Page 46 of Marked by the Demigod

A question for Katya, really. A question for the thick pack of papers; if they had the limits of his abilities or knowledge of whatever the hell he could do. As a Demigod.

Trixie gestures with her gravy laden fork. "Your face is doing it again," she says airily. "You're unhappy."

And it's as much of a challenge as Trixie would ever suggest, and for a brief, breakfast laden second, Aimes considers telling her everything, every little bit, showing her Katya's stuff, and having someone who she can actually talk the sex stuff with.

She pushes around her French toast, instead. "I hooked up with a librarian up there. It was...okay."

"Okay?" Trixie's eyebrows raise. "Doesn't sound like it."

"He was a dick in the morning." With the lie, the rest is easy. "Didn't want to give me his number, said it wasn't worth it, left without saying goodbye and...I felt like shit."

Trixie shrugs and almost snarls at the same time. "Fuck him, you're fantastic." She scoffs. "And he's a librarian up in Maine. Clearly you have the better life. I mean, it's Maine."

"It sure was quaint."

"Quaint isn't a good thing, Aimes. Not since like at least 1950." Trixie sips her coffee, eyes dancing. "And now he has to go back to his inbred little village with no internet connection and remember that he could never do as good as he did that night ever again."

It startles a laugh out of Aimes. "I don't think Maine's inbred."

Trixie shrugs. "Still, fuck him. Couldn't even give you a proper hickey, it's all lopsided."

"Hickeys aren't normally symmetrical."

"Then you've been hooking up with the wrong guys." Trixie sips from her coffee, but the corner of her eyes crinkle up, before she too seriously sets her drink down. "Do you want me to see if Kristopher has any friends? For a fling?" She offers, oddly formal.

And wouldn't that crash and burn spectacularly now. Like the Hindenburg all over again, but with her social life instead of, you know, hundreds of lives. "I think," Aimes begins, then falters. "I think if I got a boyfriend, right now, it'd be bad."

"Too much Rocky baggage?"

"Let's go with that."

* * *

Later that night,after way too much debating, Aimes picks up her phone and texts Katya.

AIMES (8:32 PM): I saw him again.

The reply takes her a strangely long time to get back to, so Aimes attacks the pile of dirty dishes that she left over the trip to marinate in the sink.

KATYA GOVERNMENT (8:59 PM): Maine?

AIMES (8:59 PM): Yep.

KATYA GOVERNMENT (9:01 PM): I'm coming over.

Aimes sighs, then attacks the dishes with a bit more fervor. Her apartment might be a mess, but it doesn't need to be a smelly mess.

Even though a substantial chunk of the mess is because she was not-sick from the stabbing. And the sudden not sudden appearance of Jake - Iakov - back into her life.

And he hasn't been able to keep away, she realizes with a smug little glimmer of satisfaction. He saw her once, and then the very next time a guy even looked at her, he showed up. Almost worth seeing what’ll happen if she lets Trixie set her up on a date. See if he'll come crashing into that, unexplained but unnoticed to everyone else.

Her couch still has some bloodstains. Which she frankly has no clue how Trixie didn't see and how she's going to get them out of the upholstery.

For a brief second, she can’t remember even seeing a scar on Iakov's chest that morning, or if it was gone as well.

Drying her hands, the doorbell rings, and Aimes throws the towel over her shoulder before letting Katya in.

Katya is wearing the full business suit and combat boots, even this late at night, and a frown decorates her face. "Seriously, Maine?" she says in lieu of a greeting. "Maine?"

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