Cassius was cranky about my security being hooked up to my phone. His security was completely magical, so he didn’t care if people knew where he lived.
Everything had its pros and cons.
The power went out, lights shutting off around me. Well, now the phone couldn’t be used against the house. That was something.
I randomly shoved a few more pieces of clothing into the bag and tossed it over my shoulder.
“Cassius!” I called. “Cassius, we have a problem!”
“What?” He walked in from the garage as I walked into the hallway.
“My phone. Carter, you know Carter, right? Well, he helped me the night Sinclair showed up in Phoenix. They had gone to Midnight Reverie and—”
“Kaliya,” Cassius said with that stern, ‘what the fuck were you thinking’ tone. “What—”
“He was able to get an address, in case the fae in Sinclair’s group wanted to hook up before they left town.” I refused to let guilt stop me from getting this out there. We needed to make a plan, and Cassius had to understand what kind of danger Carter was in. Not that I had any doubt that Cassius knew the importance of the problem we now faced. “I broke into Sinclair’s place to get the intel some board member at Mygi had given him. It led me to find Raphael before they were able to.”
“Kaliya…Carter is part of the Phoenix vampire nest, correct?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll make the call to the nest Mistress. She’s the granddaughter of Isaiah. She’ll listen to us and try to keep him safe. She’s going to be furious with you.”
“She’s always angry at me for something,” I said, shrugging. Her connection to Isaiah was important, though. Anyone related to the male vampire on the Tribunal was worth trying to work with. “As long as Carter stays out of Sinclair’s hands, I’ll manage.”
“Okay. You ready to go? You can drive while I call her.” He looked around, frowning. “Where did Raphael go?”
“I said he’d lost his humanity, but I didn’t mean it in the way he thought I did.” I shook my head. “He’s…he’s going through that stage every human turned supernatural goes through. You know, they freak out. They don’t want to be a monster. They think we’re terrible and shouldn’t live the way we do. All that.”
“Ah…” Cassius nodded sagely, staring out of a window in my living room, probably looking out for the not-human in question. “Sadly, he’s with two supernaturals who can’t relate.”
“Yeah. We just have to manage. Let’s get going.”
I strolled to the busted front door. I saw Raphael sitting on one of my big yard rocks, meaning a rock in the desert, staring at the sun as it slowly went down.
“We have to get moving,” I called out. “We need to get back to Cassius’ place before sundown.”
“Okay,” he said, jumping off.
“Do you want to talk about—”
“No,” he snapped before getting into the car’s backseat and slamming the door shut. I got in more carefully, thanks to the cobra I had hanging on me. She would stay there until I let her know she could go somewhere else. Once I got her into a temporary enclosure, I would release the charm, giving her back the independence she deserved. I didn’t want to haul her across a major city in a pillowcase. She was more comfortable with me, and I was more comfortable as well, knowing she was safe with me instead of sliding around the trunk, wild and afraid. Plus, she could escape, and that would be incredibly bad for everyone in the car.
Cassius got in last, handing me the keys.
“Can you drive with her?”
“Yup.” I turned the car on, driving away from my home. “It’s going to take at least two months of renovations to get that place back to where it was.”
“Let me upgrade it while it’s getting fixed,” he said, dialing Imani on his phone. “Please. I know I…disappeared on you after leaving, but if Sinclair or that fae get away at the end of this, they will always know where you live. While I think it’s paranoid of you to be this secretive, I also understand why. You make enemies like the rest of us meet people at parties to hand out business cards.”
“Fine. When the physical renovations are done, you can come by and add an extra layer of security.”
“I don’t know why I never did to begin with,” he mumbled.
“Because I told you no. I didn’t want someone else’s magic stinking up my property,” I reminded him. “Well, specifically yours,