Thirst | JENLISA

Chapter 7

Their nightly patrols start around the same time that Jennie realizes that Lisa is AWOL again, and she can't decide if she's more worried about Lisa's disappearance or her friends putting themselves in danger to help her slay vampires. It doesn't help that every time a woman vampire appears, Jisoo yells, "Jennie, is that her?"

It never is.

Irene and Jennie's home becomes a safe house, for meetings and trainings, and Donghyun doesn't question any of it. He just smiles and makes pizza rolls and offers them juice pouches. He doesn't seem to think it's weird that four high schoolers are hanging out with their librarian, and Jennie is grateful he doesn't ask questions. She doesn't want to bring him into it all unless she has to.

Many nights when her friends patrol with her are uneventful. They follow behind Jennie in graveyards, listening out for noises. If anything comes up, Irene squeals and everyone steps back, letting Jennie make the attack, not jumping in unless they need backup.

Rosé decides they all need special skills. Jennie's are obvious, but it turns out that Jisoo is really fast, and as she says 'a great, sexy lure for vampires' and as much as Jennie hates it, she often makes herself bait. Irene is always the one with the knowledge or the note-taking, observing their actions individually or as a team to look out for ways to improve, and Rosé is Jennie's right-hand woman, always one step behind her in case she needs immediate help. Dara doesn't patrol with them, and she says it's because she has work to do, but Jennie knows it's really to hide her vampire identity. Fighting brings out her vampire face, and that would be impossible to hide from the others.

One night, Jennie is distracted by a noise on one side of the graveyard only to find out it was nothing, turning around in time to see Rosé being thrown through the air. She's pretty sure she's never been so horrified and worried in her entire life. She turns the vampire into dust before Rosé hits the ground, and she tries to insist that they shouldn't help her anymore, but they don't listen. She reluctantly agrees to let them continue helping her, on the condition that they don't stray too far away.

Another night, Jisoo doesn't show up for patrol at all, and while Jennie misses her company and help, she's just happy Jisoo stayed out of harm's way. The next day at school, they all make fun of her for the extensive hickeys and bite marks she has and doesn't even try to hide, but all Jennie can think is how relieved she is that they're from some random dude and not from a vampire.

Jokes on Jennie though. Again. Two weeks later, it's the night before the full moon, and to everyone's surprise, Jisoo turns into a werewolf.

She doesn't hurt anybody the first night, but they decide not to take their chances, and they lock her up in the library's random but convenient "book cage" until Jisoo thinks she can control it. With the help of Rosé's meditative knowledge (also random and convenient) and Irene's research on werewolves, Jisoo has it figured out by the third night of her second full moon, more or less.

A few months have gone by, and it's almost winter. The cold doesn't stop them from going out patrolling though, and as usual, patrolling doesn't stop them from their endless piles of homework. Jennie thought that being the Slayer and being a high school student would be far too much work for her, but she finds that with help, it isn't so bad.

One day in November, Jisoo comes up to her squealing about a dance. "Jennie! The winter formal is coming up and we have to go dress shopping together."

Jennie doesn't even bother fighting back her groan. "Do I really have to go? I'm not big on dancing, or dates, or dressing up, or any of that."

"Seriously, Jennie? Look, we've all been working hard and deserve a break to do something fun, including you," Jennie opens her mouth to argue, but Jisoo stops her. "Especially you. Please? The guys are going, and I'm going and Dara is even going! She just told me she's gonna be a chaperone."