by T. R. Hamby
He was amazed. “You really have been busy.”
She smiled at him. “We’ll see how busy I really was. I’m still not great.”
“How do you hack a website?” Michael asked, seeming to be lost in his own thoughts. Gilla seemed intrigued too, as she scooted her chair closer to Nora to watch her work.
Nora was typing again. “It’s complicated,” she muttered. “You have to use a lot of code. You have to find a site that isn’t secure, and you have to use a string of numbers as a password until it unlocks the account--the administrator’s account, preferably. I’ve only done it a few times.”
“When you were supposed to be sleeping,” Michael said, raising an eyebrow.
She made a face at him, then returned to her laptop. “This might take a while...I’m going to start with HostelSeeker.com. Work from there.”
“If it isn’t secure,” Michael murmured.
“Do you have a better idea?”
He thought for a minute, ignoring the annoyance in her voice.
Mel looked at him. “You and I could...look around,” he suggested cautiously.
The three looked at him, and he shrugged. “It’s slow, but…”
“Better than doing nothing,” Michael finished, nodding.
“Is there something I could do?” Gilla asked, and they looked at her. She was sitting straight in her chair, her face set.
Michael sighed, and Mel could see he looked nervous. “I’d rather you not.”
“But is there?” she asked firmly.
They were quiet a moment. Mel felt a hint of guilt; he knew Gilla was feeling left out, and wanted to get justice for a woman she could relate to. He was torn between giving her that opportunity, and protecting her from harm--not only because she was mortal, but also because of her sensitivity to the whole thing.
What Nora had said about her crossed his mind...but no. Not now.
It was Nora who finally spoke. “You can look out for Georgios Baros online,” she said slowly. “If he’s going to restart his life, he might start an online profile.”
“Only if he’s an idiot,” Michael muttered, looking mutinous. Both Gilla and Nora shot him a look, and he desisted.
“Like you said, it’s better than nothing,” Nora said. “We can use all the help we can get.”
Mel smiled. It was the same thing he and Michael had admitted over a year ago, when Nora had insisted on helping them.
Michael and Gilla left not long after, and Nora and Mel sat on the couch while she worked. Mel draped an arm around her, watching carefully as she entered strings of code into a bar. It took nearly two hours for the first website, as she kept losing track of the code, and then another hour for the second website.
When ten o’clock hit, he took the laptop from her.
“I’ll try now,” he said. “You have to be up early.”
“But you don’t know all the code,” she replied, though she sounded drowsy.
“I can manage. You need to sleep.”
“Okay,” she sighed, getting to her feet.
They went to the bedroom, undressing and getting into bed. Mel typed away on her laptop, and she laid down, slinging an arm across his waist.
“I know what to do with my time now,” he said, pausing in his typing to brush at her hair.
She smiled faintly, her eyes closed. “Hacking?”
“Hacking...coding...all of it,” he said firmly. “One of us needs to know this, and you don’t have the time to learn it all.”
She didn’t seem bothered by this fact. “I can’t believe neither of you needed to learn it before,” she murmured sleepily.
He frowned. “Most of the bad guys we have are easy to catch,” he replied slowly, considering. “But I wonder if my Father is...assigning us harder cases now that we have you to help.”
“That’s not very flattering for you.”
He chuckled, glancing down at her. She looked perfect, falling asleep with her hair fanned out on the pillow.
“No,” he said, “but it is for you.”
“As it should be.”
This time he laughed. “Go to sleep, diletta.”
Nora
The next week wasn’t the best for anyone. Mel and Michael spent their days Traveling to Athens, dressed as tourists and checking hostel after hostel, looking for their “friend,” without success. Nora and Gilla went to rehearsals, where the drama between Enzo and the directors continued to rage. Things were tense, and it was becoming difficult for the two to properly focus on their singing. What was worse, Gilla received another email from Will Bakker, which put her in a funk.
Nora wasn’t feeling very well herself. She was tired--foggy. She missed Mel desperately, and was beginning to wonder if this show was worth it anymore. There was so much fighting, and it took away from her time with him.
Not that they had a lot of time for each other right now anyway. When she got home the two of them got on their laptops and hacked, website after website, searching for some record of Lisia booking a hostel. They were both determined to find Lisia, and the hacking took her mind off things--although she had been staring at her computer screen so much she was afraid she was beginning to forget what Mel looked like.
One night he finally sighed.
“Let’s take a break,” he said, shutting his laptop and setting it aside. They were in his apartment tonight, lounging on the sectional, half-empty glasses of wine on the table.
Nora sighed too. She was exhausted, and her head hurt. “It’s been a week, and we haven’t found shit,” she said, closing her laptop.
“It took longer to find Ariel,” he said soothingly. “Remember?”
He wrapped his arms around her, and she melted into him, burying her head into his chest.
“You and Michael haven’t found anything at the hostels, I haven’t found anything on the booking sites, and Gilla hasn’t found anything on the internet,” she murmured. “And I have rehearsal tomorrow...god...I have to listen to Enzo going off on Fonti again, like we’re on a goddamn Hollywood movie set…”
“You sound like you need a day off,” Mel said, and there was worry in his voice. “Are you okay? You’ve been...distant.”
She hesitated, listening to his heart beating in his chest. She could count the beats, which meant he was relaxed. She was relaxed too, but it wasn’t the right kind of relaxed. She was down.
She suddenly felt embarrassed, and tucked her head so he couldn’t see her face.
“Just a mood swing,” she murmured.
She heard his heart race. “When do you talk to Dr. Nilsson again?”
She thought for a moment. “Next week.”
“Maybe you should reschedule for this week instead.”
She nodded vaguely. “Yeah.”
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, squeezing her. “Tell me what to do.”
“It’s okay,” she said soothingly. “It’s happened before. I’ll get over it.”
“But you have me now. I can help.”
Nora couldn’t help but smile, as gratefulness overwhelmed her. He was right; she had never had him to help her before. All those dark times--sick in the hospital, sick at home, alone, trying to pretend that everything was fine. No more of that.
“Nora,” he murmured, “you don’t...have to be okay for me. You know that? I’m here no matter what.”
Now her heart ached, and she felt tears spring to her eyes.
“I just feel stuck,” she moaned, trying desperately not to cry.
He brushed his hand along her back. “This thing with Lisia is dragging.”
“And rehearsals have been shitty.”
“Take a break,” he said. “Not with rehearsal--with Lisia. I can do the hacking on my own. You can use the time to rest.”
She considered this. She desperately wanted to catch Lisia, but she was also exhausted, too. Something had to give.
“Maybe just a couple days,” she said.
He didn’t respond, just held her, rubbin
g soothing circles into her back. For a long while they were quiet.
“How’s Gilla been?” he finally asked.
She shrugged. “Not bad, actually. She’s still having some nightmares, but they’re bearable. Her ex’s email shook her up a little, but Michael calmed her down.”
“They seem to...help each other a lot.”
She smiled. “Are you surprised?”
He chuckled. “No. Not anymore. I can see he loves her. He seemed bent out of shape about her helping us with Lisia.”
“I know. But she’s a grown-up, and it’s not like we can kick her out of the club.”
“I wonder...if there was any way she could become Immortal too. If my Father might allow it...what with everything…”
She had considered this before too. “Right. I don’t know though--she would have to find a way to die first, and I can’t imagine--”
“Die? What do you mean?”
She froze. Shit. She had completely forgotten--Mel didn’t know a thing.
When she didn’t answer, he continued, “Nora? What do you mean, ‘die?’”
She hesitated for a long moment. Then she rose, turning around to face him.
He was staring at her. “This is what I didn’t want to know about?”
“You can still not know about it,” she said weakly.
“Tell me.”
She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. Her headache had returned with a vengeance.
“When Michael asked God to make me Immortal, he agreed--but only if I...died first.”
Mel was very quiet. Finally he whispered, “Like...suicide?”
“It didn’t matter how,” she replied. “Michael thought it was because humans achieve Immortality when they die--they just go to Heaven instead of staying here. I don’t know. It’s just what he asked.”
He looked away, but not before she saw tears glittering in his eyes. Her heart ached, and she felt a horrible wave of guilt.
He took a shaky breath. “How.”
Nora held her head in her hands; she didn’t think she could look at his face as she told the story. Slowly she went through the whole thing--Patrizio hacking and finding her address, Patrizio attacking her, Nora letting him kill her. God’s voice, their deal.
Finally she finished, and she waited. When nothing happened, she looked up. Mel was staring ahead, his jaw tight. There was a dark look on his face, and she felt a horrible chill...a deadly chill…
She knew what he was going to do instantly.
He jumped to his feet. “Michael,” he growled, Calling for his brother.
“No!” she cried, jumping up and grabbing his arm. “Don’t, Mel, please--”
“Michael!”
“Mel, stop it!”
He whirled on her. “Don’t stop me,” he said.
She was crying, and she gripped his arms as Michael appeared out of the corner of her vision.
“Please don’t do this, Mel, please, please--”
“What’s going on?” Michael asked, bewildered. “Why are you crying?”
“You said you would keep her safe,” Mel hissed, and the temperature dropped further. Nora expected her knees to weaken, her head to get dizzy, but nothing changed--she must have become immune to Mel’s anger. He tried moving past her, and she clung to him, sobbing.
She looked over at Michael. “Go,” she moaned. “Please, Michael, go.”
He looked somber. “You told him.”
“And when I thought I could trust you again!” Mel shouted, and Nora jumped.
She finally let go, stamping her foot.
“Fine,” she cried. “Fine, kill each other. Break my fucking heart.” And she left, brushing past Michael, grabbing her bag from the counter and leaving through the door. She took the stairs down to the second floor, down the hall and into her apartment. She locked the door behind her.
She collapsed onto her bed and cried harder than she had in a long time. All the stress, all the dark emotions from work and the Lisia case broke free, adding fuel to her low mood. She cried for a long time, wearing herself out. When her eyes were finally dry, she stared dully at the wall. She felt like all emotion had been sucked out of her, leaving her like a shell on the bed.
“Don’t be dramatic,” she told herself. She sat up slowly, hugging her knees, and checked the clock by the bed. It had only been an hour.
She checked her phone--two missed calls from Michael. She sighed and hit his number.
“How are you?” he asked, answering after the first ring.
She sighed. “I’m okay.”
“I didn’t know if I should have pounded on your door or not.”
Her lips twitched. “I appreciate that. Mel hasn’t even called me.”
“He’s giving you space. He knows you’re pissed.”
“How can you defend him?” she exclaimed indignantly. “He was about to rip your head off over something that isn’t even your fault.”
“I shouldn’t have let you get so involved,” he murmured.
“It was my fault Patrizio found me,” Nora said firmly. “I jumped the gun; I tried out the IP tracing thing on him without you there. That’s not on you, it’s on me.”
“I shouldn’t have let--”
“Shouldn’t have let? I’m not a child, Michael!”
“A fully grown man strangled you to death, Nora,” he shot back, his voice low with anger. “You didn’t see what I saw. You were blue...your neck was...swollen. I couldn’t wake you.” He sighed. “Regardless of your age, you were my responsibility, and I let that happen to you. Mel’s worst fear happened, and he wasn’t there to stop it.”
She sat very still. She had never considered what Michael had seen before she had returned to life.
As for everything else...well, she supposed she understood. It didn’t change how angry she was, though. Mel had been so angry...and he hadn’t listened to her at all.
“Did you two...patch things up?” she asked hopefully.
“No,” Michael said. “I left after you did.”
She let out a sigh. “This is a mess.”
“Why did you tell him?”
“I didn’t mean to,” she replied. “It just slipped out.”
“How does that just slip out?”
“You are not helping,” she said, just as there was a knock at the door. “I think that’s him. I’ll talk to you later…”
“Nora.”
“What?”
“I love you.”
She paused. His voice had been almost strangled, as if it had been difficult to get out. She softened, and a tiny smile played on her lips.
“I love you too. Bye.”
She crept to the front door and looked through the peephole. Sure enough there was Mel, leaning on the door and looking nervous. His hair was tousled, as if he had been running his hands through it.
She couldn’t help but feel a pang. But she quickly remembered how he had shouted, how he had looked at her as she had tugged on his arm, and her anger returned.
He knocked again, and she unlocked the door and opened it.
He looked a little relieved. “How are you?”
Nora folded her arms.
He sighed guiltily. “Please just tell me you’re okay.”
“Do you really think you’re entitled to that?”
He closed his eyes. “I would hope so, seeing that I love you.”
“You were screaming. I was crying. You wouldn’t listen to me.”
He ran a hand through his hair, looking at her. “I know. And I’m sorry. I lost it.”
She was very tired. Her heart was heavy, and all she wanted was to lie in bed for a week. Maybe two. She thought of rehearsal in the morning, and a lump formed in her throat.
She brushed at her eyes. “I need space tonight.”
Mel looked pained, but nodded. “Okay.”
She thought for a moment. Now that she thought about it, she wasn’t sure she could bear to be alone tonight. Or rather, she couldn’
t bear to be without him.
“Actually,” she whispered, as he turned to go, “maybe you can...stay with me.”
“Whatever you want,” he said soothingly.
“Just...don’t talk to me,” she said, letting him in. She thought she detected the smallest hint of a smile as he walked past her, but she decided to ignore it.
Mel was good about not speaking to her that night. They lied in bed together, her head on his chest. It comforted her--despite still being pissed at him--and she quickly fell asleep.
She woke up before her alarm, to an empty bed. She could hear Mel moving quietly in the kitchen, and she could smell eggs and bacon being cooked. She couldn’t help but smile--Mel was always cooking American breakfasts for her.
Then she remembered last night, and her mood soured.
She went out to the kitchen. He was standing at the stove, scrambling eggs with a spatula.
She looked around. He had cleaned the kitchen and living room top to bottom, even scrubbing the floor. Everything smelled fresh, a scented candle was lit, and a window was open, allowing a warm summer breeze to drift in.
Damn. He was good at groveling.
Nora approached the counter. Mel was watching her nervously, continuing to scramble the eggs.
“I’m not going to rehearsal today,” she sighed, sitting down. “I’ll text Enzo in a bit. I need the time away.”
He nodded. “Okay.”
They were quiet a moment. Mel added cheese to the eggs, glancing at her every few seconds. The bacon sizzled in its pan.
She sighed. “You can talk to me now.”
He looked wary. “Can I apologize?”
“You already apologized.”
“Can I expand on it?”
She tried not to smile. “Okay.”
He set the eggs aside, thinking.
“You died, Nora,” he whispered. “I was more than close to losing you. If it hadn’t worked--if my Father had decided to go back on his word--you would be gone, and I would never see you again. And what’s worse, I wasn’t there to stop it from happening.”
He paused, a dark look on his face. “But Michael was there. And he didn’t stop it from happening.”