28 — Coffee BreakIt was a bit baffling to suddenly be serving coffee to someone who I was just in a fight to the death with. A fight she almost won. Twice.

  “Thanks,” Kaite said, still rubbing her neck. Most of my injuries were sustained to parts of me that no longer existed. She still had to use the same throat I had just been trying to crush.

  I felt bad. I did attack first. I was rash. It was unnecessary. But I also didn’t know. You’re being too hard on yourself, Ephe would say, if she was here. I wanted her to be here, but I still wasn’t comfortable having her around Kaite.

  Kaite leaned against the counter and blew the steam from the coffee mug. She was enormous.

  I couldn’t help but watch her. Her arms were the size of Ephe’s waist. She was a full head taller than me. I remembered approaching her on that first night, when I was still in the Daelus body, trying to say hello, and being given the cold shoulder. I had found her attractive then. Right now I found her gorgeous.

  “I can feel you undressing me with your eyes,” she said. “But also, fair, considering the view of you I got earlier.”

  Of course she had to remind me that when I re-manifest my clothes get left behind. I was turning red again, but I noted that Kaite didn’t actually ask me to stop looking at her. “So,” I said, desperate for a topic change. “Jaegré?”“Not even going to let me catch my breath? Down girl.” I could tell she was teasing me now. I crossed my arms. I watched as she took a sip of the coffee. “Oh, shit,” she muttered.Both of my eyebrows shot up.“Good coffee,” she said, had another sip, and kept the mug close, breathing it in. I felt myself go even more red.

  She sighed. “Yeah, okay, so, Jaegré. What do you want to know?”“You said he’s like me.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” she said, and had another sip. “He can do that thing you did, sort of. He does it a lot, actually. Gotten good at it, too. Just, pop, pop, blinking around like it’s nothing.”

  “Holy fuck,” I muttered.

  “It’s annoying as fuck,” she ughed. “But useful. Only…” Kaite hesitated, thinking. “When he does it there's just a puff of air, not that wild shockwave that you do. Also, he keeps his clothes on. Which is a shame.” She took a sip of coffee.

  If I got any more red I could be sold on a produce counter. How many times was she going to bring that up? I pressed forward. “So, that’s how he escaped?”She shook her head. “No. I found him moping in a jail cell waiting to die. Thought that would be a waste, so I sprung him.”

  “What happened exactly, back then?”

  “That's more Jaegré’s story to tell, but the quick version is that his delegate, Randall, was going to snuff him out. Reset. Start over. Jaegré didn’t really like that idea, so he killed Randall on the spot. Choked the life right out of him with his bare hands. Good riddance.”

  “Oh huh,” I said, suddenly realizing that Jaegré wasn’t really exactly like me at all. Or maybe he was, in some ways, but not in others. We were simir, but with a pretty substantial difference.

  I wasn’t sure if it was smart to tell Kaite this. It might change the way she thought of me to learn that I literally was Daelus. I liked the feeling I was getting from her — again, hirious, considering what we were doing twenty minutes ago — and didn’t want to risk altering it.

  “Kinda like you just tried to do to me,” Kaite reminded me.

  I grimaced. “Sorry about—”

  “Why? A strange woman is suddenly standing in bedroom starting at you and your lover, like a creep-o. I’m surprised you didn’t attack sooner. That’s done now, though. I miscalcuted. I wanted to scare you enough that you’d drop whatever foolish thing you were up to, but I see now that…”

  She trailed off.

  “What do you see now?” I pressed.

  “Actually maybe I am getting ahead of myself. Why are you investigating Daelus’ killing? Who was he to you? Just your boss, right?”

  “Uhm,” I stammered.

  “I get that it’s probably personal but this is all starting to feel connected and I have my own ass to cover. What weird shit have I gotten myself into by visiting you tonight?”

  Fuck. “So, remember Daelus’ welcome party?”

  She looked confused. “Sort of? That was a long time ago. We’ve welcomed a shitload of new delegates since then. After a while they all start to blend together.”“Stick to the people who want their assholes licked.” I said sharply, and then went cold.

  She tilted her head.

  “That’s what you said to him when he tried to talk with you. When I tried to talk with you.”

  Kaite’s face went from confused, to incredulous, to a bright wide grin as she belly ughed. “Oh, fuck me,” she excimed, nearly dropping her mug.

  I waited.

  “No way,” she said, putting the mug down, coming over close, as if looking at me in detail would somehow tell her something new. I didn’t mind her making the attempt. “What did you like, merge? Or?”I shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m Sheam now, but in a lot of ways, in all ways really, I always was. I am not like Jaegré. It sounds like he and Randall were two separate, entirely different people, and it sounds like they hated each other. It’s not like that with me. We were both Sheam and now I am Sheam and that’s really all I can expin.”

  Kaite chewed it over, and seemed satisfied.

  “I want to meet him,” I said, changing the subject.

  “Who, Jaegré?”

  “Yes. Is he still around? Do you know how to find him?”

  “Yeah, sadly,” she snorted, but there was humor in her tone. “I live with the asshole.”