Page 280 of Psycho Beasts

ELITE ACADEMY

The doorbell rang.

“I got it!” I yelled, not wanting to disturb Sadie and her men.

My best friend deserved some peace, especially after everything. Her missing ring finger was a constant reminder that those fuckers had hurt her.

The darkness in my soul rattled against its cage.

Pausing with my forehead pressed to the wall, I breathed in smoke from my enchanted pipe.

You killed them. They’re gone.

I willed myself to remain blasé and to calm the monster—that I’d come to identify as myself.

As I descended the grand mahogany staircase, inhaling smoke with each step, I fingered my sweatshirt pocket.

Caressed the smaller finger-length pipe Ascher had gotten for me.

Again, the doorbell rang.

What rude fucker was calling at midnight?

I gritted my teeth as my monster snarled louder, banging against its steel cage.

Another pause, another long, deep drag. Any stimuli threatened the carefully desensitized state that I’d worked so hard to create.

The space between my shoulder blades itched.

Breathe in smoke for five seconds, hold five seconds, breathe out five seconds, pause five seconds.

Repeat.

A storm howled outside, and rain slammed against the brick structure.

Thunder cracked.

With a falsely constructed sense of ennui, I opened the door, and the night storm echoed throughout the dark foyer.

“What do you want?” I asked calmly.

Silhouetted in the dark was a massive figure. Taller than the door with layers of muscles that could only be used for one thing: war.

Sucking in smoke, I pushed the door shut in its face.

Step one to being cold and callous: You don’t engage in basic impulses like fear. You react to nothing.

Survival of the unfeeling.

Crack.

The massive thing slammed a hand against the door and stepped past me into the mansion.

“Are you Aran?” a baritone voice growled as the man flung the door wide.

Wet shoes squeaked on polished marble. Pouring rain traveled on cold wind and slammed against the both of us.

I focused on my cage, fortified steel bars, until the slightest rattle of emotion was silenced by a prison. I assessed in a hazy inhale of smoke that if the creature was asking for me, it wasn’t a threat to the others.

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