about. It was an impossible task since I was very good at avoiding my feelings altogether.
“You realize the electric bill is going to be expensive, right?”
“I live in a rooftop penthouse in downtown Phoenix, worth more money than you have ever earned.” The condo was worth nearly two million, took up the entire roof of the building, and was twenty-two hundred square feet with two bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths, and two stories tall. It was one of those penthouses that looked like a house built on top of a different building. I was rich, and thanks to that, I had no neighbors—just the way I liked it. I turned my head, finally opening my eyes, and gave Raphael a bored look. “Do you really think I’m worried about the electricity bill?”
“Fine.” He shrugged and got up, walking back inside.
I yawned again and realized I needed to get inside, or I would end up falling asleep on my patio. I reached to get my laptop and found he had taken it inside. The glass of my penthouse doors and windows was tinted, making it hard to see inside. I was only able to make out his silhouette, moving into the kitchen, probably about to make an unreasonably large meal.
I went inside and locked the patio for the night, my pulse jumping as I entered the heat. It felt like I was given straight caffeine, or someone plugged me into an outlet. The heat brought me to life, banishing the sluggishness I had been feeling.
“So, what are you going to eat?” I asked, following him into the kitchen. “More red meat?”
“I was thinking salmon, actually. I picked up some yesterday, along with some other groceries,” he answered, seeming unfazed by my sudden energy. I knew he wouldn’t be.
After a few months living together, I liked to think Raphael and I understood each other well enough or at least understood each other’s habits. I didn’t really know him, but I could plan my entire day around him. Like me, he woke up late and went down to the gym for three hours, came back up to the penthouse and showered, then made enough food to feed a small village. Sometimes I ate with him, sometimes I passed and had one of my own snacks. After that, I went down to the gym and did my own workout, glad to be away from him, the smell of his aftershave, and the view of his exercised muscles bulging under whatever size-too-small shirt he was wearing. How it was a size too small I didn’t know. Every shred of clothing he owned was spelled by the fae tailors to fit him perfectly, forever.
I wasn’t careful and breathed in through my nose, catching the smell of him, all of him—his aftershave, his natural human musk that was never truly gone, and a hint of sweat from his time in the gym. My fangs dropped, telling me it was time to go.
“Well, have a good meal,” I said, slapping the counter as I walked out, trying to will my fangs back into their resting position. Every night, like clockwork, I found myself with the intense need to bite, claim, and keep the man of mystery tied to me for my immortal life.
Every night, like clockwork, I walked away from the urge.
It wasn’t hard, but it took more effort than I liked. I had to push my feet to keep walking to get out of his space. I had to focus on the door, only pausing to grab my workout bag from the front closet before running out of my own home. I knew I had to disappear for at least an hour to let his scent dissipate. It was always strongest after he worked out and showered; too intense for my self-control.
I made my way to the first floor of my building and went into the gym, making sure to lock it behind me. It was against building code, but I purposefully worked out late enough, there was very rarely anyone trying to come in. When someone did, they generally moved on and went somewhere else. No one had tried to report me to the building’s manager.
I started breezing through my workout, trying to let it take me away from the problems upstairs. In the nearly four months since Raphael became my burden to bear, we were nowhere closer to understanding him. Mygi sent over documents, but none of them were helpful. What little they claimed to learn about