left the office with the cobra and went into my bedroom, gritting my teeth at the devastation. They’d thrown my clothes around and dug through drawers and boxes in the closet. Thankfully, anything really important was hidden somewhere safer than my bedroom closet.
I looked through everything, careful of Naksha as she moved around on me. I picked up weapons and clothing, finding a bag I could toss everything into. Raphael followed me in and started to help. When I snatched a thong out of his hand, he lifted his hands in defeat. I realized the thong had been tangled up with a shirt. He hadn’t been looking for my underwear.
“I wanted to help. This is…this is because of me. Cassius went to check some things and disconnected the power to shut everything down.”
I sighed and patted his chest—his big, kind of considerate chest. Touching him caused the dull ache in my fangs to become insistent, and they dropped again.
Okay, hormones. Let’s hit the brakes. I don’t have time to deal with you and don’t really want to.
“Thanks,” I said, quickly pulling my hand away when he looked down at it. “Just…leave my intimate belongings, please. I can always buy more…”
“Okay.” He reached down and picked up three shirts and tossed them on the ruined bed. “So…uh…”
“Yes?”
“You have a nice singing voice,” he finally spit out. “And that song…”
“That song is the naga…spell that helps us charm snakes. No, I won’t translate it for you. It’s…a bit like a personal prayer.” I felt my cheeks heat. This was just one of the reasons nagas didn’t snake charm in front of people. It drew a lot of attention.
“Your eyes changed while you were doing it. Like a fiery orange.”
“My snake form eyes,” I explained. “Things were moving fast, so you didn’t get the chance to really see me in the light when Sinclair visited.” I blinked and pulled my ability to shift my eyes. Looking up from sorting my clothing, I caught him watching me. His eyes flashed red in return, and my pulse jumped at how he really took in my face, stepping closer.
“They look good on you. A lot better than my freakshow face,” he said, leaning in. I knew he was studying something new, trying to understand and form an opinion, but my fangs ached so hard, I had to pull away—the need to bite him and claim him was too strong.
“You don’t look like a freakshow,” I said carefully. “You’re supernatural, and in our world, the more interesting you are, the more people want to know you. You’ve never been seen before. Everyone is going to want to know you.”
“I’m really never getting my human life back, am I?” There was despair and heartbreak in the question. “I keep hoping…”
“No. You can pretend, but it’ll never be the same. You can’t get back the humanity you’ve lost.”
His eyes flashed red again, and black began to form this time.
“I haven’t lost my humanity,” he growled.
Fuck.
“That’s not what I meant—”
“I get that everyone here last night and in your world might be okay with killing, but I’m not a monster. I’m still going to try my best to be a decent person.”
“Raphael—”
He stormed out, and I tossed my hands up in defeat.
Fuck.
I hissed in annoyance and continued to stuff clothing into my bag. Cassius had some good stuff at his place, but I liked my clothes. I tried to shove Raphael out of my thoughts, so I could consider the problems at hand.
Sinclair had everything. If he had his hands on my tech, then he had his hands on my communications with the other Executioners and Investigators like Cassius. He had my database and would be able to look through my personal search histories. My bank accounts were no longer safe since even I needed a hub to manage the different shell companies and aliases that managed my money. Was there anything I needed to worry about right now, though?
I thought back on the days since I came home, and Carter picked me up.
Carter.
I froze, unable to keep my forward momentum for a moment as I remembered Carter had helped me find where Sinclair was staying. Those texts would still be there, and Sinclair wasn’t a fool. He would already have someone working to break into my phone for intel. It sucked, being a supernatural in the modern world. Chained to the conveniences of technology, but everyone worth paying attention to was smart enough to break through. That was why