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“I feel stuck.”

“How?” His body tenses as he awaits my response.

“I just want to find these people, and I can’t even do that. I’m not a detective, and I have no idea what I’m doing. Do you think I should let the agents do it now that they’re better?”

“No,” he replies firmly. “They don’t care about that, Bees. They only care about what affectsthem.”

“Yeah,” I agree with a sigh of disappointment.

I turn to my side to face him for the first time since we’ve been sleeping beside each other. He smiles and lets his forehead rest against mine.

“Are you going to leave tonight?”

He starts in surprise. “How did you… no, I’m not leaving tonight.”

“Ok,” I give a tired sigh of relief. “Don’t swallow my face?”

He laughs at my mumbled request and whispers, “Salt House tomorrow. Get some sleep.”

* * *

I wake from the nightmare as Ben consumes it. I’m suddenly aware of the male in front of me snoring directly in my face.

Mistakes were made on this positioning.

I carefully extract myself from under his arm and prepare for the day. When I leave the bathroom, Ben is face down on my pillow, mumbling to himself, so I leave him to it.

My new clothes don’t feel right on me yet. They don’t feel like enough protection. At least the pants have pockets, and I stuff some buttons and my phone inside. There’s something to be said about having full-sized pockets. Then I strap on my trusty dagger.

In the kitchen, I pull out some of the eggs Ben had delivered yesterday while I was zoning out in the spare bedroom. I make some scrambled eggs with toast while Ising and dance, really getting into it since Ben is still asleep.

Oh, he bought me jelly too. What a sweetheart.

I could make steaks for dinner. He’d love that.

I finish scrambling the eggs and making a mess with the shredded cheese and salsa that has shown up in the fridge without my knowledge. This mystery also reeks of Ben.

Despite the fact that I can see Mitri’s car parked in front of the gate my mood is good. I don’t see anyone inside it. Probably a concern but I’ll put it off until later. I can’t find it in me to care right now. Denial is my best friend.

The skillet sizzles as everything cooks and I belt out lyrics like a rock star to my spatula. The toast pops up from the suspiciously new toaster. I plate everything and grab utensils.

I turn to sit down and almost drop everything in horrified shock.

Mitri sits at the head of the table, watching me fumble my plate in the hopes that I don’t lose all the food I just made.Some egg slides off, and I lose a piece of toast before I regain my equilibrium.

“Damn it, Mitri!” I yell.I notice Ben is standing at the other end of the table, glaring at the immortal intently.I never heard him come in, either.

“Do you have to be creepy today?” I whine as I stare at the egg on the floor. “I thought that stopped years ago!”

Mitri focuses on Ben with a tilt of his head. They stare at each other menacingly while I set my plate down on the table and go back to clean up the mess on the floor and mourn my lost toast. Ben even bought me my favorite jelly for this. It was all ruined because a psychopath decided to statue the night away at the table.

When I turn back, they’re still in a stare-off.I’m not waiting for it to finish. What’s left of my eggs will get cold.

I sit in my usual spot facing the open space with the floor-to-ceiling windows to see the little bit of sunlight peeking over the horizon.I'll never get tired of the pretty shades of pink and blue because I can actually experience them.

I glance between the two threatening presences. The staring contest is still in full effect. I roll my eyes and start eating.

Somewhere halfway through my eggs and a few bites of toast, they come to some silent understanding and nod to each other.Ben wanders off to either go back to sleep or start getting ready for the day, and Mitri faces me again.