she hadn't stepped foot out of, since they arrived.
She was a nervous wreck. She kept pacing back and forth trying to decide how best to hide half a dozen chinese ring daggers. She had promised Sam that she wouldn't bring any weapons to the dinner, but the more she thought about it the easier it was to reason breaking said promise. She needed insurance in case anything did go wrong. She had faith in her brothers judge of character, that this Ilena girl was perfectly harmless, but she didn't know how she felt about the rest of her pack. Sam had briefly mentioned that he had met members of her pack, who were just as hostile as she was about the whole hunter/ wolf relationship.
She finally figured out the right place to hide them, when she heard a knock on her door, quickly standing up and pretending to check herself out in a floor length mirror. Sam walked in slowly and smiled.
"Feeling nauseous?" he asked, knowing all too well that this night was making everyone jittery.
"A little." Avery nodded, actually paying attention to her own reflection. She wasn't interested in looking too-nice, she had picked clothes that would be flexible if she needed to be mobile. Jeans and a reasonably dressy shirt would have to do. Sam walked up behind her and picked up the wolfsbane necklace that had been sitting on the dresser.
"I really wish you wouldn't insist on wearing this." he gazed at the deadly necklace, remembering the last time a similar piece of jewelry had ripped his world apart.
"It won't be like what happened with Derek." Avery turned back to face him, sincerity in her eyes, "If there's any foul play, it won't be on my part."
"Thank-you." Sam nodded back, he felt incredibly proud of his little sister right now. He gave her a little spin and clipped the pendant on for her. Silently, he left the room and returned to waiting on the lounge.
Avery felt guilty for keeping the daggers hidden, but didn't remove them. With one last glance she straightened up her jacket and gave her hair a little bit of a push for volume. Her eyes brushed past the old scar on her cheek, trying not to remembering how she had received it. With all the hope in the world, she wanted this to work out for Sam. If things were left up to her, there would be no more scars tonight.
There was another knock, this time not on the guest room door. With a clenched jaw, Avery left the safety of her hide out and readied herself for the beginning of a very long night. Sam was already at the door, faster than even Avery could have usually given him credit. He peered through the peep hole, finding just who he longed for. Pulling the door back, the wolf girl entered with a nervous smile as Sam pulled her into a hug and kissed her forehead.
"I've missed you so much." his words sounded eager. Ilena nodded back sweetly as her eyes caught hold of the silent silhouette in the corner of the room. Sam noticed it too and turned around to do introductions.
"Please, take a seat. Ilena, Avery. Avery, Ilena" he closed the door, "I'll just grab my coat and we can go."
The living room was silent as the two girls sized each other up, trying to work out a battle plan if things did not work out.
Ilena was just as Sam described. She had a small olive skinned figure, but her facial features were bold and strong. She was wearing a tight black dress with red flats, her black pixie cut hair barely reaching her shoulders. Her eyes were a warm brown and her blank expression left Avery guessing her true motives. She could see exactly how Sam had fallen for her, she was gorgeous.
Ilena, like Avery, had also being quietly checking out her competition. She had begged the Alpha to let her have this one night to try and convince the female hunter of her affections, somehow being allowed. Her pack promised to stay away from the little Italian restaurant, but not too far. If the hunters were playing them, all she'd have to do was howl and they'd bring their enemies down with quick slashes to the neck. The quirky brunette was clearly not the best at subtly, as her eyes never moved from Ilena, waiting for her brother to come back.
She looked like she could be dangerous. Ilena didn't have to be an idiot to realise the girl wasn't wearing a dress because she was a tomboy; she wanted to be able to move if there was danger. Ilena wished she had taken her lead, but there was no point crying over spilt milk. Also, the coat was a dead give away for hidden weapons.
Avery's blue gaze was now trained on Ilena's body, noting her outfit for possible weapons as well. Ilena knew she did have any. Upon the female hunters face, was a clear gash to the cheek. It looked like it had been there for a long time. She vaguely remembered Sam telling her about a run in with a werewolf pack in California when he was younger.
"Hope you two aren't ready to tear each others throats out!" Sam joked as he re-entered the room with his coat on. The girls looked at him disapprovingly.
"Right then. I see that's not funny." he shrugged away the tension in the air. The girls glanced back at one other again, still trying to work each other out.
"Stop it." Sam shouted at them both as an awkward silence tried to take hold, "Don't do this. Please. Tonight's supposed to be about connecting the two sides, not drawing them further apart."
"I'm sorry." Ilena got to her feet from the couch, her apology seemed to be directed at both Venators, "I'm Ilena." she walked forward, with arm extended to Avery.
"Avery." she took it politely. Hadn't they already done this?
"Sam told me that you were the one to suggest a dinner reservation."
"Yeah." Avery smiled, remembering the reason why.
"I have to agree that I prefer my guts not splattered everywhere." she added coyly. Avery's eyes opened wide with embarrassment and she punched Sam in the arm.
"Why'd you tell her that?" Avery frowned, but secretly she was starting to like Ilena.
"Don't worry, I can tell you plenty of embarrassing moments he's had!" Ilena went to talk as Sam covered her mouth.
"We do not speak of that moment!" he shouted, but she pried his hand away.
"Fine! Fine!" she laughed it off, "I'll have to tell you later when he's not around."
"Well that'll definitely give me a reason not to leave you two alone." Sam slung his arm over Ilena and gave her a noogie. She groaned as she fixed up her hair.
"Let's be off then." Avery joined in the smiles.
After the initial awkwardness of the night, the three jumped into Sam's car and sped of towards the restaurant.
"You big fat liar." Ilena nudged Sam as he drove, upon hearing the revelation that Avery had only found out about their relationship the day before, "Seriously only yesterday?"
"Pulled me away from my party and all." Avery chuckled as Sam went red.
"I'm so sorry dear!" Ilena tried to apologise on his behalf, "I can't imagine what a shock it must be for you."
"That he has a girlfriend? Yes, we always thought he was gay." Avery said straight out, Sam went even redder. Ilena laughed loudly.
"I like the girl." she nodded to no one in particular, "I wish I had a sister that had that much faith and trust in me."
"Well we Venators are taught to stick together." Sam said as he spotted the restaurant and a fantastic parking spot out the front.
"It's very noble of you." Ilena continued.
"I just do what he would for me." Avery unbuckled herself from the car as they all began to get out.
"You can stop being so modest." Ilena was standing by her side once they got out of the car. The two had almost forgotten that Sam was still there. Sam walked ahead and let the girls have their moment, no longer feeling sick about the night. Things were going well.
Once seated and all dishes were ordered, Avery got down to the real business of the night.
"Okay so wolf jokes aside, how did you manage to convince him not to shoot you where you stood when you told him?" she asked. Ilena paused as she tried to think of the best way to to explain it.
"We had been seeing each other for about a month or so. I was born a wolf, so when the full moons came around he didn't realise anything was different. But one moon I was out with my pack, trying to control some newbies, and the hunters found us." Ilena grabbed Sam's hand and gazed longingly into his eyes, "As soon as he saw me he called the whole thing off."
"It wasn't easy." Sam admitted, breaking their stare, to be honest with his sister.
"For a really long time we both had trust issues. We were both terrified of one another. That all they'd want to do is kill us. So we talked it over and there was a lot of screaming and tears."
"We had to come to the realisation that what we were, didn't define who we were. There's so many misconceptions between us." Sam had reached over the table to grab his sister's hand too.
"Like the code." Ilena spoke, "As much as I don't agree with it, I can understand it. But before Sammy, I would have assumed that hunters killed all wolves that moved. For hunters, especially when you get bad packs, I would absolutely agree with shooting them down."
"Isn't your pack one of them? That's why you came here in the first place, because of the wolf attacks?" Avery questioned Sam, he nodded.
"That's what I thought too, but it was actually a feral pack. They're werewolves who live in the wild, away from modern society. They think that packs like Ilena's are a disgrace to the name werewolf. They're a minority, but they can cause a lot of drama."
"But it's in a wolf's nature to kill!" Avery insisted.
"Yes. But just because it's our nature, doesn't mean we indulge in it. With proper guidance we can learn to control it, to control the wolf before it controls us."
"I've lost close friends because of your kind." Avery clenched her jaw, finding Ilena's words hard to believe. It was much easier when things were black and white.
"My kind. Not me." Ilena took Avery's hands in her own, "I'm not here to make you give up hunting, especially since this has all been thrown on you very last minute, but I am here to convince you that despite everything your brother and I are truly in love."
The night's conversation went round in similar circles. Avery questioning Ilena, Ilena questioning Avery and Sam questioning the waiters where their food was!
"It's not even that busy in here!" Sam finally cracked after they'd been there for an hour and their entrees hadn't even come out yet.
"When I asked you if this place was any good Sam, I should have told you that if the food takes longer than an hour to be served it's not five star quality." Avery leaned back in her chair as her stomach rumbled.
"Well if it's alright with you, I've had enough waiting. Let's get out of here." Ilena said as her stomach copied Avery's, admittedly much louder.
So without hesitation the three got up to leave as one of the waiters saw them, racing up to them before they could get out of the door.
"Oh, you can not go yet! Your food is just about ready!" he stuttered.
"You've been telling us that since we got here." Sam scoffed and tried to get past, the man wouldn't move.
"Move it buddy." Ilena stepped forward and almost chucked the guy out of the way, he fell back with fright and resumed serving the other table there. Once outside they all broke out in laughter.
"Did you see the look on his face?!" Avery laughed trying to re-create the shocked face that a female had lifted him off the ground and moved him out of the way.
"I think he'll need to go punch a wall or something to regain his manliness." Sam added, slinging his arm around his girlfriend. She was smiling too until she heard something off in the distance. A gun loading. In an instant she looked up at Sam in terror.
"We need to get into that car now." she said with urgency, as she pulled him forward and took the keys from his hand. The three didn't have time to get there though, before a red laser was pointing at Ilena's heart.
"Get down!" she screamed, ducking behind the row of cars. A lone bullet flew through the air, smashing the window of the store next to Carlos'. It smashed into shards as Ilena crawled towards the car, keys still in hand.
"Quick! Get in the car!" she unlocked it with the button and the siblings got to their feet and scrambled inside. Ilena was quickly following them and jumped into the drivers seat, starting the car and flooring it to get out of there.
"What the hell was that?" Avery shouted in the back seat. Ilena went to respond, when suddenly she could smell a terrible scent in the air. Wolfsbane. She turned around to see Avery fixing her necklace that was now bent in on one side, some of the herb being spilt onto her hands.
"You're wearing a wolfsbane necklace?!" Ilena growled at the young hunter as her eyes started to flash colour. Her head began to pound as her nose picked up more and more of the scent, "Are you an idiot, get rid of it!"
"No it was a gift!"Avery held it tighter, afraid the wolf would yank it from her neck.
"That's not the least of our problems..." Sam trailed off, noticing the fuel tank was sitting on empty.
"But... but... It was full when we left it." Avery shook her head, she turned in her seat to see the oil trail that the car was making. Not only were they leading the shooter to them, they were running out of a way to escape them. "Someone must have punched a hole in the tank."
"Fuck it." Ilena bit her lip slamming onto the brakes of the car.
"What are you doing?" Avery said confused.
"Get out, we're running." the wolf responded, her eyes still flashing back and forth, "Sam take Avery and run north through the alleyways. I'll run south."
"No, I'm not leaving you." Sam shook his head.
"I won't be alone." Ilena smiled, getting from the car. Thrusting her head back she loosed a noisy howl, that the entire city would have been able to hear. She was calling in the reinforcements.