The chuckle escapes me on a breath. “So much like your other mates.” She can’t argue with that, and doesn’t. All five of us are selfish, awful bastards.
“And what does this public claiming involve?” she demands. “Is it another orgy?”
“Where I come from, I would have been a king. So I will claim my bride in the way that befits a king.”
Chapter 64
Xander
There is something different about tonight. Aurelia returned in the early hours of this morning from her nighttime stalking with a frown between her dark brows. We didn’t follow her this time. For some reason, it felt intrusive. For much of her life, she was left isolated, and it was something she’d become used to. Something she still sought when her mind was unsettled. I understand that; it’s something dragons naturally crave too. A part of me burns to know that while Scythe, Savage and I had each other, and Lyle had the lady phoenix to help him, Aurelia had no one.
“I think that’s why it hurts her so much,” I explain to Savage as he, Eugene and I smoke at the top of the Animus dorm as the sun sets. “She never knew that someonehadbeen there after all. It’s almost like a betrayal.”
“Itisa betrayal,” Savage says viciously. “I hate that she thought it was just her. No one to pat her back while she slept, no one to check if her coffee was too hot. It’s not fair, Xander. It’s not fucking fair, and I hate the planet.”
“Me too,” I sigh. “Because I was the one who kept making it worse.”
“Yeah,” Savage agrees, patting Eugene on the head and offering his joint to the rooster. “But you tried to make it right. Ghoul is just a plain old nightmare.” We sit in silence for a moment as Eugene puffs on the joint. “Where do you think she’ll end up tonight?” Savage wonders, pulling the weed away from the bird. “I gave her an extra-strong coffee so she wouldn’t get tired again.”
“I gave her vitamin B supplements earlier today, so that should help,” I say, blowing smoke into the sky.
“I don’t think we should give her coke.” Savage shakes his head. “If I’m not allowed to have it, she can’t either.” Savage had tried wolf-strength cocaine all of one time before we put a ban on it. We don’t talk aboutthatnight.
“Always making good choices, Sav,” I say. “Nope, we’re?—”
A little cobra slithers by the school wall. It looks left and right before ducking into the bushes and disappearing completely. Since the university lecture event, she’d figured out that we were following her, and she’s going to extra lengths to stay concealed tonight. A second later, both of our phones buzz, and I look at the notification on mine. It’s from Minnie:
Club Venom 10pm
Of course she’d told her little tigress bestie before us. I scowl at my phone just before Scythe and then Lyle’s feet storm up the stairs. “Eugene,” I say. “Get your goggles. The monsters are hitting town tonight.”
Chapter 65
Lyle
Idon’t think any of us were prepared for a summons from Aurelia. Delivered via Minnie, no less. I video call the tigress immediately, of course, and she picks up with a sheepish smile.
“Sorry, Mr Pardalia.” She shrugs. “Aurelia told me to text you where to meet her tonight, and that was it.”
“She didn’t disclose anything else?” I try not to sound disbelieving.
“Nope.”
Marduk inserts his head into the call. “I am under the impression she is initiating covert manoeuvres tonight, lion-friend. I would be on my guard.”
“Always are,” Xander mutters from next to me.
“Especially,” Marduk says pointedly, “since your own manoeuvres on a certain basilisk a few nights ago. Retaliation is expected, no?”
Scythe exhales through his nose on my other side, but I say quickly, “Club Venom is a serpent’s den, right? What do we know about it?”
Marduk strokes his dark beard. “It’s a place of generalised debauchery, however, the higher-up members of Mace Naga’scourt are known to meet there together. We think they use the club as a cover for exchanges and business meetings with other serpents.” Marduk hesitates then. “It’s the only known place other than the Jewel of the Jungle that Mace Naga visits.”
“He’s having orgies there?” Savage says excitedly. “I thought he was celli-bat.”
“Celibate,” I correct.
“Not orgies,” Marduk says seriously. “But he petitions members of his court there. Does announcements and such.”
