Wall Street beckoned Vincent away after our amazing elevator encounter, but I still wore a Cheshire smile when I walked into Mr. Pearlman's apartment. Griffin and Amelia had his kitchen smelling like the Keebler Elf treehouse, and Griffin immediately abandoned her post to corner me, offering an oatmeal cookie as compensation for dishing the details of the amulet exchange.

"I can't believe Hadria is taking over the hive," Griffin said. "The last hostile takeover happened three hundred years ago in Rome. That was a sticky-wicket, as Gramps would say. Has your friend, Christoph, left his post?" Griffin rattled off her comments as she licked her fingers, and I was forced to guess how much she knew.

"I think he has. Have you seen him around?"

"Not recently. He doesn't try to hide from us, only humans. He's going to fight against his own, isn't he? That's what Colin told me."

"Christoph is committed to Cecile, and if the hive is changing queens, he wants to be there to protect her."

"I can tell you're worried about him. He saved your life. You share a connection even though you're supposed to be enemies."

"You're right. There's a connection between us, but we're connected to everyone on the planet in some way. I try not label people before I know them."

Griffin smiled. "That was deep. You've been meditating, haven't you?"

I tried to recount the number of times I'd meditated in the past few weeks, wondering if I could count sex. "I'm prone to deep thoughts," I said in lieu of an answer.

Griffin giggled as she shoved her unruly curls behind her ears. "Did you have fun visiting your grandmother? What's her name again, Petunia?"

"Petula, and our visit was very... intense. She showed me a picture of my birth mom in her hybrid form."

"Wow. What did she look like?"

"Blonde hair like me, pretty, but also fierce. She had an impressive wing span."

Griffin looked intrigued. "I wonder how fast her spirals were. The longer the wing span, the tighter the spiral." She pressed her arms to her sides to demonstrate. "There's more skin to snag on things though, so long wings can be a disadvantage."

Amelia made her way toward us, but she didn't have a chance to nix Griffin's probing before Nurse Kathy shooed us out. It was Mr. Pearlman's bath time and nobody needed to witness that. I returned to an empty apartment save for the whippets. Of course, Bonnie and Clyde were glad to see me, and they led me to the pantry where I could find treats.

An SD card with hundreds of church photos beckoned me to my laptop, and I stayed occupied with that for the next hour. The problem was, I couldn't stop obsessing about the plight of the demons, and every notification that chimed on my phone had me startling in response. Why hadn't Christoph called? Didn't they have wi-fi at the apiaries? He could just walk outside and text me for Chrissake. Or maybe he couldn't walk at all.

At five o'clock, I picked-up my silent phone to call Sylvie while she made her commute home. This always made me feel better, even though Rizzo rode the same subway now. I also wanted to ask about her battle wound.

"Perfect timing, chica. I'm just shutting down my computer." Sylvie's cheerful voice did exactly what I hoped it would, brought a smile to my face as I paced the room. 

"Hi, Sylvie. How goes it? Another fabulous day in paradise?"

"It was a great day, even though it was busy. And the people here aren't assholes like my old bossman, so that helps."

"How is your wrist feeling?"

"Annoyingly painful, but it doesn't look infected. Ori couldn't have picked a worse location. Rumors are circulating that I tried to cut myself and check-out."

"Did you use the broken window story you gave the nurses yesterday?"

"Yes, but that doesn't matter. Everyone wants to be part of an intervention. William is trying to put the gossip to rest."

"Good, good..." I made a pass by the dining room table, kicking a pickle-shaped dog toy that squeaked as it bounced off the wall. This prompted both dogs to hop off the couch and investigate.

"You're worried about Christoph aren't you?" Sylvie asked.

"How is it you know me so well?"

"Um, best friends, remember? Have you heard from him since yesterday?"

"No, and it's driving me crazy. To be honest, I liked Cecile. I don't think she's the evil queen the gollums make her out to be. I mean, she's four hundred years old. You can't live that long and not mellow-out some."

"How do you think this changing of queens will affect the gollums?"

"So far, Vincent doesn't seem worried, but he's also never been inside a demon hive. I'll bet he's never spent more than twenty minutes with one. Just long enough to split some skulls."

"Ugh, must you? Hey, I need to do one more thing before I leave and then I'm meeting Rod and his extended family at the Waldorf Astoria. They want me to do the photographs for his nephew's wedding."

"Sweet. Should I tell Rizzo not to expect you?"

"Already handled, babe. Catch you later."

I hung up and realized I had stopped in front of the sliding glass door, and I gazed out at the balcony, the place I nearly met my end. It was also my only escape from the penthouse. I opened the door, determined not to let one incident paralyze me. Despite my fear of heights, balconies had never been an issue. Another suppressed gollum trait gone awry, I figured.

The clouds threatened snow over my head, making me think of Mom's squash. Hopefully, she wouldn't have to harvest her second batch early. As I flicked to the weather app on my cell, a sick feeling hit my stomach. Thanksgiving was over, a completely botched Thanksgiving, if you asked me, and I swiped to my lock screen to read the date. November twenty-seventh. Theo's death anniversary.

Oh, balls.

The feeling hit me like a tsunami, taking me back to the last time I saw Theo alive. The wave came as a blur of images that only reminded me of a missed opportunity to save him. I shuffled to a patio chair and slumped into it. Then I pulled my legs up to my chest and assumed the position of grief as I gave myself permission to open the flood gates. It felt good to cry with nobody there to pat my back and tell me it was okay. I didn't need their sympathy over a brother who thought it was better to stay high and forget he had a whole life ahead of him. What kind of selfish move was that? Christ, Theo.

I may have blubbered for twenty minutes, enough to get my sinuses running, and I walked inside to blow my nose. I'd made it through most of the day blissfully ignorant, and I was determined not to let this setback derail me. I still had one more to-do on my list. I needed to go by Mr. Pearlman's old apartment and pick-up some of his crap. I also needed to haul more of my crap over.

I called Rizzo to check his subway status, and by some freak chance he was already home. He agreed to shuttle me in the Escalade, so I popped off a text to Vincent, keeping him in the loop, although I figured Rizzo did the same thing.

"Thanks for being my escort, Rizzo," I said as we made our way slowly across town. "My fighting skills aren't up to snuff to do things on my own yet."

"You will get there." Rizzo looked at me suspiciously through the dim light of the dashboard. "Are you alright, mon amie?"

"Oh, is it that obvious?" I wiped my eyes with the sleeve of my shirt, making it more obvious. "It's the second anniversary of my brother's death. I did a little crying earlier, but I'm good now. Really."

Rizzo continued his keen assessment of me as he navigated through traffic, but he didn't push the issue. Smart guy. I also noticed he was using his right arm pretty well, so I didn't feel guilty accepting his help when we arrived at Mr. Pearlman's place. We filled boxes for close to an hour, keeping the topics benign, like gross old man habits, and when Rizzo started favoring his arm, I suggested pizza.

Camped in front my television, Rizzo and I polished off a medium three topping pie ourselves, an indulgence I used to soothe my melancholy heart. Since he seemed engrossed in the sci-fi program we switched on, I excused myself to fill a few boxes of my own. It wasn't until I came across a family scrapbook that my sinuses started running again, and Rizzo appeared at my bedroom door when he heard me sniffling. He rescued me with a box of tissues then plopped down and let me cry on his shirt.

"You miss your brother, eh?" he said. "That is him in the photo?"

"Yes. He was eighteen there. That's his Camaro. He loved that car more than anything. This picture was taken the day he earned his first speeding ticket. He was proud as hell of it. Theo would have made a great gollum. He had balls of steel."

Rizzo chuckled. "I cannot vouch for Vincent, but I assure you, my balls are not made of steel."

Vincent walked into the room just as Rizzo made his joke, which had Rizzo scrambling to his feet and leaving me unsteady.

"Reese is mélancolique," he explained. "Her brother..."

"It's Theo's death day," I said through a fresh wave of sobs.

Vincent landed on his knees behind my back and wrapped his arms around me. "Have you talked to your parents?"

"No. They wouldn't want to talk today."

"What about you? Do you need to talk today?"

I shook my head. "Not now. Maybe later."

Vincent cradled me closer as he gave Rizzo a nod. "You can take off, Rizzo. Thanks for stepping in."

"De rien. You are welcome." Rizzo left me with a reassuring smile that I caught from a watery peripheral view, but I saw enough to wager he was glad to be excused.

"What can I do, Reese? Talk to me." Vincent pressed his cheek to my head as he rocked me, and I was tempted to say 'Keep doing what you're doing', but I was done here.

"Take me home."