One

one

Kris

Traveling with Zhen was much like traveling with a toddler. Snacks? Fidget toy? Entertainment? As long as you had those three things, he was good as gold. At least until his usual energy kicked in. I had learned this on the last flight we’d shared together, when we’d gone to California to pick up my inheritance. So, even though we’d been insane, throwing things into a suitcase and hoofing it to the airport, I’d made sure to pack the necessary distractions. This was, thankfully, a short flight. He and I settled in, watched some Black Knight that I had loaded onto my laptop, ate snacks, and generally had a fine time while on the plane.

This was our last leg, and I was glad. I was so ready to arrive and get this over with. It’d be evening by the time we landed, although it shouldn’t be dark because of the long summer days.

Zhen had given me the window seat, which I appreciated, as the flight was packed to the gills. Apparently, everyone and their dog was going to Virginia. I’d never been in the state before, so I had no idea if this was a popular place or not. Guess I’d see.

A smooth male voice came over the intercom. “ We want to thank you for flying with us today. We’ll be landing in Norfolk shortly, so we do ask that you stow those bigger items away at this time. Please keep your seat belts on until— ”

We were at the end of the episode anyway, so it seemed good timing. I shut the laptop and reached for its sleeve. “So, what do you think?”

“It’s some fun, mindless action.”

“Pretty much my takeaway. Not bad, though. I think we should continue.”

“Absolutely. In all of our downtime.” Zhen laughed at his own joke.

Man had a point. He was usually pretty busy. “So, next time we’re on a plane?”

“Probably how it’s going to happen.”

I got things stowed away and tucked back under the seat in front of me. When the flight attendant had announced we’d land shortly, he hadn’t been kidding. The next thing I knew, I could feel the plane lower its brakes as it headed for the tarmac.

I heard grumbling and people speaking to each other about all sorts of topics as people braced for the descent. Flying wasn’t one of my favorite things; I didn’t like being crammed in with this many people in a small space for hours on end. I didn’t know many people who did. This flight, though, had to be one of the easiest I’d ever experienced.

I knew why. Zhen.

My somehow-husband was great fun to be around on a regular basis, and he was a wonderful travel buddy. My joke about snacks and entertainment aside, he was good at keeping track of logistics and made it less anxiety inducing for me to be at the right place at the right time. He’d traveled a lot, and it showed, as he was far more comfortable with it than I was.

The wheels of the plane hit the tarmac with a hard bounce. Then, of course, we did it two more times before the plane settled.

Zhen’s hand had shot out to cushion my head after that first bounce, which I appreciated because I’d kind of smacked it the first time. Owww.

Grimacing at him, I muttered, “Did we land or were we shot down?”

“I know, right? Maybe it’s his first day out of training school.”

“Ha! Maybe.”

A raised, indignant voice from the row behind us started climbing in volume. “See?! That’s the shit I mean, right there! The second he realized she might get hurt, he reacted. Why don’t you do stuff like that?”

Uh. That didn’t sound good. I dared a peek behind me through the seats. Looked like a couple who wasn’t getting along. The guy appeared to be your average middle-aged man—big gut, fading hairline, and all. The woman sitting next to him was in better shape, and you could tell she had actually showered, unlike the guy, who had serious bed hair. She looked absolutely done with him.

“You know they’re just dating. He’s still trying to score points with her,” the guy muttered.

Unfortunately my nosiness got me. The woman saw me peeking and locked eyes with me.

“Ma’am. You dating or married?”

Now, there was a loaded question. Sometimes I wasn’t even sure how to answer it. Legally, we weren’t. Spiritually, we were. Uh, I’mma go with “Married.”

Vindicated, she glared at the man again.

I had a feeling their relationship wasn’t going to survive for much longer. Also, could I please disembark from the plane quickly? I did not want to be drawn into the drama.

Of course, we were sitting in the middle of the plane, so we were going to be sucked right in. It was inevitable.

People got seat belts off, retrieved bags, and stood awkwardly, hoping to deplane sooner rather than later. I tried to ignore the conversation going on not twelve inches from me. Tried. Failed. You know how it went.

“You’re always nagging me, woman!”

“That’s because if I don’t nag you, all you do is drink beer and watch football!”

Well, that explained the beer gut.

“You only like him better because he still has all his hair.”

“It’s not about the hair, Harold .”

Hair? Really, Harold? You thought this was about hair? She clearly said what the issue was. Man was delusional.

For some reason, Harold looked to Zhen for backup. No clue why he thought that was a good idea.

“You only do cute stuff because she demands it, right?” Harold stabbed a finger at me like I was being accused of murder. “If you don’t do it, she’ll be on your ass, right?”

Excuse you? Man couldn’t be serious.

Zhen got that expression. The one that said he couldn’t believe the stupidity he was hearing. I’d seen him wear this look before, and when it happened, he went full Southern gentleman.

“Sir. It so happens that my wife’s safety and happiness is my number one priority. I do not, in fact, want her head smacking against something. If you don’t care enough about your woman to protect her, care for her, adore her—then leave.”

Harold flushed bright red and looked betrayed. Like Zhen had thrown him under the bus. “But she does make you do stuff like that, right?”

Zhen’s irritation rose another notch. With his chiseled cheekbones, his resting bitch face was vampires in the night scary. “When a man truly loves a woman, he acts like it.”

Harold appeared even more embarrassed. Like he wanted to fall through the floor and disappear. The woman, though, abruptly looked sad. She stared at Harold like it had suddenly hit her that this man didn’t love her. Poor lady. It was hard to face a relationship and realize it was done and this whole time you’d been dragging its carcass around. I felt so bad for her.

Finally, the row ahead of us started moving. Zhen stepped out into the aisle, then backed up a few inches so I could safely squeeze out. I was glad he’d buffered me from Harold the Loser. No one was a fan of him at the moment.

I got off the plane, up the ramp, and out the door into the terminal before I realized Zhen wasn’t right behind me. I’d thought he was. I paused there, curious about the holdup and hoping it wasn’t Harold. Odds weren’t good, though.

About fifteen seconds later, Zhen joined me, moving at a jog. The devilish amusement I knew all too well was in his dark brown eyes as he caught up.

“What?” I challenged, too curious to not say something. “Harold get you?”

“Man tried, but I avoided him. I think he wanted to ream me out for making him look bad. Not that he needed help in that department.”

“For real. So, what held you up?”

“Turns out we had an influencer sitting behind Harold. She caught the whole thing on her phone—”

Oh nooo, I had an idea of where this was going.

“—and she wanted my permission to share it. Said it was a good example of a healthy relationship versus a toxic one.”

“You said yes, I take it.”

“Of course I said yes.”

Of course he had. Zhen had no shame. “Let’s move quickly before we get caught by Harold.”

“Good point.” Zhen oriented himself and then started quickly walking toward baggage claim.

The airport was really small. Like, surprisingly so. I thought the airplane had had more people in it than the airport did.

Zhen’s phone rang, and he picked it up readily. “Hey, Jake. Yeah, we’re off the plane now, heading for baggage. Yup, see you in a few.”

“Your friend is prompt.”

“His punctuality’s one of the things I like about him. That and his aim. Man’s a sniper.”

“I thought it’s ’cause he saved your ass by dragging you out of danger with a broken ankle.”

“Naw, that he owed me. I’d already saved him multiple times.”

“Bro code?”

“Yup.”

Zhen amused me greatly sometimes. It was such guy logic.

We got lucky at baggage claim, and our bags arrived fairly quickly. My stitches were out, but I was still careful to not bump into anything as I grabbed luggage. I took mine and didn’t even try to help with Zhen’s. His bags weighed more than I did. I knew this for a fact because of the airport scale. I did keep a sharp eye on him, as he’d just gotten his cast off this morning and I didn’t want him putting undue strain on a barely healed leg. But he was acting fine, so maybe I was the worrywart.

Bags in tow, I started for the main doors, but then I spied potential trouble. Harold. He’d just gotten his bag, and he looked mad—like, even madder than he had been on the plane—which did not bode well.

Don’t make eye contact, don’t make eye contact, just beeline for the door…

Zhen muttered to me as he walked, “You saw him?”

“I did. Make tracks, man.”

“Jake just texted. He’s waiting right in front of the doors.”

I saw a big, bold 4 on a sign dead ahead, so that sounded great to me. Just ten yards or so to go to reach safety. Norfolk was such a small airport, they didn’t even have assigned waiting areas. You pulled up to the door, let people off or picked them up, then drove away again, apparently. Damn. I’d never seen an airport this small before.

A tall man with dark auburn hair, a thick beard, and a long, lanky build leaned against the side of a Jeep. The Jeep could’ve definitely used a wash—it looked like it had had a mud bath at some point. The man had the same vibe as Zhen, so I assumed he was Jake.

The redhead tilted his sunglasses down to reveal warm brown eyes, then lifted a hand in greeting. “Hey, bro.”

Zhen waved back. “Hey, man, thanks for getting us. Can you—”

From behind us came Harold’s outraged voice. “I HOPE YOU’RE FUCKING HAPPY! SHE’S LEFT ME BECAUSE OF YOU!”

Dammit. Harold had spotted us after all.

Jake glanced at angry Harold, then back to Zhen. “What did you do?”

Zhen pointed to himself with the most innocent, baffled expression. “I am a sweet, innocent angel.”

“Now I know you did something.”

He did know Zhen well. “Zhen was being a good husband on the plane. The woman behind us noticed, asked her husband why he wasn’t treating her the same, and a fight ensued.”

“I’m such a good husband, other women realize their relationships are toxic.” Zhen beamed, proud of himself.

I’d have loved to poke him in the ribs and take him down a peg, but it was true, so… “Harold is not one to learn from his mistakes. Clearly.”

“At any rate, let’s load up quick. Before he gets it in his head to start a fight.”

He was definitely the type.

Jake opened the back. I threw in my bag but kept my purse on me, then loaded into the back seat. I knew Zhen and Jake had a lot of business to discuss, so it was better for Zhen to be in the front.

We were all in the car not a moment too soon. It was like Harold had belatedly realized that if he wanted to get revenge, he had about fifteen seconds before we pulled away from the curb. He started running for us in this lurching, off-kilter gait. Man hadn’t run in a few decades was my guess.

Jake threw the Jeep into first gear and shot off as Harold yelled obscenities. I waved at him. Bye, Harold! Get therapy before your next relationship, please.

“Phew. Safe.” Zhen extended a fist, which Jake bumped. “You do have good timing.”

“I try,” Jake said with fake modesty. “All right, so, nice to meet you in person, Kris.”

“Same here. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Only half of it’s true.”

“That’s kind of what I figured.”

Jake laughed delightedly. “Zhen says you can shoot a gun and put up a fight?”

“It alarms me that’s your first question for me, but yes to both.”

“Then you’re my kind of people. I know I didn’t tell you guys a lot over the phone, but the truth is I didn’t know a lot at the time. Still kind of don’t, but I’ve gotten some more details.”

I had no idea where we were going, but it was pretty, with lush green trees and grass. I harbored a suspicion that my positive impression of Virginia would be shortly ruined by some unholy monstrosity that would try to eat me.

“Bloody Bones, you said,” Zhen prompted Jake.

“Yeah. I seriously hate these things. Kris, did Zhen tell you what they are?”

“He did. I Basically a water demon that likes to hide in deep ponds, old marl pits, et cetera. It drags children to the depths and eats them.”

“Disturbing, I know. We haven’t lost a kid yet to the Bloody Bones in this particular town, but it was a damn near thing. Three kids were very close to getting killed. The older boy and the family dog managed to fight it off long enough for everyone to escape. Otherwise, we’d be having a different conversation right now.”

Zhen let out a low whistle. “They must have put up quite the fight. Bloody Bones are unnaturally strong.”

“I know it. I understand the dog’s a German shepherd–Malinois mix, so I personally wouldn’t mess with it. The Bloody Bones may have come to the same conclusion.”

That was probably a very, very tough dog. Lucky kid to have him. “Are Bloody Bones a common problem?”

“Fortunately not. Well, really, any amount of Bloody Bones is too much, in my opinion, but most of the time people take the necessary precautions. Bloody Bones rear their ugly heads again when people stop doing it, or let protections lapse.”

“And we get called in,” Zhen finished. “Jake, we know which pond it is?”

“Yup. So this should hopefully be a quick in and out. It’s just…” Jake gave a long sigh. “You know what happened the last time I tried to kill a Bloody Bones by myself.”

“If memory serves, you ended up fighting it underwater.”

I’m…what? He did WHAT?! Zhen said that so casually, I honestly doubted my ears for a second. Then another second, as the first one wasn’t enough.

Jake let out another sigh. “I hate these things. I really do. It’s best to have backup. Besides, you’re better with the woo-woo stuff and can put protections on the pond after it’s been cleared out.”

“I figured that was the main reason you called me. It’s fine, man, I can watch your back.”

“Appreciated.” Jake tilted his head to call back to me. “Kris, we’ll have you stationed away from the water so you can watch both our backs. Just shoot what moves.”

“Okay,” I said. A little faintly. I mean, I was going to stay well away from the water anyway, but after hearing that?

This girl don’t fight anything underwater. Nuh-uh. That’s all them.