What We Do In the Shadows: "Jen..."

What We Do In the Shadows: "Jen..." Part LX...

What We Do In The Shadows: "Jen..."

Summary: There are unexpected consequences when Laszlo seeks a new human familiar...

Part LX...

"Well, Auntie..." Guillermo begins... "I've come..."

"So you have..." sudden frown, sitting up a bit more... "Tell me you've not wronged that poor girl...Your 'fiancée'..." Rosa, stern look at her increasingly hapless nephew...

"No. No..." he shakes head, putting up hands. "I only want to protect her..."

"Protect her...Uh-huh." Glare... "She seems pretty unprotected to me..." hands folded, sharp gaze.

"I swear, Auntie...I haven't taken advantage..." he squirms a bit...

Do we have to do this in front of others...? Nervous glance to a sympathetic-looking Dracula, Mrs. Afanas likewise offering somewhat kindly glance.

"I hope not. For your sake...Soul and body...Guillermo, Guillermo..." shakes head.

"I suppose...I must seem a great disappointment, Auntie..."

"No..." Rosa eyes Guillermo, now by her bedside. "After all, you are not entirely..." quick cough...

He eyes her anxiously...

"It's just a cough, boy...Not entirely to blame..." Rosa, resumed, sternly, brushing back silver strands of hair. "You were taken away, to America, by your mother before you had any chance to learn our past and calling. The instinct, drawing you to the suffering and them to you, still existed, but without guidance, it took another form, now hopefully curbed and returned to its proper path, thanks to your great-great-great granduncle...And your mother, God rest my sister's foolish soul, was not the sort to give you even vague guidance. I'm sorry but that is the truth. Flighty woman, mind of a flea..." sigh, vexed wave of hands.

"Papa was the Hunter...? He wasn't of your direct family though he and Mama were third cousins..."

"She also had Hunter blood, of course...But never was trained in any way, since I was the one called and she'd had no interest in any case...I don't believe she even knew of us, outside family legends that bored her, or that your father hunted the undead until after his death."

"Father died killing vampires? Mama always tole me..."

"Hit by a truck on a US interstate when his broke down. Yes, he was. This is real life, boy. We don't always die romantically fighting the Evil. In fact we rarely do these days."

Frown at Cicely Afanas' slightly arch look... "Yes, Cicely...Your husband played a role there, tempering down matters and tamping down ambitions, such as they were. He was wise in that and you in guiding him..." nod with slight frown.

"An old argument of ours..." she notes to Guillermo...

Who suddenly pictured two young, quite vibrant Huntresses...One fiercely waving the other off with stake from the somewhat weakened Barren Afanas, a bit more human in appearance at this time. The other, recognizably a young Rosa, grimly holding her ground, ready to strike.

"Guillermo...Am I boring you with my dying words?" present day Rosa, sternly.

"Sorry...You were saying, Auntie?"

"Yes, well...In truth, vampires rarely go beyond a few thrill killings and ritual massacres over and above what they need to survive. And unlike in 'Buffy' the Apocalypse has never been in the balance, at least not till nuclear weapons and this global climate change...I'm afraid we don't save the world every week, boy."