“Kept running into walls. But there’s one agent who sent me a file.”
“And? Does it show Lavius is involved with the agency?”
“It shows there is a lot of money coming in from a shell corporation that is a shell corporation of someone very entrenched in old money.”
“Could be a lot of people.”
“Could be a vampire.”
“Anything that could lead us to him?”
“Not that won’t take some time. Do you think that demon is going to find Ben?”
“I kind of bet everything on it.”
“Not everything.” He leaned a little and planted a soft kiss in the middle of my lips. “And it’s more of a temporary loan than a bet.”
“Who knew you were such an optimist?”
He shifted and pulled his feet underneath himself so he could stand, then held his hand down for me. “I’m more of a realist, but my “real” has been expanded upon recently.”
“Finding out gods are real?”
“Still not sure I completely believe in that. But no. That’s not what I was talking about.”
“Finding out creatures and monsters and angry ancient vampires are real?”
“No. Finding you. Just. Finding you.”
I smiled for him. I knew I should be smiling for what he said, and for how it should make me feel: loved, cared for, all those other nice things. But since I couldn’t feel the impact of his words, I went with what I knew I should do.
Fake it ‘til you make it.
“You okay there?” he asked as I started toward the door with him, our hands still linked together.
“What?”
“What are you doing with your face?”
“Smiling reassuringly?”
“Well. Okay. How about you don’t do things you don’t feel like doing?”
“Because right now I don’t feel like doing anything.”
“Breathing?”
“Meh.”
He opened the door. “So what you’re saying is if I gave you a suggestion or two of what you should do, you wouldn’t hit me?”
“I’m still trying to get my feet under me on all this. I’d like to at least appear as normal as possible. Suggest away.”
“Did you have dinner?”
I thought back. Popcorn for breakfast, soup for lunch. A stop by the donut shop, but no donut for me. I stuck my hand in my pocket and found the warmth of the worry stone there. I rubbed my thumb in the smooth indent. It might be my imagination, but that action really was soothing, calming.
“I had some weird witch tea in the hospital that might or might not have been spiked. But no. I think I skipped dinner.”
