Abbi settled with Lorde on the couch that pulled out into a bed, the controller for the television already in her hand.
“I like cartoons,” she announced, as if we’d never met.
Lu and I hadn’t said much since the truck, both of us silently carrying our duffles in and placing them on the bed.
“Do you want to shower first?” I asked.
She glanced at the bathroom, then at me. I didn’t know how to fix this. Didn’t know what words would make this right, make us right again.
“Lu…”
She picked up her duffle. “I’ll be out in a minute.”
The door closed with a click. The squeak of spigots was covered by a rush of water. Curtain rings rattled, and the sound of the water’s steady stream changed with her movements.
I wiped my face and scrubbed at my hair, grabbing the roots and tugging.
“It’s nice here.” Abbi pushed buttons, flipping between a huge animated purple octopus and a puppet that I assumed was a blue mouse.
The volume was muted, but Abbi moved her lips like she was speaking along with them.
“It’s cooler than outside,” I said. “The water runs. There’s electricity.”
“And it’s a lucky motel.”
I scrubbed at my jaw, my beard thick enough to itch. “Why?”
“Because everything here is lucky.” She spared me a second’s worth of a glance before going back to changing channels. “Why are you mad at Lula?”
“I’m not mad at her.”
“Is she mad at you?”
“I don’t know.”
“You aren’t very good at arguing. I think she’s worried.”
I sat on the edge of the bed, facing the door, and rubbed my neck. “It’s been years since we’ve been…angry—this angry—with something the other did. I’m out of practice.”
I was also tired, hot, worried.
Stressed, I supposed was the new term for it everyone used.
We had spent a damn long century unable to really communicate. It shouldn’t be a surprise that being together again came with some knots to work out.
Back in Oklahoma, I’d thought Lula ignoring her hunger for blood had been what was wrong. But now...I had a bad feeling it was something more.
“I’d just like things to be normal,” I said. “To be...easy, I guess. But every time I open my mouth, I’m shoving my boot in it. It used to be...”
“Easy?” Abbi asked.
“No, not easy. When I was alive before, both of us were young and trying to make our way in the world. Then all those years with me a spirit and her half vampire…”
I shook my head. “Not easy.”
But we’d been together. We’d done everything we could do tostaytogether. We’d faced every monster, every god, every devil, and always reached for the other, holding tight.
“Different, though,” I said. “We didn’t…doubt each other. Knew what we wanted. What we were fighting for.”
