Robert left most of the things he bought from Mr Fletcher in his car in case he would need them on the go. As hectic as his life became lately, there was a good chance for that. Besides, he didn't want Jenna to worry about him and buying an arsenal of magical weapons enough for a small army was everything but a sign of mental health. He did pick up the art supplies, however.

Robert smelled something delicious in the carpeted staircase, but he thought that one of the neighbours was cooking. Because of that, it was strange that the fantastic smell became stronger as he went up the third floor, where the only apartment was his, under the roof. He opened the door and found Jenna in the kitchen.

She was barefoot, wearing only one of Robert's shirts and a blue apron the man never saw before. Her curly hair was tied into a loose bun on the top of her head, leaving some of the locks dancing in front of her face. She was singing along with the music coming from the turntable, and she was so beautiful that Robert felt like his heart started to grow.

On the hot plate, there was a big pot full of something red; the source of the good smell.

'Hi,' said Robert hesitantly, fighting off the urge to step back and check the number on the door, just in case.

'Hi,' answered Jenna. She walked up to him, wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a kiss. It tasted like red wine and that finally convinced him that he didn't end up in some kind of parallel universe.

'So, erm… How was your day?' asked Robert. He put down his bags and boxes then took off his trench coat. He hung it next to the girls leather jacket.

'Nobody tried to kill me,' shrugged Jenna. 'So I'd say, pretty boring. Yours? Where have you been?'

'Shopping,' said Robert. 'I'm sorry, but… What is happening here exactly?' he made an uncertain gesture over the small kitchen.

'Oh, yeah,' Jenna stirred the tomato sauce in the pot. 'So I really don't wanna be the kind of girlfriend who is moving in and redecorating your place, but I was out shopping, too. You see, your kitchen was completely empty. No spices, no pots, no knives… You only had a wok and a kettle.'

Robert shrugged.

'Yes, well, I don't really cook.'

'I know, I had your French toast,' grinned Jenna.

'It's French toast, Jenna, you cannot ruin it,' shook his head Robert.

'And yet, you did it nevertheless. Kind of amazing. But hey, the gesture that matters, right? Have some wine.'

Robert looked at the bottle on the counter, then opened the fridge and took out a can of coke. He poured it into a glass and added some of the red wine.

'How barbaric,' said Jenna shaking her head. She had her wine in the appropriate glass (something Robert also saw the first time) without coke. He sat down at the other side of the counter, letting Jenna have the kitchen for herself.

'So what are we having?' he asked.

'I'm making an authentic… Well, kinda authentic Italian ragu alla Bolognese.

'God, your accent is sexy,' said Robert grinning under his beard. 'Isn't that takes like, hours to make, by the way?'

Jenna shrugged.

'I started a while ago. I wanted to say thank you… You know, for everything so far. There is no better way for that than food. Well, there is one, but I thought it might be good if you see my other qualities.''

Robert took a sip of his drink and grimaced. He wasn't a fan of wine.

'I would never have guessed in a million years that you know how to cook,' he mentioned. 'It's basically against everything I know about you.'

The record ended, so the girl snapped her fingers. The vinyl turned itself. Music sent the silence away. It was The Beatles.

'It's… A little complicated. I never cook… The thing is, cooking was my mother's and mine thing. We would spend hours in the kitchen, making proper Italian food, talking, listening to music, laughing… Ever since she died, I just couldn't do it. It wasn't the same. But now… I woke up with the idea that I should try again. Can't explain.'

Jenna's accent was very strong now, probably because her mind went back to the time she still spoke like this. Robert just nodded, because he wasn't sure what to say.

'She was an old-school Italian lady,' the girl continued. 'My mom. She knew every recipe by heart. I'm gonna need to look them up…' Jenna was smiling but her eyes were watery.

'Can I ask… What happened?' Robert was afraid to ask this question in the past because there was a good chance that Jenna's mother was a victim of the old family war. But now it was the elephant in the room, he couldn't put it aside anymore.

'Cancer' said the girl simply. 'She just collapsed one evening. Nobody knew that she was sick, not even her. They were at some kind of charity event with my father when it happened. A week later she was gone. The doctors said it was too late to do anything… Even with magic.'

Robert knew very little about medical sorcery, but even he heard that a late-stage cancer was something even magic couldn't fix in the majority of the cases. There were diseases and very serious injuries proved to be highly magic-resistant, not unlike his father's broken spine or the damage the zombies had done on Rose's body.

Robert got up, went around the counter and hugged Jenna from behind, wrapping his arm around her stomach. He kissed the top of her head and she relaxed in his arms.

'Sorry, I didn't want to be all… "Emotional" or whatnot,' Jenna sniffed. She said the word as if it was some kind of weakness. 'Ever since you… Ever since the hospital, I think about her a lot. I guess seeing people I care about in that bed again brought up the memories… Does that make any sense?'

'Certainly,' nodded Robert, hugging Jenna a little more tightly. 'It's very natural. Don't worry about it, one of the perks of dating someone is that you can be honest with them. Well, at least that's the general idea.'

'Sounds strange,' she said. 'Like… Talking about feelings and stuff?'

'Yes, precisely,' the man answered.

Jenna turned around in the hug to face him. He kissed her forehead now.

'I don't know, I can get used to the amazing sex and the coffee in bed in the morning if I have to, but talking? I'm not sure.'

Robert just kissed her and didn't answer.

'Anyway,' she sighed, 'Looks like now I have someone to cook for and it feels kinda good. Weird, right? It's almost ready, by the way, do you wanna try it?'

Jenna used the wooden spoon to give him a taste.

'Wow…' Robert's eyes opened wide from the surprise. 'It's delicious.'

'I should hope so, I spent like three hours with it,' she said and her voice was normal again, without all the unspoken feelings vibrating in it. 'Now I just have to make some pasta and we can eat.'

While she was busy with that, Robert made the table.

'So… Amazing sex?' he asked.

'Don't get cocky, Professor,' Jenna smiled. 'But yeah, you know your way around… Well, me.'

They drank the rest of the wine (Robert with coke) and talked about meaningless things. After dinner, Robert did the dishes and put away the leftover (it wasn't much, he refilled his plate two times), while Jenna sat down with a book. The man felt like he could get used to a life like this very easily.

'What are you reading?' asked Robert once he was done. He settled down next to Jenna on the couch and the girl leaned against him.

'Just keeping up,' she said, showing the plain cover. 'It's a new book about demons. They said it's revolutionary and explains things nobody could before, but honestly, it's nothing a demon hunter wouldn't figure out by himself after like, two hunts,' she closed the book and put it on the coffee table. 'That reminds me, I need to ask something from you. Like, professionally, sort of.'

That was new. Jenna never showed any interest in Robert's job, probably because she already was the strongest sorceress in the country, without actually trying to learn new things. Well, except for the Goddess, of course, but it was different.

'Yes?'

'So, I was wondering… What do you know about dreamwalking?'

Robert frowned. That was a very unusual question.

'Very little I'm afraid. Not unlike necromancy, it's an extinct form of magic. At least that's what anthropologists think, although there are some records and articles stating that it is still observable amongst some tribes that live in the rainforests of South-America and Africa.'

'So it's a thing, right? Not like some fairy tale bullshit.'

'Fairy tales are real, Jenna. You actually know a fae,' pointed out Robert.

The girl waved impatiently.

'Yeah, yeah, whatever. So how do you learn that thing? What Runes do you need?'

'Why would you want to learn dreamwalking, Jenna?' asked the man.

'Just… Okay, but promise me you won't freak out, okay?' she looked at him with those big brown eyes and it was impossible to say no.

'I promise,' Robert said.

'So… The thing is, I think the Goddess visited me in my sleep. She looked like… I don't know, I guess it was how she looked like back when she had her body. But the weird thing is… She didn't try to hurt me. But she could, right? Dreamwalkers were able to do that.'

'According to some sources, yes,' nodded Robert. 'So what did she want, then?'

'She wants us to stop The Priest. She said that he has power over her as well because she is like… Kinda close to being dead or something. But she thinks we need to kill the guy.'

Robert scoffed.

'That would be quite the trick, considering that he is pretty much immortal and literally the lord of death. Listen, Jenna, I'm not saying that you only had a nightmare…'

'It wasn't a nightmare. It was real.'

'Okay, so it was real,' said Robert soothingly. 'It could still be a trap.'

For the man's surprise, Jenna was grinning.

'Exactly!' she said excitedly.

'Exactly, what?' asked the man.

'It could be a trap. Only not theirs, but ours! Just think about it! If dreamwalking is anything like astral projection, then the Goddess' soul or spirit or whatever was out of her body. That means we could trap it. We just need to figure out how to bring a very real demon trap to my dreams.'

Robert gave that some thought. The logic behind was impressive and the idea very brave and daring… He would have loved it, if it wasn't Jenna to take the risk while executing it.

'As far as we know it could work,' he said then carefully. 'But that is the very problem. We do not know. Dreamwalking is uncharted territory in modern magical sciences. I don't want…' he stopped, swallowed to buy some time and continued: 'I would be happier if we would consider other, maybe less unpredictable options. If anything, we should concentrate on some kind of defence mechanism for now. I will look into it...'

He tried to get up, but Jenna pulled him back by his arm.

'Relax, Professor, it's all right. We will figure it out together, okay? I just wanted you to know about it. I guess that's how it's supposed to work when two people are dating, right? At least that's what you said.'

Robert kissed her as an answer. She kissed him back, then one thing led to another, and they ended up having sex on the terribly uncomfortable couch. And under the shower, a little later, too. Jenna stood with her back turned to Robert, enjoying both the man's hands, his kisses on her neck and the hot water on her body. Then she casually mentioned that there was more than one option available, especially in this position, if Robert was interested. He never tried that before but it quickly turned out that he was very much interested. Seemed like he was right before: Jenna was indeed the kind of girl who will seize every opportunity to have some fun, any way possible.

After the shower, they watched a movie. Jenna fell asleep around halfway through, so Robert picked her up, put into bed and tucked her in. He wasn't tired just yet, so switched off the TV and settled down with a tea to read a bit. He went to bed some time after midnight. Jenna wrapped her leg around him while still sleeping in the second he laid down.

The phone call came when these kinds of calls always occurred, three in the morning. Robert blindly reached after his phone and managed to knock it down from the nightstand. He cursed quietly even though Jenna was already awake, sitting up in the bed, her curly hair like a cloud around her head.

'It's the Commissioner,' Robert said once he fished the phone out from under the bed. 'That can't be good.'

'Answer it,' said Jenna, and he did so.

'Montgomery speaking.'

'I need your team, Mr Montgomery, everyone you can round up, right now,' said the old vampire. His voice was dry and calm as always, but under the surface, there was something else, tension or even fear. Robert had no desire whatsoever to find out what could make the old man feel like that.

'What happened?' he asked anyway because he didn't have a choice. He put the call on speaker so Jenna could hear it too.

The Commissioner told them.

'On my way,' Robert said, and Jenna was already half-dressed when he got out of bed.