"So, what's with you lately? Why are you so… happy?" He adjusted his wounded leg gingerly. It would be healed in a day or two more, but he planned to milk the injury for as long as he could, until he figured out what to do about the Oracle situation. In the time he'd wasted so far, he'd consulted an atlas and found a town called Danvers just north of Boston. Next to Salem, oh joy of joys, and he was sure it wasn't just a coincidence. The thought of coming up against a horde of witches like Dahlia made his whole body tense, but it wasn't as if Bella and he were helpless. When not puking her guts out, she had some fierce magical powers.

Unaware that he'd just counted her as a part of their arsenal, Bella reclined on the bed beside him, her head propped on her arms. "I am happy to be spending what could be our last days doing something useful."

It took a moment for her words to sink in. When they did, he had an overwhelming urge to push her off the bed. "You know, that's just great."

If he could have gotten up and stalked away from her, he would have, but if he could do that, he could drive the car, and she'd have them on the road in an hour.

She sat up, a heartbreaking, wounded look on her face, "I do not understand. Why are you angry?"

"Because you won't stop harping on this death shit!" He pounded the mattress with his fist. "You're not going to die."

"You do not know that," she insisted, her tone a little too reasonable. "Neither one of us knows when death will come for us."

"You don't know shit!" He sat up in turn. "And if you think you're going to die, you don't know much about me."

"You cannot prevent everything." She put her hand on his arm. "It could be out of your hands."

"Is this something the Oracle told you? Because she could be trying to trick you." How could Bella blindly believe anything that crazy bitch planted in her head?

"I have feared her since the moment I first saw her, the day I came to the Movement." Bella gave a soft laugh. "It is not unlikely she will be the death of me. Or you."

She knelt beside him and tenderly put her hands on his face, turning his head so she could look into his eyes. He didn't resist her.

"I am not lying. But she did show me something." A tear rolled down Bella's cheek. "A long time ago, when I first saw her. She showed me that I would find you."

Injured knee be damned. Max pulled Bella into his arms and kissed her, hard, as if the intensity of his physical actions could keep her safe from her own mortality.