"Hi."

He swallowed his bacon as she brought him a glass of orange juice. "Hi."

After he took the glass, she lifted a notebook up from the table. "I've made notes on your patrolling patterns. I've noticed that you tend to stay here in Columbus around campus until about midnight and then you head over to Starkville. I was thinking that—"

He took the pad from her hand and set it aside. "I like my pattern, Celena."

"But it would be safer for you to patrol Starkville first and then head back this way."

"And I was a pirate who laughed as he died and spat in the face of my killer. Safety's not my concern."

"It should be," she insisted.

"Why?"

Her brow creased by worry, her face held a very faint hysterical note in it. "Because you could die and become a Shade, wandering the earth with no body and no soul, in constant pain and misery. Wanting food. Wanting someone to hear you. Wanting someone to just touch you and having no one able to see you. To—"

He stopped her words by laying his fingers on her lips. Personally, he didn't like the gruesome image she painted with her words. "It's okay, Celena. I'm not going to die."

But he could see the pain and fear in her eyes. "That's why you should rethink your pattern."

Moving his fingers from her soft lips, Rafael dipped his head down to capture her mouth only to have her retreat from him again.

He let out a tired breath. "Don't you ever date?"

"Not anymore. To bring an outsider in could threaten the safety of Ephani. What if I were on a date and she needed me?"