Jenna stood under the shower until the water wasn't pink in the tray from the blood it washed out of her hair anymore. Just the usual. She got out and checked her tattoos; they were all right. She had a Signum on her and there was nothing to do about it: the ink was special. She looked at a couple of magicless days. It could be worse, she thought and shivered. 

Jenna dried herself and put on a pair of sweatpants and the T-shirt Robert gave her after the ghoul-incident. She felt like it was years ago while in reality just a little more than a month went by since then. She usually wasn't so well dressed at home, but Marcus stuck around. Not to mention Robert, of course: Jenna never lived with anyone before and she had no idea what the rules were. Can she just walk around with only panties on or is that rude? Does she have to go to sleep when Robert wants to? Who decides what to watch, or what to listen to? What if she wants to go out for a drink, does she have to tell Robert where she was going? So many questions…

'How do you feel?' asked Marcus when she got back in the big room. Fixing Jenna's head took the bigger part of the last hour. 

'I've got some headache but nothing serious. Thank you.'

'Don't mention it,' waved Marcus. 'So you say it was our lovely Magda again?'

Robert was in the kitchen, washing the filter of his coffee machine. Jenna cleared her throat and looked at her own maker, what she already put on the kitchen counter. Robert rolled his eyes but put away the filter and went to figure out how Jenna's machine worked.

The girl sat down next to Marcus, on the sofa. She pulled up her knees and hugged them. Despite everything, she was hungry again. Robert put crisps out in a bowl on the coffee table and she grabbed some.   

'That bitch with the ridiculous knitting needle knew who I was, yeah. I think they were waiting for me for some time, a day or so. What happened to them, by the way?'

'They are under arrest and they are going to spend some time in prison. Once they get out of the hospital, that is,' said Marcus. 'You banged them up big time, the ones that weren't vampires anyway. I don't get how, though: Jenna has the Signum, and you, mate… Well, you know.'

Jenna's eyes met with Robert's.

'Let's just say that we misjudged the situation regarding my magic,' he said, finally opening up the top of the coffee machine. 

'What?' asked Marcus surprised. 'So now you can do magic again? You said it's impossible.'

'I thought it was impossible,' nodded Robert. 'Apparently, I don't know nearly as much about magic as I thought I did. However, I'm very limited: I have only Movement and Fire, nothing else.'

'Could be worse,' said Marcus. 'Okay, so, I talked to my uncle, and he cannot spare any magic wielder detectives to find and stop Magda. He said a team is already working on it, as much as they can but there are no leads and not enough manpower.'

'So let me guess: he offered that we can do it ourselves,' sighed Jenna.

'No, he said we should stay put and they will catch her eventually, but since I'm an agent of MAGE, I went over his head and I said that we can do it ourselves.'

'Because that worked out splendidly in the past,' said Robert sarcastically. 'Marcus, we are not police officers, agents or soldiers. We prove it already that we cannot do this. The fact that none of us died is because of sheer luck and nothing else.'

'Man, you single-handedly took down two sorcerers and a vampire using like what, two and a half spells and a stick,' pointed out Marcus.

'Jenna handled the vampire and she took care of one of the sorcerers too, all I had to do was smack him on the head on arriving,' Robert put a mug in front of Jenna's machine, pushed the button on the top and the smell of fresh coffee filled the apartment.

'Doesn't matter,' shrugged Marcus. 'Not like anyone else will do it if we chicken out…'

'You know, he is not wrong,' said Jenna, 'and I'm kinda pissed anyway. I know you are, too, and I have a feeling that Benjamin has a couple of things to say to Magda, as well.'

Robert gave the coffee to Jenna and repeated the whole procedure with another mug.

'Fine,' he sighed. 'Any idea how to start?'

The answer was silence. The second cup of coffee went to Marcus then Robert put another capsule to the machine.

'We could ask Kovach…' suggested Marcus.

'It's a miracle on its own that he isn't trying to kill us yet,' scoffed Robert. 'I'd like to keep it that way.'

'Let's make a file,' said Jenna, taking a sip of her coffee and sighed with pleasure. 'What do we know?'

'We know that she is a vampire and used to work as a bartender.' replied Marcus. 'The Met already questioned her co-workers, but they didn't know her well. She only worked there a month or so.'

Robert got his own mug, walked up to the couch and jerked his head to Marcus, who grimaced but moved to the desk. Robert sat down next to Jenna. 

'We also know that Magda is using her mind control abilities and lies together to get people to do things for her. Which means she has to be a vampire for at least what, twenty-five, thirty years?'

'I've seen vampires developing mind control after twenty years, but I get your point. She is at least fifty years old.' said Marcus, then he looked at Jenna. 'Ew, man, you fucked an old lady…''

'It's a family thing, apparently,' she said, thinking about Teodore and Ayana. 'I didn't know that back then, by the way. I didn't even realise that she was a vampire until like halfway through, and I wasn't gonna stop there…'

'Please, spare no details,' said Marcus. 'When you say halfway, you mean one of you was already done, or like…' 

Robert flicked his finger and a pencil from the table behind Marcus hit him on the head.

'Hey!' he cried out.

'You deserved it. That's my…' Robert looked at Jenna with his eyebrow lifted.

'Yeah, go ahead,' she sighed.

'...that's my girlfriend there you talking to!' then he added: 'Oh boy, that was weird. Jenna Carano is my girlfriend.'

'And she is getting tired, so let's focus,' rolled her eyes Jenna. 'Did those guys from my flat say anything useful?'

'Not in particular. The sorceress is called Maria… something, she had one of those weird Polish names, I can't pronounce it,' shrugged Marcus, looking up from his phone. 'She said she knew Magda for a while, they used to work together in another pub. Magda had a nice little tale about how she and you, Jenna, are a couple, but some older vampire washed your brain, and if they turn you into a vampire your brain will heal itself…'

'That's bullshit,' bursted out Jenna.

'And as we all know, psychotic stalkers are always careful when it comes to getting the details right,' pointed out Robert. 'Who were the other two?' 

'The vampire woman just had been turned last month. She said a man attacked her in the street on her way home one evening. After she turned she was terrified, she didn't know what to do or where to go, but Magda helped her with the first steps. They met at the same bar, apparently. She thinks Magda is a living saint… The third of them, the man was a paid thug, nothing more. He has a file longer than my arm.'

Jenna put her chin onto her palm and tapped her lips with her forefinger.

'Maybe Magda arranged that attack, too?' she guessed.

'I hardly think so,' shook his head Marcus. 'There are reports of increasing vampire attacks from the last six, seven months. That is one of the reasons the Met is so busy. Looks like a few "recruiters" are walking around and offering big money to vampires if they attack and turn strangers on the streets. Kinda fucked up if you ask me.'

Jenna shivered and moved closer to Robert. She remembered the syringe full of vampire blood and she was sure that she won't forget it for a long time. She was very close to losing her magic forever. If Robert just came 30 seconds later… 

The man put his arm around her shoulder now, and she leaned her head on his. She couldn't put the picture of the syringe out of her mind. 

'As disturbing as it is, I doubt it has anything to do with…' said Robert, but Jenna suddenly cut in.

'We can use her blood,' she said.

'What?' Marcus asked. 'What do you mean?' 

'We have her blood, right?' Jenna's back straightened. 'We could use it for a searching spell.'

'Nah, it's gone,' shook his head Marcus. 'There was a little fighting when the police arrived to take them into custody. The sorceress used the time to destroy the evidence.'

'Shit,' said Jenna. 'Well we don't even know if it really was Magda's blood, so might as well, I guess.'

'We should ask the Ghost,' said Robert.

'The what?' asked Jenna and Marcus together.

'The Ghost. He was in the news,' waved Robert towards the TV. 'He is some kind of a masked hero or vigilante or such. Nobody knows who he is, but he already prevented three or four of those vampires attacks you mentioned, Marcus. He seems to have a way of finding vampires.'

'A self-appointed superhero,' said Marcus grimacing. 'We surely can do better. Those guys are nothing but troublemakers.' 

'So like us, basically,' grinned Jenna. 'Let's talk to him. How do we find him?'

'We don't,' answered Robert. 'Benjamin and Martin do. They have all the dodgy contacts and weird friends.'  

'You know that the Met has an arresting warrant against every one of those masked freaks, right?' asked Marcus.

'Then it's a good thing that none of us is a police officer,' replied Robert with a grin.

'You can go to jail for holding back information in an ongoing investigation,' pointed out Marcus.

'Only if you sneak on us,' said Jenna, 'but you would never do something like that, right? You are too good of a friend.'

Marcus sighed.

'That reminds me: I think you two should be much more careful. As of now neither Lord Montgomery, nor Don Carano knows about the two of you, and it should stay that way for the moment being. I doubt Benjamin would say anything but maybe you should talk to Teodore, Jenna. And no kissing and holding hands in front of the public, okay?'

Jenna and Robert looked at each other, trying to hold back laughter. Marcus' eyes jumped front one to the other and back.

'Do I wanna know what you two did today?'

'You most certainly don't,' answered Robert. 'But I see your point, and you are probably right. At this moment we have enough problems without dealing with the family war.' 

After that, the meeting was over, but Jenna wasn't finished with Marcus just yet. While Robert washed their coffee mugs, she pulled Marcus aside.

'Listen, how well do you know Ayana?' she asked.

Marcus put on his biker jacket then shrugged.

'We worked together before, I'd say we are kinda friends, well, if you can talk about friendship when it comes to Ayana. She is… Different.'

'Yeah, I've noticed…' murmured Jenna. 'So do you trust her? Isn't she… dangerous?'

Marcus grimaced and glanced at Robert, who gave quite good of an impression of someone who isn't listening. 

'He told you, right? Listen, Jenna, I know it must feel weird, but… I mean, c'mon. You are playing mommy and daddy with Rusty over there, and believe me, that is not one bit less strange. By the way, when I say Rusty, I address the time he spent without sex, not his hair colour…'

'He wasn't half-bad,' smiled Jenna unwillingly, while Robert threw the sponge at his friend.

'Jerk,' complained Marcus while wiping the foam off his coat. 'Anyway, don't worry about Teodore. Ayana is a weirdo but she is one of the good guys.'

Jenna nodded, even though she wasn't entirely convinced. Marcus hugged her, showed his middle finger to Robert when the man vocalised his displeasure over that and then he left.

'Not half-bad?' asked Robert, sitting down on the sofa. 'I'm so glad to hear that. Just out of curiosity, what qualities do I have to show to get a better grade? We can start to try right away if you please…'

Jenna smiled and sat down, snuggling up to Robert. 

'This is probably the first time ever I'm saying that, but I afraid we won't have sex tonight. I have a terrible headache…'

Robert hugged her shoulder and kissed the top of her head. 

'That's okay. I'm only kind of good, as it turns out, anyway.'

The girl poked him at the ribs with her elbow.

'I wasn't going to tell him all the details, but don't worry, you are good,' her mind filled with memories of the afternoon they spent on the back seat of Robert's car and Jenna bit her lower lip. 'Yeah, you are definitely very good…' she said in a somewhat husky voice then she cleared her throat. 'Anyway… How did you do magic without saying the words?'

'Pretty cool, huh?' Robert couldn't hide his proud smile. 'You see when I arrived at your flat, and I saw you pinned to the wall, I became very angry. So angry I didn't think, I just… Sort of did things. I didn't even realise until some time later, actually. Apparently, you don't have to say the words out loud.'  

Jenna remembered his face from that moment. She almost shivered.

'I have never seen you that angry before. Ever. And I gave you tons of reasons to be mad at me… To be honest it was kinda scary.'

Robert didn't answer right away, and Jenna started to think that she said something wrong when he finally did.

'Yes, I am aware,' he said quietly. 'Part of the Montgomery-heritage. My grandfather was famous because of his anger management problems. When he was young, people still used to have duels to settle a disagreement. Well, at least the rich ones who could pay the fine if they got arrested or something. According to the family tale, my grandfather had more than fifty duels in his life, and he only lost the last one. That was also the first occasion his opponent got to walk away alive.'

'Sounds like a charming man,' said Jenna. 'I don't think you are like him if that helps.'

Robert didn't answer, just hugged her a little tighter.