A young vampire drove me back The Agency so I could get my car. When the metal door rolled upward, he peeked over at me apologetically. "I can't get past the warding, ma'am."
"Don't worry about it." By then the rain had stopped, but my clothes were still damp and they rubbed irritatingly against my skin as I climbed out of the car and walked down the ramp to the Chevy. When I turned the key, the car grunted and coughed like an eighty-year-old emphysema patient. I leaned forward and rested my forehead against the steering wheel. "Maybell, I really, really need you to work for me right now." I cranked the key, and the engine turned over. I patted the dashboard. "You are a good and loyal POS."
My stomach growled. It was after noon, and I hadn't eaten a thing since dinner the day before.
Drake was cleaning up to close for his afternoon break when I pushed open the door that caused the little brass bells to jingle overhead. His smile was wide and warm as ever, but instead of leaning forward over the sales counter to flirt, he leaned back, popping his hip against the work counter behind him. "Heya, Agent Gorgeous. Looks like you got caught in that storm. How's the investigation?"
"Good." I shucked my coat and hung it over the back of a bright yellow chair. "Done. We did it."
He stepped forward then, leaned his elbows on top of the glass pastry case. "For real? You caught your killer? Who was it?"
"Cider first? And I wouldn't say no to an everything bagel with cream cheese. I'm about half dead from starvation."
"Yeah, of course." He scrambled around, preparing my food. "Flip the sign, will you? I'll come sit with you."
I did as he asked and in a few minutes, we were seated across from one another and the first bites of carbaliscious goodness and spicy apple cider were warming my belly. He listened attentively as I explained my harebrained plan and how it all ended up playing out. "Last I saw, they were dragging Price off in cuffs and as far as I know, the rest of them are gone for good. Not sure there's a way to get back from literally nowhere."
He leaned back and folded his long arms over his chest. "Damn."
"Yeah." I popped the last bite of bagel in my mouth.
"So where's Nick now?"
"I don't know. Hawwa said Adom wanted to talk to him." I stared into my cup.
Drake uncrossed his arms and rubbed his palms on his jeans. "So, lately I've—"
"I came here the other—"
We spoke over each other, stopped, and chuckled.
"You first," I said. "I've talked enough for the moment."
"Where did you get the pomegranates?"
Was Hawwa drawn to him somehow because of the pomegranate?
He grinned and shook his head. "I wish I could hear what's going on in your brain when you get that look."
"What look?"
"It's... like... all the looks, all at once. Every emotion I ever felt just flitted across your face." He cocked his head to one side and studied me with unsettling intensity. "I see how much you love me, Liv. How much you've always loved me. I love you, too, you know."
"But it's different with Hawwa."
He nodded. "You got that fruit from her?"
"Yeah."
"Well, that makes sense, then."
"Not to me," I admitted. I don't think I had enough energy left to solve another mystery.
"Ever since I ate that stupid thing, it's like my eyes are open. You ever do LSD?"
"What? No. Have you?"
He rolled his eyes. "Have you met my mother?"
Okay. Point taken. Raised by pot-smoking hippie nudists, it wasn't hard to believe other mind-altering substances had been a part of Drake's upbringing.
"Anyway," he went on. "People who take LSD talk about having this perfect clarity. They can see that everything is one big web, all connected, necessary, part of a single body. There is no you and me and that tree over there and the rock on the ground. All of that is part of one great I Am, you know?"
"I might need another cup of cider before I fully grasp it."
As if I had agreed with understanding what he was talking about, he continued. "So, when I ate the pomegranate, it was like that. I mean, it's been like that ever since. I see..." he held his hands wide. "Everything. I see you. All the things I ever thought about you... I mean... Geez, Livvie. You must be so fucking scared all the time and you just power through it. You're the bravest person I know. And you say you do it for money, but that's not really true because you'd do it, anyway. It's who you are. The adventure of life beats in your heart and you wither without it."
I bit the insides of my cheeks, determined to not start crying again.
"For the past few days, when customers come in here, the second I lay eyes on them I know which ones are going to try to steal a granola bar from the rack and which ones are looking for anything to give them a moment's pleasure and which ones came here to buy coffee just so they can flirt with me. I can see like I've never seen before."
"Because of the pomegranate?"
"Pretty sure. Yeah."
"What did you see when Hawwa walked in here?" I chewed my nail for a second before confessing. "I came here and saw you together."
He reached across the table and took my hand. "I saw in Hawwa something different from anything else I've ever seen. If other people are lakes and ponds and rivers, you're a powerful waterfall. Hawwa is the ocean... Or... No. That's not right. She's the underground ocean. The aquifer the rest of us can't exist without."
We sat holding hands for a minute or so before either of us spoke again.
"I see you, Livvie," he finally said.
I studied his beautiful brown eyes. "What do you see?"
"I see a remarkable woman who's in love with someone else."
"I'm really scared," I admitted. Hearing it made it real. My feelings for Nick were too big and unwieldy and, truth be told, I barely knew anything about him or what he was capable of. To pair a word as powerful as love with whatever was going on between Nick and me felt as dangerous as lighting a fuse on a stick of dynamite. Goosebumps rose all over my skin.
Mandrake grinned at me. "Yeah, but you'll do the thing, anyway." He released my hand and began gathering our dishes. "I hired a couple to take care of the store. I'm going to spend a few weeks training them and then I'm going to go with Hawwa for a while." He stacked everything but my cup in the bus tub and poured me another drink. "She knows Bacchus." The cup clunked against the table. His chair creaked when he sat down.
I wrapped my hands around the warm ceramic mug.
"She made it pretty clear that the gods move in their own ways and she can't promise anything, but she knows where we can look and," he spread his hands wide, palms up. "Who knows? Maybe I'll learn a thing or two about my family."
"It kind of seemed like you didn't care about that part of your history."
"Maybe hanging out with a woman who spends her time catching non-humans sparked my curiosity."
I sipped the cider, relished the feeling of the heat moving down my throat into my belly. "I'm going to miss you like crazy."
He grinned. "I'll make sure the new guy knows how to make the cider."
"No, Drake. I'm going to miss you like crazy."
He reached across the table and took my hand again. "I'll never be too far away from you, Liv. We don't work that way."
"I hope it all works out perfectly for you."
"See, that's what I was talking about. I see, Liv. I see how much you mean that, even though you hate that you mean it. You're amazing."
"I wish we could be... more."
He shook his head. "No. We're just enough, just as we are."
And he was right, so I finished my cider, which he refused to let me pay for even though I could actually afford it now, and I promised to make an absolute pest of myself every moment until he left on his trip. After he wrapped me in a bear hug and planted a kiss on the top of my head, I left the shop and drove home, planning to take a hot shower. Maybe I'd follow it up with a nap. It was only the middle of the day, but the first half had been a real doozy. The rain was coming down in sheets again. There was no pressing business to attend to. Why not?
In the safe privacy of the shower, all the wild emotions of the past few days leaked out of my eyes for a while. When I shut off the water and wrapped a towel around myself, I felt scrubbed fresh inside and out. I ran a brush through my hair and flipped it all up, securing it on top of my head with a plastic claw. Soft cotton shorts and an enormous sweatshirt seemed to fit the occasion. While I was deciding between having a pizza delivered or ordering a burger from DoorDash, someone knocked.
My first instinct was to hide like the frightened little mammal I was, but curiosity couldn't let me do that.
You do it anyway. It's who you are.
A flush of pride warmed my cheeks. I liked being thought of that way. Full of my own sense of baddassery, I padded across the ugly carpet and peeked through the door to see Nick standing on the landing, soaked to the bone in the pouring down rain.
All my bravery up and died.
I wanted to run back and hide, to scream through the door that I needed time to change clothes—and maybe do my hair and makeup. If nothing else, I needed to put a freaking bra on. Maybe I could text him and pretend to be at Chantelle's or something. Even though it was the middle of her workday.
He pushed the dripping hair back from his face and knocked again.
Aw, cripes.
Heart pounding like a marching band drum, I flipped the lock and yanked the door open.
He looked at me, standing there in my raggedy house clothes with no makeup and wet hair.
I looked at him, standing there in soaking wet cargo pants and tee shirt that clung to every ridge and valley of his body. His chest rose and fell in deep steady breaths that maybe came a little faster than they normally would.
He held up his shackled wrists. "Keep them on or take them off?"