Chapter 188: 148. Together As A Team

We only had to wait another five minutes or so before Ryan showed up in his police SUV, while the other two wolfs rolled up on Jaden's Harley.

After a brief discussion the would-be hunter was put in handcuffs and stuck in the back of the SUV, then the three werewolfs left again. And while nobody in Club Luna wanted to acknowledge it, I was sure we all knew that Ryan wasn't taking the wolf hunter to the police station.

The situation left me thinking about what my other self said, about me not wanting to deal with the responsibility and picking the easy option that just made the problem go away. Like she said, it was easier because whatever happened took place somewhere else and I didn't have to see it or know about it.

Except it was stuck in my head afterwards, along with the fact that by not dealing with it I just turned it into Cerys's problem. And she in turn passed the problem on to Belinda and her pack.

The topic of responsibility also reminded me of the stuff my parents had been telling me all along. Like they wouldn't interfere in any divine stuff we did, but they wouldn't let us off the hook for our actions either. Except that was sort of confusing too, because like Cassandra reminded me, our parents also said it was ok to smite some people sometimes.

Needless to say, with all that stuff on my mind I didn't sleep very well that night.

Fortunately I had a pretty good distraction the following day. It was Wednesday and I spent all morning teaching Kaylee more demonic magic. We worked on the teleport spell right up until I had to go work at the animal shelter. Then as soon as I got home again my girlfriend and I were back at it.

It was the same on Thursday too, and by the end of the day she'd pretty much got it. There was a huge mischievous grin on her face as the small kitsune practiced teleporting a book around our bedroom, then around the house. Dinner was a little more chaotic than usual too, as she kept teleporting the condiments around the backyard while we were all trying to enjoy some BBQ burgers.

Our wolfgirls also had a bit of news for the club, which they shared as the seven of us ate together. It turned out Melanie got a message from Belinda Tate, that basically thanked us all and made it official that Club Luna was friends of the Tate Wolfpack. They were going to send over a gift of meat on the weekend, basically a bunch of steaks and beef ribs and burgers and sausages and stuff. So the club would be having a lot of high-quality BBQ for quite a while.

The message also included some details about the wolf hunter. We found out that Samuel and Mary Crawford were indeed brother and sister, apparently they were the latest in a long line of werewolf hunters that went back to at least the seventeen-hundreds. As far as Belinda could tell there was no real reason for it, or if there was it had been lost to time. So basically these people were just raised to see werewolfs as monsters and taught that it was their duty to murder them.

As for why he was after the Tates, even that was almost random. He didn't know them or have anything against him, but he found out through the internet there were werewolfs here. That might have been indirectly because of those podcast guys and their RSS videos, or maybe from people seeing Melanie and Cerys with their ears and tails out now and then. Either way he'd spent like a month in town doing his tracking stuff and found out where the biggest local pack was located.

The whole thing seemed so pointless and stupid when I thought about it, it was honestly just depressing. I was glad that it was over though, and just made a point of not thinking too hard about how the whole thing ended.

Now it was Friday, and after spending another full day teaching Kaylee demonic magic the two of us were getting ready to go have dinner with Nina and my parents.

It was partially my idea, I wanted to have dinner with my family and I wanted my girlfriend to be there this time. Mom and mum were happy to have us come visit, and so was Nina. Although I did have a small ulterior motive. Last time they had me over for dinner it was to talk me into trying therapy. This time I was going to try and tell them how that was going.

I wasn't sure I wanted to, but Cassandra and I sort of agreed that we needed to tell our family about the two of us.

Kaylee was excited when the time came. She was going to teleport herself to my parents' house, which would be her first time teleporting somewhere other than around the clubhouse. We were both dressed up a bit, she was in a cute off-white blouse and an orange skirt while I wore a sleeveless green sundress. And we both did our hair and some make-up and stuff too.

We teleported together, and a moment later both of us appeared in the front hall of my family's home. As soon as we arrived I called, "Hi mom, hi mum, hi sis! We're here!"

"Hello Cass and Kaylee," mom called back. "Perfect timing, dinner's almost ready."

"Hello Tanya, Julie, Nina," Kaylee greeted my family as we joined them in the kitchen.

Mum and Nina both greeted us as well. My sister had just finished setting the table, while mum was getting the drinks. There was water for me and Nina, orange soda for Kaylee, and glasses of white wine for my parents.

Nina and mom served the food while the rest of us got seated. We didn't get mom's lasagna this time, she said it was too hot to cook it at this time of year. Instead we had some grilled salmon with some fancy rice and a garden salad on the side.

The food was really good, but mom's cooking always was. And more than that, it was just nice to have a relaxed friendly meal with my family again. On the other hand, the conversation didn't start out so great. Mom and mum brought up the werewolf hunter stuff, they had some questions about the incident. And Kaylee filled them in on a few of the details that Nina apparently hadn't told them.

I mostly kept quiet and let my girlfriend handle it. And she was happy to embarrass me by talking about how I single-handedly solved the case, first with my successful scrying then by catching the guy all by myself. She even mentioned how the guy tried to stab me a few times, which made me cringe while mom and mum both looked unhappy. Not that they were worried I'd get hurt, they knew a normal human couldn't really harm me, but it was still uncomfortable hearing about someone trying.

"Your mom and I are glad you caught the killer hon," mum said, "But next time don't try and do that sort of thing single-handed, ok? Take someone else with you. Your sister, or Kaylee."

"I wasn't..." I started to tell them I wasn't alone, but cut myself off. I didn't want to get into that until after dinner, which is what I ended up saying. "Can we come back to this conversation after we're done eating?"

Mom nodded, "Of course Cass."

"Sorry hon. I didn't mean to upset you," mum added.

I shook my head, "It's ok, I just don't want to discuss it until after we're done."

Everyone accepted that, and instead the others ended up talking with Kaylee about how she was doing. Like how she was adapting to being part demon, how her magic was coming along, how her parents were handling her transformation, that sort of thing.

Fortunately my girlfriend was happy to talk about that stuff, and for the rest of dinner she proudly told mom and mum about how Nina and Sasha and I had all been teaching her demonic magic. She also said her parents were mostly over the shock, that they'd basically accepted her for who and what she was. Although she was still hoping what she was would change again soon, she wanted me to finish the process so she'd be a full demon. She was hoping we could do that before she started university, which was only a week and a half away.

That meant education was the topic of discussion as me and Nina did the dishes and stuff. Kaylee talked about how she was excited to start university while Nina was looking forward to going back to high school with her friends. And I mentioned how I was sort of excited about college but also worried I'd miss going to school with either my girlfriend or my sister.

When we finished cleaning up we all got more drinks then moved into the living-room. Mom and mum sat in the two comfy chairs, while Kaylee and I cuddled together at one end of the sofa and Nina sat next to us at the other end.

My heart rate was slowly climbing up again as I tried to mentally prepare myself for the conversation I was about to begin. I was positive my parents could tell I was starting to get a bit anxious, my sister probably noticed it too.

Then mom asked, "Everything ok Cass? You look a little tense."

"Yeah," I admitted as my cheeks coloured slightly. "I'm a bit anxious about the stuff I wanted to tell you."

"Is something wrong?" mum asked with a concerned look on her face.

I shrugged then grimaced, "I guess it depends on how you look at it?"

"Anyways," I stated after a deep breath, "This is sort of related to what you said earlier, about me confronting that guy all alone? And it's also about the stuff that we've been talking about in therapy. It's stuff that I don't really know how much any of you know, but I think you all need to know?"

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By that point my whole family seemed to be a combination of interested and concerned. My girlfriend turned to face me, and she looked a little worried about what I was going to say.

Mom asked, "What is it hon? I know you've only had two sessions so far, but I take it you've had some progress?"

I nodded, "Yeah. So um, this is really awkward to talk about. Because I don't know how you're going to take it, and I don't know how much you all know already? Maybe this is all going to be old news and I'm making a big deal out of nothing..."

"Whatever you tell us it's going to be ok Cass," mum said. "I promise."

"Thanks," I gave her and mom a grateful but nervous look.

Then after another deep breath I began, "So when I confronted the wolf hunter guy, I wasn't really alone. There's someone else here, she's been with me for a long time. I only actually met her on Canada Day, but some folks have seen her around before that. She introduced herself to Melanie and Cerys back in May, and Melanie says she's seen her around since January."

"She's um," I faltered for a moment, then braced myself and told them "Her name is Cassandra, she's the goddess of chaos. And I'm Cass, I'm the friendly demon. We're um, both of us share our body and life and stuff? But according to Cassandra I'm the shy quiet anxious compassionate caring friendly one. And she's the calm confident decisive one. She's um, she's the one who's brave and bold and stands up to people and takes action and stuff. But it's also complicated, because even though we're sort of separate and different, we're also sort of not?"

I took another breath then added, "Basically the term Miss Fuller used is we're plural. Two distinct individuals sharing one body and one brain."

When I stopped I glanced around the room to try and guess what everyone was thinking. Mom and mum both had thoughtful frowns on their faces. Nina looked worried, and Kaylee was frowning as well.

"Is this something that Brian did to you back in December?" my girlfriend finally asked. "Or is it a byproduct of the ritual? Or is this something that came from what Sasha had done to you way back when you were born?"

I shook my head, "I really don't know Kaylee. But I don't think so. Nothing in any of Sasha's rituals were meant to create life or mess with who I am. Cassandra thinks it's sort of a natural thing? She thinks it's because of how the demonic and the divine aren't supposed to mix. Like I'm not supposed to exist, my two halfs are incompatible? She thinks I formed from our demonic half, while she came from our divine side."

Mum was watching me as she asked, "We know Cassandra's the one who handled the council attack at Nina's birthday party. Was she the one who cursed those two boys back on Canada Day? And she's the one who arranged to get the house for Melanie and Cerys, isn't she? She's also the one who's been distributing the enchanted plush toys, I take it?"

"Me and Cassandra are both doing the plush toys," I stated. "That's something we both believe in a hundred percent."

Then I added, "You're right about the other stuff. That was all her. The thing with Kyle and Danny... That's what led me to finally meet her? We talked after that, but it left me really upset and stuff."

Mom sounded concerned but caring as she asked, "Is it possible for us to speak with Cassandra? I'm sure we've already talked with her a number of times in the past, without knowing it was her."

A sense of calm wrapped around me like a hug, my anxiety faded a little while my heart rate settled back down. And not-me replied, "Hello everyone. My name is Cassandra, I am the one Cass was talking about. I'm the goddess of chaos, she's the friendly demon. And together we are a team."

The others were all staring at us again, and I was positive they were all suddenly seeing the difference. I figured they were all thinking about however many times they'd seen or heard us acting like Cassandra and just assumed it was me acting confident or something.

Then it hit me, that's exactly what I used to do as well. I used to think the calm confident thing was an act that I'd put on, but I never questioned where it came from or why it came and went randomly. I couldn't remember ever doing it intentionally, only that when it happened I just assumed it was me behaving differently for whatever reason.

While I was still reeling from that little revelation the others started talking again.

"Hello Cassandra," mom said with a kind compassionate smile. "It's nice to properly meet you."

Mum greeted my other self as well then asked, "I hope you and Cass get along ok?"

"We're working on it," Cassandra replied. "On the one hand the two of us have been functioning together all along, but as Cass said the two of us only really started communicating just over a month ago. So that aspect of our relationship is very new indeed."

Nina quietly greeted not-me as well, then asked "How long have you been with her?"

"I've been here as long as Cass has," my other self answered. Then she added, "And please don't fret, none of this is your fault or Sasha's."

She glanced at Kaylee and our parents as she continued, "Please don't think of us as flawed or broken either. According to Miss Fuller, being plural doesn't mean there's something wrong with us. It's simply a different way to be."

Mum asked, "So she's helping the two of you?"

"I believe so," Cassandra nodded. "But I'm going to turn things back over to Cass, so she can tell you how she feels."

The sense of calm faded, but it didn't entirely leave. Enough remained that I knew my other self was still around, and sort of holding my hand in a way. Her presence kept me from getting too anxious or uptight, even though everyone was staring at me like they were studying me or watching for any flaws or mistakes.

"Um hi," I grimaced. "It's Cass again. And yeah, we think Miss Fuller's helping? It turns out she has a coworker who knows a lot about plural stuff, we might actually talk to Ms. Carter next time we go?"

I added, "For now Theresa said um, communication and cooperation was important? And we've started doing that. Like on Tuesday with the wolf hunter, me and Cassandra kind of came together as a team for the first time."

My mom gave me a friendly supportive smile as she responded, "All right hon. I'm glad therapy is helping. And I'm glad you and Cassandra are getting along."

"If there's anything any of us can do to help just ask ok?" mum added, "No matter what, we're your parents and we love you. Both of you."

Mom agreed, "Absolutely."

"Thanks," I mumbled as my emotions started to get the better of me.

I had a feeling Kaylee and Nina were both still worried or freaked out, but I should have known my parents would always be there for me. Or for us.

~ End Of Episode Eighteen ~