Two Worlds - Choni

Chapter 3

Cheryl was sitting on the couch watching Domino when Toni came downstairs from her shower. "Cheryl, where's the key for this collar?" Toni demanded, folding her arms and glaring at Cheryl.


"Key?" Cheryl asked, pausing the movie and frowning. "What are you talking about?"


"Well, I couldn't get off, so I assume there's some kind of key." Toni said, not moving.


"There's no key." Cheryl told her with a laugh. "That'd make it way too easy for someone to take it off of you. No, it detaches with a spell."


"Well then use the spell!" Toni growled.


"I can't." Cheryl admitted, shrugging helplessly.


"What do you mean you can't?" Toni demanded.


"Vampires don't do magic. Literally, we can't do magic." Cheryl explained, sounding somewhat apologetic.


"But you put it on me!" Toni yelled, confused.


"It was enchanted so that it would lock itself when you brought the two ends together around the neck of something alive." Cheryl told her. "Relax, tomorrow's Saturday, I'll take you to the shop and we'll get someone there to remove it." Toni's eyes widened.


"Oh my gosh!, today's Friday!" She yelled. "I completely forgot, we're going to be late!"


"No we're no, I called in sick for both of us." Cheryl said calmly.


"Cheryl, you can't just do that, people can tell that you're not my mom." Toni reminded her. Cheryl grinned.


"No they can't Topaz." She said in a perfect imitation of Toni's mom. Toni's jaw dropped.


"How...how did you do that?" She asked. She'd heard Cheryl do imitations before, but this was spot on, flawless.


"Vampire." Cheryl reminded her, letting her fangs slip out. "You have no idea how annoying it is to have to constantly add little flaws to my imitations. It's nice to finally not have to worry about pretending to be human." Suddenly she frowned, sniffing the air. "Do you smell chicken soup?" She asked Toni. Toni sniffed the air.


"Yeah...and rice?" She said, confused. "What's going on, do you have a roommate?" Cheryl sighed and stood up.


"Not usually, no. But I think I know who's using my kitchen. C'mon." She led the way into the kitchen, were a tall young woman in a red dress, with a black feather boa around her neck and a massive straw-hat on her head was standing at the stove.


"You know Rose, it's polite to ask before you use someone's stove." Cheryl said, rolling her eyes. "At the very least you could have let me know you were here."


"I figured you wouldn't mind darling." Rose said, not turning around. "It's not like you really use this kitchen for its intended purpose anyway. I thought I'd help validate it a little."


"Darling?" Toni asked, raising an eyebrow.


"Don't listen to her, she thinks she's some old time movie star." Cheryl said, waving it aside and sitting at the table.


"I am a star." Rose said with a smile, turning around with the pot of chicken suit in her hands. "Who is this?" She asked Cheryl when she saw Toni.


"I'm Toni Topaz." Toni said, smiling uncertainly. "Pleased to meet you."


"Pleased to meet you too." Rose said, giving Toni a small curtsey. "I'm Rose." She frowned and leaned forward to examine Toni's collar. "Cheryl, do I want to know?" Rose asked, raising an eyebrow.


"I bought it as a way to keep track of her. She's a new Alpha werewolf, I need to be able to find her quickly if she loses control and gets out of the house."


"Then why didn't you get her an actual werewolf collar? They make those you know, so Alphas and Beta can keep track of their new pack members." Cheryl shrugged.


"I thought it'd be funnier to get her a pet collar."


"That's not a pet collar." Rose said as she and Toni sat down at the table, with Toni sitting next to Cheryl and Rose sitting across from them. "That's a sex slave collar." Toni stared at her in horror, and then turned to glare at Cheryl.


"I didn't know!" Cheryl said defensively. "The people at the shop asked me what I wanted, I told them, and they gave me a collar, tag, and leash!"


"What kind of stores do you shop at?" Toni demanded.


"Look, it doesn't matter. Tomorrow we'll go to the shop and get it removed." Cheryl said, trying to calm her down.


"I hate to keep being the bearer of bad news, but that's not going to work." Rose said, getting up and heading for the silverware drawer. "Slave collars are designed to lock onto one person in particular. That collar will now only work around Toni's neck, so they won't let you return it."


"Well, can you do magic?" Toni asked nervously. Rose laughed.


"I should hope so. I am a witch after all."


"Then could you remove this collar?" Rose frowned thoughtfully.


"I can try; just let me check out the enchantment on it." Rose said, sitting down next to her and putting a hand on the collar. She closed her eyes, and both the collar and her hand glowed yellow for a few seconds. Rose let out a sigh and opened her eyes. "Well, the good news is that the collar doesn't have any command spells in it, so Cheryl can't force you to obey her." She told Toni. "The bad news is that it's sealed permanently, and it won't come off until the spell wears off."


"And when does the spell wear off?" Toni asked, sounding scared. Rose did a quick calculation in her head.


"In seven hundred years." She said finally. There was silence for a moment, then Cheryl burst out laughing.


"This isn't funny Cheryl!" Toni snapped.


"Yes it is." Cheryl said, still laughing.


"I have to go to school on Monday! I have to go home once the full moon is over!"


"Relax; vanilla mortals can't see the collar." Rose said, turning back to her soup. "Slavery isn't legal in mortal land, so there's a spell that keeps them from seeing the collar."


"Yeah, so we just have to hope Betty doesn't say anything on Monday." Cheryl said, leaning back in her chair.


"Betty's magic too?" Toni asked in disbelief. "Is everyone at Hollywood Art magical?" Cheryl frowned thoughtfully.


"Well, I think whether bee might be an aspect of a very old, very senile outer god." She said. "But besides from him and Betty, no, the rest are all vanilla mortals."


"And what's Betty, a were-betty?" Toni asked, putting her face in her hands. This was too much to take in in less than 24 hours. Cheryl raised an eyebrow.


"A were-betty? What the heck is a were-betty Topaz?" She demanded.


"I don't know, I was just making a guess!" Toni said defensively. "I don't know anything about magical creatures!"


"Betty is a Fey of the Winter Court." Cheryl said, sighing. "Think of Oberon's Children from Gargoyles, but with a bit more politics involved." She said upon seeing Toni's confused look.


"Wait, I thought the Winter Court was the harsh, 'evil', court." Toni asked, frowning.


"The Dresden Files aren't a documentary Toni." Rose said gently, swallowing the last of the chicken soup with rice. "Jim Butcher got things wrong."


"Yeah no, Queen Mab is quite possibly the nicest living thing you'll ever meet." Cheryl said. "Think Disney's Snow White, but with a better singing voice and no concept of being attracted to men. Now Queen Titania of the Summer Court on the other hand, she's a complete and utter bitch. Avoid the Summer Court at all costs."


"Are you just saying that because you're a vampire, so you don't like when there's so much sun during the summer?" Toni asked, raising an eyebrow.


"No, she's right." Rose said, shaking her head. "Each of the four Fey Monarchs represents an aspect of their respective season. Queen Mab is like a field after a snowstorm-peaceful, pure, and beautiful. King Oberon of Spring is arrogant and a little bipolar, like a combination of Spring's weather and flowers. Queen Titania is harsh, mean spirited and arrogant, like the summer sun. And King Samhain of the Autumn Court is..."


"Fun." Cheryl said with a grin. "Seriously, Samhain throws the best parties ever."


"So he's scary like Halloween?" Toni asked dryly.


"Yeah, pretty much." Rose said, nodding. Cheryl stood up.


"I've got to go to Wal-Mart and get you some more raw meat." She told Toni, patting her on the head. "Be good, don't chew on the furniture or my slippers, and stay inside."


"I'm not a dog!" Toni snapped as Cheryl walked away laughing. After Cheryl had left, Rose turned and smiled at Toni.


"Wow, you've got it bad." She said, picking up the soup pot and carrying it to the sink.


"E...Excuse me?" Toni stammered, embarrassed.


"For Cheryl. You've got it bad for Cheryl." Rose clarified, turning on the faucet and beginning to clean the pot.


"I do not!" Toni protested, blushing.


"Oh? Then why didn't you leave when you found out that she got you a slave collar?" Rose asked, raising an eyebrow. "You're an Alpha, every werewolf pack in the city would be trying to recruit you the minute you left Cheryl's house."


"Wait, what does my being in Cheryl's house have to do with anything?" Toni asked, dodging the question.


"Cheryl has a reputation in Los Angeles, among the supernatural community anyway." Rose explained, smiling to show that she'd noticed Toni's dodge. "You know how in Harry Potter nobody but Voldemort wants to mess with Dumbledore? Cheryl's like that-you have to have serious guts to attack her if you know who she is. And a werewolf entering a vampire's house uninvited is a definite attack." Toni's eyes widened in surprise.


At the same time


Cheryl walked out of the house, muttering to herself. For some reason she couldn't figure out, she felt bad about putting a slave collar on Toni, even if it was by accident. She hated that. She should be glad that she caused Toni discomfort, not guilty. And the weird fluttery feeling in her stomach she got whenever she was around Toni. Cheryl sighed and got in her car, shoving her thoughts to the side.