Page 77 of Marked by the Demigod

Aimes sits up, rubbing her head. "Hi Miri," she croaks out, and her voice feels like it's been run through a cheese grater.

Miri quirks an eyebrow at her. "Katya told me you'd be here, but she didn't say why." Miri hands her a Starbucks cup, and it's somehow Aimes's favorite drink. "Gossip for some gossip?"

Aimes gratefully takes the cup, and it's way better than she would've thought. "She says it’s to protect me."

Miri rolls her eyes and sits at her ancient computer, booting it up. "She says that about everyone, that's practically nothing to her." As her computer beeps into existence, she regards Aimes with something that's close to a predatory glare. "She had two funerals yesterday. Then, instead of going home and resting like she very well should be, she said she had to do ward work and have you crash here."

Aimes slurps at her coffee out of a lack of anything else to do. "Two funerals?"

Miri nods, face saddening before clearing like a flash. "She's been doing about five a week," she says, her voice final. "That's how fast they're getting us."

With a rush, Aimes is sharply reminded that Miri isn't in fact a normal girl, and that she herself fits firmly in the category of not-normal. That she probably knew almost everyone killed, and that she herself probably considers herself in some sort of danger. "Are you...are you safe?" She blurts out.

Miri cocks an immaculately groomed eyebrow at her. "No one knows," she says, clicking on her computer for start up. "It's not like there's a pattern for Katya to track." Her voice is as frosty as Aimes has ever heard from her. "So why is she checking the wards at your place?"

Aimes blinks at the sudden change of subject. "I got threatened by Demi gods at Dave's funeral," she says, quick.

The other eyebrow goes up. "Well aren't you special," she says, but her voice has gentled back into the flirtatious tone she always has. "Most Demi's don't deal with regular people, much less," she waves vaguely at Aimes, "regular regular people."

"Thanks," Aimes says, dryly.

She shrugs, her computer finally dinging to life. "I think they're involved," she says after a few seconds, already deep into her scheduling files. "It has to be either someone with the organization, or someone related to an actual god, to be killing off with such..." she trails off, as if frustrated at her own lack of vocabulary.

It's quiet, just the fluorescent lights and the taps of computer keys.

"I'm sorry," Aimes says quietly. "That's...awful."

Miri flashes her a bright smile, sudden in it's appearance. "I carry a gun everywhere," she says, as if that makes everything better. "A gun and some bronze bullets, in case they try me."

Aimes doesn't really have an answer for that, so she grabs Katya's phone charger off her desk and chills in the reception area chairs.

"Katya won't tell me who married you," Miri says, obscured from her computer screen. "Me and some other assistants have a pool. I think it's a vampire."

Aimes glances from her phone, where there is still a suspicious lack of text from Iakov. "Vampires are actually real?"

Miri types away, not even looking up. "Of course they're real, why wouldn't they be?" She smiles, but at the computer screen. "So not a vampire."

"Not a vampire," Aimes leans back. "I'd tell you, but Katya literally won't let me tell anyone, and he's..." She trails off as Miri snaps up to look at her. "He's secretive."

Miri cracks her winning smile. "See, he has Katya scared, and she's only scared by the vampire nests, which is why I thought." Miri crosses her hands and leans forward, completely abandoning the computer. "Was he tall?"

Aimes really doesn't want to go through the entire guessing game with someone who shouldn't be privy with the knowledge. "Not out of the ordinary," which is technically correct but misleading. "He gave me a fake name, he doesn't want people to know,"

Miri tosses her curls over her head, which seems natural and practiced all at the same time. "So just Katya gets to know?"

"And the only reason Katya does is cause she literally walked in on him injured at my apartment."

Miri's eyes flash to her neck, as if searching for some sort of scar, the smile fading. "Someone tried to kill him? And it...rebounded?"

"Sure. That's accurate."

Miri shrugs, and finally turns back to her computer. "Smart on him, then," she says, voice far. "Must've known that whoever it was would come after him." She resumes working, falling silent.

The door slams open, and Katya strides in, only raising an eyebrow at the Starbucks cup in Aimes's hand. "Really, Miri?"

Miri shrugs and slurps on her own cup, not saying anything.

Aimes follows her into the office, and Katya shuts the door behind her with a definite click.

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