at large. Got it. We’ve had those laws for decades.”
“Now, consider taking the generations out of the equation. A lot of supernatural species are immortal with long life spans. Suddenly, some assholes decided to write down some rules. No stealing children from humans, no wars, none of that. The bad guys? They still want to live in the world they grew up in and reigned supreme over. They’re still chafing, and they’ll find any way to continue their lifestyle. Not because they’ve had it for a few human decades. In some cases, they’ve been living this way for literally thousands of years.” I finished putting together my smoothie and hit blend. “There’s no right way to do anything. We’re the wild west, Raphael, and we probably always will be. I know I’ve said that to you before. Sure, we made rules and try to enforce them. We even have that fucking prison now, even though it seems pretty worthless at the moment. But we still have people, a vast majority of the most powerful supernaturals, who want to live lawlessly and do as they please because they’re powerful enough. Does it make me a terrible person for just trying to survive and assuming the worst? I don’t know. Sure, I see the world cynically, but that’s because we’re supernatural, and idealism is for the dead.”
My parents were idealistic. I used to be, too.
“I never said you were a terrible person,” he snapped, hitting the counter. “Fucking hell, you are impossible.” He stormed out. I finished blending my smoothie, and he walked back in, only gone for maybe thirty seconds.
“Let’s try this again. I can’t fucking handle leaving this unfinished.” I almost groaned. “I saved you because you saved me. When you look at me, don’t be cynical. That’s all I want, okay? Try to embrace just a little idealism for me. That’s all I want, to be someone you don’t assume the worst from.” There was something desperate in his last words. I wasn’t sure if it was because of me or if he was trying to convince himself of something. I glanced up at him for a second and caught a dizzying amount of emotion on his face I wasn’t prepared to deal with.
“I saved you for selfish reasons,” I whispered.
I also put your life at risk for selfish ones.
Gods, I am a terrible person, aren’t I?
“I don’t care,” he snapped. “You saved me, and that’s all that really matters.”
“Sure,” I mumbled. “Let’s drop it.”
“We have time, so why don’t we try to reach some level of understanding?” He stood too close, which was still about five feet away. I could feel his heat, my skin too sensitive to his temperature.
“Understanding?” I scoffed. “What? Do you want my backstory? Do you want to know how I got here, dealing with you? With Nakul?”
“If that’s what it takes.”
“Why?”
“If you won’t tell me for the sake of finally getting to know each other better, maybe we can make it about this. If I’m going to be putting my life at risk again, I might as well know more about the woman who pisses off everyone she meets. I need to know when I need to look over my shoulder and with whom.” The look he gave me was expectant.
He has a point. I hate it when he has a point.
“Fine. While we wait for Hasan to call me back, we’ll talk. You might as well understand exactly why people dislike me, considering it might get you killed too.” Since I didn’t know exactly who put the hit on me, assumptions were a bad thing. I couldn’t assume it was Mygi in retaliation for keeping Raphael from them. I couldn’t assume it wasn’t a personal grudge or a professional one. I could only follow the facts.
And he might as well be on the same page. I’ll treat him like Cassius. A partner sometimes.
“I grew up being trained to protect myself on my family’s property. And to give you an idea of what that means, the property had twelve-foot stone walls, magical traps littered all over it, and a wide variety of deadly snakes we kept, both for our own enjoyment and a further layer of protection, especially from humans. The magic traps were for other supernaturals.”
“So, you grew up paranoid and hidden.”
“Yeah, and if you were a normal supernatural, you would have already assumed I did because every naga lives that way now…except me. I go places and do things. Why? Because