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“Not now, Jake. ”

“It’s never a good time for you, is it? But it’s always a grand time to interrogate me. ” He leaned back, clearly feeling superior.

“Look, I’m not the one who stole things from you before. So I still get to have the upper hand. ” He opened his mouth to say something else. I cut him off. “Why are you here, Jake?”

“I was just going to give you money for the phone bill. Like I said I would. Business is brisk. ” His face softened a little. “Plus, I was worried. You’ve been strange for a while. ”

“Worried about me? Wow. ” I was taken aback. No drug worth selling would be handing out empathy to Jake like that. “I was worried about me, too. But things are getting better,” I lied.

He looked around my living room, and then shook his head. “If you get into trouble, you can tell me, you know. No one’s gotten into as much trouble as I have. ”

“I know. ” I stood a little straighter. “I’ve got a lot of laundry I have to wash today—”

He jerked his head at me. “I don’t suppose—” he began and swung his bags around, like he should set them down. After all, I did have a fabulous new couch for him to sleep on.

“Not yet, Jake, okay? After the holidays maybe. ”

“Okay. ”

“Can you get home on your own?”

“Yeah. See you around, Sissy. ”

It wasn’t until after he left that I realized he hadn’t gotten around to pitching in for his share of the phone bill.

* * *

I spent the rest of the morning picking things up in my bedroom and putting them away, then I got another load into the laundry.

I threw clothing in willy-nilly—there wasn’t a single thing I owned that couldn’t be laundered on high—and heard something clink. I reached in and felt around.

The vials of Luna Lobos that Jake had given me. Goddammit. I had to convince him to get off this stuff. Selling energy supplements wasn’t going to give him a normal life. I put the vials into my purse so I could take them to work and put them in the incinerator box.

Lucas had been right, it wouldn’t be the safest thing ever to sleep at my house right now, but the locks on my door worked. I latched it—the dead bolt and the chain bolt. Then I took my step stool and unfolded it underneath the door handle to block further entry, and slept with my phone nearby.

* * *

I didn’t wake up till eight P. M. There was a lump on my mattress where the strange were had knifed through it, and I could feel it under my left knee. Minnie was sprawled alongside me, the trespasses of the night before seemingly forgiven.

I got up, showered again, and got ready to leave. I needed to eat, and I needed food for late dinner tonight. I didn’t look in the parking lot for a guard, but a black foreign car followed me from my lot to the grocery store, and out again from it, until I found myself on hospital grounds.

* * *

I was in the locker room when Gina came in, humming a happy tune. I confronted her. “You’re cheerful tonight. ”

“And you’re not. It’s like we traded places. ”

“I had a long night off. ”

“Me too. But in a good way. I talked things out with Brandon. He doesn’t care if I don’t change. ”

“For how long?”

“He says, for forever. ”

“For real, forever?”

“For long enough. ” She smiled at me. “I knew I didn’t screw up falling for him, Edie. I knew it. ”

I found a smile somewhere deep inside me—probably pulled it out of another fucking dimension—to share with her. “I’m really glad for you, Gina. ”

She hugged me tight and let me go. “Come on. Let’s have a great night. ”

* * *

I walked out to the floor without her to see who we were getting stuck with tonight.

“Meaty—is there any other possible assignment?” Gina and I were with Winter. Again.

My charge nurse shifted behind the desk to give me a look. “Charles gets the daytimers, you two get the weres. It’s only for two more nights, Spence. Suck it up. ”

I muttered, “Fine. ”

I braced myself to go around the corner and see Lucas there—but he had to fight again tonight. Of course. I peeked around, and for once there were no visitors. None at all. I felt myself relax, and Gina joined me for report.

Everything we were doing now for Winter was entirely for show. Either the moon would heal him—right down to his cavities, apparently—or it wouldn’t. I checked orders with Gina and co-signed all the changes. We didn’t bother to use the rifle anymore, not even when she was near. The Domitor was turned off—if the moon was going to work, we didn’t want to prevent his change—but there was nothing frightening about him now. The bleed in his brain had taken care of that.