Page 48 of Her Psycho Beasts

Laughter sweeps around the room in a riptide, a force I could easily drown in. My blood pressure rises, but I control myself.A look from me has Savage and Xander stepping forward and slamming our bounty right onto the table.

Two tubs filled with thick, red slush that violently splash onto the table as Savage slams his down extra hard.

To my great and terrible satisfaction, the laughter abruptly stops. Blood drips off the side of the tubs, making audible splats as they fall onto the table.

The stunned silence is broken by a young woman at the end of the table. She smokes an old-fashioned pipe and wears her black hair in a short, wavy style I’ve seen in black and white movies. Her aura flutters steely green flecked grey that I’ve never seen before. It’s powerful, perhaps the most powerful of the beasts at the table, and I immediately know she’s a crocodile, meaning that she’d be able to withstand any physical attack dealt to her, even a bullet—that is the power the Wild Goddess gave to the crocs.

“Now, how did three pups, barely weaned, snatch an entire territory right from under our noses?” Her voice is silky and amused. She does not fear me. She is intrigued. Aroused.

I bite down my rage at the low implication in her voice. A tone I’ve been hearing since I was thirteen.

“Sit,” says Mace Naga. “Let us see what the little shark has to say.”

It’s been thirteen years since I’d been addressed by the serpent king and I am not the same beast I was back then. I am no longer cloaked by innocence. No longer wielded by my father. I’ve been hammered and forged into something far darker than he remembers.

I pull out the heavy leather seat, before another oily voice sitting to the side of the table says, “Iremember you.”

It’s a lion, pale skinned, grey-haired and no less than fifty.

“There was an auction for your virginity, wasn’t there? Forgive me, I’ve been to so many but… Ah, yes, I definitelyremember that silver hair.Thatface. You were what, fourteen? Fifteen? Could have only been a few years ago.” He smiles?—

Right before he screams.

His face flushes an unhealthy red-purple. Blood vessels pop in his eyes, making his sclera turn completely red. He shakes in his chair before I cut off my power and he collapses, slumping off his chair and going limp. Two of his felines run up to check on him.

“Is he dead?” Mace asks quietly.

“Yes,” I say, my voice cold and dead.

“So it’s true about what sharks can do then,” the Crocodile Queen purrs. “How interesting. Howveryinteresting.”

The high witch of the hyenas cackles with mirth. When I turn to look at her, I see a knowing in the deep wrinkles around her kohl lined eyes. “I commend a creature who wants to forge his own path. Sit down, young man. You play with the big beasts now.”

Chapter 24

Scythe

Levi, my hotel manager, appears at the door to the second sitting room where we’ve gathered, wiping the sweat off his forehead with a white pocket square. He brushes his temple with his thumb, indicating that he needs to talk mind-to-mind.

“Speak,” I command.

“It’s the two ladies,” he says, tugging at his collar.“They’re on the dance floor, sir. They’re…”

My blood pressure rises significantly as I get my phone out and tap into the various security cameras around the hotel. Xander is supposed to be on watch. How the fuck did they get to the lift without being noticed?“Out with it.”

“They’re gathering a bit of attention, sir.”

I swipe through screens ofBazooka’slive footage until I find two familiar figures.

One raven-haired, one pink-haired.

Right in the middle of the dance floor, where the crowd is thickest, surrounded by a group of males and females. They’re holding hands and laughing, seductively gyrating their hips. A male reaches out for Aurelia’s waist, but she spins away, simultaneously pulling Minnie away from another male. Irefrain from leaping out of my chair and charging down to the club. Aurelia has directly disobeyed me. No, I’d never given her a direct order to stay in her room, but she’d known the plan anddefiedmy wishes. Instead of planning the execution of every male on the dance floor, I take a moment to centre myself.

The horde prowls around me, their voices a cacophony of fell whispers. “Kill them, stake them, drown them in their own waters. Beat them, bite them, force them to become martyrs.”

Three deep breaths later, I glance around the room.

Marduk and Yeti are musing over some cigars Xander has brought them.

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