Looking out the window at the howling blizzard, Von sipped his tea, contemplating his rather open schedule for the day. Since Mage Aleksandar had taken over all Council business, he had found himself largely at loose ends. Scratching his stump, he realized he should have expected that to happen. While he hadn't been declared a traitor, he couldn't expect much more than that.

Here’s the thing just like all the stories and cliches say that I found someone when I wasn’t looking and had stopped looking.

I’m not going to sugar coat things but I’m a single guy and a long term bachelor and I have dated and I had never really wanted to settle down and do all that family stuff mostly because my family ranged from self destructive to petty so none of that really was an investment.

I moved out as soon as I could and went into the army and got a trade under me as an engineer and spent time basically fixing things on bases.

Could I continue to live, if one day I looked into her lapis lazuli eyes and saw, not the warmth and love that had always been there, but a tepid indifference?

“There’s less than ten lines for my character in the whole scene, Debbie.”

Chapter 2

I was up with the lark on Monday morning, and dressed in my leather jeans, high boots, wool-knit sweater, and leather jacket. Today, I was Polly, the hard-nosed PI. I started with the car showroom in Arcadia Road, getting there as a young lad was washing the weekend grime off the cars on the lot.