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”The last time I saw you in a dress was at our wedding,” I told Lyra as she scurried around the apartment. ”What”s the occasion?” She held up a finger, and I realized she was on the phone as she made her way into the open-area kitchen. A bouquet of fresh flowers sat on the countertop, her leftover Chinese takeout alongside it. We didn’t have much time for grocery shopping… and I couldn’t exactly go out.

I decided I liked these summer dress contraptions. I wasn”t sure what the difference between a summer and winter dress was, but Lyra looked good in flouncy fabric with a floral pattern. Although it wasn’t like Lyra had a lot of opportunities to wear dresses, in her line of work.

Work was interesting now. It was the reason why Lyra was currently glued to the phone. I had nearly forgotten about her work call tonight. She fixed a cup of tea, pinching the phone between her ear and shoulder. I’d offered to make her tea earlier, but apparently vampires were not great with kettles. It’s not my fault I accidentally scorched the last one after forgetting about the stove being on.

”What exactly were you envisioning for the project?” Lyra asked the person on the line. Her eyes were sharp and focused. I loved that about her. It was how we’d managed to find such a nice apartment. Callanish”s consulting fees had allowed us to live in a swankier place than the last apartment. I couldn”t fully wrap my head around human real estate, but it did seem like a scam. Lyra had gotten the price down as low as possible, though.Being continually impressed with my wife was becoming a fact of life.

Our apartment was in a quieter suburb of Chicago, close enough to the city for our needs and a half-hour drive to a portal to the Immortal Plane. Bryce lived one block over, although his apartment was more sparsely decorated with a few Scottish trinkets to remind him of home. Lyra had chosen a white minimalist style for our apartment, and I liked it. It was much brighter than the Immortal Plane, but cheerful and happy when the sun hit.

Never thought I”d end up in the Mortal Plane debating interior design with my human wife. Then again, there were a lot of things I hadn”t anticipated. The Pocket Space was one of them. I was grateful for my experience with the Higher Plane, which had prepped me for this in many ways.

Lyra watched her tea steep as she listened intently to the caller. She was talking with some agent from the Department of Homeland Security. At least, I thought that was the name. I’d only managed to catch it in passing, and as far as I was concerned, the governments in this plane had too many divisions.

”How does the government get things done?” I had once asked Bryce.

He stared at me blankly. ”It doesn’t, on the whole.”

Lyra had never met this agent, but that wasn”t a surprise given how the government worked with so much secrecy. One didn”t know until they needed to. They were discussing a new job, though, so I was trying my hardest to eavesdrop, butI only picked up bits and pieces.

We had returned to Chicago for a few days, but we knew we wouldn”t stay for long. We’d hitched a ride with Roxy”s Hellraisers to come back, since we obviously didn”t have a plane anymore. Our priority after leaving the Pocket Space was to deposit Dan with the proper authorities at the Bureau and cash in our insurance for the mission to resupply for the next. Lyra was anxious to restart our search for survivors. She had already been packing when a call from her government client came that there might be something else on the horizon for Callanish.

Interestingly enough, Dan had expressed a genuine interest in joining the Bureau. Roxy had told him in no uncertain terms that it would chew him up and spit him out, but I considered that idea might be attractive to Dan, given his affinity for people who bossed him around like Jessica. He needed to make a decision for himself now. We would see how the authorities treated him. Maybe he could do service years to offset his criminal charges.

Whoever Lyra was talking with, I sincerely hoped they gave us another stab at the Pocket Space. We had been left with some clues—interplanar communication, the physics of the Leftovers—about how we could proceed to find more survivors. Lyra wanted to find her parents. Even if she didn”t say it out loud, I’d caught her staring at a framed photo in the living room three times since we”d been back. It was the one of her family on the day she’d introduced me to them. I looked awkward and stiff, but Zach had his arms around both me and Lyra.

I couldn”t let her lose anyone else.

It was the right decision to come back and regroup so we could figure out how to move forward. I was determined to learn as much as we could to answer all the questions we had from our chaotic mission.

”It”s an interesting offer,” Lyra said calmly. ”I”ll think about it and let you know my answer after I speak with my associates. Thank you for your time.” After they exchanged pleasantries, she ended the call, grabbed her tea, and came over to me. Immediately, I opened my arms and relaxed into the couch. She set her cup on the coffee table in front of us and curled up into me.

”How was it?” I asked. ”Did they offer you piles of cash?”

”It was interesting,” she said vaguely, and sighed. ”Not quite. The government wants Callanish to put our original contract on hold to prioritize a new job.”

I searched her face for a reaction and found a twinge of disappointment in her frown. ”You don”t want that.”

”I”m frustrated,” she admitted, blowing a loose strand of hair out of her face. ”I wanted to go back to the search for my parents, of course, but that won”t be possible if I want to continue with them as a client. I just feel like the universe dangles an opportunity and the illusion of progress, only for it to be snatched away from us.”

”I”m familiar.” It was hard. Our entire lives were a progressive adventure, but it was always two steps forward and one step back. Whether it was a government agency or a mysterious new threat, there was always something standing in the way. It made it hard to keep our spirits up. Gently, I brushed the side of her face with my hand. She cupped my hand against her face, sighing against the touch.

”I just want to find them,” she said softly. “All of our parents.” Her tiny voice made me sad.

”We”ll figure something out.” I paused, considering my words carefully. Lyra had to get us a job to make money, but we could reasonably stay afloat for a few months if she didn”t want to pursue this new offer. ”You know, we don”t have to take the mission.”

Her brow furrowed, giving her a conflicted look. ”The thing is… it sounds important. There”s a group of humans hiding out in the Leftovers in Florida, using it as a way to commit crimes, taking advantage of the confusion to dodge the police.”

”Florida,” I muttered. ”Where is that?”

”South.” She pulled out the fancy new phone that Bryce had insisted she buy for business purposes and pulled up a map to show me. She pointed to the southeastern tip of the country. ”It”s all the way down here.”

”I didn”t even think the meld went that far,” I said, confused. I didn”t have the best grasp of this nation”s geography, but I generally knew a lot about the central area. The meld being an issue in more southern states hadn”t occurred to me.

Lyra shrugged. ”I don”t know much. Isolated pockets have apparently cropped up in all the states, even in the places that never actually melded. Maybe it”s some kind of weird aftershock. The agent on the phone was concerned.”

I considered her idea. Maybe, while the barriers were being deconstructed by the arbiters, it caused some other parts of the continent to destabilize? But why wouldn’t the arbiters have fixed this by now? We hadn’t heard from them since the meld, but I knew they’d lost a lot of energy. Maybe they weren’t in a position to do anything. I explained my theory, and Lyra rested her head against my arm on the back of the couch.

”Your guess is as good as mine. There”s also the disturbing prospect of an entirely new Pocket Space between the planes.” Her hazel eyes always looked most beautiful when she was puzzling over a problem. I liked the intense look on her face. ”There”s something else.”

”What?” I pressed. If she’d saved it for the end, it had to be big. She never started with whatever was worrying her the most.

”The government thinks the group down in Florida might have revenant vampires on their side,” she said. I sat up straighter. That was impossible. All the revenants were gone, as far as I knew. She saw my face and nodded understandingly. ”Yeah, it doesn”t make much sense. The official I was just on the phone with said that the criminal group is believed to be trafficking humans to the Leftovers for unknown purposes. I find the part about revenants hard to believe, but the government is more cautious.” I could hear hesitation in her voice.

”You”re worried about the humans,” I said. Lyra couldn”t hide her compassion.She cared about everyone, and it showed through every part of her life. It was one of the things that attracted me to her the most.

”Of course. I think back to our first case working together on the human trafficking mission. I hate the idea of humans using the supernatural as a way to commit more crimes against humanity. It”s sickening.” A fire lit up inside her, and I felt her heartbeat pounding more. Her desire to do good was infectious.

”It is,” I agreed. ”Unfortunately, saving the world never meant completely wiping out crime and creating a utopia.”

Lyra gave me a sad smile as she danced her fingers up my arm. ”Would”ve been nice, huh?”

”Very,” I confirmed. ”Even though I would technically starve, if that ever happened.”

She brought a hand to her face. ”Oh, I didn”t even think about that. I”m sure that you”ll be able to help with the bad guys down in Florida, if you can stand the mosquitos.”

I snorted. ”Luckily, all bloodsucking species are basically family. I”m sure they”ll go for you and Cam instead.” I paused, thinking about the job offer and everything it represented. It was a pause on Lyra”s search for her parents, which concerned me even if she seemed genuinely intrigued by the Florida case. ”We do still have vampire allies working on finding our parents in the Immortal Plane.” My parents probably weren’t anywhere near hers, of course, but they’d survived so long that I wasn’t as worried about them. Vampires were tough, and they’d taken care of themselves over the years we’d been apart. I desperately wanted to see them again, but it made sense for Lyra’s human parents to take priority.

”Yes, I”m trying to remember that.” She chewed her bottom lip pensively. ”There”s still that stupid problem about the Pocket Space. I hope they”re not there with those cloaked maniacs. Actually… I managed to check in with Joseph before we left. I asked him about my parents, and if they were among the group that was left in the Black Rock facility in the office.”

My eyebrows shot up with surprise. She’d failed to mention that, but a lot had happened in the past few days.

”Joseph said they disappeared with the first wave. They weren’t taken by the monster,” she said. “I know it’s sick, but part of me just wants to look for them and them alone.”

”It”s not sick,” I assured her. ”You want them to be alive. It”s natural to want that.”

”You”re right. Joseph said he did know my parents, though, and talked about them kindly. The confirmation is more positive than not.”

”Absolutely.” Lyra”s parents still might have ended up in the Pocket Space, but since we didn”t currently have a way to get there, taking care of this job in Florida was better than spinning our wheels.

”I”m interested in the job,” she said after a quiet moment. ”But let’s consult with Bryce. I need to call him to see how his shoulder is treating him, anyway.”

”Yes, his body slam as he got thrown into me felt like it might have left him pretty bruised,” I said, and then smirked, thinking of what Bryce might say about the Florida job. ”If we make enough money, maybe Bryce can move someone into that apartment with him. We”ll have to ask for hazard pay.”

Lyra smirked. ”And up our insurance. I have a feeling we”ll need it again for this job. I hope Reshi can fix something up for Bryce and Arlonne, if she can study ours when we get the chance to go to the Immortal Plane.” The problem with taking the necklaces to Reshi was that replicating the arbiters’ technology would take weeks, if not months, of study. That was assuming it could even be done. It wasn’t that we didn’t care about our friends’ happiness, but we needed the necklaces in order to work together on Callanish jobs and to find our parents. Since Bryce and Arlonne were living apart in the Mortal and Immortal planes for now, working on their separate missions, it had to wait.

“I spoke to Kane before he went back to the Immortal Plane,” I said. “About joining Callanish.” Lyra raised a brow, intrigued and hopeful. “He said there’s too much work for him in the Immortal Plane, and that ultimately he belongs there.”

She threw her head back and sighed, exhausted and overwhelmed from the last few days. I handed her the tea she’d left on the table. It was the perfect warmth. Vampires were good at sensing those kinds of things.

Lyra took a grateful sip and put it back down to wrap her arms around my neck. I pulled her in for a quick kiss, loving the feel of her against me. She was my only constant in this turmoil. We had lost so much together, but we had found endless possibilities in one another.

”It might be nice to get away from the winter for a while,” Lyra said. ”Busting human bad guys sounds like a nice change of pace.”

It was curious. I wanted to know exactly how these humans were capitalizing on the Leftovers and how they’d figured out a way to avoid the dangers it presented. Lyra relaxed against me, scooting so that her back was against my chest. She leaned back, and I wrapped my arms around her, cradling her and enjoying her presence.

We still had a long road ahead of us, but we were together. We had great people on our side. Our motivation would push us forward to achieve peace again, even if we had to fight for it every day.

After we figured out the Leftovers, I was confident there would come a time when we would rest and celebrate again.

”I”m going to memorize this moment,” Lyra told me, ”so that I can visit it when times get tough.”

I chuckled and kissed her cheek.”I”ll be right at your side fighting,” I whispered to her. ”I”m not going anywhere.”