When I woke up, I was disappointed to see no one had contacted me, not even Cassius, who was normally on my ass when we were working together on something. When my stomach growled, I knew it was time for me to eat a full meal and sighed.
Maybe I can ask Raphael to cook something…
I shook my head vigorously, trying to banish the idea. He wasn’t a roommate. He was here because I needed to keep him alive and out of the hands of less than desirable people. If he wanted to cook, he could, but I damn sure wasn’t going to ask him—absolutely not. Plus, I hadn’t even known the guy for twenty-four hours. That seemed a little too much for such a short acquaintance.
For a second, I missed my family. My mother had a system. Every three days, she and my father made a feast. We all ate our fill, then we were responsible for any smaller meals we might need if we got a little peckish. It had been nice, the consistency, the rhythm. I could never get into the same flow, but then, I hated to cook. She had been great at it. I had wanted to run around with my brothers, even though they were both adults.
Grinding my teeth, I reminded myself why I got into the mess that surrounded Raphael. He could know something that could help me. Tonight, if things stayed calm, I was going to grill his ass like a steak.
I showered, brushed my teeth, and finally did something with my hair, braiding a few sections back to keep it out of my face. It was a slow rise for me, but the sun was still up, and the world was still relatively safe, so I could take my time. I didn’t hear Raphael moving around, so it seemed like I was on my own for a moment.
Once I was dressed—standard black pants and black top, simple but effective—I went to the kitchen and started pulling out chicken and pasta, my go-to meal to cook.
I heard him rustling as I thawed the chicken, annoyed I hadn’t thought to put any out in the morning before going to sleep when I knew I was going to need to eat tonight. Looking over my shoulder, I narrowed my eyes on him as he went into the bathroom without a damn shirt again.
He’s in someone else’s house. Can’t he put some clothing on?
When he came out, he saw me.
“How long have you been there?” he asked, his eyes going wide. “You always walk around so quietly?”
“Yeah. It's a habit. You always go around half naked?”
He looked down and shrugged. “Sorry. I get really warm sometimes, and it gets uncomfortable.”
“Sometimes? You’re like eight degrees hotter than most humans,” I said, frowning. “Did you know that?”
“I don’t go to doctors, and I don’t get sick, so no, I didn’t know. How…how do you?”
“I have a bit of…thermal imaging.” I didn’t really know how to explain it. “Like some snakes can use thermal information to hunt for prey. Pit vipers are the most common example.”
“You are so weird,” he mumbled. “Should I go get a thermometer and make sure I’m not running a fever?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m not weird, I’m just not-human. Don’t start off the day being an ass, please?”
“You know what? Why don’t I cook and shut my mouth?” he said, reaching for the knife I was holding, without any fear. I handed it to him and lifted my now empty hands up harmlessly.
“We might survive this,” I muttered as I walked away, only stopping as I remembered what I had been thinking about before he showed up. “Tonight, we’re going to sit down and talk about everything, about your time at Mygi, okay? I need to know every little detail.”
“Yeah, that’s fine. You need to build some sort of case to get them shut down, I’m guessing. Would you be okay talking about it after I’m done cooking?”
“Yeah,” I answered, nodding as I walked out of the kitchen. “We can talk over food.”
I went into my open office so he could get me when he was done. I sent Cassius a message, hoping he would get back to me quickly, though he may still be asleep. For the first time in a very long time, he didn’t immediately call me, and something about that worried me.
I started looking through the database the Tribunal kept on different supernatural species.