Page 3 of Her Psycho Beasts

Who has been tormenting me.

She wears an oversized plain black T-shirt and track pants that I want to rip off her body because they carry multiple foreign scents from the lost-and-found box at the medical centre. Her olive complexion is flushed—both from theadrenaline of the situation and from being claimed by Lyle. Her power thrums around her in a wild, seductive concoction that beckons to me in a different way than before. It’s more radiant and more dangerous than her golden energy. It’s like gold with a diamond sheen.

By the careful way she holds herself, she feels the difference too.

Though she’s rinsed her mouth and wiped most of it off, the smell of blood still sticks to her.

Fredrick Ulman’s life’s blood.

I wonder if it will change her, the fact that she’s killed a man. I wonder if finding vengeance will change her like it changed me.

Aurelia boldly returns my stare with blazing blue eyes, and as my silence settles around her, that soft, alluring mouth sets into a firm, hard line.

“Are you giving me an order?” I ask in a low voice.

Her anger reduces to a simmer, and she speaks quietly. “I’m asking for your help. Whether you give it to me or not is your choice. But I’m going to get her back with or without you.”

She surprises me. Each and every day, Aurelia Boneweaver surprises me.

I shake my head. “This is bait, Aurelia.”

“This is my fault,” she counters. “I need to fix it.”

“A lot of things are your fault.”

She blinks at me in shock, as she’s done many times before. But this time, her eyes catch the light as they grow shiny, filling with tears.

The scent of them reaches my nose, sweet and salty, mesmerising me. Drawing me in.

My shark snaps his teeth, wanting to cause pain to the creature making Aurelia cry. Except, right now, that’s me.

My stomach twists on itself.

Her spell over me is broken when she audibly swallows. “So, what then?” She’s embarrassed now.

I fight the urge to step closer. “You want my advice?”

She nods.

I stare hard. And it pleases me to no end to watch her submit to me.

“Yes, please,” she clarifies.

My reply is short. “Leave her.”

Aurelia’s face changes from submissive to furious in one second flat. “As if I would do that!”

Fascinating.

I pull up Raquel’s desk chair and take a seat, stretching out my legs to try and dissolve the sudden tension in my body. At one time, I had wanted Aurelia to be ignorant of her real powers. But the more I observed her true self, the more I’d wanted to see whatmoreshe is capable of. Something in me yearns to see her out in the world in full, supreme force. My animus is excited by the prospect of both of us shedding the blood of our enemies together.

But in order to do that, Aurelia needs honing. In the Old Times, that wild, brute force power she has would have been enough to make her a queen. But in this world? Wild power needs to be honed into something precise to make it truly lethal.

Marduk will be so pleased by my change in direction.

So I ask her, “If I refused to help you, what would you do next?”

She prowls irritably down the length of the room, glancing out the door where her friends’ frantic voices can be heard. “We’re wasting time here.”

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