Page 123 of Her Psycho Beasts

“I’ve found it quite effective,” Damien replies sharply.

“Evidence-based,” I nod, sitting down and crossing my legs primly. I’ve purposely chosen a short skirt and low-cut blouse to distract Lyle with. He’s already glanced at my legs twice now. Success.

“I would like to talk to you about your mother,” he says, opening up my file.

“Absolutely not.” I smile with my teeth. “That is an out-of-bounds conversation.” If I am forced to utter a word about her, Iwillbreak down. Or tear the room apart. One of the two. Or both at the same time.

Damien’s nostrils flare.

The windows to our left rattle, just a little.

“Your father then.”

I hear a faint crack from behind me.

“He’s no father of mine,” I say tightly, clenching my fists in my lap as Lyle shifts in his seat. “He is Mr Naga, as far as I am concerned.”

“His Majesty,” Damien corrects sternly, oblivious to the rattling windows or ignoring them, “is the appropriate honorific.”

“As I was reminded by his servants,” I mutter. “The one time he visited my bungalow.”

“You carry resentment towards him.”

There’s another crack next to me as I stare Damien down, a droll look making my features stony. How the hell am I going to suffer through this?

Glancing at Lyle, I say, “To think I’d thought your sessions were bad.”

Lyle huffs through his nose like a bull, staring Damien down like he’s going to charge at any moment.

“For your own safety, sir, I think we should conclude this session.” I show him my teeth again.

“Perhaps we should get supervision from one of your other mates.”

“Oh yes, I’m sure Scythe would love to tag along.”

Damien inhales and exhales like I’m the one testing his patience. “I trust you are…recovered?”

The rattling stops as my power falters alongside my confusion.

I only understand what he’s talking about when Lyle’s power flares around him. “Oh, from my period? Yes, a woman’s menstruation usually only lasts seven days.” I stand and grab Lyle’s hand. “I’m going to take Mr Pardalia now.”

Damien doesn’t bid us goodbye, just stares at us on the way out. Lyle, for his part, pulls me into a janitor’s closet and proceeds to fuck me up against the wall, growling, “Mine,” over and over again until I come, shuddering and shaking around his massive girth. I let my power into him too, and he drinks it up like wine because he knows that’s exactly what I need.

After dinner, Eugene and I collect Minnie and Stacey, the two best researchers I know, and hurry them into the library while my mates go to the gym. Xander has returned and is more irritable than ever, so I have a feeling Scythe wants to burn off some of his energy. I pull my animas into a private corner of the library, which has a few males getting help with their homework.

“I almost broke the windows of Dolores’ office,” I say. “I think this thing is getting worse.”

I had left out my new power surges in my recounting of events to my friends. I fill them in now and they both take this information in with great seriousness.

“There’s got to be something in here about controlling it,” Minnie says, getting up to do a search on the library computer.

“I’ll check online,” Stacey says.

“I’ve had to power share to tamper it down,” I say worriedly, rubbing my arms and casting an eye about the tables behind us. “But even then it’s still an issue. It’s such a shame I couldn’t talk to Mum. I’m sure there were things she knew but never had the time to tell me.”

Before I know it I’m crying into my sleeve for what feels like the hundredth time this week. Minnie puts her arm around me as we walk through the stacks to the section on order gifts. “She’s safe with the Wild Mother now,” she says thickly. “But it’s not like there was never anything written on the Boneweavers. There’s got to be stuff here somewhere.”

We spend a good two hours searching through the books, and even Stacey’s searches online don’t reveal anything concrete about it, only vague stories about really powerful telekinetics, but none of them lost control like I have.

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