My heart hurt, but I would push on. The memory of the kiss lingered. It made me feel warm and fuzzy, but I hoped that feeling would gradually fade.
We need to figure out something with this mental connection. I'm not sure if we can control it, but maybe we can give each other a heads-up when we hear the other. I didn't want to hear anything else that he didn't want me to.
"I don't want to hear any more awkward dates," Kane said. I couldn't tell if his dark tone was annoyed or teasing—perhaps both. I rolled my eyes.
I'll try to keep you updated about all my dalliances. We'll figure it out.
It was our strange new normal, but I was happy it included Kane, even like this. He was alive and well. I was in the Mortal Plane, getting ready for my next mission with the Hellraisers. I had never felt more capable of leading a team.
It was time for me to step forward in my life. Adventures awaited me. I could feel it.
37
Dorian
"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, but I 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
