Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter one

Leaving Savannah was supposed to be for the best for the Burns family. Despite their short stay in town, there was too much baggage for all of them now.

Apollo had yet to recover from the events at the bar that he could only remember the aftermath of. Talia and Jack argued constantly in the days before they left and the reason was obvious to their remaining children.

Talia did not want to leave their eldest son, whereas Jack was too loyal to the Guild to ignore their latest orders. Eventually, Talia agreed to go following a conspicuous trip to Oliver Fairmont’s house.

On Cal’s part, she felt grief for more than just her brother’s transformation.

It was exhausting to hate Juliette Fairmont when she saw her ex-girlfriend at school every day and was reminded that she was incapable of not caring about the guilty Legacy.

Moving away was the perfect opportunity to escape from all that, from balancing her love with her hate, her desire to protect with her need to kill monsters.

In the month that followed, she certainly succeeded in that last goal.

She and Apollo went on multiple hunts a day, taking down so many monsters that Cal no longer felt the need to count the stabs.

The plan of numbly following orders was shattered when they received their newest set from the Guild.

The Burns were officially trusted to return to Savannah, a fact that only Talia appeared to be happy about.

All the same, none of them complained as they packed and for the first time in the last month, Cal allowed herself to sleep during the night that her family were silently driving through.

The reason that she’d opted to sleep during the day materialised around her, it was the set of Romeo and Juliet, a production that had surely run its course by now?

Calliope didn’t spend any time looking around the theatre and instead instinctively scrambled from the bed designed for the most intimate scene of the play.

Once standing, she found that she was right to move so hastily.

On the bed, her ex-girlfriend sat in her gym clothes, just like during the most peaceful night of their relationship.

It was different now, however, rather than bliss, Juliette Fairmont was wearing a mask of surprise that became sadness.

“Calliope…” she said, something strange in her voice that Cal couldn’t quite identify. Was it reverence or maybe guilt?

The possibilities made Cal want to kneel in front of her and ask what was wrong. To allow herself only a moment to remember what it was like to be able to breathe freely, to not feel completely numb.

Pretending that she was facing one of the innumerable monsters her family had been cutting through systematically, Cal held out her hand as Juliette made to stand and said, “stay back.”

Juliette’s shoulders slumped and she dropped to the pillow in defeat.

“Why are you here?” Juliette asked sullenly.

“Like you give me the choice,” Cal bit back, “I had to change my sleep schedule because of what you did to me.”

Her fingers trailed over the bite site on her neck that had long since healed and Juliette rolled her eyes, “I didn’t do anything to you, Cal. I would never.”

Cal scoffed and Juliette sighed.

“Then why are you here?” Juliette asked.

Cal crossed her arms, remembering how exhausting it was to hate this girl, to not believe what she said. She had to do it though, she couldn’t let anyone else she cared about fall victim to a vampire because she was too trusting of a beautiful girl.

“My family were ordered to return to Savannah to help with the surge of monsters, I just wanted to make myself clear. I don’t want anything to do with you or your family while we’re here. Do you understand?”

Juliette ran her tongue over her lips and brought her legs together to sit up straighter, staring adamantly at the duvet cover.

“It’s perfectly clear, Calliope,” she said and then looked up vulnerably, “I’m pretty sure I know how to break our connection if you want to go back to a normal sleep schedule?”

Cal wanted to ask how she’d figured that out. Wanted to find out exactly what she’d been up to over the last month.

She really wanted to know why she appeared so resigned and what she could do to help her, but she had to push it all down.

It was just a remnant from the unfortunate time when she’d been tricked into loving a Legacy Vampire, so she said, coldly, “Of course I want you to break it.”

“Okay,” Juliette replied, hollowly.

Cal prepared to say something that she hoped would be biting but she didn’t get a chance to make a sound as she jumped awake instead.

In the backseat of her parent's car, Apollo was too enraptured with his headphones while their father pulled into the drive of the house they’d fled from four weeks ago.

If it was in another town, Cal would have been grateful to be back, it was one of the nicer houses they’d lived in.

As the tyres screeched to a stop, Cal ruminated on how she expected to feel different after a more effective severing, freer maybe, but the only word that came to mind was ‘empty’.

Shouldn’t she be happy to know that she had no reason to see Juliette Fairmont in anything but a strictly academic setting?

Her mother distracted her from analysing the feeling, “you know, Cal, we can call the school and tell them you’ll start back tomorrow instead?”

Stretching, Cal shook her head.

She knew that her parents were justifiably uneasy about who she was liable to run into at this particular school, not that she could blame them. Even she could understand why she garnered some mistrust, even if the Guild seemed to have accepted them back into the fold with their latest assignment.

Part of the assignment was identifying any monsters masquerading as students and she couldn’t achieve that at home, could she?

It was for this reason that she opened the door and replied, “It’s okay, mom, I have enough time for a shower so it’ll be fine.”

Talia bit her lip and glanced at Jack, who had been even more characteristically dutiful than usual since everything went down, so naturally found no objections from her husband. 

Talia reluctantly allowed her children to exit the car to set up all of their belongings in yet another house. 

S

Across Savannah, Juliette Fairmont also opened her eyes, though she did not jerk up and instead pushed her face harder into the pillow with a tired groan. 

As lonely as her dreams had felt over the last month, it was preferable to what just happened!

Even with Calliope Burns back in town, it felt like something had officially ended. Like she’d almost gone back to square one, not that she would be able to stare at the hunter now thinking about how they were meant to be together now, not after she’d promised to stay away.

If it was what Cal wanted, though, she was determined that she could do it. Besides, she had other priorities, ones that she hoped would successfully distract her from her feelings until the Burns family inevitably left as quickly as they came.

Momentarily, the vampire considered starting her day by texting Oliver or Ben, sure that either of them would say something that would cheer her up, but ultimately decided against it.

It was difficult enough to convince people that she was happy with her grandmother’s arrangements, she didn’t want to seed doubt. It was more important than some doomed star-struck relationship that could never work.

It was this thought that gave her the energy to go about her morning routine. 

After twenty minutes in the bathroom, she emerged in a simple shirt and jeans combo, no longer seeing any reason to agonise over her outfit.

Languidly, she entered the kitchen area, her parents silent as ever after the arrest of their eldest daughter. 

“Good morning,” Juliette offered, bypassing the breakfast items to swipe up an opaque jug that deposited crimson liquid into her cup that would once have been filled to the brim with coffee.

She drank the blood in two gulps and automatically went to the sink to clear it out of the glass. 

“Good morning,” Sebastian said after sharing a look with his wife.

Juliette had stopped taking notice of their concern at this point, it wasn't like she could go back on her promise now, there wasn’t any other Fairmont that could fulfil the duty because of her. 

Making short work of packing some food into her bag (enough to convince her peers that she needed to eat) Juliette slung her bag over her shoulders and made towards the door but stopped as her mother finally spoke up:

“Are you sure that everything is okay, Juliette?” 

The young vampire halted, so close to the exit and sighed, “why wouldn’t it be, mom?”

“You know why,” Margot replied, ignoring the warning look from her husband, “I understand that my mother made this all sound very life and death, but you’re free to change your mind right up until your birthday, you know that don’t you?”

“I love her, mom, why don’t you believe that?” Juliette asked exasperatedly.

“And what about Calliope Burns?”

The name sliced at Juliette’s heart and conjured images of the hateful twist to her face, how eager she was to have nothing to do with the vampire that had turned her brother. Of how little a month had done to alleviate her desire to hurt her.

How agreeing to sever the bond was more painful than any method the Guild could come up with to physically injure a Legacy. 

Despite all of this, Juliette managed to keep it hidden behind a mask of indifference. 

This only seemed to bolster Margot’s concern.

“What about Calliope?” Juliette asked.

“You loved her so deeply, I just can’t believe that you could feel the same for Allegra after less than a month,” Margot said, her eyes flicking up and down her daughter’s face for any cracks in her facade. 

“I only knew Calliope for a couple of weeks, I thought you would be happy about this, mom?” Juliette said, looking to her father for support.

She was well aware that he wasn’t prepared for what was to come on her birthday but had hidden his distaste more successfully than his wife after she assured him that she really was prepared for this.

“I think what your mother is trying to say is that she only wants you to be happy,” Sebastian offered and Margot nodded in agreement.

“Grandmother said that this will help the family, that will make me happy,” Juliette reassured, though it sounded very much practised, so she rushed to add, “I really got to go to school.”

She didn’t give either of them the chance to stop her as she pushed through the door, but leaned against the wall next to it so that she could hear the rest of their conversation. 

“She said she’s fine, Margot, we have to believe her,” Sebastian said softly, no doubt holding her hands.

“Weeks ago, she didn’t seem worried about our family,” Margot argued and Juliette closed her eyes against a wave of guilt, “She’s too young to understand what she had agreed to.”

“She is almost seventeen,” the DA said and Juliette was well aware that he was struggling to convince even himself, “Davina said that seventeen is older than some other Atwoods.”

“You expect me to be comforted by my mother’s assurances? Juliette only recently accepted the Malikia. I find it hard to believe that…”

“I’m sure that Juliette knows what she’s doing, my love,” Sebastian interrupted, accompanied by the scrapping of his chair that had Juliette unhitch from the wall and make her way to the bus stop. 

She wasn’t too far away to hear her mother lament, “I hope you’re right.”

S

Calliope had strategically prepared for her return to this high school in a way she never had before.

They still had AP English, Physics and gym together but outside of that, there was no reason to admit that her ex-girlfriend existed. During the classes themselves, the answer was obvious, just focus on what the teacher said and don’t look in Juliette’s direction.

She could only hope that the bond severing meant that Juliette was willing to do the same!

It was this thought that had her stroll from the bus stop and into the courtyard with confidence, sharing a smile with the odd person that she recognised.

Unfortunately, a split second of distraction had history repeat itself, two bodies collided.

A pile of books scattered across the ground and Cal didn’t droop to her knees because she could feel exactly who it was before the vampire looked up at her guiltily. 

It was the exact guilty expression that drove Calliope crazy, why couldn’t the Legacy Vampire just look like a monster on the outside?

Since her ignoring plan had failed within minutes, she went instead with plan B: scowling.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

Juliette sighed and finished gathering her books, “I wasn’t looking where I was going,” she said and stood, refusing eye contact, “Don’t worry, Calliope, it won’t happen again.”

Now up close to Juliette Fairmont, Cal’s resolve faltered.

There was something off about her that was hard to explain. Perhaps it had something to do with her sister’s incarceration, her best friend leaving and her ex-girlfriend vowing to find a way to kill her?

Whatever it was, that certain spark had left Juliette. Even her clothes were less colourful and the instinctual part of Cal wanted to talk about it, while the other part of her didn’t want to risk falling into a conversation that could potentially have her edging towards forgiveness.

It was for this reason that she uttered something to shut down the possibility.

“Make sure it doesn’t.”

“Okay,” Juliette replied and was about to flee but stopped with widened eyes upon seeing someone approaching.

Cal followed her eye line and tilted her head, trying to figure out what warranted the reaction.

The girl coming over appeared to be around their age, but only just about. She was far too tall and gorgeous to be lumped in with the other high school students.

Briefly, jealousy burned unbidden down Calliope’s throat.

During her absence, she’d been far too busy hunting to consider another crush, but Juliette apparently had found another girl to stare at dreamily.

This jealousy blared into overwhelming pain as the girl veered over to them and connected her lips casually with Juliette’s, who stood shell-shocked but didn’t reject the kiss.

For the first time, she gave Cal eye contact to find that the ire had morphed into something else entirely.

It couldn’t be jealousy, could it?

“Good morning, Juliette,” the other girl prompted and the vampire cleared her throat and her mouth twisted into something that could pass as a smile, though it wasn’t as awkwardly cute as the ones that Calliope once received regularly.

“Hi, Allegra,” she said.

Allegra turned to look Cal up and down and the hunter couldn’t help but bristle.

“Who’s your friend?” she asked, not at all politely.

“Calliope,” Juliette replied and understanding passed over her companion, “We should leave her to get settled back in…”

Juliette attempted to take Allegra’s hand for another escape attempt, which had Cal’s hands ball into fists but was interrupted by a call from across the courtyard.

“Hey Jules, you got a sec?”

Juliette turned to find a member of the drama club waving at her. Undoubtedly it was a question about the sets for their next production, by far the most normal part of her life lately. 

“Go,” Allegra encouraged, “I’m sure that Calliope doesn’t mind at all, right?”

“Not at all,” Cal replied through gritted teeth.

Juliette’s eyes flicked between the pair, giving the impression of wishing that this wasn’t happening before she scurried away in a manner that didn’t at all suggest that she was a badass Legacy Vampire.

Cal gave her full attention to Allegra, her ridiculous beauty even more annoyingly obvious now that Juliette was gone. She must have been a new addition to the school after she left so maybe Juliette had a thing for new girls?

The thought wrenched her from her jealous spiral and she actively sharpened her mind to tell herself that she was in a position to help Allegra even if every fibre of her being didn’t want to after witnessing her daring to kiss Juliette.

“So you’re Cal…” Allegra began, flicking up and down the hunter again, but the shorter girl didn’t notice the amusement in her tone as she launched into a rant:

“Look…I know she’s really sweet and cute and smart…that she seems like a great girlfriend…but there’s something that you need to know about Juliette…I’m not supposed to tell you this but she’s….”

“A vampire?” Allegra cut her off casually and Cal looked up shocked, trying to find any indication of the disgust that had her stake Juliette in that closet, but there was nothing. If Allegra knew the truth, it had to mean that their relationship was fairly serious, right?

How long would it have taken Juliette to tell her if she hadn’t figured it out? The pointless comparison was pushed from her mind as she asked, “How do you know that?”

Allegra looked from side to side, determining that no one was interested in this conversation before she opened her mouth and extended a pair of long, sharp fangs for a few seconds. 

In an instant, Cal’s jealousy took on a more painful twist. For some reason, the possibility that Juliette was dating a fellow vampire was so much worse for a reason that she couldn’t settle on.

Maybe it was the immortality?

“You’re a vampire too?” Cal sighed, a strange numbness washing over her that prevented her from searching for a sharp, silver stake-like object in the crowded vicinity.

This increased the other teen’s smirk as she replied, “To be more accurate, a Legacy Vampire too…Allegra Davenport, Calliope Burns I assume?”

She extended her hand but withdrew it as the hunter eyed it venomously.

“Juliette told you about me?” she asked lowly, almost indignantly. 

Allegra grinned in a cocky way that was annoying even without the fangs on display and replied, “why wouldn’t my fiancee talk about her ex-girlfriend?” 

Cal whipped her head in the direction of Juliette.

Now alone, she could see the worry etched on her features even from this distance, obviously, she had misjudged the extent to which Juliette had moved on.

“Fiancee?” Cal repeated hollowly.

“It was a pleasure to meet you Calliope,” Allegra said with a signature laugh as she peeled away to approach her fellow Legacy Vampire.

Juliette continued to look at Cal until her future wife took her hand and finally pulled her away.

Calliope stood devastated long after the couple had disappeared. 

Chapter Text

Chapter two 

It had been only two days since the Burns family escaped Savannah and only a week since love turned to hate, on Cal’s part at least.

For seven nights, Juliette Fairmont waited for the hunter to appear in her dreams. To give her a chance to explain that she had no intention of ruining her family.

That she’d only tried to prevent the suffering caused by her incarcerated sister. 

Around the third night, Juliette lost hope that this would ever happen.

This made it difficult to sleep and was the reason she was awake to hear the argument in the den downstairs.

With the volume at which Davina was ‘talking’ to her parents, enhanced senses were probably not even required.”The clan is losing faith in the Atwoods after the last disastrous gathering! If Elinor does not follow through on her contract with the Davenport family, they are liable to turn against us!” Davina said.

“Well mother, Elinor is not exactly in the position for marriage at the moment,” Margot shot back and Juliette had to imagine that Sebastian was physically standing between the two women.

“Luckily, I don’t have only one granddaughter…”

“You cannot be serious?!” Margot said, the volume somehow getting louder, “I will not allow my sixteen-year-old, gay daughter to marry some Davenport man!”

Juliette, officially abandoning sleep, sat up and twisted to place her bare feet against the floor, digging her nails into her mattress as she tilted her head as if she couldn’t already hear perfectly. 

“Do you really think so little of me, Margot?” Davina asked and it wasn’t clear if the ensuing scoff came from Juliette’s mother or father, “By Lilith’s grace, the brother of the man you left at the altar happens to have a daughter of similar age and…inclination to my remaining granddaughter. If that isn’t a sign then I don’t know what could be.”

“I hardly think that age and sexuality alone are signs of a budding relationship,” Sebastian interjected and Juliette ran her hand over her face and stood.

She wasn’t sure what drove her to not ignore the argument. It didn’t sound as though either of her parents would be bringing up her grandmother’s ‘suggestion’ to her anytime soon.

A week ago, she would have agreed that the prospect of Juliette Fairmont so much as thinking about marriage was a ridiculous notion.

Then again, she wouldn’t have guessed that the girl that she loved would dig the tip of a silver spear into her chest, vowing to find a way to end all Legacies, or that she wouldn’t blame Calliope for it.

The fracturing of her own family (another thing that she had at least some responsibility for) gave her a greater appreciation for Cal’s feelings.

She was already doing as much as she could for the Burns or at least the one that was still in Savannah, so maybe it was time to return her attention to the Fairmonts?

It wasn’t as if she expected to see Calliope Burns again during her immortal life, so what did she have to lose at this point?

It was this singular thought that had her open her bedroom door and move towards the stairs as Davina said, “Juliette is a Legacy, an Atwood Legacy at that. It’s time that you stop treating her as if she’s a child and give her the chance to accept her duty. Especially if you expect her to become the keeper-in-waiting.”

“Juliette is not Elinor, Davina,” Sebastian bit back and Juliette reached the final step, peering into the den to find that she was right about the placement of the trio.

Sebastian appeared to be the only thing stopping Margot from going for her mother.

“You say that as if that’s a good thing,” the older vampire drawled.

Sebastian’s nostrils flared and it appeared that Davina was seconds from being ejected from the Fairmont estate, but Juliette exited her hiding space, her grandmother’s insinuation swelling her with indignation.

“I’ll do it!” she announced.

The three of them swivelled, only one of them smiling.

Margot recovered, her heels clicking as she came to her daughter, placing a hand on each of her arms.

“Juliette, darling, we didn’t mean for you to hear any of this. You don’t need to listen to your grandmother,” Margot said, pleadingly. 

Juliette shrugged her off and approached Davina, not daring to look at her father. His concern would be enough to convince her that Margot was right. 

“Will the clan really accept us if I marry a Davenport?” she asked, finding it difficult to utter the sentence evenly. Hopefully, her grandmother would be under the impression that she was just groggy from being woken up.

Davina’s smile became a satisfied grin and she replied, “It would be an excellent step in the right direction.”

“Then I’ll do it,” she said adamantly, “when can I meet her?”

Margot and Sebastian either gasped or sighed, Juliette didn’t check, she had to focus on the approval radiating from Davina. 

S

Calliope should have left it alone.

It had nothing to do with her, so why was it on her mind for the ensuing two hours?

Why would it matter to her that Juliette Fairmont was getting married? 

She could think of a million objections to the arrangement.

Their age, the fact that they were literally still in school, the bad feeling that she got when she watched Allegra Davenport smirk.

That desire to protect Juliette reared its ugly head again because the was no way that the girl who fled a ceremony packed with Legacy vampires would suddenly be interested in wedding planning.

Someone (her main suspect right now was Allegra!) must have tricked her into this! No other explanation made sense to her.

What also didn’t make sense was why she couldn’t stop thinking about all of this, culminating in an English class where she didn’t hear a word of Shakespeare.

Rather, she spent the lesson time flicking her gaze over to her ex-girlfriend, who was sitting beside Lancaster Academy’s other newest student.

Not once did Juliette look back at her, she didn’t even get the stare upon entering the room.

Determined not to feel jealous because the vampire couldn’t stare at her ex-girlfriend with her fiancee sat closely at her side (didn’t the teacher consider that their chairs shouldn’t be touching?!) Cal instead zeroed in on her suspicion.

From the little that Juliette told her about the Atwoods, she understood that it would be advantageous for a Davenport to devote themselves to one, but that wouldn’t work for her if that ‘one’ happened to be Juliette Fairmont. 

The bell rang and Cal packed away, only distantly aware of the issuing of homework assignments.

She couldn’t listen to that while she unconsciously tracked the progress of her mark.

She curled her fingers tightly around the strap of her bag while Allegra readily took Juliette’s books as if she was incapable of carrying them herself!

Cal’s knuckles turned white as the vampiric couple linked hands.

They did look like the perfect couple and it was infuriating!

This scrambled Cal’s mind to the point where she didn’t bother coming up with a rationalisation for following them.

Somehow, she did manage to have the clarity of mind to allow a few other students to go before her.

By the time they came back into view, Allegra was placing the books into her fiancee’s locker for her. The shorter vampire leaned against the metal, wearing a small, amused smile and Cal was surprised that her knuckles weren’t cracking under the pressure, especially when it came to the display that followed. 

Allegra closed the locker door and breached the distance to kiss Juliette. 

It was probably only a few seconds at the most, anything more would have drawn a teacher’s ire, but to Calliope, it ranked among the most drawn-out, inappropriate things she’d ever seen in her life.

At last, the two daywalkers parted, taking a moment to probably say ‘see you later’ until they peeled off in opposite directions.

Cal really should have pursued Allegra if she had plans of being on time for her next class, but her feet had other ideas as if they couldn’t wait for her to voice her many objections.

She weaved through the crowd, deftly catching up with Juliette.

Her mouth formed words independent of her mind screaming that she shouldn’t care.

“You’re getting married?”

Juliette halted to the protests of everyone behind them, her shoes scraping the floor.

“Cal…” she said but trailed off because of the cacophony of sighs and grunts at her back, so she allowed the hunter to grip her arm and pull her towards a nearby restroom.

Once instead, Cal forcibly wrenched her hand away and made sure that there was significant distance between them. If she didn’t, she would run the risk of getting distracted. 

“Are you really getting married?!”

“Why would you care what I’m doing?” Juliette retorted.

“Because I…” Cal started, coming up short when she caught up with what words her mouth was about to spew and she course-corrected, “The Guild want to know about monster activity and a Legacy wedding means a lot of vamps in Savannah!”

Juliette rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. The obstinate aura didn’t look good on her at all.

“Yes, Calliope, I’m getting married,” Juliette said, “My grandmother arranged it. It’s the only way for my family to regain their standing with the clans after what your family did.”

Scandalised, Cal demanded, “What did my family do?”

“They attacked a Legacy gathering and made them think that we were either traitors or incompetent! By committing to a Davenport, it will prove to them that we wouldn’t do that!” Juliette exclaimed, sounding very much like it wasn’t the first time she’d strung that collection of words together.

“You’re sixteen?!” Cal pointed out.

“The wedding is on my birthday.”

“Because that makes it so much better?” Cal said incredulously. 

She was almost relieved, even if a duty-orientated Juliette Fairmont was a strange thing to behold. At least she now knew that she wasn't doing this out of some sense of whirlwind love.

Cal knew better than anyone that wasn’t out of the realms of the possibility.

This relief didn’t last long because Juliette appeared determined, she wasn’t being forced by anyone to do this.

“I don’t have a choice, Cal! Elinor isn’t exactly available right now.”

Involuntarily, Cal moved forward, coming short of being in touching range.

“If this is what you really want, why did it take so long to sever our bond?”

Juliette looked at the floor pensively, probably analysing her ex-girlfriend’s words until she looked up, something eerily calm about the glint in her eye as she said, “I wanted a chance to say goodbye but you made it clear that you don't care. Look Calliope, my relationship with Allegra isn’t some grand scheme to hurt anyone and…it’s really none of your business now. You don’t know how to kill a Legacy, so how about we stay away from each other until you figure it out?”

Juliette didn’t give her the chance to retort with some big theory of what the Atwood-Fairmont family were up to, she left the restroom. The neutrality of her ex-girlfriend’s face stuck painfully into Cal’s head. 

As the door swung closed behind her she blinked to try and banish it and, for the second time that day, Calliope Burns stood stock still, fresh devastation preventing her from going to class. 

Chapter Text

Chapter three

Juliette had longed to see Calliope Burns for so long that she’d failed to consider how painful it would be. 

Not for a moment did she presume she would be forgiven. As much as she resented the painful fact, there was no conceivable way that they would ever be together again. A hunter and vampire were incredibly romantic in theory but in practice, it just didn’t work. 

At their happiest, there was a gulf between them, or so Juliette told herself. 

Even in the face of this, Juliette still needed Cal to believe that she hadn’t done it on purpose, that she hadn’t plunged the Burns family into an ambiguous loss on purpose.

Their last couple of conversations hardly gave her any reasons to believe that they would be able to talk long enough to get to that point. 

There was too much anger, but that begged the question, why did the hunter care about her impending nuptials? If she wanted nothing to do with her, why confront her at all?

What did her engagement have to do with the hunter’s goal of destroying monsters?

It was all very confusing for the young vampire who’d thought her foreseeable future was clear.

“Is that page really interesting?”

Juliette’s vision suddenly sharpened onto the irrelevant symbol and her head lolled over the arm of the couch she was lounging on.

Theseus Burns stood over her, holding a cup of red in each hand.

“What?” she asked. 

“You’ve been staring at that for like ten minutes,” he replied.

Juliette snapped the book together and sat up, shaking her head and discarding the book onto Oliver’s coffee table.

“No…It’s just been a…long day,” she replied, “it doesn’t match the symbol from your memory.”

Theo nodded, unsurprised.

They’d been conducting this research together at Oliver’s place a couple of times a week since everything in his life changed, between learning the ins and outs of his new state of being from the two Legacies.

Juliette was honestly impressed with how remarkably well he’d been taking the transition, but there was one area that she knew wouldn’t sit well for him for a long time. Even with Oliver’s ability to empathise, a month was not long enough to accept that the majority of his family wanted to have nothing to do with him. 

Finding his mother’s killer seemed like a good way to help him, not that Juliette was being particularly helpful that day.

“Hungry?” Theo asked, holding up one of the cups, “Oliver said it’s locally sourced, didn’t want to ask any more questions.”

Despite her mood, Juliette released a huff of laughter and replied, “yes please.”

Theo carefully manoeuvred the coffee table, plopping down beside her before he handed over the sweet nectar, at least it was to their kind.

The vampiric duo sat in silence both carefully sipping at the blood, Theo eyeing the fresh pile of research material that Juliette had procured from her grandmother. 

Davina may have no direct interest in her little ‘side project’ but was happy to find the books she asked for. Whether it was excitement for the upcoming wedding or for the fact that her granddaughter seemed interested in Legacy lore, it didn’t matter.

They’d had yet to find anything even resembling a lead in any of them.

At last, Juliette drained her ‘meal’ and sank into the couch. 

“What’s wrong?” Theo asked, also placing his empty cup down and raising an eyebrow at his most unlikely friend.

“Nothing it’s just…” Juliette trailed off, realising that there was no reason to lie to the former hunter. It wasn’t like he would run off and tell her family that she was hung up on her ex-girlfriend, besides didn’t he have the right to know who was back in town? “I ran into Cal at school today…your family’s back.”

“Oh,” Theo said, deflating. His gaze fell onto the stained glass taking on a different tone. One that only appeared when certain people were mentioned. “I guess the Guild let them come back…good for them.”

Unable to understand the complexities of monster-hunter politics, Juliette instead inspected him thoughtfully. 

She’d only known Cal for a short time, albeit a very intense short time, but it suddenly occurred to her that she was being so selfish. She’d lost a girlfriend in the fallout but he was torn from almost everyone he’d ever known and loved.

No amount of flipping through books could make up for that, even if it was all she could do for him now.

“You know you have to stay away from them, right?” she asked, sitting up to make sure that he was taking her seriously.

“I know,” he sighed, pulling up an ancient tome onto his lap like it would serve as a shield, “They can be very…stabby…”

Phantom pain reared in Juliette’s chest, which she scratched at. 

Strangely, she now considered the staking in the closet one of the better times in their relationship. Perhaps that should have been a sign that she should be expending more mental energy on the fiancee who had not once threatened to, or tried to, kill her?

“I’m sorry, Theo…” she began but he promptly cleared his throat and shook his head.

“Don’t apologise again, Juliette,” he said and she looked down at her lap until he nudged her and asked, “Does Cal know about Allegra?”

“Yeah,” Juliette replied, now also plucking up a book.

“How did she take it?”

“She’s excited for me. She asked for the beef option,” Juliette said, failing completely to sound light.

“Very funny,” Theo said, “Seriously…is she okay?”

“She doesn’t care about me, Theo,” Juliette replied with confidence.

“I don’t believe that for one second,” Theo shot back, “Do you know how much it would take her to go against her family?”

“And look where that got her!”

Theo clamped his mouth shut and gave her the look that she was sure meant that he was prepared to have this conversation again.

There was nothing he could say to convince her that he was really okay with his current state of being, resigned felt more apt from her perspective. 

“I don’t think that it would change how she feels, at least not as much as she is probably trying to convince herself that it should,” Theo replied.

Juliette flipped her book to a random page.

At a glance, there was nothing relevant to their research task but she held it up to her face as if it did. 

She so wanted to believe him, he’d known Cal so much longer than her and it was actually so nice to hear her ex’s brother sound so eager for a vampire to get back together with his sister. 

If only that happened before everything went so wrong, then maybe she wouldn’t have only an hour before she had to leave to have dinner with the Davenport family. 

Another reason she’d so readily accepted the cup of blood even after having her fill that morning. She’d learned that the other Legacies were wary of a vampire that refused to feed as often as they did. 

“Did she meet Allegra?” Theo pressed after the silence stretched for long enough for him to accept that he would not receive a response.

“Yes,” Juliette replied, still looking at the unrelated symbols, “Don’t worry, I’m sure she was nice to her.”

“You left them alone together?!”

“Theo,” Juliette sighed, finally dropping the book, “Can we please just focus on the symbol for a while?!”

Theo took a second to think about this, no doubt wondering whether he wanted to press for information about his family.

At last, he slumped back into the couch and distractedly flicked through sheets of frayed parchment. 

Neither of them focused on what was artistically contained in the tomes, but it was nice to have someone to sit beside while they ruminated on their mixed feelings about the Burns. 

S

The knife sliced through the cucumber swiftly and violently as if it had committed some terrible crime.

There were no assignments from the Guild that night, mercifully giving them the chance to settle back in, but to Cal it was torture.

It gave her too much time to analyse the events of the day.

Considering her vow to ignore a certain vampire, her school day had been preoccupied with her.

‘You still don’t know how to kill a Legacy, so how about we stay away from each other until you figure that out?’

It was this sentiment that kept running through her mind and it was making it difficult to remember her hatred. 

Ignoring Juliette had been so completely unsuccessful and she couldn’t think of what her next step should be.

Was it conceivable that she could attend Lancaster Academy knowing that the engaged couple could be around any corner? Knowing that Juliette Fairmont was preparing to marry some vampire girl out of a sense of familial devotion that she certainly did not have a month ago?

Did Juliette fully understand what she had agreed to? Perhaps she didn’t appreciate the fact that they were both immortal?

Or maybe it was Cal that was biased by her instant dislike of Allegra Davenport? 

Deep down, it was clear that she could easily ignore Juliette with her current attitude. It was the exact opposite of what she pictured when the Burns family were told that they had to go back to Savannah. 

She’d imagined pining stares, apologetic looks and dreams that needed to be avoided at all costs.

Maybe that wasn’t fair after a month of radio silence? But it hurt so much that she couldn’t even begin to identify the exact reason why.

It did mean, however, that she knew that she couldn’t allow that to be her last conversation with Juliette Fairmont, even if she had no idea what to say to her.

Her assault on the salad came to an end as someone cleared their throat.

“How was school, Cal?”

The young hunter dropped the knife, feeling as though she should be insulted by the apprehension in her mother’s voice, but after the day she had, it felt justified. 

“It was fine,” Cal replied, going for nonchalance, “it’s easier to go to a school I’ve already been to, you know?”

Talia hummed, eyeing the unnecessary amount of meal prep her daughter had chopped and asked, “Are you sure about that?”

“Yep, why wouldn’t I be?” Cal replied innocently. 

Talia crossed her arms as Cal went back for the knife she certainly couldn’t need anymore.

“And…did you see Juliette?”

Cal shrugged, “We have English class together, she was there.”

“And?”

“She didn’t bother me, mom, she was sitting next to her fiancee,” Cal replied, the words feeling wrong in her mouth.

Talia uncrossed her arms, her face twisting in real concern. Cal was aware that it wasn’t for Juliette herself but rather because of the connection to the son she wasn’t allowed to mention.

“Fiancee?”

“Yeah,” Cal replied, “There’s going to be a big Legacy wedding on her birthday so I guess we should warn the Guild?”

Talia tilted her head, probably searching for signs that the statement bothered her daughter. Cal was determined that she would find nothing until she figured things out for herself.

“I’m not sure they’ll take action on that after last time,” Talia said.

“Probably not, but they should still know, right?”

“They should,” Talia agreed, “but Cal, are you okay?”

“Of course I am,” Cal replied with a strained smile as she began distributing lettuce into the many containers on the counter.

Talia continued to stare at her daughter, she certainly did not believe her.

The older hunter considered her words for a second and then said, “I know we’ve always taught you to be loyal to the Guild but…any feelings you’re having…you don’t have to bottle them up, at least not to me…”

Cal grit her teeth. 

Maybe it would be nice to allow all of her conflicting feelings to spew out to her mother? Especially now that said mother’s hard line on monsters was slowly softening? For reasons unknown to herself, Cal shook her head.

“I’m not bottling anything up mom, I’m fine,” she insisted. 

“With your ex-girlfriend getting married?” Talia prompted, eager to draw out a reaction that she wasn’t going to get.

“Yep, it’s…fine,” Cal replied, “She seems…happy…”

Talia stared back with doubtful eyes. It was at times like this that Cal hated how close her family were, even in their more strained form of late.

Talia would always know when she was lying, but she also wasn’t the kind of parent to pry until she thought her child was at risk of getting hurt.

“If you’re sure,” she said, “I’m here if you need to talk?”

“I know mom, thanks,” Cal replied, focusing on portioning out her chicken.

Talia sighed but ultimately walked away, giving Cal more time to run through every conflicting thought and feeling. 

S

It was pleasant.

Everything with Allegra Davenport was just…pleasant. That wasn’t a bad thing, was it?

The other teen was respectful, objectively beautiful and understood Juliette in a way that certain people never could.

Still, kissing her was only…pleasant.

There was no lack of technique and the hands on her waist, anchoring her in place felt good, but there was something ineffable that was missing. 

Having felt that something not long ago, maybe she was being unfair? What were the odds that she would be able to pour the level of passion that she did weeks ago with that certain person she was trying to keep from her mind with her wife-to-be beneath her?

“You know,” Allegra said, panting as she pulled away, “You don’t need to be this gentle?”

Juliette blinked and asked, “What do you mean?”

Allegra’s mouth turned into a smirk and she asked, “You’ve never been with another vampire, have you?”

Juliette shook her head and the Davenport Legacy laughed, it was a notch away from outright adoration.

Maybe they would get there one day? Hopefully one day soon?

“We’re not as fragile, Juliette…You don’t need to be so…gentle,” she replied, making her point by gripping her waist harder. 

It didn’t hurt in the least, but Juliette yelped from the pressure which was promptly followed by a deep blush and a laugh from beneath her.

“I can’t believe no one ever told me about Davina Atwood’s adorable granddaughter. I definitely wouldn’t have waited so long to meet you,” Allegra said as the shorter teen rolled off her fiancee and rubbed at her cheeks as if it would rid them of the blush.

She was supposed to be mature enough to be engaged, surely Elinor wouldn’t act like this under these circumstances?

If her sister wasn’t in prison on charges of being a serial killer, Juliette would have been very tempted to go to her for tips on hiding her true personality.

“Sorry…” she mumbled, laying back to try and figure out what was going on in the movie they’d been trying to watch. 

“It’s okay, Juliette,” Allegra replied, “I get it, it will take some time to get used to the differences, we can go as slowly as you need to. Humans like that Cal girl are so…breakable…”

She said it so casually, focusing on the movie too, so she didn’t notice her fiancee stiffen and bit her tongue against a defence of the hunter.

Calliope Burns was anything but breakable.

There was no value in bringing that up though, Allegra might wonder why she cared so much. 

It was for this reason that she changed the topic swiftly. 

“Are you sure your parents like me?”

“What makes you think they don’t?” Allegra replied.

The dinner had also been pleasant, mostly consisting of wedding planning and some post-marriage discussions that had Juliette squirm internally. 

Luckily, at Sebastian’s behest, Davina managed to negotiate away any mandates for children with Malikia-related promises that Juliette didn’t pay attention to, but that was still something that she and her…wife would need to figure out one day soon. 

A surreal thought considering they were just making out in her room during some random movie. Change their relationship tag from fiancees to girlfriends and they could just be a couple of normal teenagers.

Neither of them had ever had the luxury of being that though. 

“Of course, they like you, Juliette. My dad is just wary after…”

“After what my mom did to your uncle?” Juliette sighed. 

Allegra nodded, “I hear it was humiliating but you don't have some human pet I have to worry about, right?”

Again, Juliette had to bite her tongue.

Allegra was denigrating her father, but it wasn’t her fault. This was just how traditional Legacies were taught to speak, intolerances and all.

Once they’d know each other longer, she could ask her to stop.

“You have nothing to worry about,” Juliette assured with a weak, but convincing smile/

“Good,” Allegra said, pulling her fiancee against her shoulder in a one-armed hug, “Do you have any tips for meeting your parents?”

Don’t talk about human pets, immediately popped into Juliette’s head but she suppressed it.

Instead, she replied, “I’m sure they’ll love you, Allegra. Just be yourself.”

Before the other vampire could ask a string of follow-up preparation questions, Juliette decided to test out the ‘not fragile’ theory by pulling her down by the collar to incite a deep kiss. 

Allegra happily obliged, pressing down into her.

Juliette grabbed her waist hard as she was pushed into the mattress.

It was more than pleasant, but she wasn’t sure by how much.

All the same, she kissed through a pang of guilt as she compared it to a similar event in a closet with a different ‘breakable’ girl. 

Chapter Text

Chapter 4

A week after her discussion with her mother, Calliope could feel that her entire family were waiting for her to have some big breakdown. To admit that when she wasn’t hunting, training or studying, she was thinking about Juliette Fairmont.

Replaying the good and bad of their relationship and trying to distance herself from the envy that coursed through her when she imagined Juliette doing any of that with Allegra.

Only it could never be the same with them because no one had a fundamental issue with their relationship, did they? Juliette would never need to sneak through her fiance's window.

It was thoughts like this that chipped away at Cal’s resolve, especially when she saw them together in person each day.

Juliette wouldn’t catch her attempts to look into her eyes for signs that she was uncomfortable holding Allegra’s hand.

Though she refused to put a reason to it, Cal still wanted to talk to the Legacy again even without knowing what she actually wanted to say.

The problem was that she had yet to see her alone. 

Presently, she found herself with that exact conundrum as she slowly extracted a book from her locker. 

In the mirror, she had a clear view of Allegra pushing hair behind Juliette’s ear.

If she were only an impartial observer, she may have offered the cute couple a small, appreciative smile, but was physically incapable of doing so under the circumstances.

She wanted to snap Allegra’s fingers because she was doing something that she had never been able to do. 

Not once during their time together had she had the opportunity of smiling at her girlfriend in the middle of the school hallway, things were always just too complicated between them. If they weren’t discussing being accused of murder, they were concerned that their warring families would find out what was going on between them.

Calliope’s fingers curled around her locker door and she forced herself to close it, reminding herself that she was at school for a reason and it wasn’t to worry about a relationship that had been dead for a month.

The Guild would have no interest in what was preoccupying her right now, she had to focus up!

That became impossible when she closed the locker to find someone standing on the other side of it.

Calliope jumped but soon determined that she was not a monstrous threat, just an overzealous teenage girl. 

“Calliope, right?”

Cal schooled her features, trying not to openly scowl at her, she was really trying not to be quite as cold while at Lancaster Academy this time around. If she was to glean whether there were any monsters among them, she had to actually be able to speak to other people.

“Yes, Phillipa, I remember you,” she replied with a strained smile.

“I thought I recognised you! You left town so suddenly, we all wondered what happened,” Phillipa replied, a squeal hiding her need to pry.

She then waited as if the hunter was going to explain any of it.

Instead, Cal’s gaze was drawn over to the flow of passing students, conscious of a curious glance.

The breath felt as if it was being knocked out of her with Juliette finally looking at her, even if the moment was fleeting.

She returned her attention to whatever Allegra was rambling about.

This also succeeded in diverting Phillipa’s attention.

“Oh yeah, it’s crazy, isn’t it? Can’t believe anyone could be engaged so young, but it’s also kind of romantic, right?” she rambled and Cal almost felt bad as she recalled that she was the girl that was in a relationship with the late Noah Harrington, until she added, “But wait! Weren’t you and Juliette like a thing before you disappeared?! Oh god, it must suck to come back and she’s with someone so…”

“Is there something you need, Phillipa?” Cal cut her off abruptly. 

Phillipa’s eyes widened, seemingly realising her folly.

“I wanted to welcome you back into town,” she replied bashfully.

Calliope inclined her head and said, “thanks,” making to escape with her books serving as an excellent shield, but the other teen blocked her.

“You know, there’s a party at Zac’s place on Friday night. Maybe you could drop by? Can’t hurt to be more…sociable, right?”

“Maybe…I’ll think about it,” Cal promised, brushing off the nosey girl at last as the bell rang.

Cal saw no value in telling the excitable girl that her last party in Savannah hadn’t exactly ended well for her. 

S

In the week that followed her confrontation with Calliope, Juliette could feel something always at the back of her mind.

Supernaturally enhanced senses didn’t help.

At Lancaster Academy, she was always aware that someone was interested in what she was doing. If only they still had their bond, she was confident that she could figure out the reason that Calliope’s heart rate ticked up whenever she saw her with Allegra.

With everything that was riding on her contract with the Davenport family, she couldn’t interrogate it too hard.

There were only six months or so left to move past ‘pleasant’ with Allegra, how did Calliope expect her to achieve that when she kept staring at her?

At some point, she wouldn’t be able to justify that the hunter was keeping tabs on a vampire.

She quite literally knew where she lived and had no avenue for stopping a Legacy from doing whatever they wanted to do.

As painful as it was to be away from the hunter, to think that she would never get to see Calliope Burns again, she had thought she was reaching a point of some kind of numb equilibrium but that had been shattered now.

Thankfully, with school over, she was no longer subjected to the uptick of Calliope’s heart or the minute sighs, only the steady beat of her fiance's heart as she perused the items on her bookshelf, pulling a couple out to look at the blurbs.

Juliette sat cross-legged on her bed, watching her and chewing at her bottom lip as Allegra quirked an eyebrow at her judgmentally.

“ Dracula , really?” Allegra asked, “You don’t get enough ‘vampire’ on a daily basis?”

Juliette shrugged and replied, “I was curious to see what humans think of us…have you seen The Vampire Diaries? It’s pretty funny.”

Allegra laughed and slid the book back as she responded, “I haven’t, maybe we could watch it together?”

“That sounds nice,” Juliette said as Allegra dropped down to the end of the bed, leaving some space as if she hadn’t pinned the other vampire to her own mattress the week before.

They hadn’t defined what she was comfortable doing in her bedroom yet, so the Davenport girl was as respectful as ever.

She didn’t appear nearly as nervous as Juliette had felt when she arrived at her house for a meal to formally meet her parents, but there was still a slight downturn in her mouth. Perhaps this was the most self-conscious that Allegra Davenport had ever felt?

Thus far, Juliette hadn’t seen any reason for the other teen to doubt herself. 

She didn’t have any siblings to compare herself to and probably had never been told that she was being a Legacy vampire wrong. Presumably had never fallen in love with a hunter who made her reconsider everything that she had ever been taught during her childhood. 

Then there were the undeniable facts that she was beautiful, intelligent and mature enough to do what needed to be done without any outward signs of reservation. 

It was all of this that had Juliette shift a little closer in response to the slight downturn of her lips and ask, “Is something wrong, Allegra?”

“Are you sure that your parents want me to be here?” the taller vampire asked without missing a beat.

“Why wouldn’t they?” Juliette replied.

“Their greetings were a little…icy,” Allegra admitted, playing with the end of the duvet.

Juliette sighed. What precisely did her parents want?!

They pestered her to carry out the first kill that she had no interest in and were furious that she was in love with a hunter.

Now that she was doing what Legacies did, trying to follow the example of a more traditional clan member, they still had a problem?!

Before her arrest, Elinor had every intention of doing the same thing and they didn’t allow their concern to be so overwhelming to let it show in front of the Davenports.

Why was it that they were not able to do the same for her? Did they think she was so fragile when Elinor had proven herself to be a bigger issue to her family than she or Oliver had ever been?

The thought invigorated her to slide to the end of the bed and cup each of Allegra’s cheeks between her hands to pull her into a kiss that was slower than their others. 

Elinor wouldn’t be bothered by the lack of fireworks with each movement of their locked lips, so neither was she.

When she pulled back, she said, “Stay here, I’m just going to talk to them.”

Allegra smiled appreciatively as her fiance stood, grabbing her copy of Dracula as she went and threw it onto the bed.

“Give it a shot,” she offered, “it really is interesting.”

Allegra swiped up the book with a chuckle and lay down, opening it to the first page with it held over her face.

Juliette walked through the empty halls of the Fairmont estate until she got to the kitchen with her fists clenched at her sides.

The scent of something fancy cooking hit her face, but Juliette didn’t stop to figure out what it was.

She went straight up to the counter and placed her hands on it, effectively garnering the attention of the two people chopping and stirring behind it.

“Juliette?” Margot said and Sebastian also turned towards their daughter, “Dinner won’t be ready for another thirty minutes, do you need something?”

Juliette maintained an expression of neutrality that she knew freaked her parents out to no end since she’d adopted it. It was exactly what she needed right now, though.

“Do you not like Allegra?” Juliette demanded.

Margot dropped the knife with a sigh and looked over to her husband, who had very little reaction. 

Evidently, they’d discussed the topic extensively already. If Davina were attending the dinner, Juliette wouldn’t have anything to worry about. She would be capable of cutting through every silent spell that she had imagined since this meal was arranged. 

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the point of the event.

The next step would be a dinner between the two families and Juliette was determined that would go well.

There was already a barrier with the brother of the man that Margot left at the altar, she couldn’t allow iciness to bring her an eternity of awkward family time because of that.

Margot patted at her apron as a way to buy herself time before she replied, “We haven’t spent much time with her, Juliette, certainly not enough to form an opinion.”

“Then why does she feel like you already have?” Juliette shot back.

“We haven’t done anything,” Margot argued but held her breath as Sebastian placed a hand on her lower back.

“Allegra really does seem lovely, Juliette, but you must understand that the idea of you getting married is strange to us,” Sebastian replied. 

Juliette sighed, wondering if they said anything similar to Elinor while she was engaged.

“That isn’t Allegra’s fault, can’t you just pretend that she’s my girlfriend until you know her better? For me?” Juliette asked.

Margot ran her tongue over her lips and picked up the knife, still wearing reluctance in her demeanour, while Sebastian went for an encouraging smile that was aimed at their daughter.

“You’re right, Juliette,” he said, “Please assure Allegra that we will be trying our best during dinner. There is no need for her to worry.”

Juliette stared at her mother who took a moment extra to nod in agreement.

“Thank you,” Juliette replied and pulled away from the counter, making a point of not listening to her whispers as she made her way back to Allegra, who was in the process of engaging in her interests.

Chapter Text

Chapter five

The smart thing would have been to go straight to Zac’s party.

Calliope could have done some quick recon so that she could tell the Guild that she was still only aware of two ‘monsters’ who attended Lancaster Academy. She could have then gone home to complete her training routine and go to bed.

Ignoring constant, gnawing bile in her stomach was exhausting!

Preferably it would have been nice to ignore the party altogether, but with the way that the last one ended, it was impossible to justify skipping the event.

What she could justify was a quick patrol through town with Apollo before being forced to endure the banality of teenage life that she could not wait to surpass. It was supposed to calm her and give her something other than the two people she was sure would be present.

Even with Ben gone, being engaged to the gorgeous new girl after the last new girl left was apparently interesting enough to keep Juliette Fairmont popular.

Her new sociability was yet another strange thing about the vampire, why was she trying so hard to act like her incarcerated sister?

Patrolling gave Cal the chance to see more proof of this.

In an alley between two bars, she heard a groan and launched to protect whoever was in pain but faltered upon taking in the scene.

Some dopey frat boy was grinning with a pair of fangs lodged into his neck.

Obviously, Allegra Davenport was hot enough that he was unperturbed beyond the initial bite. If only he knew that he wasn’t exactly her type.

A hand on her shoulder stopped her from barrelling toward the Legacy vampire who was too occupied with her meal to notice that she had an audience.

Apollo pulled her away from the alleyway as the bile shifted to full-blown nausea.

Did Juliette know what Allegra was doing right now? Her ex-girlfriend had never been comfortable with this aspect of vampirism so surely she couldn’t know about this, could she?

Vaguely, she registered her brother saying, “She’s not draining him…It might be safe to take her once she’s away from him…”

“She’s a Legacy,” Cal sighed and shrugged his hand off to leave the scene with an insurmountable wish to call Juliette.

Why hadn’t she deleted her number like she should have after everything went down?

Apollo’s mouth formed an ‘O’ as he abandoned all of his strategies to follow his sister.

“How do you know…wait is that Juliette’s…”

“Fiancee,” Cal supplied to stop her brother’s stuttering.

“Oh she’s…” Apollo trailed off and Cal rolled her eyes, unsure herself what would be the best descriptor for the newest vampire to, unfortunately, enter her life.

Instead, she approached the bar muttering something about needing to use the restroom before going to the party.

Apollo slid up to the bar as she went but Cal didn’t look. back to the awkwardness in his demeanour. She hated the way that her family acted whenever ‘Juliette’ was mentioned and this made her clench her fists.

This made it difficult to go through with her sudden compulsion to wash her hands the moment that she entered the restroom. Instead, she decided to stare at her image in the mirror, annoyed to find that her features were pinched.

Why did Allegra have this effect on her?!

Uncurling her fingers, she was about to splash some water onto her face as if it would be enough to remove the emotions.

She didn’t get to turn on the faucet, however, as a lock scrapped at her back and she whipped around expecting to see any other bargoer simply using the facilities.

The ceramic under her fingers almost cracked when she realised who it was.

Juliette’s eyes widened and she hastened to close the door, but in doing so, failed to cover her mouth.

Cal sucked in a deep breath because blood was dripping down Juliette’s fangs.

The hunter strode over to push the door to give her a clear view of some young woman sleeping soundly atop the toilet. In fact, it appeared that she had been posed that, give gave Cal a view of the puncture marks that were already healing before her eyes.

She was pushed away though so that Juliette could close up the cubicle.

“She’ll wake up in a few minutes,” Juliette assured, going to the sink to complete the task that Cal had failed, but she did it to clear blood from her chin.

Cal watched her every move, unsure what to do.

She’d seen Juliette feed before, but that was to protect her and she also witnessed her almost lose control but this was different.

It was a calculated decision to sink her fangs into this stranger and she didn’t appear as uncomfortable with it as the girl who’d refused to commit her first kill out of some sense of morality that the rest of her family did not seem to have.

Juliette killed the tap, also looking in the mirror before she turned with her eyebrows raised, regarding the hunter.

“I know you don’t like it, Calliope, but I am a vampire, it’s safer for everyone this way,” Juliette replied calmly, though she was gripping the sink.

Cal ran her tongue over her lips and regarded the shorter girl.

She’d been hoping that she’d be disgusted by Allegra’s activities when she was doing the same thing, albeit with significantly more privacy.

“I…” Cal tried, but as was a theme lately, she was unable to come up with what she wanted to say or do.

The girl appeared completely safe so it wasn’t like she could defend her honour against the nasty vampire.

Even if she had a stake or something silver, she was reminded of Juliette’s assertion that she stay away from her until she figured out how to successfully end her.

It had been weeks since she’d given up on that pursuit so had nothing new to try, not that she was confident in her ability to attack Juliette without the fresh rage that drove her last time.

Juliette watched the hunter for a moment longer than was necessary before she let go of the sink and ran her hand through her hair.

She opened her mouth, but the door to the restroom was flung open and Cal clenched her jaw as Allegra called, “Hey Juliette, you done yet?”

The taller Legacy halted upon finding that her wife-to-be was not alone.

She tilted her head and did the infuriating thing where her eyes flicked up and down Cal as she then stepped up beside Juliette.

Juliette tore her gaze away from her ex-girlfriend and looped her arm through Allegra’s.

“Yeah, I’m done,” Juliette replied, “We can go…”

“You sure that Calliope doesn’t need to stake at least one of us for your little Guild?” Allegra mocked.

Juliette sighed and murmured, “Allegra, come on.”

Cal’s knuckles cracked as she clenched them but said nothing as Juliette led the other Legacy out.

She waited a couple seconds, and checked in the cubicle, withdrawing as the girl was already stirring. She was clearly fine.

When she got back to the bar, Apollo was staring at the sticky wood with his hand to his mouth, Cal had to assume that he’d witnessed her ex-girlfriend and her fiancee leave the establishment together.

“Can you take me to Zac’s?” Cal asked resignedly. The sooner she got there, the sooner she could go to bed.

Apollo swallowed, thankfully deciding not to say anything about what he imagined must have happened in the restroom.

“Sure,” he said.

s

There were many reasons that Calliope Burns disliked high school parties. They were loud and involved a lot of, well…high school students.

In Savannah, this second point somehow felt more egregious than any other place, perhaps because she didn’t have much of this kind of experience in this arena in the many other places that her family had lived.

Then again, never before had someone introduced herself, invited her to a party and asked her to make a wish on a bee over the course of a single conversation.

Had Allegra ever experienced that side of Juliette Fairmont? Over the course of her observations, she hadn’t seen any hints of the shyness that made Juliette so appealing to her, that had created an undercurrent of attraction in Cal even before she had spent more time with her.

It was agonising over the differences in her ex-girlfriend after only a month that had an additional effect on her enjoyment of Zac’s party, not that it was helped by the fact that she had no earthly idea who Zac was.

All she knew about him was that his parents were wealthy enough to own a secluded cabin that was currently vibrating under the load of huge speakers and dancing teenagers.

She wasn’t at all concerned about whether this was strictly sanctioned by any form of parental authority, she was supposed to be searching for monsters, not worrying about how crowded this place was.

As usual, however, she was thinking about Juliette rather than her duty.

She was still struck by what happened at the bar, but not because she was formulating some plan to protect the people of Savannah.

Juliette needed blood to survive and if she had to knock out some stranger every so often, maybe it was worth it. She would never be as bad as Elinor, not that it was a hard bar to surpass.

The rationalisation went against everything that the hunter believed and made her physically uncomfortable, which had her standing in the corner, waiting for the moment that she could go home.

The desire was intensified upon noticing a pair dancing among the rabble.

Never before had Juliette’s short stature been more obvious than with her arms draped over her fiancee’s shoulders as they moved together.

Once again, they looked to be one of the most appealing couples at the party and there was no indication that they had each been harvesting blood less than an hour ago in town.

The smile that often had Cal forget that her ex-girlfriend was a vampire was blocked by a girl she didn’t recognise.

For a moment, it felt like merciful respite, but it turned to confusion as Cal looked at the girl expectantly.

“Do you need something?” she asked as the crowd cheered at the slower beat speeding up into some pounding bass.

Over the volume, the slightly intoxicated girl asked, “Do you want to dance?”

Cal tilted her head, trying to look more closely for anything familiar and decided that she may have seen her at school.

There were no ulterior motives that she could see nor any sign that she would turn out to be a monster with whom she would embark on a tragic love story.

She was just a cute girl who wanted to dance with her.

Despite every instinct, she nodded and followed her through the other students, starting to move as soon as they found a spot.

Eventually, the movement invigorated Cal and she began dancing with more enthusiasm.

This wasn’t the only reason though.

For the first time since she got here, she felt Juliette’s eyes on her.

The vampire’s mask slipped long enough to see that it bothered her that she was dancing with another girl, which was only compounded as she halted and pulled a confused Allegra away from the dance floor.

This carried Cal through two songs until Juliette’s absence had her stop and cal over the noise, “Do you want a drink?”

The girl nodded, still dancing with passion as her partner slipped away.

Cal somehow felt lighter as she approached the kitchen, that was until someone grabbed her arm and she made to flip them over until she realised that it wasn’t a threat.

“You came!” Phillipa announced.

“Hello, Phillipa,” Cal deadpanned, annoyed since the girl refused to let go as she led her towards her original destination.

“You have perfect timing,” she whispered, “I had the perfect idea!”

Cal didn’t get to ask what she was talking about and she didn’t need to as she came into the kitchen that held an eerily familiar scene.

A group of teenagers were gathered around the island with an empty bottle at the centre.

This time, however, Juliette was huddled up to her fiancee rather than her best friend, but she still looked like she wanted to flee.

Memories of the last time she’d partaken in this game meant that Cal put up no resistance to being brought over to the group.

Images of the most passionate kiss of her life had her gripping the edge of the counter.

Opposite her, Juliette averted her gaze.

“Are you ready, Phillipa?” one of the guys asked impatiently.

“Yep,” Phillipa said, patting her companion on the arm before she plucked up the bottle and stretched over the counter.

Allegra had to nudge Juliette so that she realised that it was being offered to her, but the taller vampire seemed to have no reason to believe that anything untoward was being orchestrated.

Juliette’s gaze lingered on Cal, who felt the knot in her stomach tighten.

Miraculously, she got the outcome that she wished she didn’t feel she needed.

The bottle screeched to a stop, pointing straight at her without the need for interference.

Phillipa released an excited squeal in Cal’s ear, but she’d frozen.

Somehow, knowing that the vampire could probably hear her increased heart rate only made it skyrocket further.

This was it, the opportunity to be alone with Juliette Fairmont that she had been waiting for. But what was she going to say? What did she really want to say to her ex-girlfriend?

All hopes were shattered as Juliette picked up the bottle and changed its selection to the girl at her side amidst a chorus of ‘oohs’.

Allegra grinned at the reaction so Cal had to assume that she looked outwardly devastated as well.

Juliette took her fiancee’s arm and led her towards the closet wearing a deep set blush, but adamantly looking forward.

Phillipa’s shoulders slumped and she murmured, “I didn’t see that coming.”

Cal withdrew, grabbing two bottles of something she hoped was alcoholic and replied, “Don’t worry about it.”

Phillipa pouted behind her but Cal went undeterred in search of the girl who wanted to dance with her.

Chapter Text

Chapter six 

Juliette put everything she could into it because she’d done the right thing.

She couldn’t blatantly cheat on her fiance just because a bottle said that she should be in this pantry with her ex-girlfriend. 

It wasn’t as if they’d followed the decision of the last one, perhaps they should have.

No one would have gotten stabbed in that case.

It was for this reason that she pinned Allegra to the wall as soon as they entered the pantry and attached their lips dutifully.

The heated kiss lasted a good couple of minutes, during which Juliette tried hard not to think about what brought them to the kitchen in the first palace.

If Cal hadn’t been dancing with that faceless girl then they would still be on the dance floor themselves and Juliette wouldn’t have had to humiliate Calliope in front of everyone.

Surely she would prefer this to the alternative, right?

What were the chances that Calliope Burns would want to be where Allegra was right now?

The taller vampire detached her lips and forced Juliette to let go of the lapels of her jacket.

“What’s wrong?” Juliette asked, concerned as ever that Allegra could read her mind, she found only amusement looking back at her so managed a smile in return.

“I’m just wondering…what is the point of this?”

“Of…spin the bottle?” Juliette replied and Allegra hummed, “Is this the first time you’ve played?”

Allegra shrugged, “I can’t say I’ve been to many human parties, Juliette. They don’t exactly jump to invite the weird home-schooled girl.”

Juliette raised an eyebrow, looking her objectively beautiful fiance up and down and said, “You’re telling me that you weren’t popular in your town?”

“My family didn’t try and fit in like they have here. There was this crazy rumour that we might be vampires or something awful like that.”

Juliette chuckled and then sighed.

The fact that the Davenports relocated to Savannah for their arrangement was another reminder that she shouldn’t be thinking about Calliope while she was making out with her future wife. 

“Spin the bottle is just a game,” Juliette said.

“So humans find it amusing when a bottle chooses who a person should kiss?” Allegra asked.

“It’s supposed to be…dramatic.”

Still confused, Allegra asked, “Have you ever played before?”

Juliette ran her tongue over her lips and replied, honestly, “A few times, I’ve only been the one in the pantry once though…”

Understanding passed over Allegra’s face and Juliette had to assume that she was wearing her ‘Calliope Burns’ look.

This was confirmed as Allegra’s head dropped back and she said, “With Cal? Was that the first time she staked you?” 

“She only did that once,” Juliette defended but then frowned. Why did she feel the need to say that?

This confusion was mirrored on Allegra’s face and Juliette sighed deeply. Why was it so hard to keep up her mask constantly?

It shouldn’t be this hard to be in a relationship with a great vampire who understood her. Why did Calliope have to come back to Savannah and dance with another girl?!

Stuck in her thoughts, it was Allegra that broke the silence by asking a question that they seemed to have had an unspoken agreement not to discuss directly. 

“Do you still have feelings for Calliope?”

“I…” Juliette started, denial springing automatically to her tongue which came with a dose of guilt.

She wasn’t sure whether it was because of the thought of being untruthful to her fiance or because of the pain that would come with claiming not to have feelings for her first great love. 

Allegra saved her from having to fall into either trap by saying, “Please don’t lie to me, Juliette.”

Juliette bit her lip.

She knew what Elinor would do. She would have Allegra forget the conversation and go back to making out, it was easier than talking.

Unfortunately, she was not capable of that so, despite hearing her grandmother’s voice screaming at her to lie, Juliette replied, “Our relationship was short but it was…intense. It’s only been a month and we only just broke that weird bond I told you about. I know that it’s probably not what you want to hear but I’ve been trying not to think about…”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Allegra cut her off, “I get it, Juliette. I get why you specifically would fall for a human hunter.”

Juliette’s concern that she was about to implode the delicate balance of the Legacy clans melted into indignation and she replied, “Why me specifically?”

“Because you’re obviously a romantic and arranged marriages aren’t that. I get that there must be something appealing about the whole star-crossed lover thing…”

“There was…the idea felt really romantic at the time but…Calliope hates vampires,” Juliette admitted, “I spent weeks trying to convince myself that wasn’t a problem…but it obviously was.”

Allegra tilted her head.

It was rare that she looked confused but Juliette supposed that would raise at least a few questions.

“Then why would she even…”

“Because I hated vampires too,” Juliette sighed, the truth feeling strange in her mouth.

If they were going to be married, then Allegra should be the first to know about her recent realisation, right?

“That doesn’t make any sense, Juliette…”

“I’ve gone to a human school for my entire life, my parents always told me to blend in. I guess I wished that I could be normal, then it wouldn’t be so hard. Didn’t you ever wish that you could be like everyone else?”

Allegra scrunched her eyebrows and replied, “Not really, why would I choose to be weaker? Choose to be mortal?”

Juliette sighed again and looked down.

Perhaps it was too much to think that Allegra would understand that she longed to exist in a world where she could have a crush on the new girl and not have the all-consuming need to drain her blood the first time they kissed.

A finger under her chin had her look back up at the other vampire though.

She didn’t find any empathy in her features but there were some indications that she cared about her discomfort.

“You said ‘hated’, do you still feel that way?”

Juliette attempted a smile and shook her head, “No, I don’t.”

“And what changed that?”

“Oliver showed me that we don’t have to be like Elinor. You have been too,” Juliette explained.

“And what about Calliope?” Allegra pressed.

Juliette couldn’t be too indignant about it. Not only did the Fairmonts and Davenports not have the best track record, but they hadn’t exactly known each other for long enough to have reached the trusting stage of their relationship. 

“Cal will never even try to understand a huge part of my life, she couldn’t have ever known the real me and I deserve better than that. We were always doomed to break,” Juliette tried not to lament.

Allegra shook her head, her patented amusement inexplicably reappearing as she took another, sweeter kiss.

“I see why you like this bottle game…you’re so dramatic, Juliette Fairmont,” she mused, gripping her hips, “What do you think about heading back to my place? We could start that diary show you told me about instead of…dealing with all of this?”

As though she had been released from some kind of physical chains, Juliette breathed, “Sounds perfect.”

S

There was a reason that hunters were prohibited from consuming alcohol while on duty.

It was never a rule that Cal had a problem with before now, but the pit in her stomach required filling with something.

The girl was already dancing with someone else, which gave her plenty of time to down a beer or two.

This would have been fine if she wasn’t offered shots.

It had already passed the seven-minute mark since the couple had gone into the pantry, a fact that had Calliope readily accept the offering.

“Hey, Cal! Are you okay?” somehow reached her over the music.

Normally, she would have easily slipped into scowling at Phillipa. She was the reason that she went from the high of Juliette’s jealous looks to feeling her face burn when she picked up the bottle to change its selection. 

None of that was Phillipa’s fault though.

She was the only one who’d made any attempt to befriend her in a long time so maybe it was time to stop being so cynical. It hadn’t exactly got her very far in social terms up until now. 

It was for this reason that she went for a smile empowered by the alcohol, which also seemed to result in an uncanny chattiness, “It’s not your fault Phillipa. Juliette…did what she had to,” she called back, glad that none of the other teenagers had the wherewithal to listen in.

Phillipa crossed her arms, still appearing guilty and said, “I just didn’t think that Jules would do something like that…it must have been awful.”

Cal was inclined to agree with her, right up until she noticed the closet door finally open and she held her breath. 

She quickly released it, though, upon finding that the two vampires didn’t look as dishevelled as their long stint in there could have warranted. 

She really needed to find out whether Legacies were likely to wait for marriage, the answer could help her feel a whole lot better.

The stray thought launched her into an action that her sober mind would have never considered.

It broke another crystal clear Guild rule, never start a fight that you can’t win.

Juliette peeled off in the direction that Cal had been sent in to drop off her jacket while Allegra went towards the exit.

This would be the perfect opportunity for what had to be done!

A hand on her arm momentarily stopped her and Phillipa stared at her sympathetically.

“I wouldn’t talk to Jules when you’re…like this!” she called.

It was excellent advice, unfortunately, Calliope’s intoxicated mind was not able to apply it to what she was actually planning to do. 

“I’m not going to talk to Juliette,” she assured as she shrugged the other girl off and approached the exit.

She didn’t register the cool air as her hand slipped into her pocket in search of some stray silver to pull out but there was nothing there.

Perhaps she was not as prepared as she thought.

Unfortunately, this did nothing to dampen her determination as it should have.

Thankfully, it was relatively early so there was only one other person outside, though this made it even easier for her target to hear her coming.

Allegra turned with an eyebrow raised and did that truly infuriating thing where she looked her up and down. She was probably wondering what Juliette saw in her, which further hardened Cal’s resolve.

“Calliope,” Allegra said shortly, “Do you need something?”

“I need to know what your plans for Juliette are,” Cal retorted, her eyebrows pinching as every other word came out slurred.

Allegra crossed her arms and replied, bitingly, “Juliette is not some damsel who needs you to save her. She is a Legacy vampire from the Atwood bloodline,” Cal frowned and Allegra laughed derisively, “And you don’t even know what that means? You have no idea how powerful she could be.”

If she were sober, Cal would have pointed out that the Juliette she knew wouldn’t care about any of that, that she wouldn’t have agreed to marry some girl she barely knew for the benefit of traditions that she didn’t seem to care about at the time.

In her current state, she went with a different tactic, the one that she’d been taught to take for her whole life.

In lieu of a stake or piece of silver, she went for her fist, definitely not a Guild-approved option. She wasn’t thinking about the Guild though, especially not as a hand closed around her fist.

Pain exploded in her hand and then up her arm as it was twisted behind her back. She hissed as she was thrown hard to the ground, distantly aware of a rock scraping against her cheek. 

She swiftly flipped over, blinking stars from her eyes.

No longer containing any mirth in her voice, Allegra asked, “What part of ‘vampire’ do you not understand, Calliope?”

Cal made to stand as she registered that the moon was glinting off two extra teeth as the other teen stalked towards her.

She had no idea how she would go about defending herself in this situation, but she felt as though she should at least be standing.

A blob appeared in her blurred field of vision though, so she stayed down.

“Stay away from her!” a male voice growled and Cal took in a sharp breath.

It was the brother she hadn’t seen in what felt like forever.

Unsettling, he sounded exactly the same until a gasp of pain emitted from him and Cal jumped up to find Allegra gripping Theo’s forearm at an unnatural angle.

“Allegra!”

The shouting stopped Cal from attempting to figure out what benefit she could serve by putting herself between two vampires, particularly when one was obviously so much stronger than the other.

“Let him go, now!” Juliette demanded and the Legacy easily threw the fledgling backwards with enough force that he landed on his back.

Theo gasped again but sprung up into a sitting position, baring his fangs angrily.

It was the kind of rage that Cal had never seen before in Theo, he was always the one with the most control. The one destined to advance more quickly in the Guild than even their parents ever did.

The fangs he was baring at Allegra were proof that wasn’t possible and had Cal involuntarily step backwards.

Juliette, on the other hand, dropped the two jackets and fell to her knees in front of him to palace a hand onto his chest.

Over her shoulder, she asked, “What happened?”

Allegra rubbed her hands together and spat, “I was defending myself against your crazy ex! Then your little pet decided that he was allowed to touch me!”

Juliette gave Allegra a look that almost gave Calliope hope. 

Juliette Fairmont, the great and powerful Legacy of the Atwood bloodline, was disgusted by the Davenport’s words.

Another hiss from beneath her had Juliette return her attention to the young man who must have come out in search of a glimpse of his family. 

He struggled but the petite vampire effortlessly kept him down with one hand.

“Theo,” she said softly, “Calm down, take deep breaths.”

The former hunter did as instructed, eventually laying back as his fangs disappeared with a sigh.

“Sorry,” he mumbled and Juliette patted his chest reassuringly.

Cal watched the scene in astonishment.

Were they friends? What motive would a monster have for helping its victim?

Allegra’s words had her refocus, however.

“You know, Juliette, I thought you’d take my side, we are getting married!”

Spite bolstered by seeing glimpses of the Juliette she knew had Cal retort, “You do realise it’s an arranged marriage, right?”

Allegra huffed and made to launch forward, but Juliette shot to her feet and held out her hand. Allegra halted, sneering until Juliette turned to her ex-girlfriend and her face softened. 

“Cal stop it!” she shouted, “Don’t you have monsters that you can actually kill that you could be hunting?”

Cal swallowed hard, her eyes drifting to her brother, instinctively hoping that he would defend her.

What reason had she given him to do that though?

She found only sympathy exuding from him, but no sign that he was going to attack a Legacy for her again.

“Please, just leave us alone,” Juliette added, resignedly.

Cal bit the inside of her cheek as if it would do anything for the tears that sprang to her eyes. 

If Allegra’s smirk was anything to go by, they were at least a little visible.

This was all the motivation she needed to flee as her ex-girlfriend helped her vampiric brother to his feet.

Chapter Text

Chapter seven

If the debacle outside Zac’s party had happened before their discussion in the pantry, Juliette may have felt the need to apologise to her fiance.

As they’d discussed her feelings aloud, Juliette was able to give into her irritation and feel pissed, resulting in silence for the entirety of the drive back to Allegra’s house.

After sending Theo on his way and promising to call him later, the vampiric couple seemed to agree that they would still go through with their plans for the evening.

This was how Juliette found herself sitting on Allegra’s bed after only breaking her silence to genially greet her parents.

There was no need for them to know that there was even a hint of strife between the young couple.

At last, Allegra finished searching out the remote and joined Juliette on the bed while navigating to The Vampire Diaries. 

Juliette took it before she could press play.

She may not know much about being married, but she’d gathered that leaving things to fester was terrible for longevity.

Allegra sighed deeply and glanced at the ceiling the moment that the remote was removed from her grip, but did eventually return her gaze to her fiance and said tiredly, “Do we really have to talk about what happened, Juliette? You did the right thing, so what is there to discuss?”

Juliette shook her head, unable to think of circumstances that would make it all okay.

“You didn’t do the right thing,” Juliette insisted and pulled her legs together so that they were crossed, the position giving Allegra a better view of the conviction in her gaze.

Allegra dragged her hand across her face and then mirrored the position.

“Look, I think I took your feelings for Calliope rather well, but you defending her when she attacked me out of nowhere is too far…”

“I’m not defending what she did,” Juliette said to cut the other teen off. There was no rational explanation for what Cal did, but overthinking that would only lead her down a rabbit hole that she couldn’t afford to fall into right now, “Cal never should have confronted you and she definitely shouldn’t have tried to attack you. But, Allegra, you know that Cal is human. She couldn’t have done anything to actually hurt you so you didn’t have to defend yourself like…well like a vampire.”

Allegra rolled her eyes but Juliette couldn’t feel bad, not when she could clearly visualise every tear gathering in Cal’s eyes.

It had to be because being thrown to the ground was painful, right?

“She is a hunter, what if she had silver or a stake? What did you expect me to do, just let her hurt me?”

“You said it yourself, Allegra, Calliope is…fragile. She can’t heal from her injuries like we can. We will always have an unfair advantage,” Juliette replied, more articulately than she would have been in the past.

“She attacked me,” Allegra reiterated, gesturing wildly as if it would somehow punctuate her frustration. 

“With her fist, it probably wouldn’t even have hurt,” Juliette argued, “If you’re going to live in Savannah. You can’t be that violent with any human. We have to fit in as much as we can.”

“So this isn’t just because the human happened to be your crazy ex-girlfriend?” Allegra prodded.

Juliette worked very hard not to ask her to stop saying ‘crazy’ when it came to Cal, but it would hardly help her case because it really wasn’t just about Cal.

She wasn’t sure that she could handle having another Elinor in her life.

“This isn’t about the relationship we had. The fact that Cal is a hunter means that you should be more careful! I’m sure that your uncle told you what happened the last time the Guild and Legacies crossed paths?”

Allegra thinned her lips but deflated and said, “I don’t understand your sympathy for humans, but if it’s important to you…I suppose I can try.”

Juliette wasn’t completely convinced.

Just as a few interactions with Cal were not enough to overwrite years of Guild indoctrination, she doubted that she could easily wipe away every prejudice that her fiance harboured.

There was one that she needed to be absolutely clear about, however.

“And Theo is not my ‘pet’, he’s my friend,” she said firmly.

Allegra raised a sceptical eyebrow but this did nothing for the belief that Juliette wore so openly.

“You can’t be serious?” she sighed.

“I am,” Juliette replied.

“It’s just a word, why does it matter?”

“Because you wouldn’t call my dad that, would you?”

She hadn’t intended for this to come up so soon but why not just keep things going while she was on a roll?

How could she expect Allegra to change the things that bothered her if she kept quiet about it? Hadn’t they already discussed that she deserved better?

The reasoning did soften Allegra ever so slightly and she hesitated before placing a hand on Juliette’s knee.

“I won’t call Theo that again, I promise but I need you to do something for me,” Allegra replied.

“Okay,” Juliette said cautiously.

“Talk to Calliope, find out why she won’t leave us alone. Make sure she won’t come back with a stake?” Allegra asked.

It was reasonable.

They may be able to heal from anything but Juliette knew better than most that the feeling was not pleasant.

All the same, the thought of approaching Cal shot anxiety through the vampire despite the uncharacteristic confidence that got her through this conversation. 

It was too reasonable to deny, especially after claiming that this was not about lingering feelings.

Perhaps confronting Cal directly would help with said feelings?

“Sure,” Juliette replied, going for a smile as she took her hand, “I am sorry that she attacked you, Allegra.”

The other vampire inclined her head and pulled Juliette into her side as she plucked up the remote again.

The Vampire Diaries would be the perfect distraction from what felt like the beginnings of their first fight. 

S

Cal could no longer deny it, she was jealous!

The gentle encouragement of her brother was the last straw. How easy would it have been for Juliette to turn Theo and then leave him to his own devices?

Even while under the impression that she would never see Calliope again, Juliette clearly had not done that.

It was no longer possible to pretend that the vampire had hurt her intentionally, but was it too late to mend the fractures she’d created?

She stubbornly grasped onto the hatred that she’d grown up with for too long and now…well now she didn’t know.

Juliette was getting married for the benefit of her family, what could Cal offer her to convince her not to do that?

As deep as her feelings ran with the barriers down, it wasn’t like she wanted to get married at her age or that a Fairmont marrying a Burns would help anyone.

How could she live knowing that Juliette was with someone else?

Without a plan of how to move forward, Calliope did something she vowed she never would. She sat on her bed, swaddled in a blanket and sniffled over a girl.

Her phone was cradled in her hands and she considered pressing the contact that had been off-limits.

It was her fault that she couldn’t just fall asleep and see her. It was the only time in recent memory that Juliette had shown her genuine feelings.

It was the only time that there were no outside influences, it would have been the perfect place to break down and tell Juliette that her blood boiled every time Allegra touched her.

How each socially accepted kiss was like a dagger to her heart.

Cal threw the phone away and clutched at her forehead as tears flowed freely down her cheeks.

Heartbreak was so much worse when she could see all of the opportunities that she’d had to avoid it. How it wasn’t so far out of the realms of possibility that Juliette could have been laying next to her right now.

A tap at the window had her discard her self-pitying cocoon and go over to it in record time.

She didn’t have to stop to think about it because her mind instantly conjured memories of Juliette perching on a tree branch wearing a shy smile.

Even with their connection severed, the vampire must know how upset the events at the party had made her.

She’d seen the jealousy clearly on her face when she had sided with Allegra and she was here to talk about it.

Cal paused to wipe at her cheeks and then flung the window open, the lump in her throat sinking upon registering a different vampire on the tree.

“Theo,” she rasped.

Theseus Burns looked his sister up and down, landing on the gash on her cheek she’d barely registered in her sorrow.

“You’re bleeding,” he announced, “didn’t anyone notice?”

Cal swallowed hard and stepped back, not objecting to her brother hopping into her room.

“I kind of…snuck in,” she said, her fingers ghosting over the laceration, hissing before she could claim to be fine.

“I can clean it,” Theo offered.

“I…er…” Cal said, suddenly aware of the fresh blood.

She had experience with hungry vampires around wounds.

Theo smiled good-naturedly and patted his stomach, “Don’t worry, Callie, I’m full.”

“Callie?” Cal repeated with a raised eyebrow.

He shrugged and replied, “Just trying something, Cal, still don’t like it?”

The hunter shook her head, scrunching up her nose, “It doesn’t feel right.”

“Okay,” Theo sighed, gesturing over to the bed.

His little sister went back to it as he grabbed the first aid kit situated in every room of the house.

Cal hissed again as a cotton swab soaked in disinfectant was dabbed onto the cut.

“Sorry,” Theo said with his teeth clenched together but didn’t let up, knowing it was better to get this over and done with quickly.

He tapped a sanitary covering over the top of the cut and asked, “How’s that?”

Cal shrugged and replied, “It’s fine, thank you.”

Theo nodded, reassembling the kit as the siblings descended into silence and he fiddled with it until Cal asked, “No offence, Theo, but…why are you here?”

“I wanted to make sure my little sister is okay. Some things never change, you know?”

Cal chewed at her lip, attempting to hold onto her conviction in some last-ditch effort to not have to deal with her feelings for Juliette Fairmont.

“Why wouldn’t I be okay?” she replied, though the statement was not helped by the wetness on her cheeks.

“Because the girl you love is getting married soon,” Theo replied matter-of-factly.

Cal sucked in a breath and involuntarily started playing with her fingers, not lending any credence to attempts to deny his words, so she went another direction, admitting her final doubt:

“How can I love Juliette after what she did to you?” Cal whispered.

“What did she do to me?” Theo retorted, “she thought that she was giving me the merciful death that I asked her for, she saved Apollo from having to live thinking that he’d killed me. She gave me another chance to find my mother’s killer and has been helping me with it more than the Guild ever would. She’s getting married to prevent a potential Legacy conflict in Savannah. Who knows how many people that will help?”

Cal almost drew blood with the intensity that she was biting her lip before she said, hollowly, “She seems to really care about Allegra.”

“But she loves you,” Theo insisted, “She needs to know that you still feel the same way.”

“How…do…I…” Cal trailed off, letting out a deep breath as her brother circled her in a one-armed hug.

She didn’t know that it was exactly what she needed until right now, obviously in lieu of Juliette showing up to announce that she’d called off the wedding.

“The two of you were never friends before…everything went down. Maybe try that? Really get to know each other and see what happens?”

“But…what if she gets married?” Cal asked, feeling as though weeks of vulnerability were about to burst out of her.

“Then she’ll be married…but what’s the alternative Cal? I’ve never known you to give up on anything?” Theo said.

Cal breathed in deeply and sat up straighter, more determined with a smile tugging at her lips.

“Thanks for checking on me, Theo,” she said, falling back into the brotherly hug.

“Anytime,” the fledgling vampire replied, squeezing her shoulder.

Chapter Text

Chapter 8

Calliope had fought some pretty grisly things in her life. Had spent so many hours helping the Guild to protect so many people.

Her current mission was more terrifying than anything she’d faced in recent memory.

How was she supposed to just be friends with Juliette Fairmont?

Didn’t friends help each other with wedding planning? Would a friend aim a punch at a friend’s fiance’s face?

One thing that did occur to her was to tell Juliette about the ‘Atwood’ and ‘power’ comments. A friend would absolutely warn her that her future wife clearly had a specific reason for agreeing to get married, but that thought was promptly discarded.

Juliette clearly did not feel real love for the teen that she'd met just over a month ago. She wasn’t some damsel as Allegra pointed out, if she was determined to do this for her family then Cal had to try being supportive if she didn’t want to lose all rights to talk to her ex-girlfriend. 

Besides, six months was plenty of time for things to change and if she wanted to be around for that, she had to do something now. 

This led to the Monday after the party, with remnants of her uncharacteristic hangover still plaguing her. 

English and physics were not the places for sweeping apologies, especially not with everything that they had to go over. How was she possibly going to make up for the awful things that she had said to the vampire who was only doing her best to help her family?

It certainly helped that she knew for a fact that Juliette had a rare free period away from her fiance, there wouldn’t be any other time in the day to do this which somehow hardened Cal’s resolve. 

She couldn’t go home and continue agonising over what she was going to say to Juliette because there was no doubt in her mind that this had to happen.

This led her to the library where she had an inkling that she would find the person that she had to talk to.

Lancaster Academy’s library.

Calliope halted and pulled at the straps of her backpack as she zeroed in on one of the tables tucked in between two bookshelves.

It was still odd to see not even a splash of colour in the vampire’s clothes, as good as she looked in a hoodie and skinny jeans, Cal missed the brightness. This extended to the slight downturn of her mouth as she typed at her computer, maybe it was unfair to expect to see one of her goofy smiles while she was presumably writing an essay.

With these thoughts held in her mind, Calliope drifted across the library and towards her ex-girlfriend, holding her breath for the entire short trip she was sure to not allow herself to give up on this essential endeavour.

Juliette looked up from her work way before any other human student would have, so Cal felt her cheeks burn as those eyes met her own.

It was the blue that she was unable to forget no matter how hard she tried, but the momentary softness in them gave her the last push that she needed to get over to the table and take a seat opposite the other girl as if it were normal for them. 

Juliette continued to regard her silently, but before her face could harden, she noticed the bandage on her cheek. 

Seemingly without conscious thought, she made to reach across the table to touch the affected area but her fingers just came short and she instead pretended that she was closing her laptop lid while Cal tried to catch her breath.

Now that she knew she didn’t hate her, she wanted nothing more than for her to touch her cheek, but that wasn’t the point of her current mission. 

Juliette’s fingers tapped against the top of her laptop before she dragged her eyes up and asked, “`Did Allegra do that?”

Cal wrung her fingers together and forced them below the table so that she wouldn’t be tempted to take Juliette’s fidgeting hand into her own and replied, “It’s fine, Jules, Allegra was just defending herself. I shouldn’t have gone after her…I was looking for you so that I could…apologise to you...”

Juliette’s face pinched in confusion the moment that ‘Jules’ left Cal’s mouth but didn’t comment on it. 

“No, you shouldn’t have,” Juliette agreed, “But she didn’t need to push you down, I told her…that she shouldn’t do anything like that again…to any human in Savannah…”

“You talked to her about it?” Cal asked, trying not to sit forward eagerly. They may be talking about Allegra, but they were holding an actual conversation without mentioning murder! It caused some kind of excited and nervous bubbles to rise in Cal’s stomach.

Juliette inclined her head and replied, “She promised to be more respectful of humans, but she wanted me to ask you something…”

Cal swallowed hard but nodded to encourage her. This was better than anything that she could have imagined. She’d been seeing scenes of stilted sentences that they would have to barrel through to get to the place that she wanted to be, but the fact that Juliette so obviously still cared about her made it so much easier than their previous interactions warranted. 

How was it that she’d never taken the chance to tell her that she loved her? She couldn’t do that now, as much as she was tempted to allow the words to fall from her mouth. There was just too much that they would need to sort through before she could justify thinking that there was any way that she would deserve for Juliette to potentially choose her over her fiance. 

“What did she want you to ask?” 

Juliette glanced around, seemingly remembering that they were not actually in a private place, but they were fortunately nowhere near any other student who could have heard them discussing ‘humans’. 

“She…wants to know why you won’t….why you seem to care so much…about us getting married?” Juliette stammered through and Cal had to wonder when it was that she was planning to follow through on her promise to ask her. She so obviously wasn’t ready for this, that had to mean something, right?

How was it that she didn’t know the answer to her question?

It may have taken wading through a significant amount of denial for Cal to realise why it was that she had been acting so obsessively, but she couldn’t see how it was possible that Juliette wasn’t aware of the reason. Theo seemed to think that she wasn’t nearly as subtle as she should have been. 

Blurting out that she loved her perhaps wasn’t the gateway into friendship, however, so Cal went with part of the truth instead, “I was angry with you for so long that I didn’t realise that…I couldn’t stop caring about you, Juliette. It’s why I couldn’t just leave you alone as you asked. I really am sorry for the way I’ve been acting.”

Juliette spent a few seconds processing this, her hand ghosting over her laptop as if she longed to pull it open to set up a barrier between them.

“What…changed your mind?” Juliette asked.

“You were there for Theo more than our own dad, you’re a good person and I should have seen that. Thank you for looking after him, Jules,” Cal replied, her voice rising in confidence. Who knew that apologising would feel so good?

“You don’t need to thank me,” Juliette sighed, though it had a tired edge to it as if it was what she had been waiting to hear. “I’ll always be there for him, you don’t have to worry…”

“I’m not…not anymore,” Cal assured and the pair shared a smile before Juliette cleared her throat and looked downwards.

“I…I have to get married, Cal, nothing will change that,” she mumbled and Cal made a snap decision, mostly because she couldn’t resist anymore, she put her hand on top of Juliette’s.

“I know,” she said as Juliette gasped quietly but did nothing to remove her hand, “But I was thinking…maybe we could be…friends? Hating you is exhausting. I don’t want to do it anymore.”

Juliette used her free hand to tug at her hair and her mask completely fell away as she stared straight into her ex-girlfriend’s eyes, finding none of the piercing hate from that night. 

Finally, she freed her hand and replied, “Friends would be nice, but…I need to make sure that Allegra would be comfortable with it first.”

Cal pressed her lips together to form a thin line, shielding her mouth from spewing any arguments as to how that wasn’t fair.

It wouldn’t befit a member of the Guild to point out that she had known her longer. 

“Of course,” she replied, “Could you tell her that I’m sorry as well?”

“I will,” Juliette promised and Cal reluctantly slipped away.

Despite the mention of the other vampire, she was still revelling in the aura that came with being in Juliette Fairmont’s presence. 

S

Allegra Davenport was told that home-schooling was for the best and that there was no one in the local middle school who could ever be equal to her.

She was told that being a Legacy made her special even among vampires, but she didn’t quite understand that yet.

At the tender age of eleven, she was a couple of years away from being expected to carry out her first kill, though she did already know the blood type that tasted the best.

Outside of that, the only exposure to vampirism she’d had thus far was that she had to start most days learning all about their history and customs before moving onto the human school work that would keep any child protective services away from the sprawling Davenport estate.

If she really knew anyone outside of her family, she certainly would have complained by now, but as it was, she’d never known any better.

The stories of the badass clans she was subjected to each day were enough incentive to keep studying.

After her first kill, she would get the chance to be just like them, and would get the chance to make her family proud, what more could she want?

Despite all of these rationalisations as to how she was content with her lonely, studious existence, she opted that day to climb out of the window to carry her books towards the forest line that framed her family’s estate.

The light breeze always gave her the energy to keep reading, though she did have to go a little further each day to get the same effect.

She was a while away from escaping completely to go into town and explore. It wouldn’t be until she grew close to her first non-Davenport sanctioned friend, that she knew that she would be meeting that person today.

She was too preoccupied with alternating between learning about the revered Emerald Malikia and the Second World War to notice an unusual rustling.

Since she started venturing further into the woods, she’d grown increasingly used to the strange sounds of nature that were slowly becoming amplified by her ever-sharpening senses.

Allegra still wasn’t used to deciphering these sounds, however, so the pre-teen didn’t react until she also heard a gasp and looked up as a young girl emerged from the foliage. 

It was the glowing yellow eyes that had Allegra push the books down and shoot to her feet, baring her small fangs.

The girl stumbled back and was caught by the tree at her back, startled into forcing her eyes back to a hazel brown. 

This allowed Allegra to discern that she was a girl around her age, that she was one of the few pre-teens around who had pimple-free, bronze skin.

If she hadn’t already seen the yellow eyes framed by the messy mop of light brown hair, she would have been at least suspicious about her human status. 

Even with her limited experience with non-vampires, she was sure that there was something special about her.

Keeping her fangs out, she demanded, “What are you doing here?”

The girl recovered, oddly unaffected by the fangs as she took deep breaths and said, “I was running, what are you doing?”

Allegra indicated the books and replied, “I was reading.”

“In the woods??”

Allegra nodded and the girl laughed, pulling out of her defensive demeanour.

“Studying in the woods and I’m the weird one?” she asked.

The vampire huffed and dropped back down to the stack of books, gathering her pens and highlighters back together.

“I have too much to do, I don’t have time for distractions!”

“You know that you Davenports don't own the woods, right?”

Allegra dropped her pen, “How did you know that I’m…”

The girl tapped her teeth and said, “You should probably hide the fangs if you don’t want people to know.”

Allegra’s eyes widened and she swiftly sheathed them, she hadn’t realised that they were on display.

“Well…you should be more careful with your eyes if you don’t want people to know that you’re a werewolf,” Allegra shot back petulantly, “You’re a Ramon, right?”

This seemed to cheer her up as she stepped forward, “Did your parents tell you to stay away from my pack?”

“No,” Allegra replied, “They think that I’m studying in my room.”

That laugh came again as she inspected the books, “So your great rebellion is to study out of bounds?”

Allegra shrugged, feeling a kind of embarrassment that had never gripped her before, it forced her to finish grabbing her things.

“I should really get back before they realise I’m gone.”

The girl hummed in a cocky kind of way that should have been annoying but Allegra was instead acutely aware of the heat on her cheeks.

“Is there any chance that you’ll be here tomorrow?” the girl called and Allegra paused on an outcropping branch.

There was something so alluring about the invitation, did this girl actually want to spend time with her?

She would need to analyse every second of the interaction before committing to anything, however, so she replied, “I might.”

Allegra’s breath quickened at the girl’s clear disappointment, so she had to prolong this a little longer, “I could be convinced if you tell me your name.”

“Hayley,” she replied without hesitation.

The vampire hugged her books and said, “Allegra,” before rushing off, looking for some kind of landmark that would lead her back here the next day and the day after that.

“So why can’t Alex sit next to Thomas?”

Allegra blinked as the memory melted, the vivid woods becoming the painfully normal bedroom in Savannah.

Her eleven-year-old self probably wouldn’t have guessed that this was where she would end up in five years.

Sat in the room of an Atwood, planning their wedding, she could perfectly picture how ecstatic her parents would have been back then.

Her cousins were always the more likely to have this opportunity, but Davina’s insistence to respect her granddaughter’s sexual orientation meant that she was able to do something no Davenport had in centuries. 

To have a shot at the Malikia. 

It didn’t hurt that Juliette was ridiculously cute and as committed to this endeavour, so why was she thinking about Hayley? She really thought that playing the role of the perfect and willing fiance would banish these thoughts.

Part of that meant helping with the seating chart, so she cleared her throat and pretended to be making the final touches on her math assignment before slipping from the bed to go over to the desk to peer at the laptop screen,

Organising a group of people with centuries of relations with strife was more difficult than either of them predicted, but failing to invite certain people could be just as fraught.

Frankly, the politics of it all were exhausting, but they were both determined that they could handle it.

Her eyebrows pinched as she scanned the names to try and remember who Thomas was.

“I think he slept with Alex’s wife.”

“Oh,” Juliette sighed, tapping at the trackpad in irritation, “And why does he need to come?”

“He’s my dad’s friend.”

“But he can’t sit at the top table with your dad and you said Alex has to sit with your aunt?”

“Yes,” Allegra replied thoughtfully, not quite remembering her mother’s explanation as to why that was, “How about Thomas sits with your cousins? Do you think they’ll get along?”

“No idea, never met them,” Juliette muttered, but had already started typing ‘Thomas’ beside her oldest cousin.

Allegra scanned over the plan and tilted her head at a new addition.

“Why is Theo next to you?”

Juliette glanced up from the task and replied, “Well…my grandmother won’t let Ben come so…I sort of asked Theo to be my best man.”

Allegra nodded.

She hadn’t seen Theo science the party, but she was sure that she could be civil to the other vampire. 

It did lead her to the empty space beside the second bride. 

“That’s…sweet,” Allegra said, her gaze lingering on the blank cell.

“Have you asked your cousin yet if they would be your Maid of Honour?” Juliette asked, tabbing over to the menu that still required their attention.

Allegra bit her lip, “I was thinking of asking someone else actually.”

Juliette looked up again, intrigued by the hesitation and asked, “Who?”

“I know I said I didn’t have any friends back home but…I did have one…Hayley Ramon…”

“You should definitely ask her then,” Juliette said brightly.

“There’s just one thing…my parents won’t let her stay with us…do you think she could stay here?” Allegra ventured, hoping that Juliette’s non-vampire compassion extended to those outside the human race.

“Why wouldn’t they?” Juliette asked curiously.

“Hayley…she’s a werewolf.”

Juliette’s mouth formed an ‘o’. There may not be werewolves in Savannah anymore but she had to understand the prejudice.

“My grandmother would probably object but I’m sure my parents will agree if I ask,” Juliette replied, about to type ‘Hayley’ into the seating plan but Allegra blocked her hand.

“I haven’t spoken to her in a while…I need to call her first.”

“Okay,” Juliette agreed as she set about undertaking one of the other tasks on their many to-do lists but thoughts of Hayley reminded Allegra of the conversation she’d asked her fiance to have with her ex.

“Did you speak to Calliope today?”

Juliette leaned back in her seat, abandoning instantly whatever she was typing, “She found me to apologise…to both of us. She asked if we could be friends…what do you think?”

Allegra raised an eyebrow. Before she said ‘Hayley’ aloud she would have responded ‘no’ straight away. Why would they opt to bring a hunter into their lives?

However, she didn’t see how they would get said hunter to stay away in Cal’s lifetime without taking measures that would push Juliette away permanently.

Besides, Juliette being friends with Cal would set up a good precedent.

“You don’t want her to be your Maid of Honour, do you?” Allegra asked, wrinkling her nose.

“Even if I did, do you think my grandmother would let her come?” Juliette shot back.

Allegra sat on the edge of the desk and hummed, “Good point.”

“I get if you’re not comfortable, Allegra, I’ll just tell her it’s not a good idea…”

“Do you want to be friends with her?” Allegra cut her off.

Momentarily stunned, Juliette answered honestly, “It would be nice.”

“Then I trust you,” Allegra replied, drifting back over to her schoolwork, not before pressing an obligatory kiss to Juliette’s mouth.

“Thank you,” Juliette replied, “I can’t wait to meet Hayley.”

“I hope she comes,” Allegra muttered and as Juliette began to frown, she added, “How are you with Algebra?”

Juliette closed her laptop, approaching the bed to drop down on the other side of the workbook she had yet to open her own copy of.

“I can definitely try,” she said. 

Chapter Text

Chapter nine

Cal wasn’t sure what she expected the day after her conversation with Juliette. How quickly could she expect her ex-girlfriend to discuss them becoming friends with her fiance?

As disappointing as it was for ‘Allegra’ to follow the question that she had been so nervous to ask, it was the correct, mature answer.

Even without what happened at the party, the fact remained that she was a hunter alongside Juliette’s ex, how could she blame Allegra if she was a little reluctant to allow her into the life that they were planning to have together?

She’d spent much of the last night agonising over all of this while the family members she still lived with the thought that she was completing her daily training routine.

At school, there was less to outwardly occupy herself with as she made her way down the hallway.

Just like every other day, she spotted Juliette with Allegra while she removed some books.

Cal was tempted to go up to the couple and directly ask for an answer to her question. She needed to know so that she could begin planning ways to make sure that it wasn’t an empty request.

How many couples promised to remain friends and then failed to so much as be in the same room?

Now very aware that she’d been missing Juliette more than she’d been willing to admit, Ca was desperate to know whether that feeling would continue for the rest of her life.

Ultimately, she just grabbed the books that she needed and turned away from them.

Friends weren’t that pushy, right?

The possibility of friendship was not serious enough to pounce on Juliette the moment she laid eyes on her or to interrupt whatever cute moment the wives-to-be were currently having for the entire school to see.

She would need to work up to being friendly in the presence of both of them anyway.

What was an easier decision was when it came to lunchtime and she found Phillipa waving at her from one of the many tables.

She would have been suspicious of the popular girl during her first stint in Savannah.

This time around, she got a different read on the girl.

There was nothing like losing your boyfriend at such a tender age to remove any air of vapidness. Though it did perhaps have something to do with the reluctance of the other students to attempt conversations with her.

Cal had definitely noticed soft, sympathetic looks but Cal had no problem with the odd dour moment. Besides, the cheerleader was putting much of her mental energy into her new friend’s love life. 

It was reassuring to be around someone who so firmly believed that they belonged together, even if she had no idea about what it was that had made their relationship so fraught.

It was for this reason that she went over to Phillipa without once thinking that she would prefer to eat alone as she normally would have.

That wasn’t strictly true anymore, it would only give her more time to stew over how complicated everything had gotten.

“Hey,” Phillipa said and Cal inclined her head in response.

She had avoided all human interaction after the library the day before so only just remembered that there was something she had neglected to express in their short morning discussion.

“I forgot to say yesterday…thank you for what you did at Zac’s party,” she said after biting into her sandwich.

“What’s there to thank me for?” Phillipa sighed, “It didn’t work.”

Cal shrugged, struck by the real sadness in her voice.

Did this have something to do with a desire for a tragic love story to somehow end happily?

Psycholanalysing didn’t feel like something friends did to each other, so Cal didn’t mention the theory that instantly popped into her head,

Instead, she chewed another bite and reassured, “Don’t worry, Phillipa, it was a good try.”

Phillipa pouted for a moment longer before perking up and asking conspiratorially, “So what are we going to do next?”

“About what?”

“About Calliette,” Phillipa replied as if it should be obvious.

“What’s Calliette?” Cal said, dropping her sandwich so as to give full attention to the answer.

“Your relationship name, you know…Calliope and Juliette…Calliette!” Cal continued to stare back in confusion, so Phillipa added, “Like Bella and Edward were Bedward in  Twilight ?”

“Never watched it,” Cal shrugged and a scandalised look overcame her friend, “My parents wouldn’t let me watch it, they disagree with…the premise.”

“Okay, moving past how weird  that  is,” Phillipa said, rather dramatically, “What is the Calliette plan?”

Poking at her sandwich with no real intention of picking it up, Cal replied, “There is no…Calliette. I asked her if we could be friends, she said that she has to check with Allegra is okay with that first.”

“So she actually spoke to you?” Phillipa practically squealed, grabbing at her forearm in excitement.

“I feel like you’re missing the point here,” Cal pointed out, officially giving up on her lunch. Phillipa had successfully reminded her of her nerves around the whole situation.

Her new friend unwittingly made it worse by asking, “Do you have any idea why Juliette would agree to get married so young?”

Cal bit her tongue.

She wanted to say that it was an arranged marriage to fortify the relationship between vampire clans and to protect Savannah from any potential conflicts. 

That was easier to swallow than what she had to say. The pair had done a good job of making people at school believe it with all of the PDA anyway

“I…guess they’re in love,” Cal said, her stomach turning in a way that had to mean that it was unlikely that she would be finishing her lunch today.

Phillipa appeared unconvinced by the assertion and Cal very nearly asked her what she thought was going on. She’d gone from claiming that Juliette and Allegra were romantic to being all in on getting the exes together. 

Before she could figure out how to word her question, Phillipa’s face engulfed in excitement and she was raising her hand, not giving Cal a chance to stop her.

“Hey Jules,” Phillipa called across the cafeteria. 

Cal cringed but had to look over.

Mercifully, the vampire was uncharacteristically fiance-less, so Cal managed to smile at her.

Juliette visibly froze but apparently remembered where she was and came over to the table with a tray piled with just enough food for people to believe that she actually needed to eat.

“Hey Phillipa,” Juliette said, shooting her own smile at Cal, which caused hope to sparkle in her throat.

“No Allegra today?” Phillipa ploughed ahead.

“She has a make-up test, I guess her parents missed out on some stuff while they were homeschooling her.”

“Do you want to sit with us then?” Phillipa asked, indicating the seat next to Cal in palpable excitement.

Juliette drew her eyebrows together and looked at her ex-girlfriend questioningly.

It went against everything that Cal wanted but she jumped in and said, “You don’t have to if Allegra isn’t…”

Juliette cleared her throat and Cal’s heart soared as she slid the tray onto the table and slipped onto the seat at her side, much to Phillipa’s elation.

“No it’s fine, Allegra said she trusts us to be friends…if you still want to?” Juliette asked with her patent awkwardness that Cal had missed.

She admired it for a second too long until concern overcame Juliette and Phillipa shot her an urgent look.

Picking up the sandwich as if it would shield her from her impending embarrassment.

“Definitely…want to be friends,” she replied, Phillipa continuing to look at her in disappointment, no doubt because of her sudden inarticulateness.

Juliette plucked up her fork, seemingly inspecting what she had ordered and silence fell over the table until Phillipa piped up, “So, Jules, how did you and Allegra meet?”

“I…er…” Juliette said.

“You don’t have to answer that,” Cal interjected, looking warningly at her.

Juliette frowned, glancing between them, “Are you two…friends?”

Cal took in a deep breath and said, “We are.”

Juliette's face twisted doubtfully and Phillipa added, “Calliope is very friendly.”

S

With the seating plan up on her laptop screen, Allegra passed her phone from hand to hand. It had been a full twenty-four hours since she and Juliette had discussed arranging a maid-of-honour. 

She had yet to so much as shoot off a text to the friend that she hadn’t talked to since the night she left for Savannah, what would she say to her?

The memories of Hayley Ramon that were coming to her with increasing frequency since their discussion were a sign that she would have to do something soon. Whether she was thinking about all of the times that she left the Davenport estate to go to the movie theatre, to hang out literally anywhere else, or the particularly good night where she got the chance to go to a homecoming dance, she was distracted. Frankly, it would be a miracle if she passed her latest catch-up test since she had spent much of the time mentally drafting the perfect text message to her oldest friend. 

During her time in Savannah thus far, she had been preoccupied with learning to fit in, to make it convincing that she was Juliette were desperately in love so that no one would question why it was that why a couple who was so young would think about getting married. 

No one seemed to question it anymore, at least not to their faces, which gave her the space to think about the past that she had been trying to ignore to keep up her facade.

If Cal and Juliette could be friends, though, she saw no reason that she shouldn’t at least be allowed to ask her closest friend to attend her wedding. There was also the fact that it would be nice to have someone from her old life in Savannah in the lead-up to the ceremony.

It was one of the few areas of her life whereby she wasn’t overly worried about what her parents would think, they didn’t even really know about Hayley. All they knew was that their previously reclusive daughter had one friend that they never asked to be introduced to.

As long as the Fairmonts agreed that she could stay at their estate, there was no need for any drama.

There was one essential step that she needed to complete before that though.

What was the point of worrying about her parents finding out that she was friends with a werewolf if she didn’t agree to come? She would almost understand if she refused after the way that they left things, but now that she had brought it up, she had to try. 

The vampire stared a moment longer at the empty space on the seating plan, picturing what it would be like to have one of the cousins that she barely knew beside her for the entirety of the meal.

They had yet to decide which of the wedding party would be making a speech but she didn’t want it to come from a person that she saw a few times a year at the most.

It was this thought that finally propelled her into action. She unlocked her phone and navigated to the contacts.

For a few seconds, she contemplated some of the text messages that she had written in her head, but decided that none of them would suffice. 

There was only one course of action: she pressed the option to call her. 

It rang for a few excruciating ringtones and she held her breath until the sound made way to a brief crackle and then a pause.

“Hello?”

Allegra sat up straight, almost forgetting how to speak. She really didn’t think that she would answer, the speech that she had set up only worked as a voicemail.

“Allegra?” Hayley asked, “Did you call me by accident?”

Allegra cleared her throat and replied, “It wasn’t an accident…I wanted to ask you something.”

There was silence again, during which Allegra was sure that she was about to be hung up on, but Hayley thankfully replied, “What did you want to ask?”

“I…How are you?”

“You waited a month to ask me that?” Hayley retorted. 

Allegra winced and looked to the ceiling as if it would give her the answers that she needed as if the paint would tell her the perfect sequence of words to express the extent to which she had missed their friendship. 

She came up short, however, though she wasn’t as grateful this time as Hayley moved the conversation forward:

“Are you still getting married?”

Allegra swallowed hard and replied, “I have to…but that’s why I called actually. I need a maid of honour, it would mean a lot to me if you could be there with me.”

“You want me to watch you get married?”

Allegra ran her hand over her face and stood so that she could pace off a sudden influx of energy, why hadn’t she spent time thinking about how this conversation would go?!

“It would really mean a lot,” Allegra said again.

The silence was longer this time until Hayley finally replied, reluctantly, “I’ll ask my parents if I can come to Savannah.”

Allegra perked up and approached her bed so that she could drop onto it, suddenly feeling rather tired with the release of all of her pent-up nerves.

“Thank you,” she sighed. 

“So…” Hayley replied, and Allegra felt a certain excitement that she didn’t instantly end the conversation, “What’s it like being all vampy in a real school?”

“It’s not as bad as I thought it would be…Juliette has been teaching me how to blend in.”

“...What’s she like?”

The question caught Allegra off-guard, but she didn’t have to scramble long to think of a response, “She’s really nice, you would like her.”

“That’s…good,” Hayley sighed. 

Allegra gripped her phone, looking to the ceiling again before she thought of a way to prolong the call, “So what’s going on back there?”

“You know, same as always…”

Chapter Text

Chapter ten

A month passed during which nothing particularly eventful happened in the town of Savannah.

Cal and Juliette were officially friends, but this only seemed to pertain to their time at school.

The majority of their conversations were academic or about the drama club that Cal inexplicably became a member of weeks after her lunch with Jules and Phillipa.

The Burns family were apparently staying long-term which meant searching for extra credit to achieve graduation. Juliette wasn’t quite sure what to do with the fact that Cal could stay so long, she couldn’t think beyond the wedding.

Besides, their interactions only happened when Allegra was off doing other things (namely one of her endless catch-up tests) and Juliette found that she was satisfied with the tentative arrangement.

Having Calliope no longer hating her was exactly what she needed, but it still didn’t completely feel like enough.

Enough wasn’t an option now that she had other commitments in her life so only seeing her ex-girlfriend at school allowed her to keep everything nice and separate.

At Lancaster Academy, she was able to live without looking over her shoulder and at home (or at Allegra’s house) she could think about wedding planning.

Things were progressing nicely, but five months was long enough that it didn’t feel too real yet.

In a week, things would change with the arrival of Hayley Ramon.

It took some convincing, but her parents, at last, agreed that she could finish out the academic year at Lancaster Academy to effectively fulfil her role as Maid of Honour.

Having a werewolf in her home would undoubtedly change the precarious status quo that had been achieved between the unlikely group of friends, so Juliette was determined to enjoy one more week of the comfortable situation.

That status quo was shattered one day upon arriving at her brother’s house for their weekly research session with Theo and she heard an additional voice in Oliver’s living room as she pushed through the front door.

She froze as Oliver passed armed with two glasses, one filled with clear liquid that was rarely consumed on these premises.

Oliver tilted his head so she had to assume that she was doing a poor job of hiding the way that she felt about hearing that voice outside of school.

“Hey Jules, I’m guessing that you didn’t know that she would be here?”

Juliette swallowed hard and asked, unnecessarily, “Is that Cal?”

“Didn’t I tell you that she started visiting Theo a couple of weeks ago?”

“No, why didn’t you?” Juliette snapped, but it wasn’t enough to garner any real reaction from her brother.

“Why do you care about what your ex-girlfriend does?” Oliver asked, which finally got Juliette to move as she remembered the boxes under her arm. 

They’d been thrust at her as she rushed out of the Fairmont estate after spending an hour listening to Davina explain the many branches of the Legacy clans. It almost made her wish that she had spent her childhood studying it all like Allegra did so that she wouldn’t have to endure it now.

She went to the living room, making sure to talk loud enough for the room's occupants to hear, “Sorry I’m late. Grandmother wanted me to choose these ties.”

Oliver went ahead to place the drinks in front of Cal and Theo, freeing up his hands so that he could accept the box. 

Juliette’s eyes passed over Calliope, who was propping up a worn book on her knee at her brother’s side, looking as good as ever in her sports attire. It took all of her willpower to banish images of she would look after actually taking part in the arduous workout that they were designed for. 

It was also surreal to see her reading about Legacies without any hint of disgust, but she couldn’t grin like an idiot at that. It wasn’t how she would react if it was Ben in this position.

She tampered it down into a welcoming smile that was appropriate for the new incarnation of their relationship as she gave the second box to Theo.

Theo lifted the silk out of the box for his sister to see and frowned, “Deep red? Isn’t that a little on the nose?” he asked.

“You clearly haven’t met Davina,” Oliver replied, shoving his tie away. Juliette was sure that he wanted nothing more than to be disinvited to the wedding, but she wouldn’t allow it.

She figured that she deserved to have at least one sibling at her wedding.

“What do you need a tie for?” Cal asked as Theo carefully placed his away.

“Best man,” Theo replied proudly and Cal’s gaze shot to Juliette between shocked and affectionate. 

“She doesn’t have many vampire friends,” Oliver added, leaving to shove both boxes into a drawer that had to be dedicated to random wedding stuff at this point.

As he left, Juliette scowled at his back, still pissed that he hadn’t warned her to expect friendly hunters, but as she took up the recliner, she managed a smile.

“Sorry Cal, I didn’t know you would be here,” Juliette said as she grabbed a random book.

Theo sank into the couch to allow his sister a clear view of the Legacy as she replied, “Theo mentioned that he was looking for the symbol, I figured I could help if you don’t mind?”

“Of course not,” Juliette said, thumbing through pages about Legacies in Ancient Rome, “It is a lot though,” she indicated the ever-amassing pool of resources that they’d gathered.

“It’s all really interesting,” Cal replied and Theo eyed her because of the uncharacteristic excitement which she corrected for by deflating slightly. 

“If you’re sure,” Juliette said, sharing a questioning look with Theo, who could only shrug.

The new vampire sipped at the red liquid that Oliver provided and Cal didn’t even flinch or watch.

This really wasn’t the first time that she had been here, was it?

The three of them searched in silence until Cal piped up to ask, “Is this true, Juliette?”

Juliette looked up from her own page of irrelevant symbols and replied, “Is what true?”

Cal’s index fingers followed the line on top of her book and Juliette once again tried not to react outwardly to everything that her ex-girlfriend did.

Why didn’t her body react like this to Allegra? It wasn’t like she did anything wrong when compared to Calliope.

“This says that all Legacies are descended from Lilith?”

“Oh yeah, that’s true,” Juliette replied. 

“Does that mean that…”

“I’m not related to Allegra,” Juliette cut her off, “We probably share a common ancestor if you want to be literal about it.”

“Oh,” Cal sighed as Theo snorted into his drink.

The hunter sat up as if realising that wasn’t an appropriate reaction and Juliette frowned at her.

She distracted her with a follow-up question, “So, is this what makes Legacies so…special?”

Juliette shifted in the recliner and replied, unsurely, “I…it’s kind of a long story. I’m sure that you don’t want to hear all of it, Cal.”

“No…it’s really interesting if you want to tell me?” Cal replied.

Theo nodded encouragingly at Juliette who opened her mouth to describe as much of the legend as she’d managed to absorb over the years.

S

It took a lot to exhaust a Legacy vampire, but Juliette had done a lot already that day.

Between school, impromptu Legacy lessons and then a research session with Theo and Cal that turned into her own Legacy lecture, she wasn’t prepared for dinner with her fiance’s family.

She could hardly tell Allegra that she wanted to go with Cal and Theo to grab some food, but the disappointment that Cal did a poor job of hiding was palpable enough that she almost called Allegra with an excuse. 

Unfortunately, she couldn’t claim to be sick when Allegra and her family knew that it would be empirically impossible for her.

It was for this reason that she forced herself to leave to join the Davenports. 

After a month, she could officially say that they had warmed to her. It was why she had felt so guilty that she had someone else on her mind as they discussed wedding details with her fiance by her side.

Apparently, she had managed to say the right things even if she had very little recollection of the conversation. However, she was permitted to go up into Allegra’s bedroom as she had on so many occasions before, so it must have gone fine.

Despite the guilt, she’d already convinced herself that there was no need to discuss her time with Cal.

Allegra had already agreed that they could be friends and she’d never limited that to being only at school. Besides, Cal’s brother was there, it literally couldn’t have been more innocent.

Still, there was a small gap between them on the bed as if she actually had something to worry about, though she was almost certain that she wasn’t giving Allegra any reason to worry though.

“What’s your favourite colour?” Allegra asked from the next card on the stack that Juliette had found online.

They’d been volleying these questions for a solid twenty minutes so Juliette sighed and sank into the pillow as she replied, “Yellow.”

“Are you sure?” Allegra asked, inspecting her outfit that was completely monochrome.

Juliette shrugged so the other vampire flicked the card away and asked, “What’s wrong, Juliette?”

Juliette bit the inside of her cheek, feeling a new wave of guilt. Should she really be underestimating her fiance’s ability to detect when there was something off about her?

Thankfully, something came to mind that wasn’t strictly a lie.

Indicating the cards and sitting up, she asked, “Doesn’t this feel like…a green card wedding or something?”

“This was your idea,” Allegra pointed out in that frustratingly relaxed manner that made Juliette wonder whether she was the only person with objections to arranged marriages (with the obvious exception of her parents). 

“I know…it’s just…”

“Not romantic?” Allegra offered and Juliette nodded.

“But if we’re going to fit in as a married couple, we have to know each other,” Juliette sighed.

Granted, they could go on dates (which they had certainly been doing between all of their other duties) but five months wasn’t long enough to go from a couple of besotted teenagers to being married in the eyes of their peers so they had to be convincing. 

Allegra leaned over to kiss her in a way that had become so natural for them and asked, “Is that not convincing?”

Juliette tried for a smile as she replied, “We can’t just make out all of the time.”

“I know at least ten guys at school who would disagree with you on that,” Allegra shot back and actually drew out a laugh from her fiance, “We can do something else if you want?”

Juliette shook her head and reached over Allegra to grab another card and settled into her side, deciding that there was no reason for the gap.

Holding the card up to her face, she asked, “What’s your favourite movie?”

“Hunger Games,” Allegra replied automatically.

“Really?” Juliette asked, shocked.

“What did you think it would be?”

Juliette shrugged, “I don’t know, something in black and white I guess?”

“You do realise we’re the same age, right?” Allegra retorted.

Juliette laughed as she reached for another card, but did offer an explanation, “It’s actually the first movie I went to the theatre to watch.”

“Did you go with Hayley?” Juliette asked, yawning.

“She convinced me to abandon my homework for it,” Allegra laughed nostalgically.

“Isn’t it all homework when you're homeschooled?” Juliette mused and the other vampire shook her head in amusement before she launched into the next question. 

Chapter Text

Chapter Eleven

Juliette was in the middle of yet more seating plan revisions when her phone buzzed to save her from the monotony of a sea of names that she barely recognised despite her grandmother’s coaching.

Pushing her chair away from her desk, she grabbed her phone and accepted the FaceTime call while she flopped down to the bed.

“Hey Ben,” she breathed.

“Lettie,” the other teen greeted, missing some of his usual enthusiasm.

Juliette had always believed in the difficulty of long-distance relationships, but why did no one ever mention the problems with long-distance best friendships?

Naturally, Ben knew all about her current situation. He was one of the few who was acutely aware that she did not love Allegra. That she wasn’t involved in some whirlwind romance. 

That didn’t mean that she had his approval though.

It was always written all over his face on every video call that they rarely managed to fit in. Apparently, he could easily tell when his oldest friend was faking contentment no matter how much she tried to reassure him.

It was for this reason that she opened with the topic that she really wanted to get out of the way but didn’t feel was appropriate for a text message. 

“So…I really tried but I can’t convince my grandmother to let you come to the ceremony,” Juliette sighed.

“It’s okay, I’ll come to your next wedding,” Ben replied.

This caused Juliette to sigh yet more hard. Because Ben was closer to a brother than a friend, she didn’t take the comment as malicious. He may have sounded grumpy but she knew well that he was worried about her future happiness.

If only he could meet Allegra, he would see that it was hardly the worst future that she could be embarking upon.

“Do you still think you could try and make it to the bachelorette party? I would love for you to be there…”

Ben’s face softened and he said, reassuringly, “You know that I wouldn’t miss it, Lettie.”

Juliette sank backwards appreciatively until Ben seemed incapable of holding back the objection that was more effective in stirring Juliette’s frustrations.

“Are you really sure that you want this, Jules?”

The vampire’s head lolled back into her duvet and she tried hard not to roll her eyes. When they arranged the video call, she was well aware of where the conversation would go but there was always the vain hope that she had been wrong. 

As grateful as she was to have someone who cared so much to believe the worry that twisted his usually smiley face, after hours of wedding planning, she was getting rather sick of the clear distaste even from the people that she lived with. 

“No one was this concerned about Elinor!” she argued, running her hand over her face as she realised that wasn’t strictly true. Elinor may have been happy to go ahead with the arrangement but Sebastian made no secret of the fact that he was against the idea of his daughter getting married to uphold a dynasty that ostracised him.

He and Margot never confronted the older vampire as directly as they tried to with their youngest child. 

“Elinor?” Ben scoffed, “The sister who is significantly older than you, actually cared about that snake thing and very well might be an actual psychopath?”

Juliette bit at her bottom lip, not at all because she was feeling any desire to defend her sister as she may have before discovering who her idol really was. 

There was one implication that bothered her in her friend’s statement though. 

“I do care about the Emerald Malaika. It’s an important part of my family’s legacy,” Juliette replied, trying hard to sound as if she was being forced to say that.

It was true that the concept of her first kill and the bite from the snake had made her physically ill before she experienced both of them, but the reserves that self-control that she’d gained from both traditions almost had her regretting her insistence to ignore them for as long as she could. 

Not that she was sure what she would have done if it hadn’t been for Cook attacking Cal, but she still couldn’t imagine willingly ending a human’s life.

Thankfully she didn’t have to worry about any of that now. 

“You didn’t care about it before I left, do you expect me to believe that you can change so quickly?” Ben argued, with a sudden uptick in his passion. 

“Ignoring my family's traditions didn’t exactly end well…at least this way I get to understand how to control my abilities. I couldn’t have ended the bond without the ceremony.”

“You say that like it’s a good thing. Don’t you miss Cal?” Ben retorted, clearly sitting up straight now that he had the opportunity to bring up her ex-girlfriend. In their text messages, he seemed to understand not to mention her beyond her freaking out to him on the day that Allegra met her ex-girlfriend. 

Today was much different, however, she had something reasonable to respond, “I talk to her more now, she wants to be friends.”

“That is a terrible idea,” Ben said, placing two fingers on his temple in obvious frustration.

“Allegra is fine with it,” Juliette defended and Ben could only hum doubtfully. Unable to think of anything else to add to that, she steered in a different direction and added with a wistful sigh, “I really miss you, Ben.”

“I miss you too, Lettie, there is no way that your grandmother can keep me away from my best friend’s bachelorette party,” he replied, softening in a way that had Juliette sure that they were about to move this conversation into a friendlier direction. 

She laughed and said, “I’m looking forward to it.”

S

Juliette was aware that this was stupid, that there were so many other things that she should be doing with her limited time.

The problem was that she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about this.

Realistically, she was aware that it was her wife-to-be that she should be going to with her concerns but it would go against every promise that she'd ever made.

Sebastian and Margot would just be vindicated and Davina would likely take it personally. Oliver was hardly dedicated enough to the Fairmonts to convince her to do the right thing. 

Discussing her worries with Cal was a complete no-go and didn’t even bare entertaining the possibility. 

Even if they were technically friends now, their relationship would always be too fraught to go into any of this. How could she when it was the time that she spent with the hunter that was becoming the source of the mounting anxiety which had led her to Savannah’s local jail?

It was becoming increasingly clear to her that she would much rather be around Cal than Allegra and it wasn’t as if her fiance was doing anything egregiously wrong. 

She may occasionally say something that butted against Juliette’s beliefs, but she was always willing to discuss it maturely.

There was absolutely no rational reason that she would feel more when she kissed her ex-girlfriend than she did with any of the activities she’d engaged in with Allegra. None of it was unpleasant but she was still struggling with the thought of being with someone who was so perfect on paper for the rest of eternity.

There was only one person who she could think would understand what it was to do something so monumental out of a sense of duty. Her discussion with Ben the day before made her all the more sure that it was necessary.

The problem was that the person that she knew would understand was the same woman that she’d reported to the police for a series of murders. 

Juliette was fuzzy on the details, but from what she could tell Sebastian had employed Carmen’s services in order to keep his eldest daughter in prison, likely in the hopes of never seeing her again. This meant that she was almost certain that she would be physically safe during the visit, but she was still tapping her fingers against the table as she waited for a guard to return with the person that she was here to see. 

The door creaked open and she sat up straight as the guard led an unimpressed blonde woman towards her sister. He attached the shackles to a ring on the table and Elinor continued to stare Juliette down. 

Juliette wasn’t precisely sure what she expected from her glamorous sister after months in prison. It was odd to see her without makeup and with lank hair, but somehow she still looked better than most anyone else would in an orange jumpsuit. 

The guard checked the link on the shackles one more time and then addressed Juliette, “I’ll be right outside if you need anything.”

Elinor scoffed but Juliette replied over it, “Thanks.”

The guard gave Elinor a warning look and then followed up on his word by exiting the small visiting room.

Elinor regarded her younger sister, her blank expression becoming a smirk as she leaned back, though it didn’t have the same effect with the jangling of the chains.

Juliette, did her best to hold her gaze until the older vampire asked, “Do mom and dad know that their precious youngest is in this terrible place?”

Juliette wet her lips and replied, “They have no idea where I am.

“Sweet Little has become such a rebel, who could have seen that coming?” Elinor mocked.

“And who could have seen you becoming a serial killer?” Juliette bit back.

Elinor’s smirk faded as she narrowed her eyes and replied, “Allegedly, you shouldn’t say things like that in here.”

“And you shouldn’t call me Sweet Little,” Juliette bristled.

“Oh okay,” Elinor said, returning to mocking, “Is there actually a reason that you pulled me out of my comfortable solitude?”

Juliette fell back in her seat, very much regretting their course of action. Perhaps she was thinking of the person that she once thought her sister was?

If the stark contrast between the orange jumpsuit and her pale skin proved anything, it was that she should have found someone else to idolise a long time ago. She was already here though, so the words left her despite her growing reservations:

“I wanted to ask…I tried to speak to Oliver but he wasn’t helpful…”

“He rarely is,” Elinor drawled, pretending to be interested in her nails.

Juliette thinned her lips but chose not to raise to the obvious bait, “How were you going to go through with it?” she asked, but Elinor raised an eyebrow so she clarified, “Getting married.”

“I was going to start with ‘I do’, it’s not that hard,” Elinor said, apparently interested in the conversation, “And who is getting married?”

Juliette scratched the metal table and said, “Allegra Davenport and…me.”

There was silence until the younger vampire dragged her gaze upwards to her bewildered sister.

“And you’re here for what? A congratulations? You want the big sister who you sent to prison to tell you that she’s proud of you?”

“No, I don’t care what you think,” Juliette said, unaware that this was true until she formed the sentence.

“And yet, here you are,” Elinor replied, the spreading of her hands having little effect as the chains clattered with the movement.

“You’re the only person, other than grandmother, who isn’t completely against arranged marriages. How did you plan to…deal with it?” Juliette asked.

“Deal with what? With an eternity of wealth and prosperity at the expense of occasionally faking a smile?” Elinor fired back forcibly enough that Juliette looked down, “What is she terrible in bed or something?”

Not deigning to answer that question (though she did blush as some comparisons sprung to mind), Juliette replied, “It’s more than that, what about…love?”

“Still a selfish little brat, I see,” Elinor said and Juliette’s head shot upwards to find unnaturally green eyes meeting her own.

She refused to back down.

“This was a mistake,” Juliette said.

“For you maybe,” Elinor replied melodiously, “It’s the perfect chance for you to retract your testimony for me, though.”

“That won’t work on me,” Juliette said obstinately and Elinor’s eyes flicked back to their regular colour, displaying more incredulity than before.

Ultimately, she switched to being faux-impressed.

“So you took the Malikia’s bite and now you think that you’re some big bad vampire? If you were, you wouldn’t be so worried about love when power is right in front of you!” 

Juliette pushed her chair back and covered her mouth to hide the fangs that had erupted with her anger.

Elinor laughed as if she wasn’t chained up as Juliette breathed until she’d calmed down enough to remove her hand and approach the door.

“This was a mistake,” she said as she knocked on the glass to be let out, “Enjoy your solitude.”

She didn’t look back as she was released but heard her sister’s scoff and sincerely hoped that it would be the last time she would have to experience Elinor Fairmont.

In a daze, she got out of the prison and freed her phone once her sneakers crunched the gravel and she breathed quickly as she opened up her contacts. 

She scrolled by ‘Allegra’, hovered momentarily over ‘Ben’ but ultimately went down one more letter to ‘Calliope Burns’ which she’d recently changed from ‘Cal <3’.

She clicked the name before she could hesitate and held the phone to her ear.

It took a few agonising rings but a voice eventually filtered through the device, “Hello?”

Juliette swallowed hard, realising exactly what she’d done but also realising that she couldn't just hang up on her friend.

“Juliette? Are you okay?”

Juliette wet her lips, scrambling for an excuse that didn’t involve admitting her idiotic decision to go to her murderous sister for advice. 

“I’m okay,” she reassured, “I’m just…having a hard time with the physics homework and Allegra isn’t in that class. Do you think you could help?”

“Sure,” Cal replied, sounding disappointed if Juliette didn’t know any better, “You could come over now if you’re free?”

“To your place?” Juliette asked sceptically.

“My dad is out of town,” Cal promised, “Besides, you already have permission, right?”

Though Elinor had done nothing for her guilt about this mess that was now her life, she found that she was incapable of passing up the opportunity. 

“That would be great, thank you,” Juliette sighed as she headed to her car.

S

Walking up the driveway towards the Burns’s home instinctively put Juliette on edge. She felt as though she should be veering to the side to set about scaling the building that she was unwelcome in but that felt far too impolite for a study session.

There was none of the giddiness that led her to climb through Cal’s window the first time, but there were some remnants of the anxiety from her second visit here.

On that occasion, it had been justified as the front door to reveal two angry, armed hunters. With at least one of them out of town, she was hopeful that she would be safe.

There was also the fact that Talia was the first to visit Theo upon their family’s return to Savannah, but Juliette hadn’t seen her since the day her son was turned so she wasn’t entirely sure how the woman felt about her daughter’s ex-girlfriend. 

Juliette came up with an angrier image of Talia Burns with each crunching step towards the door until she held her breath and knocked before she could change her mind.

With any luck, Cal was currently alone and they could study without suspicion. Once she was in her presence, surely she could forget about Elinor’s words that progressively boiled her blood the more that she recalled them.

She could prove to Ben, her sister and everyone else that she could be friends with Calliope Burns. That she could be alone with her without it being weird.

Part of that had to be not being afraid of her friend’s mother, right? Then again, most friendships weren’t made up of a vampire and hunter so it was sort of unchartered territory. 

As the door was yanked open, all hope of her friend being home alone was dashed but she was also treated to little more than a frown from Talia, whose eyes slid down to her left hand.

At first, she would have tried to tuck the engagement ring between her fingers to obscure it from view but now she barely noticed it, unless the prison guards were asking her to remove it (apparently they believed a chained Elinor to be capable of something nefarious with a tiny piece of jewellery).

Under the gaze of Talia Burns, the diamond somehow felt infinitely heavier but she did resist hiding it from her. 

It wasn’t as though she had anything to hide so why was it that she felt guilty yet again?

Talia wrenched her eyes upwards and tried for an unnatural smile. Juliette could hardly blame her for being cautious, it was certainly preferable to last time.

“Hello, Ms Burns,” she greeted while pulling nervously at the straps of her backpack.

Talia stepped backwards, “Hello, Juliette,” she replied, gesturing inside, “Cal is set up to study at the dining table, I’ll show you where she is.”

“You’re inviting me in?” Juliette asked absently.

Talia tilted her head as she formed a hint of amusement and replied, “Don’t you already have permission?”

Juliette swallowed hard, not really sure whether this was true but in need of an explanation as to why Talia’s open invitation into her home would surprise her so much. “Well…you know…you did move…”

Talia nodded, unconvinced, “Well you have permission, please come to Juliette.”

“Thank you, Ms Burns,” Juliette said, somewhat awkward as she followed the hunter through the house. 

As promised, she was led to the dining table that had books sprawled across it and the welcoming smile from Calliope had the desired effect.

It greatly lifted Juliette’s mood even if she was only technically here to receive help on a physics assignment that she’d already completed. 

Chapter Text

Chapter Twelve 

It was officially four months until the wedding so Juliette’s mind was far too full to consider the ethics of being friends with Calliope.

Allegra gave her express, trusting permission, but would she have done that if she knew that study and research sessions were the only times when she felt at ease?

Her fiance had not brought up her feelings for Cal since Zac’s party and it wasn’t like she had done anything untoward with the hunter.

What was the problem with enjoying her friend’s company?

The rationalisation allowed her to work on her English paper whilst periodically flicking over to her messages from Allegra that contained suggestions for floral arrangements and place settings for the table plan that was (hopefully) finalised.

Sipping at the flask of sustaining red that got her through these frequent stents of multitasking, she squinted at the image that contained an abundance of yellow.

She was about to reply that yellow wasn’t everyone’s favourite colour but her fingers came short of the keyboard as three, curt rasps hit her bedroom door.

With a sigh, she spun in her chair, knowing exactly who was capable of producing such a passive-aggressive knock.

Well, there was one other person, but seeing as she was incarcerated for serial murder, she was confident as she called, “Come in, grandmother.”

Davina Atwood pushed harshly at the door and Juliette’s cheeks almost puffed out with the sigh that she was holding in.

The storm waging across the face of the keeper of the Malikia’s face could only mean one thing: she had discovered yet another problem with the wedding plans. 

This happened often enough that Juliette had resigned herself to listening and reassuring for as long as it took (or until Margot arrived to mercifully distract the woman).

Clutching the arms of her desk chair, Juliette asked, “Is something wrong, grandmother?”

Davina left the door wide as she strode into the room and demanded, “Do you know who Hayley Ramon is?”

Juliette had to stop herself from digging her fingertips into her temple.

It was times like this when she longed to be with Cal talking about Physics or something Theo-related.

Their unspoken agreement not to discuss Allegra or wedding arrangements really could be a blessing that Juliette couldn’t be guilty for appreciating now that she was about to have the discussion she had been dreading.

“Hayley is Allegra’s friend and she has agreed to be her Maid of Honour, that is really all that matters,” Juliette replied. 

Davina crossed her arms and her nostrils noticeably flared. Honestly, how did she find the energy to care so much about every little detail?

“I understand that you are young and naive but you cannot seriously think that it is appropriate to have a filthy…”

“You haven’t even met Hayley, how can you know that she is what you are imagining?” Juliette cut her off.

“Because she is a werewolf!”

Juliette held her gaze, waiting for the woman to accept that she was aware and had no issues with it.

“Are you asking me to disinvite Allegra’s friend? She’s already on the bus to Savannah…”

“And she can easily turn back. It is not right for someone like that to attend an Atwood event,” Davina blustered.

Juliette’s eyes fluttered closed.

Up until now, it was easier to just agree with her but she was reaching the end of her tether.

It wasn’t going to be easy but she finally had to do something that she hadn’t before: disagree openly with her grandmother.

Standing as if her short stature would help, Juliette said, “It isn’t some Atwood event, this is  my  wedding and  my  fiance wants her friend to attend as her Maid of Honour. I only agreed not to invite my best friend to keep him safe from a room full of vampires, but Hayley can protect herself so she’s coming. Mom and dad agreed that she could stay here until then so I don’t really need your opinion on this, grandmother.”

Davina opened and closed her mouth a few times until she clamped it shut and then clenched her fists at her side.

Juliette kept her face determinedly natural despite the pride she felt in herself.

“Does the werewolf really have to be part of the wedding party?” Davina sighed.

“Yes,” Juliette replied firmly. Davina drew her mouth into a thin line, very much like she had more to argue, so Juliette added, “You asked me to marry a Davenport and I have done everything to make that happen, can you not just let this one thing go and be grateful?”

“Grateful?” Davina scoffed and turned to leave, but Juliette still heard her mutter before she slammed the door, “So much like your mother.” 

Juliette rolled her eyes and saw no reason to go after her, there was nothing she could say to change her mind and frankly, she didn’t care.

She had no way to invite her two human friends to the monumental day, so it felt oddly good to fight for Allegra’s friend.

It was for this reason that she turned to go back to interrogating the flower arrangements as if nothing happened.

S

Allegra’s parents told her that she should be excited to move to another town, to give her grandmother’s engagement ring to some girl she had yet to meet.

That the fact that this girl was an Atwood meant that she was going to be set for the rest of her immortal life.

They told her that she should be grateful for the opportunity, so she was or she told herself that she was.

Told herself that it didn’t matter where she lived as long as she was making her parents proud.

There was only one loose end that prevented her from packing as she was instructed to, so she snuck out of the window.

Even after all of these years, her parents had no idea that she had a friend so she couldn’t exactly tell them about the weight on her chest when she heard ‘Savannah’ and that an Atwood would be worth the move.

What she could do was make sure that her best friend got the goodbye that she deserved for all of the years of companionship that she’d provided her with.

This was how she found herself in their clearing pacing back and forth as she tried to think of a sequence of words that could convey that she had no choice in the matter without making it sound as though she was doing this against her will.

Hayley often mocked the Davenport rules and traditions, but she would be happy for her, right?

All she had to do was pretend that leaving the home that she had always lived in didn’t bother her or that she was more than nervous to meet her future wife. 

She must have done a poor job of hiding her real feelings as the leaves rustled to reveal Hayley and the other girl instantly frowned.

As always, Allegra had to hold her breath and take a moment to process the piercing eyes. This time around, she was wondering whether she would feel so hopeless around her future wife.

None of that mattered, she just had to get this over with.

Hayley’s concern must have swatted away her usual mirthful greeting so she crossed over, naturally strolling over to stand in her best friend’s personal space.

“Hey, Allegra. Is there something wrong? I got here as fast as I could…” 

Allegra wet her lips as the knot in her stomach tightened to new heights of pain. 

In Hayley’s presence, it was difficult to remember that she was supposed to be happy about all of this.

“I…I…er…” Allegra stumbled over her explanation, stopping abruptly as Hayley took both of her hands.

“What is it?” Hayley urged.

Allegra sucked in a breath and said, “I…my family…we’re moving.”

Hayley’s face contorted through several emotions until she moved closer and argued, “Your family has lived on that estate for centuries, they can’t just leave.”

“They received an offer from the Atwoods that they couldn’t refuse.”

Hayley’s brow pinched at the meaning behind the surname that she had no reason to understand.

“What offer could be worth that?”

“Davina Atwood’s granddaughter is ready for marriage,” Allegra said quickly, almost hissing as Hayley ripped her hand back with widened eyes.

“So what? They’re marrying you off because you’re the only other gay Legacy?” Hayley bit out.

“It’s not like that,” Allegra retorted rather feebly because how far was that from the truth? If this Juliette Fairmont-Atwood was as straight as her sister, then it would be one of her male cousins who would be receiving this honour.

“Have you ever met this girl before?”

“No,” Allegra replied with a noticeable swallow.

“So you’re choosing this…this stranger over what you already have?!”

“What do I really have here?” Allegra retorted, “I spend most of my time studying, alone. At least this way I get to go to a real school and…”

“And what about me?!” Hayley shouted so loud that the vampire had to wince at the volume as she continued her tirade, “You do have something here! You have me!”

Allegra blinked, her breath taken away so acutely under the passion being directed at her.

If she didn’t know any better, she would have thought that her feelings were returned.

Hayley banished any thoughts of denial as she huffed and re-entered her friend’s personal space and crashed their lips together.

Hayley steadied her by her waist and forgot about all obligations as she closed her eyes and enjoyed the synchronicity of their lips moving together.

It didn’t matter that they were biologically (or was it supernaturally) predisposed to hate each other.

They were not vampire and werewolf, just two teenage girls clinging to each other as if they were each other’s lifelines.

Eventually, the kiss did have to end, however.

“Hayley…” Allegra said, her eyes fluttering open as she tried to pull her impossibly closer and a palm snaked up to touch her blushing cheek.

“Don’t go, please,” Hayley begged.

This crashed Allegra back down to reality, into her reality.

Into the undeniable truth that her parents beamed at her so proudly as they broke the news.

She couldn't imagine anything close to that if they knew who it was that she was currently holding close.

Why did Hayley wait so long to reveal her feelings?! Why hadn’t she told her every day that she saw her?!

“Please, stay,” Hayley whispered.

“I can’t…I’m getting married,” Allegra replied, stepping back even though it was literally the last thing that she wanted to do. 

“You don’t have to, refuse to leave. Tell your parents that you want to stay here…with me,” Hayley pleaded.

“They won’t accept that,” Allegra replied, her hand itching to take hold of her waist again, “I can’t refuse an Atwood for a…”

“For what? A filthy werewolf?”

“Hayley,” Allegra breathed, “You know I don’t think of you that way.”

“But every other Davenport does, right? That’s why they think you have no friends here?” Hayley demanded.

“You know how complicated it all is!”

“But this Atwood girl isn’t complicated?” Hayley shot back and Allegra could only shake her head, “You kept saying that like it should mean something! What's so special about these Atwoods?”

“Her family…they’re the Keepers of the Malikia,” Allegra explained desperately.

“And what? That’s more important than your happiness?” Hayley asked and Allegra had to move back. 

If the werewolf touched her, she would crumble and run away from every responsibility.

She couldn’t disappoint them like that.

“My family is more important,” Allegra insisted, hugging herself.

Hayley broke their eye contact which forced tears to spring to Allegra’s.

What if that was the last time that she held her gaze?

“I hope that this Malikia keeps you warm at night,” Hayley muttered and then withdrew.

Allegra stayed rooted, sure that if she moved a muscle, she would be kissing Hayley again in a blink of an eye.

Her face scrunched with the rustling of the leaves and she waited until Hayley was out of her (werewolf) earshot and then she whispered, “I love you too.” 

S

Allegra Davenport was not typically one for nerves. What was the point when she knew exactly what she was supposed to be doing?

Of course, going to meet a werewolf at their bus did not qualify as something she was supposed to be doing.

For all her parents knew, she was meeting a friend that she’d failed to introduce them to back home, perhaps she could gain the courage to actually tell them once she returned home?

At that moment, however, she was reserving all of her bravery for looking into those eyes again. 

For pretending that she still wasn’t in love with her best friend.

These nerves were also mingled with a certain amount of giddiness.

No matter how complicated it had all become, she longed to have Hayley Ramon back in her life and this was an excellent first step.

As long as the werewolf could stand to be around Juliette, everything was set to be as close to perfect as circumstances would allow.

At the very least, they could be back in each other’s lives. 

She could deal with telling her parents what species her friend was after she visually confirmed that she was actually in Savannah.

Arriving at the bus station did give her something else to focus on, however.

Her mouth drew into a thin line at the sight of a certain, no-so-inconspicuous hunter hanging towards the back of the others waiting for their loved ones.

Allegra huffed and approached Calliope Burns. 

“What are you doing?” Allegra demanded, trying hard to make their conversation not outwardly hostile.

Cal unhitched herself from the wall and her hand went down to her waist, where Allegra had to assume was some concealed silver.

The Legacy was unfazed by this and Cal abandoned the search for weapons anyway, apparently remembering that she and this vampire had a common interest that meant that they couldn’t attack each other anymore.

It was likely for this reason that she replied honestly, “Just on an assignment. The Guild received intel that a werewolf purchased a ticket to Savannah.”

“And you’re here to what? Kill her for getting a bus?” Allegra drawled.

Cal tilted her head before she replied, “We need to know why she’s here, but I’m guessing you already know?”

“Hayley is here because she is my Maid of Honour, so your precious Guild has nothing to worry about,” Allegra said, standing to attention as a bus turned the corner and began the process of parking, “Didn’t Juliette tell you that she was coming to Savannah?”

“We don’t really talk about wedding stuff,” Cal admitted awkwardly and promptly began to retreat before it could get worse, “I’ll report to the Guild that they have nothing to worry about.”

“Good,” Allegra said, pushing her closed fists into her pockets as if it would do anything to hide her disdain, “And Calliope?”

The hunter reluctantly halted and turned to the other teen expectantly.

“Yes Allegra?” she asked, likely going for genial.

“Tell your little Guild that if any of them think about hunting Hayley, I will make their lives hell.”

“Noted,” Cal replied and Allegra was certain that she was searching for some hidden conspiracy behind the threat. 

Ultimately, she didn’t notice the hunter’s final retreat as a familiar voice asked timidly, “Allegra?”

Allegra turned in the voice’s direction.

It had been less than half a year but she still expected her best friend to look different but that wasn’t the case.

If it were possible, her eyes pierced more deeply into the vampire’s soul but she put that aside to accept a hug.

Hopefully, it was a sign that neither of them wanted to discuss the kiss. 

S

Juliette wasn’t aware of the time until her mother called her name as she, at last, typed the final word of her essay.

The young vampire grinned at the perfect timing. There was nothing quite as satisfying as finishing one obligation before being thrust into another.

Allegra agreed a little too quickly to picking up her friend from the bus station alone but Juliette chalked it up to wanting to reunite with her.

It wasn’t as though Allegra was too eager to palace herself into the time that she spent with her own friends.

Besides, Hayley Ramon was going to be living with the Fairmonts until the wedding day, so it wasn’t as if Juliette was going to miss out on time with her fiance’s best friend. 

Closing her laptop, she searched for the engagement ring placed in the top drawer of her desk and then went to exit her room and go towards her mother’s voice.

Painting on her most charming smile, she got to the foyer, to find exactly what her schedule dictated would be here right now.

Hayley was shaking hands with Margot and Davina was mercifully absent after their earlier discussion.

Hayley released the matriarch's hand as Juliette hopped off the final step and the vampire’s smile faltered a little as the werewolf narrowed her eyes at her. 

Juliette cautiously slid her gaze over to Allegra, who nodded encouragingly.

Perhaps it wasn’t any different than Ben’s protectiveness?

The thought allowed her to clear her throat and remember what she was supposed to be doing right now.

“Hey Hayley, Allegra has told me so much about you. I’m…”

“The Atwood?” Hayley asked.

Allegra coughed, her face brightening as she confirmed that both Fairmonts were shocked by the accusation in the words.

“I prefer Juliette, or Jules if you want,” she replied once she recovered and accepted the hand to shake.

“It’s nice to meet you, Juliette,” Hayley relented as she pulled her hand back to pick up her duffel bag, “Thank you for letting me stay here.:

“Of course, dear,” Margot replied and gestured to the stairs, “Jules, why don’t you show Hayley to her room? Dinner is almost ready, Allegra you’re welcome to stay…”

Allegra clasped her hands in front of her, clearly very much relieved by the course of the conversation.

“Thank you, Mrs Fairmont, but my parents are expecting me,” Allegra said, catching Juliette’s gaze.

After Davina’s outburst, they agreed that she could no longer hide the truth about her friend from them so she swore that she would tell them as soon as she was certain that Hayley was settled. 

“If you’re sure,” Margot said as her daughter-in-law to be retreated, but the crease in the older woman’s brow must have reminded her that she forgot something.

Allegra hesitated but crossed the space to do what they did whenever they parted ways with an audience.

She pressed a chaste kiss to her fiance’s lips and then retreated again with a smile towards the werewolf who had looked away.

“I’ll see you both later,” she said and let herself out.

Margot tilted her head in a way that Juliette was very aware meant that her mother found that interaction to be strange.

“Your room is this way,” Juliette announced, stepping onto the stair before Margot could question anything, “I’ll give Hayley a tour and then we’ll be down for dinner?”

“Okay,” Margot replied, watching the two teens ascend to the first floor.

Hayley was either glancing along the high number of doors or the expensive art pieces as they moved.

Very aware that this wasn’t doing much for a potential friendship, Juliette remembered that talking was important to a tour, so she said, “Your room is just down here…I hope that the bus ride was okay?”

Hayley blinked and a last inspected the vampire as she came to a stop.

Juliette also froze and allowed her to garner whatever information she was trying to get.

She had often been told that she had an exceptionally innocent face so hopefully, that would help in whatever assessment that was being carried out?

Surely Allegra would have told her friend only good things about her fiance? At least Juliette hoped that Allegra didn’t have anything bad to say about her?

At last, Hayley adjusted the bag and said, “If you hurt my friend, I will kill you.”

Juliette nodded without so much as a wince.

Murderous threats had very little effect on her as of late, but she very much doubted that Hayley would appreciate her pointing out how fruitless that was. 

“I care about Allegra, I don’t plan to hurt her,” Juliette replied honestly.

Hayley held her gaze for a few more seconds before she continued down the hallway.

“That’s good,” the werewolf replied. 

Chapter Text

Chapter Thirteen

Calliope Burns had started to get used to the routine that had formed since her return to Savannah. Training, school, studying with Juliette or meeting her and Theo at Oliver’s home to continue their fruitless search for information on his mother’s killer.

So far, it wasn’t bearing many results and Cal wouldn’t admit it aloud, but it was currently a good thing. It maximised her Allegra-less time with Juliette whilst also meaning that she would get to confirm that the brother who she’d missed dearly was actually thriving in his new state of being, that it wasn’t the end of the world as the Guild had taught them.

After the impending wedding, she strongly suspected that their entire dynamic would change rather dramatically and perhaps then she would turn her sights towards really helping her brother more seriously rather than enjoying their company. It wasn’t like she could envisage Juliette asking for help with her physics homework when she had a wife when she was Juliette Fairmont-Davenport, or would it be Atwood-Davenport?

It was thoughts like this that she had to dismiss when she was spending time with Juliette, especially when they were one-on-one.

Her interaction with Allegra the day before made it difficult.

It took drunkenly attacking her to show that level of passion for Juliette but when it came to her werewolf Maid of Honour, she was furious at the Guild even being in the same bus station.

Was there something that Allegra was hiding? Some reason that Hayley Ramon should not be allowed in the wedding party? If she brought this up with Juliette, was there any chance that she would know that she was jealous?

Ultimately, she decided, after hours of punching a bag, that it wasn’t her place to share theories that she had very little basis for.

Instead of calling Juliette, she left the Legacy to whatever important family engagement that Davina was liable to have dragged her into for that particular evening and she went to bed.

This led her to the next day at school.

Forest period was Chemistry, ironically not one of the classes that she shared with Juliette Fairmont, which meant that she had no reason to think about the vampire.

A knock interrupting the teacher’s introduction to the lesson shattered any illusion that she could spend the next hour not thinking about that world.

“Ah, Miss Ramon I assume?” Mrs Parker called, breaking the lull that had already fallen over the class this early in the lesson, all of them glancing up from their notebooks to behold their new student.

Cal, on the other hand, already knew what to expect even before she dragged her gaze upwards to Hayley. Her picture had been in the assignment information from the day before.

Out of all of her new peers, Hayley held her gaze and Cal had to assume that she had either been warned about the Guild’s presence or that her senses were as keen as she’d read about.

“Hey,” Hayley replied to the teacher in confirmation, apparently even werewolves were awkward when faced with a new school? It was certainly something that Cal could empathise with.  

“Well welcome to Lancaster, why don’t you join our only student without a partner. Calliope, I trust you will help Miss Ramon get caught up?” Mrs Parker instructed like it was actually a question. 

Cal nodded and Hayley adjusted her bag as she approached the only station with one occupant. The werewolf slipped onto the stool and produced a notebook while staring straight ahead as the teacher finished her explanation of the chemicals that they needed to mix together and why.

A low murmuring burst out the moment that she took a seat at her desk.

Cal took a few more seconds than was necessary to finish her notes and then swivelled around to find Hayley already dutifully organising the beakers.

She hesitated but remembered her view to be more sociable now that it appeared that they would be staying in Savannah for the long haul. Even if she was standing beside a werewolf, she was almost certain that she could do this.

Clearing her throat, she said, “Hey, I’m Cal…”

“I know who you are,” Hayley cut her off, effectively making her forget how this conversation was supposed to go.

It didn’t take long for Cal to realise how it was that the other teen knew who she was.

“Allegra told you about me?” she asked, lowering her voice even though none of their classmates was paying any attention to the back of the room.

Hayley continued to follow the instructions calmly, like they were making small talk, measuring out chemicals as she replied, “My friend warned me about a hunter at my new school, does that surprise you?”

“I guess not,” Cal replied, beginning her part of the task, “But did she not tell you that I promised not to hurt you?”

“I’m not sure that she believed you,” Hayley said with a small snort.

“You don’t sound too worried?”

“Your Guild has never been very successful against my pack, I don’t see any reason to be worried,” Hayley said, barely reacting as Cal scoffed, “Besides, as I understand it, you wouldn’t want to do anything that would hurt Juliette.”

Cal’s hands stilled and she stiffened.

She didn’t know this girl well enough to decipher her tone but there was something knowing in it.

“What do you know about me and Juliette?” Cal hissed.

“Enough to know that there is a lot to talk about,” Hayley said and Cal pinched her brow, “Meet me in the library at lunch?”

Not entirely sure what she was referring to, Cal nodded and they spent the rest of the class in silence completing their assigned experiment. 

S

The circumstances under which Juliette Fairmont felt like a normal teenager had shrunk the older she got.

When her fangs were small and lacking blood wouldn’t mean that she would be heading towards a debilitating migraine, everything was easy.

At home, they talked about the best blood type and murder like it was all natural, but at school, with Ben, she could blend in as her family wanted her to.

Everything that led up to her first kill, dating a hunter and then losing that love and then accepting the Malikia’s bite had blurred the two worlds significantly.

Nothing had this effect quite like getting engaged to a girl unknown to the town of Savannah, it made her the source of attention from the student body who should have ignored her without Ben in town.

It only got worse with the return of Calliope, apparently, even after the supposed return of monsters and the DA’s daughter being arrested as a serial, her relationship was of intense interest.

There was now only one place where she didn’t have to think about any of the life that her peers couldn’t even begin to fathom the complications of.

It was free period and that meant that it was drama club, she didn’t have to overthink things as she painted sets for the upcoming rendition of Antony and Cleopatra . (There was nothing quite as cathartic as breaking down the set of their last production, especially that bed that had taunted her in Cal’s absence).

The spell of the low level of responsibility was shattered by someone clearing their throat and, as she looked up, the paintbrush fell down and splashed black across the wrong set. 

Juliette cringed while reaching out as if wiping it away would do anything but thought better of it and instead rubbed her hands together and stood.

It lessened the height difference between her and Cal but not by as much as she would like, it wasn’t helping that the hunter was openly smirking at her.

It was so much easier to be around her friend when she was given time to mentally prepare for it!

On this occasion, it took an extra second for the practised smile to come into place as she said, “Hey Cal, everything okay?”

“Apparently the downside of switching schools every few months is that not all of the credits transfer, I need more if I’m going to graduate,” Cal explained.

“You think that you’ll stay in Savannah until graduation?” Juliette replied, not meaning to sound as shocked as she did.

“A lot of monsters, you know?” Cal said, lowering her voice.

“Right,” Juliette said, clasping her hand behind her back as she refused to give in to her desire to rock on her heels. “So you’re joining the drama club?”

“It was the only option with my schedule,” she replied, “I know this is sort of your thing so if you want me to keep my distance…”

“No!” Juliette said far too quickly and it was impossible to maintain her smile under Cal’s questioning gaze so instead she unclasped her hands to pick up a paintbrush, “You could help me clean this up?”

Cal took the brush with a chuckle and said, “Sure Jules.”

A burst of something ran up Juliette’s arm as they touched but this fizzled out as Cal’s hand brushed by the engagement ring, it didn’t show on her face, but there was a notable uptick in her heart rate.

Juliette puffed out her cheeks once Cal was facing the other way but she eventually knelt down to continue what she was working on, sure to put some space between them as always.

They remained in a comfortable silence as Juliette tried to formulate some small talk that she would have saved for one of their study sessions, but this thought process was ended prematurely by the excited voice of their drama teacher:

“Okay folks, it’s official! Auditions for Lancaster Academy’s rendition of Antony and Cleopatra will be in two weeks! Sign-ups will be on the bulletin board as you leave the theatre!” she announced with an appropriate for her profession.

There were a few ‘whoops’ around the cluttered stage and Juliette’s interest must have been written on her face as Cal said, “You should audition.”

Juliette scoffed, not allowing it to get to her that the other girl could read her so well, she could overthink that later.

“My grandmother has made it clear that I do not have time for other obligations,” she said, adding in a whisper approximating Davina’s voice, “And she does not understand why I insist upon attending such a pointless institution.”

“She doesn’t think that you need a High School education?” Cal asked doubtfully.

“No, she does, she just doesn’t think I should have to mix with humans to get one…no offence…”

“None taken,” Cal reassured, “I still think you should audition anyway, you’d make a great Cleopatra.”

Juliette prayed that she wasn’t blushing as she replied, “I don’t know…Do you really think I could act?”

“I could run lines with you to find out?” Cal suggested, her heart racing again and telling Juliette that she should definitely be refusing the offer to focus on everything else she had to contend with.

She didn’t though.

“We could meet at lunch if you’re free? Allegra has another make-up test.”

Cal hesitated but replied, “I’m actually not free today, maybe after school?”

Juliette pinched her eyebrows but it felt rude to argue that Phillipa, Cal’s only friend, was out sick today, so she just nodded.

“We have another meeting with the planner, but maybe after that?” Juliette asked, going for casual.

“Sounds great,” Cal said and the pair of friends proceeded to silently paint.

S

No room was quite as empty as the library at lunchtime and the silence had Cal question why she had chosen this over trading lines of Shakespeare with Juliette.

There was just something in Hayley’s voice during Chemistry that made her sure that she considered this to be important, so she could wait a few hours to see the vampire.

Besides, Jack Burns was still out of town and Talia was notably less strict when it came to missing training sessions.

His absence also meant no objections to seeing Theo, so neither she, Apollo nor their mother had much to complain about.

Right now, she couldn’t worry about whether her family would ever return to how it was before her brother became the thing that they hunt, she was too busy remaining vigilant, hyper-aware that she was approaching a werewolf whose intentions she had yet to ascertain.

At the back of the library she found Hayley Ramon not even pretending that she was here to read, her feet were spread onto another chair as she tapped away at her phone.

She registered Cal’s presence before any human would dave and stashed the device away, removing her legs as she sat up eagerly. This gave Cal little choice but to breach the distance towards her.

She took the seat and stared at the werewolf expectantly, “Should I assume that you asked to meet here for more threats?

“No need for threats,” Hayley replied and Cal narrowed her eyes at the lack of concern. To be fair, it was one of the rarer kills within the Guild to take down a werewolf but she doubted that she brought her here to discuss kill counts.

“You know, I could be eating lunch right now…” Cal pointed out though she didn’t attempt to leave the seat.

“I want to ask you a question,” Hayley replied, much more softly so Cal nodded and waited for the other girl to finish her pause before she said, “Do you still have feelings for Juliette?”

“How…I don’t…” Cal spluttered.

Hayley held up her hand, “Look, Allegra told me about the way you have been acting around your ex, it’s obvious that you’re in love with your ex.”

Cal swallowed hard and didn’t say anything which Hayley took as assent.

“That’s great!” she said triumphantly.

“How is that great?” Cal scoffed, feeling her face burning. Didn’t she used to be better at hiding her feelings?

“Because you can help me stop the wedding!”

The truth crashed down upon Cal, the way that Hayley said Allegra’s name, her suggestion for clandestine meetings, and perhaps even Allegra’s uncharacteristic passion at the bus station?

Hope swelled within her but shattered promptly as she remembered her vow to be Juliette’s friend. Friends didn’t plan to sabotage their friend's wedding day, right?

“Stop the wedding?” Cal repeated.

“Yes! They are way too young, they barely know each other and…”

“And you’re in love with Allegra, right?” Cal interrupted.

Hayley flushed but was too stunned to deny the accusation.

“That’s not the point…” Hayley argued, hugging her stomach.

Cal tilted her head, was it as taboo for a vampire to be with a werewolf as it was with a hunter? The possibility incited a rush of empathy within Cal.

“This is important to both of them, if we sabotage it then I'm not sure that we can really say that we are in love with them,” Cal said, almost reluctantly.

Spending all of the time that she had helping Theo meant that she now knew more about Legacies than anyone else in the Guild and she unfortunately also knew how important it was for a Davenport to marry an Atwood.

It wasn’t an easy decision for either of them to choose not to go through with it, not with the expectations that were passed down through generations.

“And how can we be friends with them when they’re married?” Hayley shot back, angry enough that Cal could tell she hadn’t yet had enough exposure to the engaged couple to know that it wasn’t all so black and white.

“We have to support them, maybe trust that everything will turn out how it is supposed to?”

“And what brought you to this conclusion?” Hayley huffed.

“Alcohol and getting my ass kicked by a Legacy,” Cal admitted, which brought Hayley a momentary smile which quickly dropped.

“I know that Allegra feels the same way even if she won’t admit it. How can I just watch them exchange vows? She thinks that the snake thing is so important…”

“You mean the Emerald Malikia?” Cal ventured.

“How would you know about that?”

“I’ve been learning about Legacies, it’s actually kind of interesting. They have thousands of years of history they can’t just ignore, we have to respect that,” she replied.

Hayley propped her head up on her closed fist and sighed, signs of acceptance already beginning to play across her face.

“So you’re in love with Juliette and you’re just friends?” Hayley asked.

“It’s not easy but it’s worth it,” Cal reassured.

“I still don’t understand how this Malikia could be so important that they would commit to a loveless marriage,” Hayley said, barely above a whisper.

“I could explain it, but it is kind of a lot…maybe if you came to my place sometime…”

“Your Gild would be okay with that?” Hayley shot back sceptically.

“Definitely not, but with my dad out of town, things are more tolerant lately,” Cal replied.

“I’m guessing they’re more tolerant after you broke up with your vampire?” Hayley said with no malice.

“Yeah,” Cal admitted but moved on quickly, “Do you want to actually get some lunch?”

“Sure,” Hayley sighed, seemingly resigned to this new, more understanding, course of action. 

Chapter Text

Chapter Fourteen

With each passing day, Calliope was more and more acutely aware of the date they were hurtling toward with more and more speed.

She’d met with Hayley the day before to explain all that she’d learned about legacies and their traditions to make her understand why they might not come off as very good people if they were to interfere with their pending nuptials.

Despite this, she was questioning this maturity the closer they got to the dreaded day.

With each smile or laugh she elicited from her friend, she fell right back into the short time when she was permitted to kiss Juliette Fairmont. Before everything went so wrong, before she allowed a lifetime of prejudice to eclipse everything that she felt for the vampire.

How could she have allowed herself to believe that Juliette would do anything to intentionally hurt her?

It was this that had put her in the place that she now found herself in.

It was why Juliette wasn’t her girlfriend, why the girl had rearrange their plans to run lines in order to focus on the million details for her wedding to someone else.

She apparently was able to fit her into her schedule today, however, as Cal received no messages to cancel their plans so she set about approaching the Fairmont estate.

Anxiety gripped her as the proximity increased, her body remembering the day that she was last here. She’d reassured Juliette that she felt as deeply as she did but that bliss was shattered when they went to look for her brothers.

When everything fell apart.

Today they would only be running lines for a school play, an activity that was so mundane for them both when compared to what they had before.

She couldn’t dramatically blurt out how much she loved her under these circumstances.

Cal adjusted the bags strung over her shoulder as she approached the door, eyeing the wall up to the window that she’d climbed in a dream.

Unfortunately none of Theo’s books explained the existence of the bond that meant she was able to see the vampire in her dreams and she couldn’t ask Juliette about it without effectively confessing how she felt.

Friends didn’t ask to reignite intense bonds, right?

Cal swallowed hard, pulling herself out of the lovestruck spell to finally knock.

She rocked on her heels, trying to fathom what she would say to Margot or Sebastian. Talia may now be civil to Juliette whenever she came around but that didn’t mean that the arrangement went both ways.

Then again, would the vampires even care about her presence in light of their daughter’s engagement, surely her hunter friend was now irrelevant to them?

Ultimately, the door opened to reveal that she wouldn’t be finding out how the elder vampires felt about her today. Juliette smiled so naturally at her that Cal felt her face burn.

“Hey,” Cal greeted and Juliette pulled the door open for her.

“Thanks for coming,” Juliette replied over her shoulder as she led her way up the stairs and towards her bedroom.

Never before had Cal wished for the other girl’s supernatural senses, she could use them to see beyond the carefully constructed facade of friendship.

As they reached the landing, Juliette seemed to remember that she was hosting a human.

“Can I get you anything to drink?”

“Water’s fine,” Cal replied.

Juliette inclined her head, indicating the bedroom door that Cal remembered despite only seeing it once and then headed back in the direction of the kitchen.

Cal hesitated but pushed inside, unsure whether she wanted the room to be different or not.

Perhaps it wouldn’t be so terrible if the space mirrored the vampire’s less colourful attire? Or if it was exactly the same, there was hope that Juliette was still there underneath all of the physical changes?

The Malikia couldn’t change everything, right? She may appear to now care about everything Legacy that she’d disavowed before but Cal was absolutely certain that she still valued human life more so than any so-called monster was supposed to.

As it turned out, everything was almost exactly the same except for the desk bursting with the largest non-academic project in Juliette’s life.

A large cork-board brimmed with overlapping notes and scrawled to-do lists which Cal opted to steer clear of.

Her life would be better if she knew as little as possible about the big Davenport-Fairmont event.

Avoiding the desk menat heading instead towards the other option for seating, but was the bed worse? It was the last place that she had been really close to Juliette but had it been christened since?

She still didn’t know whether or not Legacy vampires favoured waiting for marriage.

The thought forced her to turn away from the bed and her attention was stolen by a toppled pile of cards on the bedside table. Unable to resist her curiosity, she plucked one of them up with her eyebrows drawn together just as the door opened for the resident vampire armed with a full glass of water in which cubes of ice were floating.

Reading aloud, Cal questioned, “What’s your favourite colour?”

Juliette paused until she eyed the card and then peeled away from the threshold to place the glass onto the desk, which she leaned against in her patently ‘Juliette’ version of casual.

Indicating the pile of cards, she explained, “I figured that it would be the easiest way for Allegra and I to get to know each other.”

“Isn’t that what dating is for?” Cal asked.

Juliette shrugged and replied, “We don’t have a lot of time for that.”

“How romantic,” Cal muttered, discarding the card but still refused to sit onto the mattress, no matter how invitingly comfortable the duvet appeared to be.

“What?” Juliette asked and Cal’s eyes snapped up to her. The friendly facade had slipped into bewilderment that left little doubt that the vampire had heard her very clearly. As with every other crack in their attempts at remaining platonic, Cal cleared her throat to banish the awkward moment and then redirected the course of their conversation, “I said…your favourite colour is yellow, right?”

Juliette drew her eyebrows together, standing straight from the desk as she replied, “Did I tell you that?”

“Just an educated guess,” Cal replied, smiling tightly and trying not to allow her mind to drift towards the more innocent Juliette who had asked her to wish upon a bee.

Itw as the moment that she had been unsure whether she could be dealing with a monster. If only she knew how much more complicated things would get, she wouldn’t have included a stake when planning her outfit for the party that would begin everything.

Juliette and Cal held each other’s gazes until the vampire actively wrenched her attention away and began searching through the pile of books stacked neatly on her desk until she pulled out a copy of Antony and Cleopatra brimming with post-it notes.

“Should we get started?” she asked, flicking through the pages absently.

“Sure,” Cal replied, drifting over but pausing as Juliette released a barely perceptible squeak at the page that providence that led her to.

Cal breached the distance to take the book from her, quickly finding the reason for the reaction.

‘I am dying, Egypt, dying; only

I here importune death awhile, until

Of many thousand kisses the poor last

I lay up thy lips.’

Cal’s throat dried, rereading Antony’s dying wish to kiss his love. How difficult would it be to convince her that they should go with this one first? Surely it would make sense to start with the most difficult part?

It didn’t take much for her to realise that didn’t make a lot of sense as much as she wished it did, so she instead flipped to an earlier, less intimate part of the story.

“Maybe we should start with something less…tragic?” Cal mused.

Juliette nodded eagerly until Cal found Antony and Cleopatra’s first scene together and then handed it back to the budding vampiric thespian. 

During the proceeding hour the pair silently negotiated neutral ground as the floor, where they sat facing each other as they recited the bard’s words.

It was a position they had taken before during their last deep talk about their feelings but the bed was absolutely a no-go area and the position obscured Cal’s view of everything wedding related.

Plus, there was a greater gulf of distance between them compared to all of those months ago.

Just as Cal was about to spout yet more Shakespearean language her phone buzzed and she instinctively pulled it out, expecting another short notice assignment from the Guild.

Instead, she was treated to a pleasant invitation.

Apollo and Theo were reconnecting at a slower rate than she was with their brother but he was trying, which was why he asked if she would be up for meeting them at a local pub for dinner. With her in depth knowledge of vampires, he probably assumed thats he would be the perfect ice breaker during any lulls in the conversation. 

“Apollo asked if I wanted to meet him and Theo for dinner,” Cal announced.

Juliette snapped the book closed, really smiling at the news.

Was it because she knew that this would make her best man happy or her newest friend? Either way, the smile was utterly dazzling.

“You should go,” Juliette said eagerly, “Thanks for…”

“Why don’t you come too?” tumbled out of the hunter’s mouth before she could really consider what it was that she was offering, so she quickly had to qualify with, “Allegra’s with Hayley, right?”

Juliette tilted her head as Cal gathered her things in order to give herself a reason to break their eye contact, “How do you know that?” the vampire asked.

“I have Chemistry with Hayley, she mentioned a dress fitting?” Cal shrugged

Juliette paused and Cal was certain that she was questioning what would possess the hunter and werewolf to discuss their personal lives.

Ultimately though she nodded and said, “If you’re sure that Apollo wouldn’t mind?”

“I’m sure,” Cal assured so Juliette also stood to gather the things she needed to go for dinner with the Burns siblings. 

S

Had she spent years hiding a friendship unnecessarily?

This thought had been plaguing Allegra since introducing Rowan and Richard Davenport to Hayley Ramon the day after she got to Savannah.

Neither of them said a single bigoted word towards the werewolf, none of the insults that had been so casually flung at the pack back home.

They were perhaps more respectful to her than they even were towards Margot and Sebastian. To be fair, their family did have greater, more direct, issues with them rather than the ill-defined disdain that existed between vampires and werewolves.

This unexpected acceptance had Allegra consider that she could casually mention the kiss to her mother to see how she felt about it. Was it at all possible that she wouldn’t be disgusted?

Or was it just that agreeing to marry an Atwood that had granted her the leeway to have a werewolf friend that she wouldn’t have had before?

Surely her mother would not have agreed to join her and Haley for the maid of honour dress fitting if she knew her daughter wanted something more than friendship?

That she thought that Juliette Fairmont was nice, beautiful and pleasant but she simply couldn’t compare to the girl who had been her first tangible connection outside of her family.

The problem was that the Roman wolf pack had nothing of note to offer a Legacy family. Didn’t heir ill-hidden distaste when itc ame to Margot Fairmont prove how they felt about choosing love over duty?

These thoughts continued swirling around her mind until a light beside her force her to look away from the closed dressing room and towards her mother.

Rowan was either checking the time or for something to fill the time, but she apparently found nothing to entertain, as she slipped the phone back into the bag at her high-heeled feet and then folded her hands atop her pencil skirt.

Despite the regalness of her demeanour, she always smiled so naturally at her daughter, probably a product of coming from a lesser Legacy family even if she had been a Davenport for much longer at this point.

It was this certainty of affection that had a pent up question spill from Allegra without giving herself time to consider it, “How long did you know dad before your wedding day?”

Rowan drew her eyebrows together momentarily but this was evidently more to do with the break in the silence rather than the content of the question. After all, there was no one in her life who better understood the arrangement that she had agreed to.

“Well after…you know, your uncle’s intended wedding to Margot Atwood, your grandfather was desperate to shore up the family’s connections in some way. I believe it was a week or two?”

Allegra puffed out her cheeks, but resisted the strong desire to slump too deeply into the padded dressing room chair. 

“So I am lucky then,” she muttered.

Not noticing the intonation or resignation Rowan nodded, “Quite, and Juliette is lovely as well.”

“Yes she is,” Allegra replied, almost prepared to press further. To ask when it was that Rowan found herself able to love the man she barely knew. That answer may involve potentially revealing things about her parents, however. Would it be worth knowing whether their affection for each other was an act if it meant that she could deal with how difficult it had been to force herself to love someone she simply didn’t?

It was her mother’s next, casual statement that prevented her from asking though.

“Of course, your father and I have been so proud of how well you have been handling this opportunity.”

This banished all thoughts of abandoning duty for whatever it was that she thought she could have with Hayley, at least for the moment.

Satisfied that there was no chance she would destroy her mother’s pride right now, she leaned against the older woman until the curtain of the dressing room was thrown back.

Allegra slowly lifted her head away from her mother to behold the sight of the wobbly Hayley emerged a few inches taller than normal and in a tight, light purple dress that would perfectly match the colour of Theo’s suit.

It took her mother’s polite “that is very nice, dear,” for Allegra to recall what this dress was for.

Hoping that she wasn’t blushing too hard for Rowan to notice, she wet her lips as Hayley patted uncomfortably at the fabric and then said, “You look beautiful, Hal.”

Haley stopped touching the dress and returned with a dazzling smile that had Allegra’s face burn so hard that she had to stand and go over to her friend to make sure that her back was to her mother as she took in the full attire with a grin. 

Chapter Text

Chapter Fifteen 

Juliette Fairmont could not have conceptualised being invited to a meal with the Burns Siblings in which her presence was supposed to help to break the ice.

She was aware of Apollo’s efforts to reconnect with his brother but had yet to see the other hunter since their return to Savannah. She was not entirely confident that he could be comfortable around the girl who turned Theo, but then again, she wouldn’t have thought that the same could ever be true of Cal after the tip of that spear burned into her heart.

Now they were sharing a car ride heading towards the pub as if it was a completely normal activity for them.

If only it wasn’t for the glittering weight on her left hand, Jules may have been tempted to use the proximity as an excuse to touch the other teen, but she had all the reminder that she needed that it was no longer an option.

She should be thinking about her fiance. Perhaps she should have already sent a text to Allegra to ask how the dress fitting was going?

That was something that she should have been showing interest in, right?

Before she could free her phone to do just that, Cal pulled up to the pub and they each took a moment to appreciate that it wasn’t the location of the beginning of the end for what they could have been.

This wasn’t Juliette’s only objection to this arrangement though, so she adjusted her hoodie and asked, “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Of course,” Cal replied swiftly, “I asked Theo and he said it was cool.”

“And Apollo?”

“Well…he’s trying really hard and he knows that we’re friends,” Cal shrugged, “Besides, Theo will probably appreciate the help with answering all of the vamp questions.”

Juliette cringed and asked, “You don’t think we’ll talk about vampires all night?”

“Is that a problem?” Cal chuckled.

Juliette huffed and said, “I guess it’s better than negotiating seating plans again.”

Cal’s smile fell at the mention of the wedding, her memory flashing back to all of the plans on display in Juliette’s bedroom. She may not have inspected them with any particular interest but she could comprehend enough to know that there was plenty of time and effort going into the grand event.

It strongly suggested that it was an event that was actually going to happen.

Cal pushed that aside, though, and allowed herself to focus on the fact that she could spend time with her friend and brothers at the same time. 

It would have been an unattainable feat not too long ago so she could stand to be more appreciative rather than clinging to possible futures.

Opening the car door, she said, “I’m sure we can find stuff to talk about between the four of us, come on.”

Juliette followed her into the most high-end bar in Savannah (which wasn’t exactly saying too much) and found the two hunters nestled on opposite sides of a booth towards the back of the space. 

Cal stopped to watch them and Juliette came short of stumbling into her.

She had years of experience with her brothers and had witnessed daily what Theo’s absence did to Apollo, how visibly angry he became when someone made an offhand comment about vampires being irredeemable monsters.

This made it refreshing to see them interacting in such a familiar setting, however, there was some quality that was off about their demeanours.

Their lips were moving but not with the passion of one of their debates that Cal had never imagined missing until they were suddenly gone from her life.

“What are they saying?” Cal asked.

Juliette frowned, but tilted her head in their direction, listening for a second before she said, “Sounds like it’s about football…or maybe basketball?”

Cal puffed out her cheeks, that was what she was afraid of. This certainly did not appear to be one of their discussions about whatever sport was in season.

Maybe it wasn’t too far-fetched that all they really had to really talk about now were vampires?

Despite this, she forged ahead, followed closely by Juliette.

Their presence effectively ended the stilted conversation and each brother visibly relaxed.

“Hey!” Apollo greeted, unnecessarily shifting to make space for his sister who readily slipped in beside him.

Juliette hesitated but did the same to sit next to Theo and the four of them were silent until Theo announced, “Mom’s just getting drinks…”

“Your mom’s here?” Juliette asked, suddenly on alert for the other hunter.

The Burns family matriarch was always more than courteous whenever the Legacy Vampire was in her home but that felt like nothing compared to what she was currently gate-crashing.

“Yeah,” Apollo said, “I sort of invited her on my way out.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I’ll just leave you all to…” Juliette started as Cal opened her mouth to object. 

She ultimately didn’t need to, however, as Talia Burns had already appeared before the vampire had even started to stand and offer to walk home to give the family the time that they so desperately needed.

“Don’t worry about it Juliette,” Talia assured, placing down some beers to free up her hands so that she could pull over an unused chair from a nearby table, “You’re very welcome to stay. Legacies can still eat, right?”

Juliette swallowed hard but nodded, “We can, Mrs Burns.”

Talia sat and passed her a menu, “Then you should order whatever you want.”

Juliette exchanged a look with Cal who nodded encouragingly.

“I hear the steak is good here,” Theo offered.

“I guess you would both want that rare?” Apollo said, seemingly not thinking about the comment too much.

Talia and Cal stared at him in disbelief until Theo released a laugh and Apollo brightened.

“What?” Theo asked as the disbelief was turned on him, “That was pretty funny.”

“I’ve heard it like a thousand times,” Juliette added, a smile tugging at her lips as the awkward atmosphere began to melt markedly.

“Well, I wouldn’t have thought there’d be many vampire puns,” Talia mused.

“You would be surprised,” Juliette replied.

With the ice officially broken, the conversation between the unlikely group actually began to flow dangerously close to naturally,

In fact, after their food arrived, the topic surprisingly did move away from vampires to a wide array of other things, though it did mercifully stay away from the other major elephant in the room.

This was despite Talia’s desire to find out more about how her son was doing as her best man, but she managed to resist.

The awkwardness returned at the end of the meal as Theo left with Juliette rather than the rest of his family but this was replaced rather quickly by gratitude on all fronts for how well it had gone overall.

Of course, it would have been a different story if Jack Burns was anywhere near Savannah, the three human Burns would have had to justify enjoying time with two ‘monsters’. As it was, he was still taking any excuse to stay away which felt like it was for the best for the moment.

Cal wasn’t sure that she could handle having to justify her friendship and renewed bond with Theo when she wanted so much more.

She wanted things to go back to how they were before, with the exception of her parents pointing weapons so wilfully at her girlfriend. 

It conjured images of a different version of that meal whereby she and Juliette were huddled on the same side of the booth, with none of her family members voicing any objections. The apparent plausibility of that scenario now filled the hunter with resentment that boiled through her during the entire drive home.

Fortunately, the responsibility of being the only one sober enough to drive gave her something to focus on rather than what could have been if things were blissfully different.

This forced tranquillity was banished, however, the moment that the trio entered their home and Talia mused as she discarded her keys to a bowl on a table, “She really is a lovely girl.”

Cal’s hand hovered over the bowl, her own keys unable to fall under her pincer grip as she blanched at the older woman while Apollo nodded in absent agreement.

Her hand shuddered before allowing the keys to drop as she exploded, “Why couldn’t you have liked her before?!”

Both Talia and Apollo swivelled around, regarding her incredulously as if this had at all come from nowhere.

Cal swallowed thickly and mumbled a feeble ‘I’m sorry, just tired’ before zooming up the stairs, needing to get away from this suffocation.

Talia’s words created more acute images of what could have been in her mind. 

In a world where her mother liked her girlfriend, perhaps they would have gotten permission for a sleepover? She could have taken Juliette on a real date that they’d never had the opportunity to go on during their whirlwind romance.

Maybe if they had been a real couple, she wouldn’t have jumped straight to hatred after finding out about her brother’s fate?

She paced back and forth, too consumed to recognise that she wasn’t alone until a hand touched her shoulder.

She flinched hard, but the more experienced hunter was prepared to lightly grab her arm before she could make contact in a slicing motion.

“Something you need to talk about, Calliope?” Talia asked, not a hint of judgement in her voice.

Cal puffed out her cheeks and attempted to shake her head, but could already see how unconvincing the action was by the tilting of her mother’s head. It was for this reason that she allowed the older woman to lead her over to her bed where she sat down next to her.

Cal threw her face into her hands, unsure whether it was out of anguish or embarrassment.

The clench of her heart at Talia’s questions did nothing to elucidate this point for her:

“Do you still have feelings for Juliette, Cal?”

Cal dragged her face up, searching for signs of disgust that no doubt would have been there over half a year ago. She was met instead with sympathy, likely born from her inability to stop caring for her vampiric son.

Cal measured her response for a few moments, weighing up whether lying would achieve anything, but ultimately decided that her actions would hardly support whatever she could come up with.

With her eyes glued to Talia, Cal asked, “What would you say if…I’m in love with her?”

Talia, completely unsurprised, draped an arm over her daughter and pulled her into her side, where she burrowed readily.

“Have you told her?”

“I can’t,” Cal replied, sighing tiredly, “She’s getting married.”

“Do you think that will actually happen?” Talia said doubtfully, “She’s so…young…”

“She’s doing it for her family, I don’t think that she thinks she has a choice,” Cal said sniffing, but her forehead creased and she pushed back to ask, “Wait…you want me to tell her?”

“I want you to be happy,” Talia replied with very little hesitation.

Cal felt that same frustration from downstairs boiling back within her but managed to ask her question calmly, “And you didn’t want that…before?”

Talia released a long breath before inclining her head, “We really believed that she had done something…vampy to make you think that you cared about her. We were trying to protect you.”

“Because you think she’s a monster?”

“Not anymore,” Talia replied softly, almost guiltily, “I have always been taught that vampires, especially Legacies, are irredeemable, but I see that is wrong. I can’t hate someone who would do anything for my children. I’m…sorry that I couldn’t have seen that before.”

Cal fiddled with the fabric of her jeans, those words should have been liberating, but what if they were too late?

Despite thinking that, there was a question that she was unable to ignore even with the implausibility of it all, “Do you think…dad will ever feel the same way?”

Talia was still for what felt like a long time during which Cal was certain that she was attempting to formulate a response with a dose of sugar coating. This was so foreign to the hunter, however, so she ultimately couldn’t think of anything sufficient.

How could she when Jack Burns was unwilling to engage even with his vampiric son?

“Even if he doesn’t, you need to focus on what you feel, we may have failed to show you…before but we do just want you to be safe and happy. I can see now that Juliette would give you that.”

Cal huffed, this should have filled her with hope but that was so unreachable now.

“Thanks, mom…but I don’t think it matters anymore. She’s marrying Allegra in a few months and then…I guess we’ll just stay friends?” she said unconvincingly.

“So you’re going to be friends with Juliette and her wife?” Talia pondered.

Cal groaned despite knowing that her mother had not said that maliciously, she flopped down to the mattress and threw her arm over her eyes.

“What other choice do I have?”

Cal had her arm dragged away to reveal the older woman looking down at her, wholly unimpressed.

“Since when do you choose not to fight for what you want, Calliope?”

“They’re getting married for their families,” Cal retorted with the objection that had bounced around her head on more than one occasion, “What can I offer her that Allegra can’t?”

“Love? A normal relationship?” Talia suggested.

“You think our relationship would be normal?” Cal asked doubtfully even as she recalled every time she and Juliette had embraced and she’d forgotten that she was born into a centuries-old Guild with a singular duty to protect.

Apparently, she’d asked this question hopefully enough to make her mother release a laugh as she pulled her daughter’s prone body to bring her into a tight hug.

“There’s one way to find out, Cal,” she said softly.

Cal wet her lips and just nodded as she did her best to hold in her tears. This was particularly difficult with the knowledge that it had taken a tragic break-up, six months and an arranged marriage to gain acceptance from just one parent

Chapter Text

Chapter Sixteen

Juliette Fairmont couldn’t quite believe that she was once again dedicating a Saturday morning to discussing minute details of her wedding that had been agreed long ago, but arguing with Davina would waste more time than just doing it.

Unless it was something as monumental as who got to be part of the wedding party, of course.

Her fiancee on the other end of the FaceTime call was apparently of the same opinion, letting out a groan as Juliette moved on to the next item on her extensive to-do list.

Allegra’s head hit the pillow beneath her as she sighed, “I thought that your grandmother already agreed to the arrangements?”

“Well…” Juliette replied, propping her head up on her open palm, “She’s been less…accommodating since…”

She trailed off and dropped her hand as she searched for the correct words to cushion her grandmother’s bigotry but Allegre beat her to it by supplying, “Since I invited a werewolf to live with you?”

Juliette hummed, “She knows that she can’t change my mind so she’s pulling out the age-old Atwood passive aggression.”

Allegra frowned, sitting up into a more attentive position as she replied, “I’m sorry…”

Juliette shook her head to cut off the apology, going for a smile that she was aware probably came off as more tired than anything but she said sincerely, “Don’t worry. This is her problem. My parents like having Hayley around.”

Allegre nodded, momentarily comforted, but her frown promptly returned as she asked unsurely, “And you?”

“Me?” Juliette said, frowning herself now.

Part of her was eager to return to the topics on the list that were screaming up to her from her desk that they had not been ticked off at the rate that she was hoping for when starting this call, but she pulled herself out of this, aware that a relationship was not a list of items to be crossed off as efficiently as was humanly (or was it vampirically?) possible.

Allegra’s hesitation gave her the chance to reposition herself in her chair in an effort to show that she had her full attention for whatever it was that was bothering her.

“What do you think of Hayley?” Allegra finally got out, like it wasn’t a simple question.

Juliette shrugged, responding honestly, “She seems great, we haven’t really talked much. Why do you ask?”

Hunching her shoulders in a way that was perhaps the most vulnerable that she had ever seen the other girl, Allegra struggled to explain, “I don’t know…I guess…I just want my wife and friend to get along, you know?” 

“Oh yeah, that makes sense,” Juliette said, her hand moving independently to add ‘talk to Hayley’ to the wedding to-do list, “I’ll talk to her…”

Before Allegra could express gratitude for the promise of effort she was going to make, a polite knock at the door had Juliette turning around as her mother entered a split second later.

“Juliette, do you have a moment?”

“Oh, I…” Juliette began, shifting so that her laptop screen was viewable to the older vampire.

Margot halted, clasping her hands respectfully in front of her, “My apologies, Allegra.”

“It’s okay Mrs Fairmont,” Allegra replied, plastering on that charming smile that Juliette noticed she wore around older Legacies, “You’ve actually saved me from another hour-long discussion about floral arrangements. I should be finishing my history paper anyway.”

Juliette’s eyes flew wide as she violently spun around to whip the wedding list aside to reveal the academic one that was actually longer due to a fair amount of neglect.

Slapping the desk as she scanned the list to confirm that the history paper was indeed on there, she exclaimed, “Oh god, I’m in that class too!”

Margot furrowed her brow as she tilted her head at her frantic daughter and Allegra laughed, “Call me if you need help?”

Juliette nodded distantly, taking in all of the items listed that felt impossible despite her access to superspeed as the call ended, leaving her alone with her mother.

Margot approached the desk to perch against and then turned the chair to force the younger vampire to look up at her, still frantically trying to flick her gaze back to her desk littered with work.

“This is actually what I wanted to talk to you about, Juliette,” she said softly, “Your father and I have noticed that you may be a little overwhelmed lately.”

“I’m fine, Mom,” Juliette replied distractedly, switching back to the list dedicated to the wedding tasks and comparing it to the academic one, searching for the easiest thing to check off as she added, “I just have a lot to do, but I’ll figure it out.”

Margot was about to reach over to take the paper away to force the girl to provide her with full attention but the conversation was also interrupted by a knock at the already ajar door.

Both vampires were surprised by the arrival, too wrapped up in what they were doing to be aware of the opening and closing of the front door to the Fairmont estate moments ago.

“Hey, Jules,” Cal greeted unsurely, “Your dad let me in…why do you look surprised?”

Juliette blinked, utterly confused until she registered the copy of Anthony and Cleopatra in the hunter’s grasp and she was reminded swiftly of another obligation that she had agreed to.

The audition was in a few days and Cal had been gracious enough to offer to help run lines in exchange for help with their Physics homework.

“What day is it?” Juliette rushed out and both Margot and Cal raised their eyebrows at her.

“It’s Saturday,” Cal replied slowly, “We’re supposed to run lines, right?”

Clearing her throat, Margot unhitched herself from the desk after a glance between the two friends and then announced, “I will leave you both to it.”

Juliette blinked as the Fairmont matriarch vacated the room and shut the door as if she’d never before had a problem with her daughter being alone with a member of the guild.

Of course, she wouldn’t have guessed that it was because Margot was confident that Calliope Burns was the best person to calm Juliette down.

Not that she had the mental capacity to make this guess now anyway as she spun back to her desk to begin looking for where she had put the preparations for her audition amidst the multitudes of lists and realising that she had omitted it.

“You okay, Jules?” Cal ventured, making an effort to not move closer to the other teen.

At last, descending into superspeed, Juliette sifted through all of the papers on her desk including the pile of books for all of her school subjects which had been neglected.

“I have two papers to write, we have to figure out the floral arrangements again because grandmother is in another mood and I still need to learn how to waltz…”

She froze as fingers circled her wrist and she slowly looked up at the hunter who hastened to retract the touch which had successfully broken her frenzy.

Cal chewed unsurely at her bottom lip before she reluctantly suggested, “I know that Allegra is taller than me but I could show you how to waltz while we run lines? You know…two birds with one stone?”

Juliette opened and closed her mouth a few times, a thousand objections coming to mind in an instant.

One of them overrode the others and she asked sceptically, “You know how to dance?”

Going for nonchalance, that was not at all effective when Juliette could hear the spike in her heart rate, Cal shrugged, “The Guild teaches it. It’s useful for recon missions.” 

Cautiously, Juliette stood up so that the pair were standing more closely than they had in months and replied, “Are you sure that…you would be comfortable…with that?”

The hunter’s heart rate reached new heights but her facial features were schooled into neutrality as she nodded, “I am…if you are?”

Following a protracted hesitation, Juliette accepted Cal’s hand and was eternally grateful that her ex-girlfriend couldn’t detect the fluttering in her stomach as her hand slowly came to her waist and she began leading them both backwards and forwards at a steady pace.

The symptoms certainly were not helped as Cal began reciting Shakespearan, but Juliette hoped that she hid her feelings as well as she could while replying to each line and attempting to remember that she needed to learn to waltz.

It wouldn’t be too long until she would be doing this in front of a crowd of Legacies with her wife, after all.

S

Dancing with Juliette Fairmont was not the plan when Cal went over to run lines a couple of days ago, but she was finding it difficult to regret it.

How could she regret getting to hold the girl she loved close again while receding the kind of romantic lines that only William Shakespeare could have written?

For half an hour, she forgot that Juliette was engaged to be married. Frankly, it was a miracle that she had initiated a kiss in all of their swaying. 

It was this that made her want to keep the whole thing quiet but it became clear that this was not an option the moment that she put her tray down on the lunch table and Hayley demanded with a raised eyebrow, “So what was with the dancing lessons? Was that supposed to be friendly?”

Cal cringed, coming short of picking up her sandwich as she said, sheepishly, “You heard that?”

Popping a chip into her mouth, Hayley replied, “Pretty sure a human could have heard your heartbeat a mile away.”

Cal drew her eyebrows together, certain that meant that Juliette was aware of her body’s reaction to their proximity, but before she analysed this undeniable fact in much detail a ball of energy arrived at their lunch table.

“Calliope!” Phillipa faux-admonished, “I’m gone for like a week and you’ve already replaced me?!”

“You wanted me to be more sociable,” Cal shrugged as Phillipa slipped into the seat opposite them.

Hayley shot Cal a bewildered look but she didn’t react to it, not sure whether she should be more insulted that the werewolf was surprised that she had other friends.

Hayley didn’t get a chance to request clarification as to who this intruder was as Phillipa kept going at a million miles a minute, “I suppose I did. Hey…are you the other new girl? Savannah has never been this interesting.”

“I’m only here until the wedding,” Hayley interjected, clearly hoping that this would deter the other teen’s thirst for information.

Cal, of course, predicted the way that Phillipa perked up a second before she did, hungry to know more about the drama that was Juliette Fairmont getting married.

“Oh?” Phillipa encouraged.

“Hayley is Allegra’s Maid of Honour,” Cal supplied in an effort to supply the information that she so desperately wanted.

Predictably, though, the other teen leaned forward eagerly, “So, you knew Allegra before? Tell me everything!”

“I..err..” Hayley said, opening and closing her mouth a few times, unable to settle on what she could actually tell this human who would have no idea that Juliette and Allegra were only getting married to honour thousands of years of Legacy vampire traditions.

Cal saved her from having to come up with anything by interjecting, “Phillipa, eat your lunch.”

Retracting, Phillipa nodded and pulled a box out of her bag to begin doing as she was told much to Hayley’s intense relief.

Across the cafeteria, Allegra stood holding the tray with food that Juliette advised her to get each school day to keep up the illusion that she was normal.

At that moment, she did little to hide that she was listening to the conversation happening a few tables down.

She perhaps should have been more bothered to learn that her fiancee had danced with her ex-girlfriend who was so obviously still in love with her but she was instead struck by how close said ex-girlfriend was sitting beside her…beside her Hayley.

She didn’t stop staring until Juliette approached from the cafeteria entrance, greeting her with a “Hey, Allegra.”

Allegra turned her head automatically to accept the chaste kiss that her fellow vampire pressed against her lips before returning to the trio sharing lunch across the way, “Hi…are they friends?”

Juliette followed her gaze towards the table where Cal was touching Hayley’s arm and from this angle, it was not obvious that she was just wiping some spilled sauce away for her.

“I think they have Chemistry together,” Juliette replied.

“What?” Allegra asked, whipping her attention to her fiancee.

Frowning, Juliette clarified slowly, “You know, the class?”

Relaxing, Allegra nodded, “Right,” and then swiftly changed the subject to what Juliette had spent her morning free period doing, “How was your audition?”

Juliette also wrenched her gaze away from the unlikely trio as she replied, “I think it went well but pretty sure I won’t have time to do it anyway. The production is like the week before the wedding.”

Now giving her fiancee her full attention, forcing herself to recall the concern she had felt for her during their last video call, Allegra said, “If you want to do it, we can figure it out. Give me one of your lists…I’ll get Hayley to help. That’s a Maid of Honour thing, right?”

Juliette nodded, “I guess…” and then smiled a little, “Thank you, Allegra.”

“Sure,” the taller vampire replied, “Come on, let's go sit down.”

There was no need for discussion, both of them opting to head to a table as far away from the one they were staring at as they could.

S

Calliope Burns had never before had much interest in extracurricular at any of her other schools, she certainly never would have so much as entertained the possibility that she would perform in a school play.

After the first night that she got to sleep next to Juliette Fairmont, though, she was rather partial to the theatre.

Not only would it give her the credits to graduate from the first school that she would stay at long enough to actually finish, but it also gave her more opportunities to see her ex-girlfriend.

By now, she was way beyond trying to deny that she wanted to be around her, even if she was beginning the process of accepting that they could only ever be friends.

Upon deciding to audition, she planned initially to go for Anthony, knowing that Lancaster Academy would have no issue at all putting on a same-sex Shakespearean production. This plan didn’t last very long at all when she realised that this would be a creepy and contrived way of getting to kiss Juliette again, no matter how desperately she wanted it.

It was for this reason that she went for a smaller part which she fortunately got, and would give her the opportunity to offer to run lines again after she confirmed that Juliette got the lead role.

While they did this, Cal was able to let everything fall away, to believe that the other girl was not set to get married sooner than any other teenager should have to.

She could pretend that they were normal high schoolers just getting ready to perform in front of everyone who would attend the play.

Looking forward to spending her Saturday morning in this way, hoping that Juliette would be more relaxed than she was the week before, Cal approached the Fairmont estate.

She thought nothing of it as the door opened before she could knock, Sebastian Fairmont was momentarily stunned by her presence, but quickly recovered, more than used to the hunter being in his home by this point.

“Sorry Miss Burns,” he said distractedly, moving around her and looking at his phone, “Emergency at work, but Juliette is in her room, feel free to head up.”

“Thank you, sir,” Cal called back as he rushed off to his car.

Pretty soon, Cal would realise that she should have been more cautious in response to his haste when it became clear that he was moving too fast to consider the implications of letting his daughter’s ex-girlfriend go upstairs.

Cal headed up with a spring in her step, going straight to Juliette’s room. She knocked and waited a solid ten seconds before opening the door.

Illusions of a carefree morning were shattered as she pecked through to find the reason that Sebastian should have asked her to wait in the foyer while he called his daughter down.

Juliette was fast asleep, which was a sight that Cal would have revelled in if she was alone.

The bed was littered with boards, papers and post-it notes, so it appeared that the couple had fallen asleep while planning their wedding.

Cal’s heart clenched as Juliette shifted, only to burrow further into Allegra’s neck, both of them remaining asleep.

The hunter retreated, somehow having the good sense to not slam the heavy door as she all but ran down the hall. She didn’t bother knocking at the next door, throwing it open to reveal Hayley laid out across her bed, holding a book over her face.

The reason that werewolf didn’t react to her presence became clear as Cal approached to see the noise-cancelling headphones covering her ears.

Cal tore them off and Hayley shot up, discarding the book.

Her eyes glowed briefly as she growled but Cal did nothing, waiting for recognition to overcome the other girl.

This only took a second, her eyes returning to normal as she snatched the headphones back, throwing them atop the book with a huff.

“Well, good morning to you too, Calliope,” she greeted begrudgingly.

“Allegra is here?” Cal demanded, despite knowing the answer.

Hayley hunched her shoulders and scowled, “Hench the headphones,” she grumbled.

“They didn’t…” the hunter began but trailed off.

Did she have the right to know whether her ex-girlfriend would have sex with her fiancee?

“No idea,” Hayley cut her off, probably as willing to think about Allegra being with Juliette as she was, pointing to the device on the book, she reiterated, “Headphones.”

Hugging her midsection, Cal hesitated before asking, unsure whether she wanted the answer, “Do you know if Legacies…you know…wait for marriage?”

“It’s never come up,” Hayley sighed, “Isn’t it in one of your vampire tomes?”

Suddenly sympathetic towards the werewolf, figuring that there was not enough noise cancellation in the world that would make Cal able to handle being in the same house as the couple with supernatural hearing, she was about to sit down and apologise.

She didn’t get to make a move, though, as the door opened for a yawning Allegra, “Hey Hayley, do you want to go for breakfast? Juliette is running lines with Calliope this morning…”

Allegra halted, narrowing her eyes at the unexpected presence in her best friend’s room.

Cal’s own gaze flicked up and down the vampire, searching for evidence to answer her question, but came up with nothing.

Instead of lingering any longer on Allegra, who was looking annoyingly beautiful even though she had only been awake for a few minutes and allowing herself to fall into unproductive comparisons, Cal unstuck herself.

As she passed the vampire, she mumbled, “Morning, Allegra.”

Allegra kept her eyes narrowed as Cal vacated the room to finally go and see Juliette.

Maybe she could claw back her pleasant morning if she didn’t ask questions that she didn’t want the answer to?

Chapter Text

Chapter Seventeen

Allegra was making her way through the to-do list as promised throughout the morning.

Other than receiving a message from Davina that she needed to head over to the Fairmont estate after her lunch plans with her mother, she was making good progress, which allowed her fiancee to practice for her play with her ex-girlfriend.

She perhaps would have dwelled on this fact if she hadn’t spent the whole morning with Hayley Ramon.

She had been a major factor in getting through the copious list, being surprisingly effective with the multiple vendors that they met with but they had reached the portion of the activities that the werewolf was the least excited about.

As far as Allegra was aware, this would mark the first time that her friend had ever even entertained the idea of wearing a dress. Beyond some grumblings, however, she entered the changing room of the boutique just as Oliver and Theo exited their own, back in their normal clothes after ensuring that their suits fitted perfectly.

Allegra tried at a smile towards Theo, which he returned with a small, reluctant wave. It wasn’t precisely a friendly interaction but it was definitely progress from the last time she saw him at the party.

As for Oliver, he didn’t bother looking at his sister-in-law-to-be, seemingly having begrudgingly accepted his role in the wedding only enough to be physically present at obligations such as this.

She pulled out the to-do list to cross off the suits rather than allowing herself to worry too much about whether her relationship with the pair would improve at all if…when she was officially Juliette’s wife.

She was only somewhat aware of the store owner telling her that she was just popping out for lunch while she surveyed the list for anything else that they could achieve that day.

The only thing that could drag her attention away from the impending and unavoidable deadlines written out so dauntingly before her was the tearing across of the curtain that separated her from her friend.

Hayley hugged herself while stepping forward but let go to better present the deep red dress, chosen to match Theo and Oliver’s ties, and the to-do list slipped from the vampire’s grip as she stood up. After much debating between her parents and Davina, it had been deemed that it would be better than the purple one from their last fitting, so Hayley had begrudgingly accepted to a do over of this ordeal.

For a second, she understood Juliette when she said she wanted to be normal, to be a human. If they both were, then it would be much more believable that Hayley wasn’t trying on her Maid of Honour dress, she could perhaps pretend it was for prom.

A prom that she could have asked her to go to as her date.

If she was human, she would have met Hayley at school, they would hopefully be friends and then…more. She definitely wouldn’t be getting married to a girl in Savannah.

As much as she had grown to enjoy Juliette’s company, this reality sounded nice.

This second of thought culminated in a single, almost strangled word, to leave Allegra’s mouth, “You don’t think I look weird?”

“Is this seriously the second time you’ve worn a dress?” Allegra asked, crossing her arms as if it would do anything to mitigate the blush blooming across her cheeks, not that Hayley was looking up to see this as she shrugged. Allegra swallowed hard trying to think of the best way to impart how beautiful she was, unconsciously drawing closer until the inevitable words left her mouth, “You look perfect, Hayley.”

The werewolf’s attention shot up, her cheeks also getting brighter as she registered their proximity with widened eyes.

She recovered in a few seconds, turning towards the mirror, though it didn’t really seem like she was looking at the dress in much detail now. Over her shoulder, she asked, “Do you need to try on your dress today? I assume it’s one of the white ones?”

Allegra dragged her teeth over her bottom lip, reminded starkly that she was engaged to be married. Aware of the weight of the ring on her left hand, she replied, “I’m wearing my mom’s dress. She had it fitted before we even left for Savannah. I think it’s old fashioned but it makes her happy, so…”

In the mirror, Allegra saw the minute clench of her friend’s jaw before she turned around to face her again, trying for an easy smile, “I'm sure you’ll look amazing. You always do.”

“Thank you,” Allegra said, wearing a similarly forced smile, “And…I’ve been meaning to say…thanks for everything, Hayley. I know you probably didn’t want to come all the way here.”

“Of course, I did, you’re here,” Hayley responded, doing nothing about how closely they were still standing, “I know I was angry when you left but…I really missed you.”

Rather than telling her that she missed her just as deeply Allegra felt another pull towards the other teen, this time it was her face that moved closer. Hayley did the same a beat later but their lips unfortunately did not get to touch as the bell over the door rang out.

Allegra took a stride backwards, praying for the store owner to have returned but her rapidly beating heart shot up into her throat upon registering that it was her mother breezing in.

Her announcement, wholly devoid of the scorn that her voice would have if she was aware that her daughter had feelings for a werewolf on top of being friends with one, came out as she took a few steps inside, “Are you almost finished dear? Our reservation is soon.”

Allegra became acutely aware that her mother was purposefully not looking at Hayley, which she supposed was a step up from insisting that a werewolf couldn’t attend her wedding.

Hayley, apparently unbothered by this obvious disrespect, cleared her throat, “I guess that’s my queue. Go ahead, I’ll wait and tell her that we’re getting this one. You can tick me off your to-do list.”

“Hayley, I…” Allegra objected, hating how resigned the girl she loved sounded. She couldn’t think of a single potential remedy to this, barring throwing caution (and obligation) to the wind and kissing Hayley in front of Mrs Davenport, “You should come to lunch with us.”

“The reservation is only for two, I’m afraid, “ her mother interjected, continuing to address her daughter as if there was no one else in the store.

Frustrated, Allegra wanted to say that she would actually rather go with her friend right now, but she could instead just produce a sigh and a resigned, “Mom…” not entirely sure what she wanted to follow up with.

Hayley saved her from having to figure out her next words as she began heading back into the changing room, “It’s okay…I’ll just go to the library. I have homework anyway. I’ll call you later.”

Allegra started to protest but the curtain had already been pulled across and her mother yanked the door open, “Come on, dear.”

Despite wishing that she was capable of defending Hayley to her parents in the same way that Juliette had to her grandmother, Allegra ultimately bit her tongue and followed her mother dutifully.

S

“I am dying Egypt, dying only

I here importune death a while, until

Of many thousand kisses the poor last 

I lay up thy lips.”

The moment that Calliope Burns reached this line, Juliette watched her take a step back.

It was late afternoon and they had been running lines for at least a couple of hours, but this apparently didn’t prevent the hunter from understanding the meaning of these tragic words.

The stage direction edited into the script probably didn’t help either; ‘Cleopatra kisses Antony’.

Cal’s arm dropped so that the offending script hung limply at her waist as she laughed nervously, “You should probably practice this part with Josh.”

Not commenting upon how she chose her co-star rather than Allegra to kiss, Juliette tried to keep things light despite the strangeness that came with the evolution of their relationship, “That will probably be just as awkward.”

Juliette heard the gritting of Cal’s teeth, likely trying not to appear hurt, but her response came out neutral, “Have you ever kissed a boy?”

The vampire discarded her own script to the desk that was currently mercifully devoid of lists and leaned against it. Cal remained standing in the middle of the room but inviting her to sit on the bed felt incorrect, so Juliette made a mental note to bring in an extra chair for their next planned session as she replied, “Yeah, Ben.”

Cal released one of her rare laughs, “Seriously?”

“I was young and naive,” Juliette shrugged, smiling at how they were gaining the ability to move beyond these awkward moments.

Perhaps it wasn’t so far-fetched to think that this friendship thing could be long-term?

“Enough to think you were straight?” Cal chuckled.

“Exactly,” Juliette also laughed, “It was a really rough time.”

Shaking her head, Cal asked, “Should we skip to the next scene?”

Juliette reached for her own script, about to suggest that they go back to one of Cal’s scenes, but her fingers only grazed the paper before her bedroom door unceremoniously burst open.

Both girls stood to attention, but Cal reluctantly relaxed, presumably fighting the instincts she’d trained for her whole life, but Juliette remained tense upon seeing that it was her grandmother holding a dress bag.

Unfortunately, there was only one dress that she would deem important enough to almost break the door down for.

“It has finally arrived,” Davina announced, holding the bag up unnecessarily. Juliette heard Cal swallow hard as she eyed it.

“Grandmother, I have company,” Juliette admonished.

“Yes, I am aware,” Davina dismissed, not even bothering to look at Cal, “But this cannot wait.”

“You do realise you’re being incredibly rude, right?” Juliette objected, aggravated as ever by Davina’s treatment of non-Legacies.

Not backing down, Davina said, “I disagree, I am being extremely cordial to the hunter.”

“Grandmother…” the younger vampire growled.

“It’s okay, Jules,” Cal inputted, diffusing the edges of her anger, “I can go.”

Not wanting her grandmother to win, but also enjoying the company, Juliette shook her head, “You don’t have to.”

“Yes,” Davina agreed, at the very least looking at the human now, “You might as well make yourself useful, you can help her to try this on.”

The dress was thrust into Cal’s hands before she could react and the smirk Davina boasted confirmed for Juliette that she was enjoying this. She was enjoying causing her granddaughter’s ex-girlfriend to suffer.

If she was any other grandmother, Juliette might have thought that this was out of some need to protect, but she was well aware that this woman’s actions were almost entirely motivated by bigotry right now.

“I…” Cal stuttered uncharacteristically, “Okay…sure.”

“Cal, you don’t have to do this,” Juliette rushed out and then snapping in her grandmother’s direction, she added, “I can try it on later!”

Davina opened her mouth to probably verbally manoeuvre herself into getting her own way immediately, but a call through the house got her attention instead. Margot was calling for her mother to come down to the kitchen.

Juliette silently thanked her mother for the save as Davina began retreating.

“I will be right back,” she said, gesturing to Cal in a ‘hurry up’ manner before closing the door behind her.

Juliette rolled her eyes but turned to her friend, trying not to dwell on how wrong it was that her ex-girlfriend was holding her wedding dress. The usually stoic hunter appeared entirely shell shocked about the entire situation.

Reaching her hand out to take it, Juliette hung it onto the wall next to her mirror as she said, “Seriously, Cal. You don’t have to do this, she is just intrusive and insane.”

Cal wrung her hands together, fighting against whatever she was about to say, but it came out regardless, “I can help. I can’t see Theo or Oliver being very helpful with this stuff.”

Juliette found herself nodding despite wanting to do this with literally anyone else and Cal turned around respectfully as she unzipped the bag and prepared to strip off her t-shirt and jean combination.

It crossed Juliette’s mind that there was some irony here considering that the hunter had certainly seen her in less than her underwear but she made short work of pulling on the A-line gown. The fitted bodice was patterned with white flowers which gradually widened into the skirt.

Supposedly, it would elongate her petite form but Juliette couldn’t help feeling as though she was playing dress up.

All the same, she said, “Okay, I’m ready.”

Cal dutifully turned, her gaze conspicuously averted until she was behind the vampire and doing up the zip.

She then took a step back, allowing Juliette to look into the mirror and see the full effect of the gown.

Touching the pattern, Juliette cautiously faced the other girl and then began fiddling with her hair.

It didn’t matter before that it was thrown up in a messy ponytail, but in this dress, it was a whole other matter entirely.

“Pretty sure it will look better with heels…and makeup,” Juliette observed, going for a laugh that had put them at ease before but Cal didn’t reciprocate.

She looked absolutely starstruck as her eyes moved up and down the dress, her heart beating so quickly that it was almost deafening for the vampire.

“Juliette,” she breathed, “You look…incredible…”

Apparently not in a frame of mind to consider whether the action was platonic or not, Cal took a step forward again, abolishing the barrier that was usually between them, she tucked the strand of hair behind her ear.

They may have spent the afternoon reciting Shakespeare to each other, but Juliette hadn’t yet been as struck by her lingering feelings for the other girl as right now.

Whether it was because of their physical proximity or the reverence with which she was being looked at, Juliette couldn’t be sure, but the explanation wouldn’t change what happened next.

She leaned forward to abolish whatever was left of their distance and their lips touched and, in an instant, it was as if months had been erased.

Juliette hadn’t yet accepted the Malikia, she definitely hadn’t agreed to an arranged marriage. Her sister wasn’t a serial killer, her brother was still estranged from the Fairmonts and, most importantly, Theo was human.

This meant that Calliope Burns was still her girlfriend.

Things were complicated between them, they were still very much star-crossed lovers, but at least they were together.

At least they could kiss each other as perfectly as they were right now.

Cal’s hand snaked to the small of her back, pulling the shorter girl close against her own body.

Raising herself on her tiptoes, Juliette was about to circle the hunter’s neck with both of her arms and open her mouth to deepen the kiss but a knocking prevented this.

Cal let go of her so quickly and sprang back that Juliette almost fell over. When she regained her balance, though, after taking a few seconds to process whether that happened in reality. Juliette cleared her exceedingly dry throat before she called, “Come in.”

Relief flooded her system as Margot entered, sure that her mother would not have used her super hearing on her daughter owing to promises of privacy. It wasn’t too surprising that it was the Fairmont matriarch, however, Davina had probably never knocked politely in her long life.

Margot paused, beholding her daughter’s dress.

She didn’t smile like most mothers would but Juliette hadn’t expected it, being aware of her stance on arranged marriages.

She moved her attention to Cal, who was still breathing harder than could be considered normal and had a wild look about her. Margot cocked her head and frowned, but made no comment.

“Sorry to interrupt,” she said, displaying no indication that she knew what had just happened, “It seems that your grandmother neglected to mention that she arranged a dance lesson for you and Allegra. She is waiting in the foyer.”

“Allegra is here?!” Juliette gasped.

“Indeed she is, you should change,” Margot said, apparently attributing the reaction to the wrong cause, “I believe it would be bad luck if she saw you in that before the wedding?”

“Right…” Juliette replied, luck being the least of her worries now.

Margot started to close the door but not before she added, “Oh and you look lovely Juliette.”

The door clicked back into place and the compliment flew over Juliette as she realised that Cal had gathered her things during this interaction.

“Cal, I…” she said, trying to come up with something, anything to justify their kiss.

Refusing to look at the vampire, Cal finished stuffing her script into her bag, “I need to go.”

Juliette tried to reach over to stop her, a more difficult task with the wedding dress weighing her down.

“Cal…”

“Your fiancee is downstairs, Juliette!” Cal interrupted furiously, tears obvious in her eyes now that she was finally looking up, “I need to go!”

This time, Juliette didn’t try to stop her as she left, instead plopping down on her bed.

She would soon call her mother to help her out of the dress but for now, she could only feel the phantom pressure against her lips and how much she missed it.

Chapter Text

Chapter Eighteen 

Calliope Burns couldn’t decide how she felt about kissing Juliette Fairmont again.

The act itself had been as incredibly electrifying as it had always been. They fit together perfectly as if the Legacy vampire and hunter were meant to be. The forbidden nature of it used to be part of what made it so intense; the possibility of being caught had always made their time more enticing. 

If their relationship hadn’t ended so tragically, she was certain that she would have more enjoyed being able to openly call Juliette her girlfriend, but they had unfortunately never reached that stage.

During their most recent kiss, all of the drama had melted away; it was warm, familiar and natural, right up until the interruption.

This had forced her to really take in the fact that she was wearing a wedding dress and why she was wearing it. Next came the announcement that Allegra had arrived. The moment of devastation upon recalling the moment that her kiss-addled mind had remembered precisely who Allegra was had marred the entire memory.

It was for this reason that she hadn’t spoken to Juliette since that day; she had no idea what she would say.

Briefly, she had allowed herself to imagine that they could be together in private while Juliette married for public appearances, which meant that they could keep kissing and much more.

They would go back to their star-crossed lovers situation, which could work for a while at least.

It would inevitably have to end, though, and she decided that she didn’t want that. Being allowed to stay in one place for so long had revealed to her that she wanted a (semi) normal life, which was why she couldn’t date a married woman, especially not when they were both still in High School.

Not responding to Juliette’s texted requests to talk was the only course of action she had come up with.

She had thought about texting Hayley for advice, but every time she tried to write it out, she realised that no collection of words properly conveyed her swirl of emotions around the whole situation. Calling the werewolf to let it all out as a verbal deluge was not an option with Hayley residing on the Fairmont estate. Any one of her hosts could listen in on the call, and she particularly did not want Juliette to hear how much of a mess she was.

She waited until she could see Hayley in person at school, and even then, she had to wait until their shared free period to meet at their spot at the back of the library.

Not recalling a single thing from any of her morning classes, Cal made a beeline through the bookshelves until she found the werewolf in the spot as promised, yawning as she turned a page in the book on the table.

She sat up straight, though and snapped it shut as she turned towards her. Cal cringed at the pure judgment but still sat down opposite her as Hayley loudly whispered, “What the hell is wrong with you?!”

“What do you mean?” Cal tried but crumbled fast as Hayley tilted her head, unimpressed, “You heard it, didn’t you? I didn’t know you were…home…”

Cal swallowed hard, wondering for the first time whether that meant that the others in the house had heard. Had Allegra arrived before or after the…incident?

Would she even care that her fiancé had kissed another? Cal had struggled from the start to identify how Allegra felt about Juliette. Of course, she wouldn’t blame her for falling for her, but that would also potentially mean that she would be pissed if she did know.

When they had crossed paths in the hallway, Allegra was indifferent as she always was when Juliette was not present.

“In what world should you be rehearsing Shakespearean kiss scenes with your ‘friend’?” Hayley hissed, interrupting Cal’s thoughts about whether she should tell her mother that she may have a Davenport angry with her.

“It wasn’t the Shakespeare,” Cal shrugged.

“Then what was it?” the other girl pressed.

Cal bit her bottom lip and weighed up the value in lying, but the truth did come out of her a second later, “She was…wearing a wedding dress.”

Hayley blinked slowly, attempting to comprehend before she replied, “That is…not a good defence.”

Figuring that describing the dress wouldn’t help, Cal asked, “Are you telling me you haven’t seen Allegra in hers?”

“No, I haven’t,” Hayley crossed her arms.

“Aren’t you her Maid of Honour?”

“She said she already had it fitted before she came here…” she trailed off and threw her hands up, “Why are we talking about their wedding logistics right now?!”

Cal sighed and sank into the chair, staring at the ceiling as she admitted, “She looked beautiful, I had…no choice.”

“No choice?” Hayley repeated incredulously, “Aren’t hunters supposed to have self-control or something?”

Huffing, Cal drew her eyes back down to the scowling girl and replied, “If I had self-control, do you think I would have fallen in love with a vampire in the first place?”

Hayley let out a long breath, her annoyance morphing into the same resignation that Cal was currently experiencing as she allowed, “They are annoyingly attractive.”

Cal hummed her complete agreement.

Things would be so much easier if Juliette actually looked like the monster she used to believe she was, or if all Legacies were just as unambiguously evil as Elinor. The Guild would have probably ordered them to leave Savannah to hunt things they could actually kill.

Under the current circumstances, she just had to settle for the Guild agreeing to only be on high alert during the wedding and to not launch another ill-conceived attack on a group of truly immortal Legacies.

Cal was about to ask how to fix this, but clamped her mouth shut as the werewolf sat up straight and shook her head, silently warning her that they were about to have company.

About five seconds later, Juliette Fairmont rounded the corner of a bookshelf, and Cal prayed that they had been speaking quietly enough that the vampire had not heard any of what they had said.

Juliette came to a stop and frowned at them, and Cal suspected that she was still confused about the nature of their relationship. She had never dared to ask, probably because she was afraid of the answer. Would she want to know that they had built something of a support group for their exes getting married?

Hayley was the first to speak after clearing her throat, “Hey Juliette, everything okay?”

Juliette slowly tore her eyes away from Cal to look over to the werewolf fleetingly, “I’m okay…” and then turned back to the hunter, “Cal, can we talk, please?”

Cal mauled over her options.

There was the diplomatic approach. One where there was a chance that they could maintain their friendship.

Unfortunately, being reminded of what it was like to kiss the other girl made their tentative status quo unappealing. 

It made her not want to hide from her feelings any longer.

Raising her chin, she asked as evenly as she could, “Are you still marrying Allegra?”

Juliette’s eyebrows shot up, and she looked around to confirm that there was no one around and then back to Hayley. Her brows then pinched upon finding that Hayley appeared wholly unsurprised by the question.

Shifting from foot to foot, Juliette replied, “I…we have no choice…we…”

“I get it, Jules,” Cal interjected, not wanting to hear about Legacy family obligations, “But we have nothing to talk about.”

“I…” Juliette started.

“I’ll see you in English,” Call stopped her, and Juliette held her gaze momentarily, clearly torn.

Finally, though, she withdrew dejectedly, “Yeah, I’ll see you later.”

Hayley watched her go, waiting a full ten seconds after she had disappeared from view to observe, “That was cold.”

Cal sank back into the chair, any sense of confidence draining from her as she grumbled, “Shut up.”

Hayley chuckled lightly before asking, “So what exactly is the plan now?”

Cal hunched her shoulders, determined to stick to her response, even if she hadn’t thought well enough ahead to what she would do if the marriage actually happened, “Juliette has to know how I feel by now; it’s up to her. You should be clear with Allegra if you want a chance before the wedding, though.”

Hayley rolled her eyes, “Because it would be good for you if Allegra calls off the wedding, right?”

“It would be win-win,” Cal bargained.

In all honesty, she understood the other girl’s doubt; it didn’t seem as though either Legacy would betray their heritage at this point.

Hayley puffed out her cheeks, now also sinking into her own seat, “I’ll think about it.”

S

Since Cal’s return, hell, probably since she first left Savannah, Philippa had been trying to figure out what was happening with Calliette.

The rest of the student body seemed only mildly interested in the engagement between Juliette and a stranger from another town. It had been overshadowed by the arrest of Elinor Fairmont.

Personally, Philippa would much rather focus on the romantic drama than concern herself with a serial killer that had apparently been living among them.

Following Cal’s return, Philippa found herself becoming more and more invested, particularly as the other girl became her friend. 

Unfortunately, Cal was awfully stingy with the details of what was going on between them, so she had to settle for the crumbs of information she could get by observing. 

She was currently anxiously awaiting Calliope’s arrival as she painted one of the sets for Anthony and Cleopatra, following the conversation she had just heard between Juliette and the drama teacher a few minutes ago.

Juliette had rushed off after apologising profusely, and Philippa couldn’t wait to see Cal’s reaction to the news.

If she were as disappointed as she imagined she would be, it would be yet more evidence to her belief that they would pull through this stronger than ever.

Cal finally arrived, frowning at the understudy for Cleopatra who stood centre stage and reading the lines unsteadily, having only just been informed that she would definitely be performing the lead role.

Cal dropped down next to her and began searching for a paintbrush as Philippa eagerly asked, “Wondering where Juliette is?”

Cal tore her eyes away and tilted her head in the way that she did whenever someone was being overenthusiastic, but Philippa was undeterred.

“Do you know where she is?” Cal asked, clearly trying not to sound too interested in the answer.

“She just quit,” Philippa replied, like it was a grand announcement, “Said she doesn’t have time for the play, I assume because of the wedding.”

A muscle jumped in Cal’s jaw, and she started painting dutifully as she said, “Makes sense.”

The jealousy was palpable.

Or was it disappointment that they wouldn’t be meeting to run lines as she had mentioned a couple of times?

Was it not just the wedding that had caused Juliette to quit?

Philippa so badly wanted to know everything and to encourage Cal to not give up, but she knew better than to believe that the other girl would answer any direct questions asked of her.

Cal’s lips remained in a thin line as she painted rather violently, not really noticing as Philippa got up, excusing herself to use the restroom.

She’d been holding it waiting for Cal’s arrival, and she figured that her friend needed some time to seethe anyway before she tried to sneakily garner more information about why this was so significant to her.

As she entered the restroom, though, she was presented with another avenue for information. She walked in just as Juliette was leaving, and they collided.

Juliette blinked, and her hands shot out to stop them both from tumbling down. Up close, Philipp could see just how exhausted she was.

It was the kind of emotional tiredness that no seventeen-year-old should have to bear.

Philippa stepped back as Juliette apologised, “Hey Philippa, sorry, didn’t see you there.”

Not bothering with pretence, Philippa asked, “Why are you marrying Allegra?”

Juliette opened and closed her mouth a few times, utterly flabbergasted and trying to figure out whether she had heard the question correctly.

Philippa just stared at her as she processed, and Juliette eventually said, “What?”

Grasping onto this as an invitation to explain, Philippa replied at a rapid clip, “I mean, you must see how weird it looks, right? Some girl comes into town, and you’re planning on marrying her even before you’re eighteen. You and Allegra are cute and all, but it’s not like you love her.”

Finding her voice, Juliette crossed her arms and retorted, “How would you know how I feel? And why do you care?”

“Cal is my friend,” Philippa shrugged, “I want her to be happy. I don’t think getting married will help with that.”

“Not everything is about being happy,” Juliette said bitterly, almost absently.

“So it is an arranged marriage?” Philippa clapped her hands, elated, “That explains so much.”

“No one is forcing me to do anything,” Juliette defended swiftly, too swiftly to sound completely convincing.

“So you are deeply in love with Allegra?” Philippa challenged, tilting her head triumphantly.

“I…” Juliette started, her voice cracking, but she then shook her head, “I don’t need to justify myself and…I need to go.”

Juliette stormed away, and Philippa practically skipped into the restroom, satisfied.

Based on Juliette’s responses, she was now convinced that ‘Calliette’ really had a chance of being real again.