Finishing up the rest of the shopping took more time than either one of us anticipated. Forget being a girl, there’s only so much anyone can take before every blouse, skirt, and pair of heels start to look the same:

Out of my price range.

Before that happened, though, we’d managed to pick out a few items to replace my shredded wardrobe. A few simple t-shirts, two pairs of jeans, a pair of leggings, a hoodie, and some of the other necessities like the bras and underwear I’d decided on at Vicky’s.

I definitely took a sizable chunk out of Jonah’s bank account today, but he didn’t seem at all bothered anytime he had to hand his card over.

Well. That’s not entirely true.

He was a bit bothered when the stylist at the salon took his card from him. But I have a feeling that was more because of what he was purchasing than the actual cost of his haircut.

Passing through the automated glass doors of the complex and into the parking lot, I breathe a huge sigh of relief.

“Phew! Thank heavens that’s all done with. Here, Jonah, be a gentleman and carry my bags for me.”

I stretch one burdened arm out to him, heavy with the bounty of our shopping.

He scrunches up his nose as he takes in the rainbow of tissue paper stuffed shopping bags.

“Didn’t I already do the gentlemanly thing and pay for them all?”

“That wasn’t gentlemanly, that was obligatory,” I correct. “Besides, I already promised to pay you back once my new cards come.”

He eyes the bags warily, then turns abruptly and makes for our parking spot.

“Nope, I think you should have to carry the burden of your need.”

“Jonah!”

The parking lot is quiet, only a few vehicles remain so near to closing. Being that it’s the middle of summer, the sun has only just set and a few pink-orange rays provide the limited light for the warm evening.

As we near my mo-ped, Jonah stops short and, when I look up from untangling bags from around my legs, I see what’s caught him off guard.

A pair of long, well defined legs straddle a cute, baby-pink motorbike. The girl they belong to laughs high and loud at whatever joke her jock boyfriend has just made. He stands before her, fingers clutching the handlebars, feet planted on either side of the front tire.

They both seem so at ease as they lounge on the mo-ped that no one would ever guess the bike’s not theirs.

No one except its owner.

I throw down my bags and flip my hair back from my face as I stomp past Jonah.

“Hey, bitch! If you’re so desperate to get something between your legs, why don’t you just ask your boyfriend to whip out his hotrod? Or is it not big enough to satisfy you?”

Legs turns around just as Jonah grabs my arm and, with a sickening feeling, I realize that Legs and Hotrod are actually Barbie and Ken, the two revenant who were underwear shopping in Vicky’s with us just a few hours earlier.

Oh, shit.

“The thing is,” Barbie says, gracefully unwrapping herself from her perch, “you and your boyfriend looked like you were having so much fun in the dressing room earlier that I thought I might try him on for size and see what all the fuss was about.”

She licks her Crayola red lips as she looks Jonah up and down. “Mm, love the haircut. Very James Dean.”

Jonah gently tugs my arm until I’m standing just behind him and I realize it’s because, of the two of us, I’m the more fragile.

I really need to make a habit of being more prepared, especially if we’re going to be meeting revenant in every shadowed parking lot and dark alley.

I think a pair of knives are in order.

Or maybe some nunchucks.

Or maybe three knives.

I’ve trained with most basic weapons, but never had a need to carry them before recent events put me on the revenant radar.

Oh well.

It’ll suck to be targeted, but the more revenant I put in the ground now the less I’ll have to deal with in the future.

Ken comes slinking around from the front of Iris and drapes a muscled arm across Barbie’s shoulders.

“Guess the boy is smarter than he looks if he knows that we’re here for the girl.”

He pauses to spit the juices from his chew and I have half a mind to make some quip about gum disease before I remember that revenant don’t have to worry about such menial things as the common cold or cancer.

“Hey, Curls, tell you what. Give her over and we’ll let you walk away. Since I doubt you know what you’re up against.” He lets his eyes glow red as he says this and the grin he wears implies he’s invariably pleased with himself.

Barbie scoffs and flips a long blonde lock over her shoulder at Ken’s display of dominance, but doesn’t try to stop him.

Jonah straightens his shoulders and pushes me a little further behind him. “I’m sorry, but that’s not going to work for me.”

The expression on the faces of the plastic couple goes from surprise, to horror, to anger in a matter of seconds.

At first, I don’t understand what has them so flustered. Then I peek up at Jonah’s stony expression and see that he, too, has let out his inner demon. No doubt the revenant pair is as thrown as I was to see a creature with eyes that glow green.

Barbie grips Ken’s arm when a low growl escapes him. “Don’t.”

He squeezes his hands into fists, popping all his knuckles simultaneously. “Why not? If we take him down now, we’ll be heroes.”

“Not if we’re dead,” Barbie hisses back.

“Look at him. He’s practically malnourished. We can take him. I can take him. If you don’t want to help, that’s fine. But I’m doing this now. While he’s still in front of me.” Ken rips his arm from Barbie’s grasp and stalks toward Jonah, popping his neck as he pulls his jacket from his hulking frame and tosses it off to the side. “Alright, Curls. Let’s see what you’ve got, huh?”

Jonah pushes me out of the way just before Ken’s fist collides with his face.