Page 148 of Her Psycho Beasts

Savage growls, paddling around her in a circle, nudging her when she gets too close to the canal wall.

A sharp pain pierces my heart. “Angel, I don’t think you should be alone right now.”

“Then be silent, Mr Pardalia.”

I almost smile at the command in her voice and the way it makes me want to bow down at her feet. Savage glances worriedly at me and I shake my head at him before stretching my legs out on the cold stone floor as Savage and I take up our vigil.

That evening, once Aurelia is safely clothed and with her friends in the pack dorms, I seek out my mentor. Aurelia was understandably pensive, and even after holding her for some hours, she was reluctant to share her thoughts. Scythe had been on the phone all afternoon, icy and purely murderous. I don’t know what he and Marduk discussed, but I hoped it was a plan.

“Come in.”

I frown as I enter Celeste’s office. Her voice sounds distant and tight.

She sits at her desk as she normally does during my evening debriefs with her. But instead of being occupied by something at her desk, her chair is angled to the side and she looks out the window with the view of the school grounds.

Her eyes are glassy, that fiery power only a faint buzz in the air. The blank look on her face scares me. I have never seen her so carefully reined in. So carefully poised on her chair as if a faint breeze might make her shatter.

“What’s happened?” I demand quietly.

She glances at me, her hand coming to her mouth. “I can look after myself, Lyle. You know that.”

“I do know that,” I confirm, noting the bluish bags under her makeup. “But—” I smell it then. On her. Under the faint scent of anti-bacterial soap is…him. “No,” I say in disbelief.

She gives me a rueful smile.

“You cannot be serious?”

She tilts her chin up but does not look me in the eye. “It is council-mandated. Mace brought the official order with him this morning. It’s a part of the phoenix repopulation effort. There’s no one left to do prophesies in the other states.”

I stare at her in silence. In shock. I’d known this was always Damien’s motive, but to actually see the result of it…

“They voted,” she continues in a calm, measured voice, “and it didn’t work out in my favour. ‘Preservation of the species is paramount’.” She nudges the official document on council letterhead still on her desk. It looks like she’s been reading it over and over again.

My animus roars in my consciousness. Celeste is my kin. Cared for us as an aunt would care for a nephew.Blood. We want blood.

And I agree.

I turn around and stride out of her office.

“Lyle.” It’s a warning.

I stop in my tracks, but do not turn around so she cannot see the look of pure rage on my face.

“Do not do anything you will regret.”

I will regretnotdoing anything. Saying nothing further, I leave.

Loosening my tie and tossing it to the ground, I let my animus take over and we go to those we trust. Those unhinged, like us.

Back on our secret floor above the animus dorms, Savage takes one look at me and his brows fly up in excitement. He leaps out of bed like an acrobat. Eugene scuttles away to hide under the pack bed.

“Brother.” Triggered by me, Savage has descended into his wolf, making his voice low and rough.

Scythe comes out of the bathroom where he’d been soaking.

“We need to kill him,” I say, ripping off the suit jacket and shirt that’s caging me in.

“Who?” Savage bounces up and down on his heels.

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