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CHAPTER ELEVEN 
BENTLEY
When I wake, my mind is fuzzy and I’m confused. I’m chained down to a chair while being stared right in the eyes. When I realize it’s Banshee who is glaring at me, I hesitate.
“R-River?” I ask as I realize where I have to be.
That’s when it comes back to me, all of it. The setup, River… River… the person we’ve been looking for is River.
I hear a slight movement and turn to where River is sitting on his couch, knees drawn up to his chest, arms wrapped around them.
“I will let you go, but before I do, I need to tell you something,” he says as he slowly looks up at me. The look on his face almost makes me hesitate but I’m not sure why when he’s deceived me. This entire time he’s known who I am and has been using me, so why does that look affect me so much?
“Were you using me?” I ask. “How long? From the beginning?”
His eyes had moved to his knees but they snap to mine as he rushes forward. “No! I swear I didn’t know,” he says as he drops down right in front of me.
I probably couldn’t hurt him from this close, even tied up, but if I could, would I even try? I’m not sure I would.
His fingers dig into my sleeve. “I didn’t know at all. Just… dammit, Bentley, let me explain. Please? I’ll let you go. It’s up to you if you want to listen to me or arrest me right now, but please let me explain first,” he says as he grabs the lock and undoes it.
The binds on my hands loosen and fall to the ground. He doesn’t appear to have a gun or anything on him but for some reason, I stay sitting. Slowly, I reach out toward his neck. He flinches back before steeling himself. I push his hair up to look at his neck covered in scars. Slowly, I tip his chin and run my thumb over the countless bite scars, much like the women who’d been buried in Huang’s yard. I can feel him tensing even though he has to know I won’t hurt him.
“Did Huang do this?” I ask. It fills me with rage and sadness to know that someone I cared about has suffered this much, has been treated like a food source by some vampire.
He shakes his head. “No. I want to tell you how sorry I am. I didn’t know who you were until you told me at the club. At that point, I wanted to stop it. I wanted to break it off, but I’m so fucking lonely and you make me happy and I’m so fucking selfish. After I heard about what you were going through with your niece, I knew I had to step back.”
I don’t know what to say or think. I have no way of knowing whether or not he’s lying to me, but I find myself begging he’s not.
“Tell me what you have to say and then I’m leaving,” I say as I draw my hand back, letting his hair drop back down.
“It all… starts with…” He swallows hard and I know he’s having trouble talking. His hands are shaking as he rubs at them, like he can rub the nervousness out of them. Then he jumps up and rushes over to his laptop. “I-I wrote this. I had the plan of writing everything down and making it public, but I just can’t find the words or get it down… but I have a few pages done and maybe that’ll… help you to hate me a little less.”
He holds the laptop out to me, and I stare at the desperate look on his face. I’m not sure if it’s that or something else that makes me take the laptop from him. I barely know this man, so why am I willing to go so far for him? My unit is probably terrified since I just disappeared and they have no idea where I’m at.
But I take the laptop and start reading. I get to: “You see, I have about two months left to live. Maybe less, maybe more. So I need to finish all of this before I die” before I stop reading.
River is… dying?
I slowly look over at him and wonder if I read it wrong. “You’re dying?”
He covers his face in his hands. “I’m sorry. It’s so selfish of me to become friends with you. I was just lonely, and I was stupid because I was like ‘he’s a vampire, I’m sure he won’t care about me.’ I’m so sorry.”
“How sure are you?”
He nods. “Very. Multiple doctors gave me six months because of the growth rate. It’s been four. It doesn’t matter anyway because I’ll be in prison for killing Huang.”
Why is everyone around me dying? Why is the one person I choose to care about dying and the person we’re looking to arrest? Why is everything turning to hell around me?
“T-This doctor told me he could save me. His name was Dr. Novak and he was our ‘savior.’ He was the only person who gave us a survival rate that was worth shooting for. So we went through with it.
“When I woke up, I wasn’t in a hospital bed, I was being taken out of the hospital. I felt paralyzed, weak, and confused. Why wasn’t I with my parents? Did I die? Was this the afterlife? I honestly didn’t understand anything until I was thrown into a room with three women. They were as confused as I was, but I learned that each of them came from nothing. One had been homeless, another had been in a car accident, and the third was traveling from overseas. What all three of them had in common was that no one knew where they were and if something happened to them, no one would ever know how to find them.
“But I was different. I had a loving family who’d kissed and hugged me and told me how much they loved me. My mother had cried as she told me she’d see me in a little bit, and I realized what it was. He had told them I died in surgery so my family wouldn’t be looking for me either when he didn’t even perform any surgery on me.” As River says this, his voice shakes, and I can’t imagine the pain he’s gone through. The pain of being ripped away from his family is clear as he swallows hard.
“When the vampires came for us, they dragged us from the room and one by one, they put us in a barred enclosure. I felt like I was in a shark cage as these vampires swarmed around me, watching me. They’d reach through the bars and try to touch me and there was nowhere I could go. There was nothing I could do but shove my body against the back, only to have another reach through for me.
“When they sold the girls, I realized what was happening. I didn’t know why they were selling us or for what, but I knew that I had to get away. I had to escape. But how the fuck do you escape in a building full of vampires? They were all dressed in gowns and tuxes sipping blood and laughing like this was so much fucking fun. They talked about how this is the way all humans should be treated. That we were merely cattle for them to feast from. They sold me last, but I didn’t see who the man was who bought me—”
“Hold on,” I say, not wanting to interrupt him, but needing more information. “You’re saying this is going on in this city?”
“I… I don’t know,” River admits. “I was taken from a hospital about six hours from here and ended up here, but I don’t know where the sale was. Once I got away, I just started following the names of the people I remembered. I can’t remember them all, but I remembered Huang because he bought the lady who was in the room with me. I thought maybe if I found him, I could get her out, but it took me so long to figure out what happened to her that she was already gone.”
“What was her name?” I ask.
“Molly.”
“The autopsy reports that she died two months ago.”
His shoulders begin to sink. “Oh… I wasn’t even free yet.”
“Why didn’t you go to the police with this? Or when you found out I was with the VRC, why didn’t you tell me so I could help you?”
“Because this runs deeper than you’ll ever know. They would continually talk about someone in the police department protecting them and keeping this from ever seeing the light of day. If I went to the police, the police would hunt me down. They would probably kill me before I even got my statement out. I can’t trust anyone in this area, Bentley. The whole fucking city is toxic. I have to destroy them from the inside. I have to stop them and I’m sorry I lied to you, but I have to keep more people from ending up like me.”
I reach out to him and take his hand in mine. I don’t know if he’s lying. I don’t know if he’s in the wrong, but right now, all I want to do is comfort him. So I pull him into my arms and he sinks into me like I’m suddenly this life preserver for him to cling to. I’m not sure why it makes me hold on to him even tighter when all he’s done is lie to me.
“I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing, Bentley. I’m a dying man who just wants to make these assholes pay, but who’s to say I’m right? Who’s to say I’m not becoming a monster myself? I’m not meant for this. I’m just a normal fucking person who wants to go home and tell my family that I’m not dead. That I love them, and I miss them more than anything.”
“Your parents don’t know?” I ask in surprise.
“No… when I got away, I looked up what happened to me and they’d already had a funeral for me. They’d be so happy to know I’m alive, but at what cost? They’ve already lived months thinking I died, so then do I reveal I’m alive only to die again? I don’t think I can put my family through that again. I don’t think I can make them suffer like that even though I wish I could see them.”
“What if we can find a doctor to help you?”
He slowly shakes his head. “Bentley… we tried, and no one would touch me with a ten-foot pole. The only reason Dr. Novak agreed to it is because he knew he wouldn’t be performing the surgery on me.”
I hug him to me as I try to think and sort through all of this. There has to be a way to make this public even if I don’t draw River into it. “If you could get me all of the facts, I could push the VRC toward the case. And once I’m sure we’re headed in the right direction, I know the team would be more than willing to help us,” I assure him. “Who bought you?”
“I don’t know. He had me call him Corbyn, but I haven’t been able to hunt him down now that I’ve escaped. He loved to control me and force me to do as he wanted.”
“I’m sorry,” I say.
He leans back and looks me in the eyes. “I will find him and make him pay. I’ll make them all pay… that is, if you don’t arrest me first.”
Because arresting him is what I should do. I shouldn’t allow him to get away with this, even if he’s in the right because he’s going about it wrong. He should have come to us. But what if there is someone in the police who really is part of it? I’ll need to look into it before blindly rushing in.
“I want a list of names and what you’ve seen them do. Then I’m going to do what I can to direct the VRC in the right direction. Okay? Now I need to get back before the team tears this city apart looking for me. Can you just stay in here and not leave?” I’m not sure why I’m trusting him so much, but I want to help him. I want to save him from doing all of this alone.
He watches me for a moment before nodding. “I’m afraid they’ll kill you if you start rushing in with these names they don’t want you to know.”
“I’ll be careful,” I say, realizing that I really don’t care much about the risk. What do I have to lose?
River reaches out and squeezes my hand. “Okay… please… please don’t get hurt. W-Will you come back?” he asks before looking away and shaking his head. “I’m sorry I’m so fucking selfish.”
I set a hand on his head because I’m not sure what I’ll do. I shouldn’t come back unless it’s to get more information. And maybe that’s the only reason I will come back. I gently push him to his feet and look at him. “I have to go. Can you send me what you wrote so I can read it?” I ask as I point at the screen.
He hesitates before nodding. “I know I wrote it to be read, but it’s hard to have someone read it. But yes. I’ll send it, just please don’t let anyone see it with my name on it. I’m sorry. I don’t think I could ever tell you how sorry I am that I’ve done this to you,” he says as he avoids my eyes.
I give him a nod before rushing for the door. I need to get out of here. I need to get away from it. Who knows if he’s lying to me? Who knows about any of it.
When I hit the street, I realize I don’t have a car or any way to get home or back to the department. I should’ve used River’s phone to call them, but I can just run back.
I hear a noise behind me and turn as River holds out his keys. “I can drive you or you can take my car.”
“Just… drive me so I don’t have to deal with a car too,” I say as I head for it. “And let me use your phone.”
He nods as he gets into the driver’s seat and passes me the phone before I realize that I have absolutely no idea what any of their numbers are, so I call the department and punch in Brooks’s extension.
“This is Brooks,” he says, answering almost immediately.
“It’s DeGray—”
“Where the hell have you been? We’ve been tearing this city apart looking for you,” he says, sounding a bit frantic.
“I’ll explain. Get everyone back to the department, I want to talk to them.”
“Okay. Are you alright?”
“I’m fine. Thank you,” I say. “I’ll be there in about ten minutes.”
“Okay.” Once I hang up with Brooks, we sit in silence for a long moment as the information swirls around me.
“I liked it better when I thought you were fattening me up to eat me,” River says quietly.
I look over at him and notice him steal a glance at me. “I liked you better when you thought I read unicorn porn.”
He smiles at me. “I’m sorry.”
“I know.”
“Why?” he asks.
“Why, what?”
“Why would you be willing to forgive me?”
“I had a feeling ever since the cave that you hadn’t been treated very kindly by a vampire. My work revolves around so many victims that I begin to identify them almost immediately. Or maybe I’m letting my own feelings blind me. You may be deceiving me and I’m allowing myself to blindly follow along with it.”
“I’m not very good at deceiving people unless it comes to getting the last of the ice cream,” he teases.
I smile at him.
“Please don’t tell them my name. If the man I got away from finds me… I don’t want to go back. I’d rather die, and I really don’t want to die.”
“I won’t let you,” I assure him as it sinks in that in a month, he might not be here no matter how much I help him or like him. It could be the end.
He pulls up to the department and I get out before walking up to the front where Finn comes rushing out and grabs onto me before I can even reach the door.
“Oh my god, you shouldn’t have been alone. Dammit, you were supposed to stick with Karysn. I was terrified of what happened to you,” he says as he shakes me. “Marcus, do you see why I insist no one is alone?”
Marcus is right behind Finn and nods. “I know. I should have listened to you. I thought—”
“It’s fine, it’s my fault,” I say, wondering what would’ve happened if I’d been with Karsyn when I grabbed for River. Would he have been arrested? And if he was telling the truth, would the vampires who took him have hurt him?
I look back at the car that’s pulling away from the parking lot before turning to Finn.
“It’s not your fault,” Finn says.
“Well, it’s sure not yours,” I say. “Come on. I want to talk to you guys.”
“Who dropped you off?” Marcus asks curiously.
“The guy you met at the bar. I was close to his apartment and walked there since I didn’t have my phone or radio.”
“I found them,” Finn says.
“Come on, get inside so we can talk,” I say, wanting to steer them away from anything about River. Why I’m trying to protect him, I’m not sure. Does he deserve it? Am I being foolish? Did he lie to me? Is this whole thing his attempt to guilt me into believing him?
I sigh as Finn pulls me inside and we all go into a room together where Finn starts trying to rip my shirt off and doing a check on me like I wouldn’t immediately heal if I was hurt. But I’ve learned that Finn gets what he wants, and if Finn doesn’t get what he wants Marcus crushes skulls.
Once the five of us are in a room with Brooks, I decide that it’s time to decide the story I’ll tell. Do I tell them the truth and condemn River or do I lie? I don’t even know if River is being truthful about any of it, but if he is…
“So?” Finn asks.
“I think he’s doing one of those dramatic pauses you like to do,” Alexei says.
“DeGray’s not a dramatic pause kind of guy,” Finn says as he urges me on with a hand wave.
“Sorry. So when I saw the guy, I went to stop him. I, obviously, had no idea if it was the right guy or not. All I noticed was that he was wearing dark clothes and a hood. Not exactly proof, so it’s why I wanted to get him to face me. I was probably being a bit careless and that’s my fault. So as I stepped up to him, he injected me with something that made me feel weak and woozy. My limbs felt heavy and I was having trouble comprehending anything, but I do remember him pushing me into his car. When I came to, I was chained in a chair where he told me that he was going to let me go but he wanted to tell me something first.”
“Could you see where you were?” Marcus asks.
“No, I was blindfolded. I could hear him to my left, though. There was nothing I could pinpoint about him without my sight. He told me that he was taken from a doctor who was supposed to be performing surgery on him, and instead, the doctor told his family he’d died during surgery.”
“Dr. Dansby?” Finn asks.
“No, a Dr. Novak. He said he woke up in a room with strange women, including Molly Harper, whose body we found buried in Huang’s yard. He claimed that each of the people in the room either had no family or something happened to them where their family thought they were dead, which is why the vampires targeted them. That’s when they were taken and put into a cage where each of them were sold to vampires who used them as a blood source.”
“Let me get this right,” Brooks says. “He’s claiming our governor is one of these people? I mean he targeted him as well.”
“Yes.”
“He saw him at this so-called sale?” Marcus asks, sounding suspicious, and I realize how foolish it is of me to just automatically believe River when we need facts. We need proof. He’s already lied to me once; who knows how much of this is lies too? “We’re going to believe a serial killer human when he says there’s a human blood bank ring going on in our city that we don’t know about?”
Finn sets a hand on Marcus’s chest and pushes him back. “Whether or not it’s a lie or an exaggeration, Huang does have bodies on his property that match the story. Multiple feedings have been performed on each of the women, telling us that he was using them as a food source.”
“Why not go to the police? Why not bring this information to us?” Marcus asks.
“He claims that they’d bragged about how they stayed under the radar because someone from law enforcement is on their side,” I say.
“But he captured you and thinks you’re trustworthy enough to spill everything to?” Alexei asks, rightfully suspicious.
I sigh because the barrage of questions is just making me tired and more frustrated. “I don’t know!”
“He tossed your phone, shut off your body cam, and removed all other forms of communication from you. I think he knew what he was doing and had this planned to target you,” Marcus says.
I sigh again, not knowing who to trust. “Maybe he did. Maybe I’m the fool who played right into his trap. I’m just telling you what I know.”
“I know,” Marcus says, voice softening a little.
Finn pats Marcus’s arm. “Marcus gets overly frustrated when someone’s one step ahead of us,” Finn says. And I get it. I think we all get frustrated like that and maybe I’m just a bit testy because I don’t know what to believe and what to do. These people surrounding me are my friends, but do I trust them with the truth? Marcus was ready to condemn the man before he even got all the facts.
I inform them, “Whether it’s the truth or not, we have a side to the story we didn’t have before. It’s too bad this side doesn’t want to talk to us and answer questions, but at least we have something to work with. It’s our jobs now to find proof on how correct or incorrect it is.”
“Where did he let you loose at?” Finn asks.
“He told me to walk and if I didn’t he’d shoot me and he led me out somewhere. Then he told me to stay with the blindfold on for five minutes and removed the binds. I didn’t wait the full five minutes because I couldn’t hear his footsteps anymore. I was in the middle of a field. I have a general idea of the location,” I lie, really hoping there’s a good field near River’s.
Brooks nods. “Okay. DeGray, I want to get a sample of your blood so we’ll have that for a toxicology report. We need to figure out what he’s using, and hopefully, we’ll find traces of it in your blood. I know it’s late and everyone’s tired, so we’ll get the necessities done and dive in tomorrow morning.”
OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER TWELVE 
RIVER
It’s four in the morning and I can’t sleep. Instead, I’m staring at a piece of paper wondering why I can’t seem to press my pencil against it and make anything out of it.
Banshee is sitting on my lap wondering why I can’t just sit still so she can sleep.
The knock on my door startles me still. For a moment, fear spikes inside of me as I question if Corbyn is here. Have I been too careless?
That’s when I realize that my flimsy little door wouldn’t keep a vampire out and if he wanted in, he’d just tear it off the wall, which means it’s likely someone else. I go over to it and peek through the peephole.
No, no, no.
This is almost worse. Can I hide? Should I pretend I’m not here?
“I can hear you in there, you realize that, right?”
Fuck. “Yeah, of course. Just checking who it is,” I say as I pull the door open and look at Bentley.
“I would ask if I could come in but I’m mad at you so I’m letting myself in,” he says as he pushes on inside, folds his arms over his chest, and just stares at me.
I don’t know what to say or do because I feel awful about lying to him, I feel awful about the situation, and I just feel awful in general.
“I’m sorry?” I try.
“You’re an asshole.”
“I told you not to get attached to me!” I say, but I bow my head because I don’t deserve any kindness from him.
“Too fucking late. I don’t know why or when but it’s too fucking late. I seem to be drawn to things that are bound and determined to ruin my life,” he says as he unfolds his arms and walks past me and over to where I’d had my notebook set up. “What were you doing?”
“I couldn’t sleep so I was trying to draw.”
He rips a blank piece of paper out of the empty pad and grabs one of my pencils before sitting down. It’s such a strange move that I’m wildly confused by it.
“What are you doing?”
“Drawing. If you think it’d help you, maybe it’ll help me understand why. So sit your ass down. We’re going to draw.”
This… is a strange turn of events. Slowly, I walk over to my notebook and pick it up before choosing my pencil. I try to think about what to draw before realizing that if I can’t look away from him, I might as well draw him.
I pull my knees up, using them as an easel as I begin to sketch. As we sit in silence—the only sound is the scratching of pencils against paper—I question why he came back. Does he want more information out of me? Does he want proof? What does he want from me, and why can’t I stop wanting him? Why am I so fucking happy he returned and doesn’t hate me?
“There. I’m done,” he says as he flips his drawing around to face me and a laugh instantly escapes me. I don’t know why I thought he was going to be good at drawing—maybe it was the overconfidence he exuded when he snatched up the paper—but the drawing is anything but.
Somehow, I think it’s supposed to resemble me but with the oversized head and beady eyes it looks more alien.
“Is that from your alien porn book?” I tease.
He grins at me then looks at the drawing and starts laughing. “No. This is what you look like in my eyes.”
“Is that my penis?” I ask as I point at the bottom.
“No, that’s your plaque. It says, ‘First place liar and asshole.’”
“Ah. I didn’t give you a plaque. I didn’t know we were doing plaques,” I say as I turn back to my sketch and quickly draw it.
“Let me see yours if you think mine is so funny.”
I flip my drawing around and his eyebrows shoot up. “I present your face.”
He’s clearly shocked as he says, “Um… huh… wow. You’re really good.”
I don’t know why that compliment makes me feel so happy. “Thanks. I’ve always loved to draw.”
“What’s the plaque say?”
“World’s best bat boy.”
“Ah, thank you. I’ve always wanted to be a bat boy.”
My smile falls. “Bentley… I don’t know what you told them. I don’t know if you’re sitting here to keep me from running while they prepare to make an arrest, and I’m not even sure I care. I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing or the wrong thing. I don’t even understand what I’m doing and if I’m doing it wrong, but somehow in the past six months, my life has gone from bad to worse. I found out I had a brain tumor and I was dying, I was deceived, used, abused, I killed a man, and then when I escaped, I found out my own family thought I was dead, and what did I have left? Nothing. I was going to die in a month or two or three anyway, I might as well take as many assholes down with me as I could. I hated even bringing Banshee in my life, but I made the neighbor promise that if I didn’t say something to him once every two or three days to come in and get her.”
I bite my lip and twist my fingers together. “And then you fell in my life and I knew it was fucking wrong of me. I mean, who goes and flirts with someone and makes them care about you when you’re fucking dying? How selfish is that? I hated myself for it, but I couldn’t stop because you were making me feel something for the first time in so long. You were making life mean something. And I’m sorry I was such a selfish asshole. I’m so sorry I did this to you.”
“I don’t think it’s selfish. I wish things were different, though. But it’s not your fault for wanting to cling onto someone after all you’ve been through.”
I look up and catch his eyes. “Bentley… I don’t want to die. And I don’t know why I’m doing this beyond the selfish reason that these assholes took what was the rest of my life. I had six months and instead of letting me live those months with the people I love doing what I enjoy, I was tortured in a fucking room alone. They took what little moments I had left and just destroyed them. And I want to make them pay for that, but I’m not a killer. Even knowing what they did, shooting Huang made me sick. Even though I know he deserved it and I know that now that he’s dead he’ll never kill anyone ever again, I feel awful. Fuck…”
I close my eyes and just sink down into it all. I’m pretty sure that if I don’t start kicking, I’m going to drown in my emotions and failures. I hear a noise and open my eyes as Bentley sits down next to me.
“I think it’s human nature to be a little selfish every now and then, but in this case, I don’t blame you. I’m tired of death, River. I’m so tired of the people dying around me, but maybe it just means that they needed someone there for them and I was the only one who’d fill the hole. I don’t know where life will take us from here, but I’ll stand by your side and see this to the end. I will make them pay for what they did to you.”
I nod as I try to swallow down the lump in my throat. I feel like I’m choking on it. I feel like I can’t breathe as he wraps his arms around me and pulls me into him. Desperately, I grab onto him like he’s an anchor. He’ll keep me grounded in this world I’m left swimming in. I draw in a deep breath as my fingers dig into his back. “Thank you. Thank you so much. I’ll never be able to thank you enough for what you’ve done for me. Thank you.”
I don’t want to let go of him. It doesn’t matter how long he hangs on to me, I feel like the moment I let go, I’m going to drown again, but when he slowly pulls away, I know I can’t force him back. “Do you want to stay here?”
He hesitates before shaking his head. “I need to go home. We can’t let this be a relationship. I don’t think I can handle loving two dying people right now.”
I nod even though it hurts. “I understand.”
“I need time to process and think on it.”
“I know. I understand. It was selfish of me to ask.”
“No, it wasn’t,” he says as he stands up and starts toward the door. I follow after him and scoop up Banshee so I can hug her to me.
He hesitates at the door as I stare at him while hoping my desire for him to stay here doesn’t show too badly. “I mean… it is four in the morning. And it’d be another fifteen minutes for me to get home. Just… don’t look at me, and it’ll be no different, right?” Bentley asks.
“Completely the same as being home,” I say with a smile. “The only difference would be my sweet cat.”
“I can sleep on the couch.”
“If I don’t look at you, you can sleep in the bed. Did you want a shower? I can not look at you in the shower too,” I say.
He smiles. “No, I draw the line there. I literally just found out you’ve got this evil supervillain plan going on and I’m supposed to arrest you.”
“You can handcuff me if you want,” I tease as I head back toward my bedroom. I grab him a pair of shorts that’ll be a little tight on him, but he’ll survive, and a T-shirt. I aim him toward the bathroom and head to my own room. I sit down on the bed and set Banshee down. She starts kneading my leg because she knows it causes me pain and she loves blood, but I don’t bother moving her.
When DeGray comes out, he stands in the doorway staring at me before I remember I’m not supposed to look at him.
“Whoops. I looked. I was just hoping you’d have your shirt off and be dabbing at your wet neck with your towel like they do in the movies.”
“Sorry,” he says as he heads over to the bed and climbs in like it’s nothing. I would have hemmed and hawed for way too long before climbing in.
Banshee reaches out a paw and smacks Bentley’s hand with it, like she’s annoyed he’s taking up space in her bed, as I lie down.
“I’m sorry my cat’s evil,” I say.
“She’s not evil. I think she just wants to protect you from everything,” he says as he holds a hand out to Banshee. She hisses at him before sniffing it hesitantly. He gently rubs a single finger against her cheek and while she doesn’t lean into him, she also doesn’t bite him, which is progress.
He reaches past Banshee and sets the same finger against my cheek. “Do you have any other secrets you need to spill?”
“I really like you.”
He moves his hand over my eyes. “Does life always have to be this hard?”
“I’m sorry,” I say, and I mean it so much.
“It’s not your fault,” he says, but I’m not sure whose fault it would be, then. “Good night.”
“Night, Bentley,” I say, hugging Banshee to myself as she purrs. For a long while, I lie awake, but even after the day’s events, even after everything that’s happened, I find myself feeling safe. So I burrow my face in Banshee’s fur and wait for the morning to come.