It was a digitized version of the official Tribunal Archives, a pocket dimension. I thought I had it memorized, but I wasn’t stupid enough to actually believe I did. There were plenty of supernatural species who didn’t want much to do with the Tribunal. There was a search function, so I started by looking for red eyes. They were common in vampires, but he was definitely not one of those. I went through the list, but nothing matched his physical features or reported scents.
Nothing smells human. Everything has a scent. Vampires are the only exception, but…he’s not one of those. He can’t be.
I was beginning to think Mygi had decided to make something new. Maybe they had done something to him that changed him into something new.
Cassius didn’t call back by the time Raphael was done making the food. He brought in a plate for me, placing it on the corner of my desk, then left again. When he returned a moment later, he had a plate for himself with three times the food.
“There’s more, too. I didn’t know how much you wanted,” he said, sitting down on the other side of her desk. “Nice office. What’s in there?” He nodded toward the habitat behind me.
“Oh, I’m helping someone with one of their snakes. Naksha is an Indian cobra. Be careful, and don’t stick your hand in there. She’s pretty aggressive and very territorial,” I explained, looking over my shoulder. My app for her systems hadn’t alerted me, so I hadn’t been thinking about her. I looked back and saw her curled up under a rock, avoiding the heat lamp above. Before I started eating, I checked the temperature of her enclosure and was satisfied she was fine. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
“I’m going to take a wild guess and assume you like snakes.” He shoved a forkful of pasta into his mouth.
“How insightful,” I replied, spinning my fork in the pasta on my own plate. “So, let’s talk. Then we’re going to see what you can do.”
“Mmm.” He held up a hand and finished what was in his mouth, covering his face. I was grateful because it looked like he ate like a pig. “Sorry, I’m always starving,” he said, almost sheepishly. “So yeah…It’s like I’m something else. When I get angry or need to fight, it turns on, and I see things differently. I know I look crazy when it happens.”
“Yeah, and you can flip SUVs.”
“Yeah, I’m really strong when it happens. Fast too, but not like you. Things hurt less as if I become kind of invulnerable. I can still bleed. If that SUV hit me wrong, it could have crumpled and cut me, but my bones don’t break easily.”
“Lucky you. Now, about Mygi.”
He sighed. “I don’t know if you’re looking for something specific. I only know what they did to me. They didn’t really talk about anything but me whenever I saw them. Sometimes they gossiped about who was stealing lunches from the fridge and shit. It was so normal, it stood out.”
“Funny.” Not really. It was actually disturbing, and it was unusual for me to be genuinely disturbed about something. Office gossip while essentially torturing a man. Did they have any self respect? Torture was serious business.
“They talked about my healing factor a lot. I told you they cut off my hand once.” He lifted his left arm again to show me the scar. “It was a lot of stuff like that.”
“Damn. So, you wouldn’t know if they’re practicing illegal experiments on any other supernaturals?”
“Nope. I didn’t even know they weren’t human. That all started becoming apparent after I escaped.” He looked down at his food, his eyes flashing red. I figured he was angry at what had been done to him, and that I understood. “I don’t think I can do this yet,” he admitted.
“That’s fine. There’s going to be plenty of opportunities going forward for you to talk it all out. We don’t need to do it right now,” I promised, letting him drop it.
I resigned myself that Raphael wouldn’t be able to tell me anything. I would remove him from The Board later—it was pointless to keep him on there.
We ate in silence after that. He must have realized I was disappointed by what he had to say. It was nothing new, and I didn’t blame him for not wanting to dive into the disgusting details yet. He would have to repeat them later for Cassius, who would need him to