Page 103 of Bones

AURORA

Five days.

It’d been five very long days since Deke disappeared.

Which, coincidentally, meant it’d been five days since I’d had a good night’s sleep.

A decent one.

Just any, really.

Surprisingly, I was doing okay on very little rest. Or sleep deprivation had kicked in and was making me think that.

Either way.

What I wasn’t handling well was Deke’s continued absence. I missed him. I wanted him back. I wanted to finish what we’d started.

Badly.

Lilith bumped her shoulder into mine, her gaze on where I was yet again rubbing my chest. “He’ll be back soon. Time passes differently there.”

“Did you or Lennon go to Heaven?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Rafe—Raphael, my archangel—came to Earth. It was right before my dad passed away, and they didn’t want me gone when that happened.”

I expected to see anger or even hurt on her face. After all, her mate was Pestilence and she had an archangel, yet her father was still gone.

But there was no bitterness. Just appreciation that she hadn’t missed that goodbye.

“I went,” Juno said. “Hell, too. Stellan only went to Heaven.”

“Nate went when he got his memories back,” Denny added. “He was able to get a message to me through his mind connection to Juno, but it was still a long wait for him to return.”

I tried forcing a message through my thoughts.“Where are you?”

Like when his siblings had tried over the previous few days, nothing happened.

“Where is that bossy bastard of a mate?” Juno asked Denny. As the only one without a mortal job, he usually accompanied her to the training sessions.

“At the station with your mate, actually.”

Lilith pretended to check a watch. “Oh, is it Take Your Death to Work Day already?”

“There’s been another surge of missing people,” Denny said.

“Well, damn, why didn’t you tell me before I made that heartless joke. Now I feel like an asshole.”

“Says the princess of joking at inappropriate times,” Juno said. “The queen is still your mom for making that boner joke at the hospital.”

Lilith tried to force a scowl, but there was too much warmth. She smoothed it out. “Okay, missing people.”

“Stellan says he isn’t sure if they’re related to this or just an unfortunate side effect of normal, everyday evil. Nate went to look through the files to see if anything jumped out, just in case.”

From what I gathered, Lennon was almost done at the hospital, but it’d been decided that Stellan should keep workingas a detective since it gave him access to possible clues and connections.

I wonder if Deke will be able to open another restaurant. I hope so. That’s the only time I’ve seen him look fulfilled.

Well, other than…

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