he mumbled, walking into the room. I watched him throw his bag on the bed as I closed the door. Right before I lost sight of him, I watched him sit down on the edge of the bed and lean over, covering his face.
Tonight, I effectively ended his human life once and for all. Some strange part of me felt guilty for that.
I walked away, heading for my unsecured office. As I walked, I pulled my phone out of my bag to check the text. It was from the naga I had texted earlier.
Adhar: A human is better than nothing. Bite him and get it over with. We don’t have the numbers anymore to be choosey.
With a hiss, I shoved the phone into my pocket. One problem I wanted to leave for another day. A day hopefully in the very distant future.
11
Chapter Eleven
I turned on the computer and opened up my work messaging system. Every Executioner and Investigator could get ahold of each other using it. I clicked on Cassius, quickly typing out that I needed him to call me straight away. He, like most others, downloaded the program on his phone. I didn’t because I didn’t find that secure and also didn’t want my coworkers to get ahold of me that easily. My phone rang within a minute. I picked up, steeling myself for his interrogation.
“What did you get into this time, Kaliya?” Cassius asked, his voice the same steely, cold, and impersonal thing I remembered it to be.
Why did I ever sleep with you?
“A bounty on a human came up—”
“If you did something illegal, I can’t help you, and you know better than to ask,” he snapped, cutting me off. “I know we have a history but—”
“I haven’t done anything illegal. Let me fucking explain, Cassius, or so help me, I will fly to where you are and kill you myself.” When I was greeted with silence, I continued. “Mygi, the pharmaceutical company? They put out this bounty on a human, his name is Raphael Dominic Alvarez. At first, Paden was just curious and asked me to look into it. I didn’t think it was that big of a deal since we see bounties on humans all the time even though they’re illegal.”
“We don’t have time to go after the perpetrators of every illegal bounty. As long as no one dies, we Investigators turn a somewhat blind eye,” he said, his obvious disagreement coloring every word. Cassius was a stick in the mud.
“Exactly. Well, I dug into this one a little because it seemed weird. Paden thought it was really strange and—”
“Let me guess because you aren’t going to tell me. Paden wanted to see what sort of information this human might have since he’s also part of the information business. His bar is just a convenient cover.”
“I won’t confirm or deny that,” I answered calmly. “You know that.”
“Sometimes, I wonder what our superiors saw in you. You live on the line. Some days, I’m convinced you’re going to flip to the Lawless side, and we’re going to be enemies.”
“Aw, Cassius, you know I could never do that to you,” I teased. “Now, can I continue, or are you going to continue with the judgmental ass act? How does your new fiancée like that kind of thing? Is she into the whole ‘I’m holier than thou’ routine?”
“We’re getting married next month, and before you say anything, this is not a marriage of political convenience. I genuinely enjoy her company.” He sounded like a wooden board that suddenly grew a mouth. I would know since I’ve seen talking trees. They’re always bland, boring things.
“You don’t love her?” I was curious. Cassius and I had worked well because love was never a part of the equation. Rather, we had always mostly hated each other and had great sex.
“Would it bother you if I said yes?” he asked softly. “Why don’t you continue with what you’ve found, Kaliya. I don’t think we should play this game anymore.”
It did bother me, but not because he loved someone else. More power to him for it. The idea of Cassius finding love gave the rest of us hope for the future because he was by far the least likable person I had ever met—attractive but annoying.
“Good for you,” I said kindly. “Really, Cassius. There are no hard feelings. I never really liked you all that much.”
“You’ve never missed the opportunity to remind me of that. One day, I hope you meet a man who’s