I kept my eyes open for the guy – and warned Kanesha – all week. I even saw him hanging around, but he didn’t come close to me again. Probably hoping that if he watched me for long enough, Thea would show up.

For all I knew he was a disgruntled ex. Thea didn’t strike me as the celibate type, despite the fact that some of the legends insisted that valkyries were virgins. But other stories contradicted that.

I was going to assume that everything was vague and not quite right until proven otherwise. That was the way to keep my sanity.

On Wednesday, he swung by the sub store while I was working. I was looking forward to, finally, the possibility of ditching that job. “Have you seen her?”

“Like I said. You made sure I won’t tell you. Either order a sub or get out.”

He ordered a sub and sat down in a corner, watching me with smoldering eyes. “Who’s that?” my coworker, Ben, asked.

“Friend’s disgruntled ex who thinks I’m going to tell him where she is.” The suspicion made a good cover story, accurate or otherwise.

“Ugh. Let me know if you want me to walk you home. He looks like the type of idiot to do something stupid.”

“I took up martial arts,” I told him with a smile. “But I’ll think about it.” I didn’t want to involve Ben, but his presence would probably dull this guy’s ardor.

Under the cover of cleaning the toaster oven, I watched him, and tried to focus on my other senses. As unreliable as they were, they might be able to tell me something about this guy.

I was right. He wasn’t human. Or not entirely, anyway. Which didn’t mean he wasn’t a disgruntled ex. Or an idiot. I’d already got the impression that supernaturals, even deities, could be just as stupid sometimes as the rest of us. I sure as heck could be, whatever I was.

He eventually got up and left and I relaxed a bit. “Hopefully he won’t wait for me outside.”

“So, what did happen to his ex anyway?”
“She skipped town. Possibly to get away from him, although she did say she’d be back.” She just hadn’t been clear as to when, and I wasn’t sure that when was going to amount to any time soon.

I was missing her a lot more than I thought I would, and if I had to beat up her enemies as well…

“Eh. He doesn’t seem quite skip town worthy.”

“He is,” I said. “Don’t mess with him, okay?”
“And you should?”

I grinned. “Martial arts, remember.”