She was asleep on my seater sofa when I returned just before sunrise. Moving closer, I took her in; curled up to one side, she rested with one hand tucked up between her cheek and the sofa arm. Her bare feet, toes painted a metallic purple, were crossed over one another at the ankle. The soft grey pajama pants she wore flared at the end, dangling over the cushion and her black tank top falling off the right shoulder. I caught a glimpse of a white square in the corner of my eye and looked down at the coffee table. On a small white piece of paper, she had drawn a crude drawing of a man with the name, 'Cassian', written just above him. Standing beside him was a woman with an angry face, holding a stick and stabbing the man in the chest. Above the woman, the name, 'Amya', was written. At the man's feet, she'd drawn little flames.

A soft chuckle snuck through my lips and I picked it up, folding it up and slipping it into my pocket. Bending, I picked her up and made my way to the bedroom. Pulling back the covers, I laid her down and tucked her in. She let out a breath and rolled over, wiggling further under the covers.

Turning away, I moved toward the wardrobe, grabbing a change of clothes before stepping into the bathroom. Showering and shaving, I pulled on my own pajama pants, more than ready for the night to be over. She would be angry to find herself in the same bed as me in a few hours, but I wasn't willing to allow her out of reach for too long at the moment.

Slipping into bed on the other side, I noted that she'd moved again, facing the middle of the bed with one leg kicked out from under the covers and tangled on top of them. I found myself watching her sleep. One arm bent beneath her pillow, her stubborn mouth turned down slightly in a frown and her brows furrowed. Unable to stop myself, I reached out a hand, pressing my fingertips to the creases between her brows and gently smoothing them out before capturing a strand of her hair and pushing it back behind her ear.

"Don't leave," she breathed when I pulled my hand away. I froze, studying her, but she was still fast asleep.

"I'm here."

"Liar," she sighed out with a frown. "They always leave." She rolled over, pulling the covers up tighter under her chin.

***

I woke up to my cheek pressed against cool skin and one arm hooked securely around a bare torso. My entire body went rigid and I opened my eyes immediately to assess the situation and mentally cursed. My head was resting comfortably on a bare chest I would be willing to bet belonged to Cassian based on the fact that it was his main living area that I last remembered being in. I couldn't see his face without moving, and I was determined not to wake him up. Lifting my arm slowly, I began to ease away from him, rolling to the edge of the bed and tumbling over the edge as quietly as possible.

Straightening myself up, I looked back over at him to find him awake with his eyes on me. Tugging subconsciously at my tank top, I glared at him. "This," I said, gesturing toward him and the bed, "isn't going to work for me."

"Then you can share a room with Andrea."

"Absolutely not," I snapped back.

"You're no longer permitted to room alone."

I crossed my arms, "Then put me in a room with Zeke." I didn't like the guy, but I stood a much better chance with him than I did with Cassian.

"Absolutely not," he replied, echoing my own words back to me. We glared at each other for a minute before I turned on my heels and made my way to the bathroom, slamming the door behind me. He was throwing it back open in an instant and I whipped around. "This door stays open."

"You've lost your damn mind," I snarled, trying to push it back shut on him. "I'm going to take a shower."

He held it open, meeting my heated gaze with his own, his jaw set determinedly. "It stays open."

I gritted my teeth. "I wasn't trying to harm myself yesterday," I told him, attempting patience. "You misunderstood the situation." He stayed where he was, silent and unmoving. "Do you plan to babysit me 24/7? How are you going to get any of your actual work done?"

We stayed there for an eternity before he finally let go of the door and turned away. "You have thirty minutes to get ready. You may close the door, but don't lock it, Amya."

Making a face at the back of his head, I slammed the door shut for a second time, reaching for the lock, but then hesitating. If I locked it, he'd break it down. Dropping my hand, I turned toward the shower.

Dressed in a fresh pair of jeans and a t-shirt with a towel, my hair damp and loose, I stepped into the main room to find Cassian seated at his little table, a plate full of food across from him. "Eat."

Biting my tongue, I fell into the seat across from him, picking up a sausage link and biting into it while I took him in. He was focused on the phone in his hand, not bothering to spare me more than that single word, and the gray-blue button-up shirt he wore was perfectly put together with the charcoal slacks he'd donned with it. Reaching for my phone, which he seemed to have moved to lay beside my plate before I'd come into the room, I snapped a picture of the food and sent it to Becca.

She replied immediately. 'Look at you, eating better than you ever did here. I didn't know you could cook!' Smiling softly to myself, I continued eating absently as the two of us continued texting back and forth. It went a long way toward easing my mind, being able to keep in contact with her.

Finished eating, I pushed out of my chair and grabbed the dishes, clearing them off into the trash and then rinsing them in the sink. Looking back over my shoulder, I noted that Cassian was still sucked into his phone. "So what's the plan?" I asked at last, turning away from the sink and leaning back against it to cross my arms and watch him expectantly.

"Plan?"

"Yeah," I affirmed with a half-hearted shrug. "I'm your vampire kryptonite, blah, blah, you need to decide if I force that can be used for good or just evil, blah, blah, blah."

His lips twitched briefly upward but then settled back into his usual emotionless expression. "Kryptonite seems an exaggerated description."

"Is that the point of this?" I asked with a roll of my eyes.

"You'll stay with either Andrea or myself for the time being."

"You think I need a babysitter?"

"Do you want me to answer that honestly?"

Neither of us spoke for a minute, not breaking eye contact and willing each other to break first. Finally, I broke the silence with words I suspected I would regret before long. "Zeke."

"Isn't an option."

"Well make him one."

"No."

"Do you really want someone you can't trust following you around to your meetings, learning all of your secrets?"

"Do you plan to betray me?"

"Of course."

I could swear I saw his mouth twitch upward again. Standing up, he nodded toward the door. "Get your shoes and let's go."

"So you're the girl."

Despite my best efforts, I was currently sitting with my legs curled beneath me on the sofa in Cassian's office, looking up at gray-haired man standing in front of me with a look of contempt on his face. Glancing past him at the completely indifferent Cassian, I returned my focus to the man in front of me, matching his contempt with my own. "I'm a girl."

"I told them we should kill you."

"What a coincidence," I replied with a wide smile, fluttering my lashes up at him. "So did I. I guess they value your opinion as much as mine."

Surprise flickered across his face and he furrowed his brows, sneering down at me. "What are you planning?"

"If I had a plan," I began, leaning forward with the same wide smile, "would I tell you?"

"Sir, she's not to—" he started, whipping around to address Cassian.

Cassian held up a silencing hand, unmoved by the exchange. "Enough. She's pushing you for a reaction."

"What if he watched me?" I suggested, earning a disgusted look from the man in question. "He seems to have a no-nonsense attitude. I couldn't get away with anything."

"You had something to report, Godfrey?" Cassian asked, completely ignoring me.

"Yes," Godfrey replied, sliding me another dirty look. "If we could speak alone?"

"No problem," I replied happily, jumping to my feet and taking a step toward the door. "Have fun!"

"Amya."

"I'll just be right outside the door," I informed them both, disregarding the warning in Cassian's tone as I reached for the door handle. "Take your time."

"You will stay."

Annoyed, but not surprised, I let my hand drop and move back to my spot on the sofa. Feigning an apologetic expression, I offered Godfrey a shrug, "Well I tried."

Half a minute later, there was a knock on the door and Andrea stepped inside. Glancing briefly in my direction, she turned her attention to Cassian. "You needed me?"

"Take Amya back to my quarters. Remain with her until I get back."

"Of course."

"Like hell," I snapped out at the same time. "Pick someone else."

"You'll go with her," he said with finality in his tone as he leveled me with a hard look.

"I won't," I shot back, crossing my arms like a petulant child. "Not with her."

"Mya, I—"

"Now."

The two of us glared at one another for what felt like an eternity before I got up with a huff and went to the door, pushing past Andrea and yanking it open. "Let's go."

Andrea and I walked in silence, though I could feel her eyes on me with every step. When we reached the door to Cassian's, I stood to the side as she input the code and opened the door. "Are you hungry? I could make you something," she offered, turning toward the kitchen.

"No."

I heard her sigh as I made myself comfortable on the loveseat, grabbing the book I'd left lying on the end table. "Mya, I would really like for us to clear the air and maybe even be friends."

"I'm not interested," I said flatly.

"I know this all must be very difficult for you, and I—"

"Just stop," I cut in, holding up my hand. "I'm not interested in anything you have to say."

"I was only doing my job."

"Your job could've been done without inserting yourself into my life," I bit out, feeling my temper rising. "I don't care to hear the excuses."

She took a breath, closing her eyes briefly as if searching for patience. "I'm sorry for that."

"Do you think I want your apology?" I laughed. "Do you think that will just make it better? I didn't like Zeke from the start and Cassian was annoyingly superior, but you?" Looking away as I felt myself choking on bottled-up emotions. "I liked you. I thought we could be friends. I don't have many of those lately. And it was a joke to you."

"No," she insisted, pulling a chair over from the table and falling into it. "It wasn't a joke. My job was to keep an eye on you, and I did it. Getting a table with you and Becca was purely for myself. I'd heard how you'd held your ground with Cassian and I was impressed. I wanted to get to know the woman who was willing to put him in his place, and who didn't fall all over my brother."

"They didn't hide what they were doing, not really. I knew what I was getting with both of them. You tricked me. You felt like more of a betrayal." A part of me knew I shouldn't have taken it all so personally; that it was just business and there should be no hard feelings. Despite knowing it, I couldn't seem to find a way out of the anger. Outside of Becca, Andrea had been the first person I'd felt connected to since Becca's family had taken me in.

"Mya, this is my family. I want us to be friends and I am sorry to have hurt you, but I will always choose my family. I hope you can understand that."

It was honesty. Though it may not have been the easiest answer, its honesty took some of the anger away. "Yes," I admitted. "I can understand that."