When Robert woke up, he was alone in bed. For a moment he didn't know why that was a problem, then the memories from last night filled his mind. Ghouls, kissing, Jenna in his bed, and some more ghouls and kissing, priorities not necessarily being in that order.  

He sat up and groaned. It wasn't like he had sore points, no: he was a sore point. His entire body ached in new and interesting ways, reminding him that after thirty, things aren't what they used to be. He was really happy that he didn't have any lectures to give at the university today. At the moment talking consistently for 90 minutes looked impossible. Bollocks, even finding his car in the parking lot seemed unlikely.   

He stood up and looked out of the window. According to the clock tower, it was a little after half-past nine. Robert checked around in case Jenna was somewhere in the tiny flat, but he knew it was pointless right at the beginning. He could just tell that she left long before he noticed her missing jacket and boots. If he needed any more proof, that was waiting for him at the coffee machine, in the form of a yellow post-it. It said "thank you" with big, roomy letters, then under them with smaller ones "p.s. I borrowed a pair of jeans, sorry. Mine has ghoul brain on it." 

He smiled and put away the post-it. Then he made a huge mug of coffee and sat on the couch with it. The coffee was much needed: he might have slept until now, but he only fell asleep a few hours ago. Marcus told him that he had to be watching over Jenna, and wake her from time to time, just to be sure she was okay. And Robert did so, scrupulously. At some point, around three in the morning, Jenna decided to nestle him, which he didn't mind whatsoever, even though it did not make the night easier for him. He chose to be a perfect, well, almost perfect gentleman about the sleeping arrangements (except for that point-proving and highly necessary kiss) and the woman's warm, soft body around him didn't help at all to keep that promise. 

Although, it felt good. Maybe even too good, actually. There was something natural in it, and that was a highly alarming thought.  

As much as he despised his father and everything he stood for, Robert knew that the Carano family wasn't innocent or blameless at all. Having any kind of relationship with one of them apart from a strictly professional one seemed to be an unwise idea. If only he could have got rid of that unwise idea, he thought, then sighed. 

The whole situation was so typical, Robert was surprised that not one of those great playwrights ever wrote a piece about lovers suffering from a war between their families. Then he scoffed, thinking that he should check if there was a play about an overdramatic arse who should have gone back to sleep and was making up problems where there wasn't one. Yes, that one was highly relatable. An instant classic. 

He finished his coffee, rinsed the mug and went to the bathroom. Both of their clothes from yesterday were on the floor in a neat little heap. Jenna's pants had some greyish-greenish thing on them indeed, probably the aforementioned ghoul brain. It did not smell nice. The stain was certainly uncleanable, and Robert didn't have high hopes for his jumper and shirt either, even if they only had some blood on them. Didn't check what else is in there, avoiding some awkward "what should I do with Jenna's panties"-type of dilemmas, he grabbed the whole batch and threw everything into the garbage. That was probably how demon hunters were dealing with clothing problems anyway, he thought.

'Sure, the kiss meant nothing, but somehow I'm still cleaning up after her…' he murmured to the empty place. 

After a long shower, he went back to the room, playing with the idea of laying down for a little while. Just an hour or so, until his brain starts to work properly. Or at all. 

His phone beeped before he could get to the bed. It was where Jenna left it in the evening, the top of a small book-tower on the coffee table. He had a message and couldn't help it but hoped it was from Jenna. Disappointingly the screen showed Marcus' name. "In case she didn't kill you in your sleep, I have some news. If you are dead, peace to your ashes, idiot. Either way, let's meet at the Shield at two." 

So much about a quiet day, Robert thought. Every little part of his body screamed after resting, but when did anything happen the way he wanted?  

So he agreed on the meeting, then put his phone to charge and stood up, still groaning, to make some breakfast for himself. It wasn't even eleven, but the day already promised to be unbearably long. 

***

There was nothing Jenna wanted more than a peaceful, quiet morning in the office (no, actually, mostly in her bed, but the office was easier to reach from Robert's apartment), so she could avoid thinking about last night undisturbed. That, as it turned out, was too much to ask. Molly and Grimes had one of their usual falls out, and the office quickly became a war zone. Mr Jones handled the conflict as he did with all other conflicts that ever occurred: he locked his door and refused to get involved. 

With all the tension and occasional shouting around, Jenna decided to get the hell out of there. 

Fortunately, she had the perfect excuse: she needed to go back to the cemetery to make sure there were no surviving ghouls. Hunting for ghouls in broad daylight was much harder than it was at night because they tended to stay hidden in their nests. It wasn't impossible though, and the whole task as menial as it was still offered much better entertainment than staying in the office and listening to the fight about who should have cleaned the microwave oven. 

So Jenna grabbed Remy, who was grumpy all morning because Jenna didn't invite him last night to the hunt, and they headed to North Acton. The journey was mostly uneventful but featured a young man playing his music out loud. Jenna smiled at the sight, even though the music, naturally, was rubbish.

The neighbourhood of the cemetery wasn't much nicer at daylight, and the endless grey sky promising rain didn't help. Now everything looked somehow sad and old, even with the new tower block. It must have been the people: they all looked tired and grim, going after their daily businesses. A drunk homeless begged for money very loudly at a corner and he was the only one around who smiled. 

Jenna's phone beeped. It was a crappy old one she kept in the drawer of her desk at work, just in case. She took it out hastily now and was disappointed to see Magda's misspelled name. When Jenna powered up the spare phone there were three texts and a voicemail from the girl already, and now she messaged her again. The whole thing started to look like a plot of one of those psycho-thrillers everyone seemed to watch all the time. Jenna groaned. She decided to put an end to it right there and then. 

"listen, i am sorry, you're a great girl but im not looking for anything serious rn. sorry i didnt tell you earlier. j" 

There was no answer but Jenna had a feeling that it was not over yet. As if her life wasn't already complicated enough.       

'So, do you want to tell me?' Remy asked Jenna when they were almost at the gates of the cemetery. A burnt smell made the air heavy. 

'Tell you what?'

'C'mon, Jenna,' he rolled his eyes at her, 'every time your phone goes off you jump on it. You are wearing a UCL T-shirt but you went to Cambridge. Also, your jeans are way too big, almost as if they were someone else's. And you smell like a man, plus you are distracted all day. And, I know you are good, but you said it was like a dozen ghouls. No way you killed them all alone. I think you were here yesterday with a guy, and then you slept with him. Just please, please tell me it wasn't Grimes.'

'What? Ew, no!' said Jenna disgusted. 'It was Ro… Someone else, not even a hunter. And I didn't sleep with him!'

Remy gave her an astounding look.

'What, did he say no?' he asked.

'I could have had him if I wanted to,' she said with affronted dignity. 'No, it was strictly professional. I had a tiny little concussion and he was polite enough to let me stay with him, just in case. And anyway, how could Grimes have a T-shirt from any university at all?'

'Fair enough,' nodded Remy. 'I didn't think that one through. But still, you cheated on me, Jenna. You hunted with someone else.'

The woman laughed.

'I will make it up to you somehow,' she said. 'Now let's get to work.'

The two-winged gates were open. The graveyard looked smaller now without all the dark corners and shadows. Jenna smiled when she saw that Robert fixed the big, beautiful rose-shaped window what she had to break and use as a weapon. 

Somewhere halfway between the entrance and the chapel they saw a big blackened spot next to the concrete road. It still steamed lightly, and there were burnt bodies in the middle and a magical circle around it to contain the fire. Jenna made an approving face unwillingly: Montgomery did listen to her. 

A woman was walking her miniature dog past the ashes. Jenna wasn't surprised to see that the small thing didn't feel the urge to check out the pile. Animals could feel the presence of the undead, and they did not like it at all. Except for cats, of course. They weren't afraid of dark creatures, probably because they were one of them. Jenna liked that about them and was also a fan of their occasional brutality. 

'Why do you Britons have no respect for the dead?' asked Remy when the woman was far enough, 'Walking a dog in a graveyard… What if he digs up a bone? How do you explain to him that it was someone's grandma?'

'How should I know?' asked Jenna back. 'Im Italian. More or less.' 

They didn't find any sign of survivors, but they did find something very disturbing. Ghouls, as Jenna already told Robert, only had small colonies, a nest with three, maximum of four members. They were also very territorial, so if a group occupied a place, they were going to fight for it to death. And yet, the two hunters saw three different nests inside the graveyard, which was not only unusual but impossible according to what they knew about these beasts.

'Are they smart enough to… I don't know, realise that they have a better chance together?' asked Remy.

'I don't think so,' shook her head Jenna. She felt something very slight, a resonance of a spell under all the other magic they did yesterday, but she couldn't quite pick it up. Something was off, but she didn't know what. 

'Do you feel that? Like a big spell, almost as if it was in the ground…'

Remy looked around and shivered. The cemetery was empty now, not one jogging middle-aged couple or shouting little band of school-uniformed kids was on the scene. 

'I cannot feel old magic, Jenna. Nobody can, you are the only weirdo with superpowers around,' answered the boy. 'Are we done yet? I think it's gonna rain soon.'

Jenna tried for a couple of more minutes, then gave up. Whatever it was, she couldn't identify it. And frankly, it was not her problem anyway. The Jones and Sons had a contract on the ghouls, and the ghouls were dead. End of story.