Shadows in the Concrete Jungle Book One: The Grey

Chapter Twenty-Six

The night was blissfully uneventful.

There hadn't been any more demon attacks for any other agent, including themselves, and they didn't come across a single one during their entire night of patrol.

It didn't matter to either of them, though. What really mattered was, during the night, an email was sent out to everyone that, now that they had a plan of action and a date of when the whole shindig would go down, they were back to their normal schedule of four days on, just now three days off, though everyone was always on call now.

With how few agents the SDALA had, it made sense that they would all always be on call, even on their days off, in case anything happened.

Which was perfectly acceptable to Noah, Kendra, and Nick, whose schedules now aligned perfectly with their days off and on. And an email came through specifically to Noah, Kendra, and Nick, saying that, at the completion of their overnight shift, they were on liberty, which meant-

"Finally, more than one fucking day off!" Kendra squealed as she threw her hands up to the roof of their car.

Noah laughed as he clicked through the emails. Everything felt... semi-normal, even if everything definitely was not normal at all, and the SDALA was just biding their time until the solstice rave.

But the mood was dampened as another email came through; a funeral invite for Agent Caleb Cooper, to be held in two days' time.

"Shit," Noah said, scanning through the memo, looking up where it would be held. "We need to go."

A text popped up on Noah's phone then. Kendra watched as he opened it and then showed it to her, a pained look on his face.

JESSE: You got my recruit killed :(

Kendra only nodded her head. The guilt of Cooper dying was heavy in her heart again. She would always blame herself for it; for the rest of her days, she would never forget him, and that she couldn't save him. New agent or not, he didn't deserve to die like that, even if it was a risk that went hand in hand with their job. And even worse, she had treated him poorly when they had first met, and even Noah treated Coop better than she had... and it was Noah, who was so utterly grumpy when she and him had first met. Was it possible... that she had changed him?

There was absolutely no way. Well... maybe... Nope, absolutely not.

Maybe.

They pulled into the parking lot towards the end of their shift, coming in much earlier than normal, and went into their separate rooms. Kendra snagged up the one piece bathing suit that still had the tags on it, and the sandals she had purchased, with a pair of jean shorts that hugged her butt and thighs perfectly, and stuffed everything into a duffle bag. She was through the portal in her room after picking up a towel, and was stepping into the kitchen to see that everyone was already dressed for the beach, with a missing Noah presumably changing.

She insisted on getting back into the ocean, and Noah had surprisingly said it was a good idea, and then proceeded to invite everyone else in the house. She wanted to forget the last few days, if only for a few hours, and frolicking through the surf sounded just right to forget.

They didn't bother to set up blankets, as the actual water was only a thirty second walk from their sliding glass door, and they left their towels sitting on the patio chairs out of the sand. Nick had brought out two surfboards, and handed one to Kendra, telling her that he would teach her to surf. Nicholas, with a t-shirt on, followed them into the water, as Noah and Jolly tossed a football back and forth to each other on the edge of the water.

"It's to protect my skin from being burned," Nicholas said, gesturing to his shirt when Kendra looked him up and down. She wouldn't argue about it; she had slathered handfuls of sunscreen all over herself, and then the rest of the guys, one by one, until all their tattoos and not sun-kissed skin were protected. The only one who looked like he got much of any sun at all was Nick, but Kendra still squirted sunscreen all over him.