Bill laughed at her from across the table. “You must have had a great day.”
Lyssa downed the juicy bite of steak before she responded. “Why do you say that?”
“There’s something about you today.” Bill shrugged. “You seem to have a lot more energy than usual. That’s all. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so unguarded.” He waved his hands in front of him. “Not that that’s a bad thing. I like your intensity, but now I’m seeing a little more of the woman who’d wear a unicorn shirt rather than the corporate troubleshooter.”
She’d worn a slinky blue dress for their steakhouse date, but now she wished she’d worn a Kawatsu-chan shirt. This was her fifth outing with Bill since her pathetic combination of date and spying attempt focused on the mysterious shard drive she’d found at the library in Phoenix during the Cochise County monster hunt incident. She had been surprised he wanted to see her again after her erratic behavior.
“A woman can’t be happy on a date with her boyfriend?” Lyssa asked. “That’s sad, Bill. I’ve been like this for a couple of days.”
“No, that’s fine. That’s not what I was saying.” Bill blinked. “Boyfriend? I’m your boyfriend?”
“You like ‘partner’ better?” Lyssa shrugged. “I can never get behind that. It makes us sound like we’re mismatched cops in an action-comedy.” She furrowed her brow. “I don’t know if you’re the uptight one and I’m the Devil-may-care, out-of-control one or the opposite.”
Bill laughed. “Boyfriend’s fine. And we don’t need to be cops.” He grinned. “And it’s great. I just didn’t know things had advanced that far. I know what I feel, but it was hard to say. I figured I’d play it by ear.”
“Nothing wrong with that. That’s always a decent strategy.”
Lyssa was surprised by his reaction, considering they’d slept together after their last date. Her painful dating history predicted the relationship would crash and burn sooner rather than later, so she wasn’t sure what to make of her current situation. This was also the first time she’d dated a Shadow, and the fact that he still didn’t know she was Hecate was bound to cause problems later.
For the moment, she was trying to not let any doubts creep in. She liked Bill, and he was a pleasant diversion, but it wasn’t like he’d asked her to marry him. They could have fun together for a while and see where things went.
Just because she was a Sorceress who took on deadly men for a living, it didn’t mean everything in her life needed to be complicated or tied into some grandiose plan or conspiracy. At the same time, maintaining any hope for the future meant being honest when she could.
Lyssa took a sip of water. “There’s something I need to mention. I figured it’d be best to talk to you about it on our date.”
“Uh-oh.” Bill laughed, though there was a nervous look in his eyes. “I hope I didn’t graduate to boyfriend just to get dumped. That’d suck.”
“Not yet.” Lyssa smiled. “But you have to keep putting in the effort.”
“Aye, aye, ma’am,” Bill replied. “What did you need to tell me?”
“I’ve got some family stuff to take care of soon,” Lyssa said, marveling that she was technically telling him the truth. “It’s going to take me away from the state.”
“No trouble to shoot this time?” Bill asked with a grin.
Lyssa shook her head. “Strictly personal, but not only am I leaving the state, I’m also leaving the country in a little under two weeks. I’m not sure how long I’ll be gone. It could be a few days, but things might drag on.” She winced. “There’s no way it will take months. I hope.”
Whatever leads she found on Last Remnant would send her somewhere else. Chris’s photo had been taken in the United States, judging by the background, but that had been three years ago. Months of globe-hopping weren’t out of the question, though she doubted the Elders would tolerate a Torch taking that much time off.
Bill’s smile faded. “Oh, crap. Is it serious? Did a relative pass away?”
“It’s complicated.” Lyssa set her fork down. “I don’t want to go into all the details, but it involves my brother. I haven’t seen him for a while, and he might have gotten into some trouble overseas. I’m looking into some stuff to help him out.”
“Oh, man. That sucks.” Bill grimaced. “Are we talking, like, ‘I lost my passport,’ or more Locked Up Abroad?”
“A lot more the second one, but it’s more messed up than that.” Lyssa sighed. “I wish I could explain, but this is complicated, and I haven’t even seen him for a long time—fifteen years. For a while, I wasn’t even sure he was alive. It’s only recently I learned otherwise.”
“That’s crazy. I didn’t think things like that happened to people, but that’s a stupid thing to say.” Bill laughed. “We had Hecate and a bunch of other Sorcs fighting giant monsters in southern Arizona just a month ago. Anything can happen these days.”
Lyssa let out a nervous laugh. “Yeah, anything can happen, and my things aren’t nearly as important as crazy witches fighting monsters.”
“She’s not a witch,” Bill said.
“Huh?”
“Hecate.” Bill shrugged. He pointed at his head. “She doesn’t have the hat.”
Lyssa chuckled again, trying to make it sound natural. She couldn’t ignore the opportunity to learn something important about her boyfriend. It might help in the future.
“What do you think about Hecate?” she asked.
“I don’t know.” Bill shrugged. “I mean, she takes down monsters, evil Sorcerers, and the worst of the worst among us normies. That’s cool in a certain way, but…”
“But what?” Lyssa pressed.
Bill sucked in a breath and slowly let it out. “She’s also kind of scary, and not just because of the mask. Scarier than some of the other Sorcs I’ve seen on TV.”
“You think she might hurt regular people?” Lyssa asked.
“Nah,” Bill said. “The Society’s got
