meet my fiancée. I think you might like her company.”
“That’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard.” I snorted, shaking my head.
“She already knows. She knew before she and I got together. She was the first person I told when you called me the first time, and she was the first person I told I was leaving to come here to help you.”
“She trusts you like that?”
Cassius laughed softly. “She trusts me. As she said, I gave her the ring. My commitment is clear.”
“Thank God you gave it to her,” I said with a laugh. “I know you’re right, Cassius. I’ve known for three years it wouldn’t work, and when you aren’t around, it doesn’t sting. I think it’s just strange, being here, seeing you again, and having Raphael…” I trailed off. I didn’t know whether I should tell Cassius about him yet. At the thought of the not-human, my fangs ached. I worked my jaw, trying to ease it, trying to get everything to stop hurting for just a moment.
“Have you milked recently?” he asked. Normally, when I had fang pain, it was because I needed to milk the venom.
“Two nights ago,” I answered. “Right after I got Raphael back to my house. Thirty-six hours ago? Something like that? Used the rest of my supply to kill Sinclair’s witch.”
Cassius paled. “You killed one of them?”
“He was under orders to invade my home and take something that belonged to me,” I explained. “Damn right, I killed him. I’m a naga. Anyone who comes on my property against my wishes can and will be met with deadly force. It’s the law.”
“I mean…you killed one of them with your venom? That must have been gruesome.”
“It was the first time Raphael got to see it in action. By the way, have you met him yet?”
“No. I just got in and decided to come see you to make sure you were okay,” he said, leaning on the door frame. “Everyone is asleep except us and Leith.”
“When you meet him, I want to know how you feel about him. His powers seem to be emotionally driven. He gets angry, and they present themselves. I don’t know if other strong emotions can bring them on, but I think fear can as well.” Frowning, I finished putting on my clothes. “Thanks for these.”
“It’s no problem.”
“Why did you leave all this here?”
“Because I figured one day, you would need a place to hide,” he said softly. “Because it’s you, and you can’t stay out of trouble.”
“You realize it’s not just me, right? I don’t ask for some of the shit I get involved in.”
“Yes, but if I said I left this here to give the last nagini a place to hide from poachers, you would be insulted I only think of you as the last breeding female of your kind.”
He has a point.
“Well, thanks. You hungry? I need a snack.”
“Leith is already making something,” he said, still leaning on the doorway.
“Why am I cornered here, then?” I gestured at him. He hadn’t moved. He was blocking the path, and he knew it. He knew that I knew it.
“I wanted to make sure you knew what’s at stake with this. Kaliya, if this goes the wrong way, we could both lose our jobs.”
“You can back out any time.” I didn’t much care about that. I was an Executioner because I needed more legal leeway to kill people, but being the last nagini, I had a large berth to do as I pleased, anyway. Losing my job was just losing an income and political power. I was still protected by several Laws that other supernatural species didn’t have the right to. It meant I couldn’t be an aggressor anymore, though. Any work I did to catch and punish the criminals I was after would be illegal. I would no longer be a sanctioned killer for the Tribunal. Dishing out justice would no longer be my right.
“So can you,” he pointed out.
“No, I can’t,” I retorted. “This is more than Sinclair. Hell, it might be more than Mygi.”
That caught his attention, and his ethereal light blue eyes narrowed. His perfectly styled hair bled to its original color, red. He normally used a glamor to make it more natural—the red he had wasn’t natural at all. It was like someone had tried to dye his hair with red ink. His glamor normally only slipped when he was spooked or angry.
“If you say this has anything to do with that fucking board of yours,