And when she called, I would always come.
11
Riggs
Something soft bounced off the side of my head.
I awoke in mid-snore and blinked blearily at Sid.
“Warned you,” he said.
The Anisau still wore his reading glasses and was in the exact position he’d been in when I’d fallen asleep.
“Didn’t you sleep?” I asked.
“No,” he replied.
“Don’t you need to sleep?”
“Yes.”
“Beds are for sleeping.” I reconsidered. “Plus a few other more interesting things.”
His mouth straightened. “It would be best if you weren’t here when I slept.”
I rubbed a hand over my face. “As we are rooming together, how in the heck is that gonna work?”
He looked away. “I don’t think we’ll be roommates for long.”
I struggled to push the fog from my mind. “Are you leaving?”
Sid’s attention had returned to his book. “You will, once you see what you’re rooming with.”
Okay, this conversation required way more focus than I was capable of at the moment. I pushed myself to a sitting position,hoping it would help clear my muzzy head. “I am rooming with a guy who wears reading glasses and spends time immersed in works of fiction.”
The eyes that slid my way flared yellow. “I read nonfiction, too.”
I now scrubbed my face with both hands. “That explains nothing, and I’m too muddled to work it out.”
Sid sighed, put the book down, pulled the glasses off, and stared at them. “I sometimes lose control over my beast when I sleep,” he said.
Oh. “That’s a problem?”
His eyes flared again. “If you like keeping your limbs, yes.”
Okay, that was something we needed to deal with, but it had to be an exaggeration. They wouldn’t have put me here if it was really that bad. But the worry in Sid’s face was real.
“Have you ever actually dismembered a roommate?”
He considered. “Not yet. But I did scare the last one so badly that he pissed himself.”
“Maybe he didn’t go before he went to bed.”
Sid grimaced. “Maybe.”
I could tell that he was deeply concerned about this, though. So I offered, “We can sleep in shifts, if you’d rather.”
“Not sure it will be enough.” His mouth twisted even more, but I saw the gleam of hope in his expression.
