Page 14 of Her Vicious Beasts: The Beginning
When I leave with Beak and Scuff after my healing session, I’m surprised by the heaviness I feel at leaving the prisoners behind me. I vaguely wonder if this is how people feel when they part with their friends.
Chapter 10
Aurelia
IknowI’m delusional in thinking the prisoners in the dungeon are my friends. I’m a complete idiot for playing happy families with them—sharingthings, smilingand getting a fluttery heart. Except I don’t have anyone else in my life and is it so bad if I have an alright time chatting to them briefly? Is it so bad if Savage’s and Beak’s attention brightens my day just a little bit?
It’s pathetic, I know. They’re dangerous males.Andthey’re prisoners.
So the next day, even if one part of me is screaming not to do it, that the risk is too great and I’ll get into trouble, I’m going to do something stupid and I’m not even thinking about the consequences.
It’s so unlike me that I can’t even comprehend it.
I find myself walking into Halfeather’s mansion with one of my strongest shields hiding a folded pair of discounted XL black track pants tucked under my arm. I hold my breath as Beak opens my car door, his usual flirty smile on his face as he takes my bag.
Suddenly, I’m not surprised he’s been ordered to Animus Academy. His eyes are telling me that he wants to fuck.Promiscuity amongst our males is an issue. STDs for one thing, inter-court politics for another. It leads to more bloodshed than it’s worth. Oddly, my anima isn’t rearing up and wanting to grab at him like I expect. Am I getting used to the attention?
Of course, with my entire life being a study in shielding, I get the pants into the dungeons without a hitch. Getting the pants into Scythe’s cell will be another thing entirely. It will also give away my power.
So it looks like I’m a risk taker now, but here I am faced with something I’ve never come across before. The primitive female anima within me appreciates that Scythe haskilleda male for me.
I’d like to think they’d already had some sort of beef. That I’m not the only reason Scythe wanted that hyena dead. Whatever my brain thought, my anima wanted to thank the shark for such a display of blatant protection.
Perhaps the ferality of the prisoners is rubbing off on me because it seems like I’m letting my anima take control more and more by the day. Maybe Beak is right about me needing to go to Animus Academy after all.
Beak and Scuff lead me down to the dungeons once again, slamming the door shut behind me, but that ominous sound can’t make me flinch today.
“Lia?” Savage’s voice is a beacon in the gloom and a balm for any nervousness I feel.
“Hi, it’s me.” My voice sounds tiny compared to his.
I stride quickly past the cells, trying not to let my eagerness show. When I pass the hyena’s cell, the body and head have been removed, and the scent of bleach even passes through my shields. I wonder what Halfeather does with the bodies of his prisoners.
The scent of fresh blood is also coming out loud and strong from the shark’s cell. Yesterday, Savage said his brother’s namewas Scythe—another fighting name. Nervously, I step before him.
Ice-cold eyes like the dark depths of the Mariana Trench shine through the gloom.Danger,my anima warns.This one is a killer.
I swallow as I reach out with my power and assess his body for the injuries I can smell. The shark doesn’t show any response to my magic brushing against him. He simply sits there leaning against the back of the chair, eyes on me like cold, cold pokers. I can tell that his shoulder’s been dislocated and that he or someone else has relocated it back into the socket—the tendons are all inflamed and a little mangled. There is also a break in his humerus, already healing due to his natural animus magic. But because of the magical dampeners on the dungeon, the process is slower than expected. I speed up the healing and seal the fracture shut.
He’s silent throughout the whole thing. Usually, I get a grunt or something from the repair of a broken bone, but Scythe just sits there as if it doesn’t bother him, watching me with the kind of precision I imagine only a shark can muster.
Healing is instinctual for me. It’s hard for my power to see someone in pain and not do anything about it. It goes against literally everything that I am in my core, not to heal. But I suddenly realise that I never asked for his permission.
An icky feeling crawls through me and I mutter, “I’m sorry, I should have asked.”
He says nothing.
I can’t help but feel his injuries are a consequence of what he did to the hyena. What he did out of revenge for me. I wonder what he’s thinking. What desire he had to kill the animalia and how the hell he’d done it.
The track pants at my side burn like contraband. I paid for them fair and square and now it seems even more imperative to give this male a gift.
Will he take it? There is no kindness coming off him, nothing close to human connection. I get the urge to turn away from the cell, but something is urging me forward. He must be cold in there. He must be feeling awful, even though he won’t let any emotion show. The only thing I feel from him is an icy indifference bordering on menace. He is a dangerous, dangerous creature. The anima inside of meknowsthat.
Perhaps he killed because he liked to?
Nerves prickling in my veins, I take the track pants out from under my arm and hold them out to show him.
“Lia?” Savage’s voice sails over to me. The rest of the dungeon is quiet.
