Her Psycho Beasts, page 32
part #3 of Her Vicious Beasts Series
Sabrina sleeps for a few hours before she wakes up, wiping her eyes and looking dejected around the room. “I don’t want to be here. Why did you bring me here?”
“Sabrina,” Scythe says softly.
She flinches, but turns her face towards him as he pulls up a chair a respectful distance from her. We all watch him in fascination.
“Do you remember two cheetahs who came to help rescue you? Tall and quiet with black hair. Blair and Blade.”
Recognition flashes into her eyes and she nods stiffly. I too remember the two lithe assassins.
“They lost their regina two years ago to a rare type of cancer.”
Sabrina’s brows knit together and she purses her lips like she’s going to cry again.
“Would you like to meet them again?” She blinks at the ceiling for a moment. “Sometimes, when animalia lose their pack, they are paired with others who have also lost their pack. It’s a way for beasts who understand to come together and try and forge bonds for this life. To stave away the sadness and loneliness until we reunite with our mates in the next life.”
“You don’t have to say yes right away,” Lyle says quickly. “You can think about it.”
“There would never be any pressure on you,” I confirm. “It would just be to see what happens.”
“I don’t see how it would work.” Sabrina looks first to me, then to Minnie. “Would you say yes, Min?”
Minnie looks like she’s going to cry and presses a hand over her heart as if feeling the severed bond there. She gives a shaky breath. “I’d give it a shot.”
Sabrina purses her lips together as if she hates this idea, then looks around the room. “You’re not going to let me off myself, are you?” She states it because she already knows the answer.
“No,” everyone says in unison.
“Fuckers.” She clenches her jaw as if she hates us, but I know she doesn’t. She just hates her situation. Hates what life has given her. “Fine.”
We all sigh with relief. And I want to leap into Scythe’s arms and kiss him. Instead, I say a sincere, “Thank you,” into his mind. I expect a nod or a tiny smile or something positive from that, but all I get is a shuttered glance that confuses me.
Scythe wastes no time, and the twins arrive the next day.
Blair and Blade are a little old to be attending Animus Academy, plus Scythe had their criminal records wiped ages ago, but none of the guards do anything when the two cheetahs saunter onto the grounds, flowers and packages in hand.
Minnie, Stacey, and I watch excitedly from the pack dorm windows as Scythe leads the two into the building.
“They’re her type,” Stacey says, grabbing my arm. “Tall with dark hair.”
“Look at them muscles,” Minnie coos. “She’ll love that, right?”
“I beg your pardon?” Yeti asks, affronted.
“They’re both quite handsome,” I say mildly. “Don’t you think, Min?”
“Excuse me!” Savage cries dramatically.
Minnie and I elbow each other while Stacey tries hard not to laugh.
We jog back into Sabrina’s room and find her settled on the couch by the window. She refuses to take that hoodie off, even if it sort of smells now, but it’s a security blanket for her, so we don’t talk about it. Her hood remains up, covering part of her eyes and casting the rest of her face in shadows.
“Sith Lord Sabrina,” Stacey says in a deep voice. “Your servants have arrived.”
That elicits a little huff from our leopard as she opens a bag of potato chips and begins mechanically eating.
Less than a minute later, Scythe appears by the door and we all scurry to the side to watch.
The twin cheetahs enter the room on light, silent feet. They slow their pace down, respectfully letting Sabrina see them and what they have in their hands.
“Sabrina,” Scythe says, “this is Blade.” He points to the twin on the left holding a bunch of beautiful yellow roses. “And Blair.” He indicates the brother on the right with the gift bag.
Blade approaches Sabrina’s couch and goes down on one knee, places his flowers at her feet, and offers her his hand.
Minnie grips my own hand so hard it hurts as we hold our breaths.
It seems like an eternity before Sabrina extracts a hand from the bag of chips and so slowly reaches out. Blair receives it in both of his, as if her hand is the most precious thing in existence. With the gentlest of lips, he kisses the back of it.
A tear rolls down Sabrina’s cheek. Blair takes out something from his gift bag and places it carefully on Sabrina’s lap.
I see that it’s a pink and yellow frosted cake in a clear plastic box. A pretty little thing. An offering of food to a regina.
Sabrina brushes her fingers over it.
Minnie and I look at each other with tears in our eyes.
“Thank you,” Sabrina whispers.
“You are welcome,” Blair says roughly. “Would you do us the honour of speaking with us?”
Sabrina glances at Blade, likely remembering he can’t speak.
“Well,” Blair chuckles, running a nervous hand through his dark hair, “Blade will mostly be listening.”
Sabrina’s lips twitch into the whisper of a smile. “Well, I suppose it’s good that I can do enough talking for two people.”
Blade’s face splits into a grin.
Chapter 64
Scythe
Three Years Ago
“He’s a terrible beast. Evil as they come.” Beak spits on the grass, off to the side to show his contempt. “Executed my regina and brothers just because she refused to remove the organs out of a very alive and healthy beast.”
“Scumbag,” Savage says. “We knew it.”
“It’s too early for us to take him on,” Xander says. “We’re not ready for something that big yet.”
“Please,” Beak urges. “I’ll fucking do anything to see that fucker’s head roll.”
I consider Halfeather. A powerful, wealthy beast with a tenuous connection to Serpent Court. He’d built his empire selling organs on the black market using the cover of professional medical and healing services.
I consider this young eagle who calls himself Beak.
Underneath the sick and morbid grey, the American eagle’s aura is fiery for an avian. He has strength enough to live on and plot revenge for his flock. There is no fell spot of grey indicating deception or falsehood in him.
“It will take some time to set up his demise,” I warn. “Taking down a crime lord this big takes considerable effort.”
“However long it takes,” Beak says, his fists clenched. “I can hold out for years if it means at the end of this, Charles Halfeather is completely destroyed.”
“Swear to me.” I take my cigarette case from my pocket. “Swear your allegiance to me, stay undercover at Halfeather’s, and I will see your revenge done.”
“You have my loyalty,” Beak says ferociously, dropping to his knees and holding out his tanned, untattooed hand. “And I’ll pretend to remain loyal to him.”
I decide then that I will find Beak a new regina. A bird of prey who is missing her flock that he could learn to love and cherish like he did his real regina. A woman worthy of him and his strength.
Chapter 65
Aurelia
That afternoon, Scythe stalks into the pack dorms where I’m spending time with Minnie and asks to see me privately.
My heart pounds as it always does when he fixes his gaze upon me.
“I’ve instructed Theresa to take Sabrina to The Lily Sanctuary, with Blade and Blair as a security escort. Have you heard of it?”
“Of course,” I blurt out. Everyone knows about The Lily Sanctuary. It’s the state’s premier mental health facility for animalia. A state-of-the-art complex with the best health professionals and rehabilitation programs. There was huge buzz about it when it was first built less than a year ago.
He nods. “It’s…mine.”
“Pardon?” I choke.
An unexpected, very male smirk just manages to curve the edges of his perfect mouth. I feel so lucky that I get to see it. “Yes, ma’am.”
If he calls me ma’am again I might come. And because my brain is truly frazzled, I repeat my words in staccato like a complete idiot. “It’s. Yours?”
“I want to show you what I built. Would that be okay?”
He wants to show me what he built. By the ever-loving gods. The Lily Sanctuary. He’d named it after his mother. Why didn’t I pick up on that before?
“Yes!” I blurt out loudly. Clearing my throat, I say a much quieter, “Yes.”
He pretends not to notice me losing it. “Sabrina will leave by car this evening, but I want you on dragon-back in half an hour.”
Every word out of his mouth is like honey to my eardrums. I try not to look like I’m melting onto the floor when I nod and we head back to our suite to get warm clothes.
After dark, we meet on the roof of the animus dorms. After making us wait yet again, Xander stalks up there like a beast ready for murder. Smoke streams from his nostrils as he explodes into his dragon-form, making me jump back in fright. Scythe shoulders a backpack as he helps me up the wooden ladder to Xander’s back, before setting it aside and disappearing. I panic for a moment before feeling a cold wave of energy behind me as he walks up Xander’s back and settles himself behind me. Wrapping his arms around my upper stomach, just under the underwire of my bra, he pulls me close.
“Sleep if you need to,” he says into my ear.
My toes curl from the tingles wracking my body. From the need. “Not a chance. I like seeing the v—”
Xander leaps up into the air in powerful thrust and my sentence ends in a blood-curdling scream. It’s only once we soar through the protective dome and level out that I can breathe again.
“Asshole!” I scream, slapping his hard, black scales and, of course, hurting my hand in the process.
And he probably didn’t even notice.
Scythe leans his chin lightly on the crown of my head and it suddenly makes everything seem better.
Two hours later, I’m admiring the lights of the city when The Lily Sanctuary comes into view. It’s the size of a big hospital: a complex with multiple levels, wings, and a helipad painted with a black dragon. Red and blue flashing lights mark ambulances sitting stationary at one of the entrances.
So they even have an emergency department.
It’s even more impressive seeing it in person. Xander lands on the helipad with what I think is an unnecessary rough thud and shake. This time, there’s no Lyle to levitate me down, and I don’t yet trust my telekinesis to safely move my entire body. Scythe easily crawls around me and slides down Xander’s leg, fireman style. He turns around and holds his arms out.
“Come on, Aurelia.”
“What do you mean?” I squeak.
“Jump.”
“Not a chance.”
“One,” Xander says threateningly. “Two.”
Without another thought, I throw myself at Scythe feet first. He catches me around the waist with a grunt. Xander shifts a moment later, his naked, towering form stalking towards us, glowing eyes flashing. Under the harsh lights of the helipad, with those rippling muscles, the full sleeve tribal dragon tattoo on his arm, Xander looks like some immortal dragon god. Or perhaps a modern god with his headphones still in place and the dangling black cross earring that seems to shift with him by some dragon magic I’ll never understand.
Scythe puts me on the concrete and I straighten my jacket and smooth down my hair while Xander gets dressed in a professional shirt, business pants, vest, and business jacket.
They lead me to an elevator and we head down multiple floors. Xander leaves us on an upper floor, stalking out without so much as a goodbye.
The elevator doors slide closed and we continue downward.
“Where’s he going?” I ask.
“Xander is the CFO of The Lily Sanctuary. He has a few things to take care of.”
“I didn’t think he had the temperament for that sort of thing,” I say under my breath.
A whisper of a smile curves his lips. He seems to be doing that lately. “You’re more alike than you know. That’s why you trigger each other so much.”
“What do you mean by that?” I ask, crossing my arms.
His eyes roam my face until the elevator stops on level two and he leads me out. The corridor is empty at this time of the evening, the soft warm lights so unlike regular harsh hospital lighting. He’s paid attention to every detail.
“I knew you’d been seeing our memories from the beginning, Aurelia. I didn’t know if it was from your Boneweaver side or serpent side, but I knew.”
I stop dead in my tracks. “How?”
Scythe shrugs his broad shoulders. “I could sense it in your auric field.”
“You see auras?”
“Yes. You probably could too.”
Now that I’d shifted into a shark. But I hadn’t seen something like that come up yet. “It’s from my serpent side,” I say quietly. “Serpents can see their mates’ memories and sometimes even visions from the present. It’s not something we control.”
He exhales slowly. “There are some uncomfortable memories there. Things that no one should have to see. I’m sorry if—”
“I haven’t seen anything like that,” I say quickly. I briefly describe the memories I’d seen from him, the one about his mother, going to The Jewel of the Jungle for the first time, his first meeting with Marduk.
He visibly relaxes. I understand what he doesn’t want me to see and why, and it makes the backs of my eyes burn to think about it.
Scythe gestures to a map of the complex on the wall next to the elevator.
“Originally, this place was going to be just for marine shifters stuck here away from home, but the idea grew into something bigger. We treat all shifters now, and we’ve just built the human wing. They’re separated into wards that focus on treatments specific to their illness. Sabrina will stay in the Starfish unit.”
Starfishes can grow new limbs. I nod, taking this all in. The amount of work that must have gone into planning a place like this. Pride wells in my chest. My mate built this. But one thing catches my attention. “Is that how you see it? The ocean is your home?”
He graces me with a curve of his lips just enough to be called a smile. “I feel at peace there. Is that not a place you would call home?”
“And you named this after your mother.”
“I did,” he says softly. “The first unit we built was more of a safehouse for beasts rescued from sex trafficking and breeding rings.” He points to another spot on the map. “We call it the Hope unit now.”
My heart squeezes.
He’d built a place he wished he’d had for himself. A place that now others like him could use as a place of comfort to get the help they desperately need.
Scythe turns and looks at me as if he wants to say something. My heart leaps into my throat. Then he shakes his head and offers me a hand.
Tentatively, I take it.
His hand is cool and so much bigger than mine. I wrap my fingers around it and we walk down the corridor in silence until we come to a set of glass doors. A sign above it declares ‘Seashell Ward’ in cutesy blue bubble letters.
Scythe presses a silver button by the door. A person on the other side greets him by name.
“I’m here for a short visit.”
“Of course, of course, Mr Kharkouros.”
The doors swing open.
We’re greeted by a handmade, colourful banner that is mounted to the wall, stretching out on either side. Illustrations made by many different hands in texts and crayon depict sea life, ocean waves, and every so often there are words written in the marine language.
We enter and turn right down another corridor painted a cheery blue, but this one has bedrooms at large intervals because each one holds a ten-foot-long inset pool. The smell of saltwater fills the air as we walk past these rooms and come to an open area where an Olympic-sized pool fills most of the space. There’s a nurses’ desk on one side and couches, and tables and chairs on the other. A woman in pastel rainbow scrubs hurries to greet us.
“It’s almost bedtime, Mr Kharkorous, but—
“I’ve finished my book, sir!” comes a male shout from the couches.
A tall, silver-haired man in his thirties, wearing only striped blue pyjama bottoms and a towel around his neck, strides over with a wad of seaweed.
The nurse steps to the side to observe as the marine-shifter stops before us. He beams, showing two rows of pointed teeth. Each of his colourless eyes are focused in opposite directions. It makes me dizzy to look at him.
“I finished my book,” the man repeats, holding out his wad of seaweed.
“Have you now?” Scythe says, accepting the wet slimy thing.
He nods proudly as Scythe leafs through the seaweed like it’s a book. “Have you got a title?”
Spreading his hands through the air in an invisible billboard, he says, “A Study in Madness.”
“I like it.” Scythe hands the seaweed back.
He accepts it graciously before saying, “You brought your regina!”
“Please meet Aurelia. I’m showing her around.”
The animus inclines his head. “My name was not meant to be uttered in this world,” he says earnestly. “But land-dwellers are permitted to call me Hammer.”
A hammerhead shark?
“Pleased to meet you, Hammer.” I smile.
“The pleasure is mine, Lady Boneweaver. Oh yes,” he says when my smile falters a little, “we get the news here!”
A tiny movement rustles the hair hanging by his left shoulder. I stare at the ball of pink fluff that pokes his head out, liquid black eyes staring curiously.
“We’ve been trialling the nimpins with some of the residents,” Scythe says. “I got the idea after I saw how Henry was with you.”
“You have a nimpin?” Hammer asks excitedly, taking his pink fluffball into his hands. “Baked Bean is very helpful, and she can even swim!”
