Page 26 of Her Tortured Beasts

“Cunt,” I retort in turn.

His shoulders tighten before he proceeds to ignore me and returns to his chair. Though the shallow cut on my chest is already healing, I’m careful to take my dress off for the night and drop it onto the carpet. After using the bathroom, I crawl back into my cage and lock the door.

Such a good pet.

Goddess, it grates at my nerves to sit there, the bars cold against my bare back. Eventually, Xander goes to bed, flicking the blackout curtain down so I’m swallowed by darkness again.

I don’t sleep like the previous night. Can’t. Not after the events and words of the evening. Putting my head down on my makeshift blanket pillow doesn’t help, and there’s definitely something about sleeping in this foreign place that makes me uneasy.

Xander makes no noise in his bed, and I wonder if he’s asleep or just pretending to be. “Did you find your wife tonight?” I mutter.

“Don’t make me tape your mouth,” he mutters back.

So I lie there for what seems like hours, my eyes blinking at the black material.

Until I hear it.

A faint whisper makes my heart stutter in my chest. It’s breathy, faint, but definitely feminine.

Is this place haunted? I wouldn’t be surprised, an old rotten place like this.

I hear it again and I sit bolt upright, almost banging my head on the top of the cage. The whisper made words. Hurried anddesperate. I imagine someone with wide eyes, gripping the bars of her own cage, beseeching me. Begging me.

Don’t open it.

I frown, straining my ears. But the words are no different the second time.

Don’t open it.

I don’t sleep at all after that, but the voice does not return.

Chapter 14

Xander

That Home – Cinematic Orchestra

The next day, Solomon and the scientists continue to undergo their long list of tests for Snake Spawn. They have a treadmill and make it run in various forms. They test the bite strength of its jaws and the sharpness of its claws. The entire time, Ghoul watches with a fixated obsession, and during the day, we’re joined by various serpent generals until they get bored and leave.

I use the time to manage the sudden endless list of requests, emails, and news reports. What I’m looking for isn’t even certain. Some type of…retaliation. Some type of signal. The only news I get is that Scythe has now been sighted on land. I’d thought he’d found his peace out in the cold waters of the Pacific. To find that he’s returned is disappointing, to say the least.

He couldn’t withstand Spawn’s lure.

No one from Animus Academy has tried to contact me, and it makes the hairs at the back of my neck stand on end. I’ve blocked everyone’s numbers, but that never stopped males like Savage and Scythe, or even Lyle from getting to someone. Thereare ways and means to reach me. Get a message some way, electronic or otherwise, but I haven’t heard a peep.

No threats or anything.

A quiet Scythe is a dangerous Scythe. Under my advisement, Father has doubled the estate’s protections, physical and otherwise.

That night, Mother invites me for supper in her rooms with Sissy and the twins. It’s my favourite part of the day because it reminds me of when we used to do the exact same thing as children. Back in our day, we’d drink Milo or tea and play board games while Father sat in the corner reading.

It pleases me to no end that they’ve kept up the tradition for the hatchlings. Since I’m forced to bring Spawn with me everywhere, I command it to sit in the corner of the dimly lit room.

But that doesn’t last long. The hatchlings are curious and intelligent, so they scoot over to it almost immediately, bringing their books and colouring pencils along with them.

“Or-rey-lee-uh,” coos Emmerson, “can you draw?” He’s fascinated by her name.

“A little,” Spawn says.

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